We've been discussing this topic across a number of threads lately, so I thought I'd drop it here for all to see.

The development team has been extremely focused on quailty enhancements, as reflected in the last Hotfix released February 20th. It's had over 20,000 downloads without logging a single traceable support event.

Next up are two Service Packs, about to drop as beta code. Both are arriving at the same time; both are automatically delivered via the auto-update server when they reach General Availabilty and both apply to the software and the appliance.

They are called:
Backup Exec 2010 R3 SP3
Backup Exec 2012 SP2

The public beta release is in May and it represents the largest production-ready, white-glove, on-site testing activity that we have ever done. For more information or to join the nearly 2000 users that are already signed up, check out the...

1. Get Your FREE copy of the Backup Exec 2012 V-Ray Edition

If you are a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), you can get a fully licensed copy of the Backup Exec 2012 V-Ray Edition along with 12 months of essential technical support completely FREE.

Powered by V-Ray technology, the Backup Exec 2012 V-Ray Edition gives administrators a wealth of recovery options including the ability to recover at the virtual machine, virtual disk, application, file/folder and granular application data level – all from a single pass backup. It also provides advanced deduplication capabilities and physical to virtual conversions. The V-Ray Edition gives you worry-free backup and recovery for virtual machines and virtualized applications.

Register for your free copy today at www.backupexec.com/MVP!

2. Get a sneak peek into the next release...

Hello Backup Exec customers! We are conducting a 2 part usability test on the upgrade experience from 2010 to 2012. We would like participation from customers  who have upgraded and those who have not upgraded.

For those that have upgraded, we are interested in hearing about your experience.

For customers that have not upgraded, we would like to know how you set up your 2010 environment. In addition we would like to perform an upgrade of your BE databases on our secure FTP server. We would need a copy of your BE database to do this. This will allow you to see and give feedback on what your environment would look like in BE 2012.

If you are interested, please schedule your appointment here: https://www.timetrade.com/book/T338M

Thanks!

Jessica Rich

The usability team will be conducting multiple studies on the Backup Exec 2012 upgrade experience.  We are beginning to recruit customers now.

We are looking for customers who:

• Have not upgraded to 2012
  • Part 1: 1 hour chat about how you set up your environment, run your jobs, use storage and reports, etc.
  • Part 2: Want to see how your data would upgrade to BE 2012? This is an opportunity to upgrade your data on our virtual machines without touching your production environment. To do this, we will need to have you upload a copy of your BE databases to our secure FTP server.
• Already upgraded to 2012
• Part 1: 1 hour chat about how you set up your environment, run your jobs, use storage and reports, etc.
• Part 2: We want to understand what your experience was like during the upgrade process to BE 2012. We want to know what you liked/didn't’t like, what functionality you gained/lost.

...