NetBackup for VMWare: Buy One (Restore), Get one Free

I've always been surprised by how much of an effect the "Buy One, Get One Free" slogan has on my psyche. For example, I lived in New York during grad school and whenever it rained, within minutes a small cottage industry of street vendors would pop up like daisies all around the city. All of these vendors would be selling umbrellas, with most offering a two-for-one deal. Sometimes if I was already out and about and unprepared for the rain I'd feel compelled to purchase an umbrella, but then since the second one was free, I'd take the second one too so that I was then carrying two umbrellas. After this happened a few times, I owned a half dozen umbrellas, and really, how many umbrellas does one man need?
 
I was recently reading an article by Alan Radding for SearchStorage about VMware backups, and he described how one of the industry's frustrations is that when backing up VMware servers, it's necessary to back up the data twice in order to be able to perform the two types of restores that people perform the most (individual file restores and restores of entire virtual machines). This article really surprised me, because it didn't seem to demonstrate awareness of NetBackup's support for both types of restores based on a single VCB-based backup pass. You see, with NetBackup, backing up once enables you to restore either the entire VM or individual files (like that Powerpoint file your colleague deleted by accident when he borrowed your laptop). This scriptless single-backup, dual-restore capability results from a proprietary Symantec technology that helped us win a "Best of VMworld" award.

So, I feel that running NetBackup is like getting to keep both of your umbrellas; but, unlike with umbrellas, the two-for-one deal is one that you might actually really appreciate when it comes time to restore an individual file or, if it starts to rain inside your data center, your entire virtual machines.