Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server Version 2.0 won the Gold Award for Exchange Server Backup and Recovery Products of the Year 2006, carrying on the reign of Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Version 1.0, which won the SearchExchange.com Gold Award in the Backup and Recovery category last year.

Mimosa Systems Inc.'s NearPoint product earned excellent marks across the board, but scored particularly high for ease of integration and innovation. Uniquely, Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server 2.0 is a backup and recovery as well as an archiving and compliance solution, and authoritatively won SearchExchange.com's Gold Award for Exchange Server Archiving and Compliance this year too.

In terms of Exchange Server backup and recovery, judges said the product's two "biggest pluses" are that it is "agent-less" and, unlike other messaging backup products, it doesn't use journaling, which can strain Exchange Server performance. Judges also noted that out of all the contenders, Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server Version 2.0 has the least amount of impact on the message store, since it does not require installation of any software on Exchange Server itself.

Key Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Version 2.0 backup and recovery features include:

• Easy integration with Exchange Server and the entire messaging environment, including DNS and Active Directory, which reduces human errors and speeds installation.

• Unified data management through a common underlying framework and an indexed object repository that reduces the cost of storage and provides a single management console.

• Ability to capture application data in bulk at high-level granularity and restore and retrieve application data at the Exchange Server database, mailbox or message level, which is not possible with traditional tape backup.

• Application shadowing at the transaction log level to ensure application integrity and consistency. In addition, when transaction logs are processed at the NearPoint server, Exchange Server data corruption can be detected immediately. This is in contrast to traditional snapshot and continuous data protection approaches.

Mimosa NearPoint for Exchange Server Version 2.0 runs on standard Intel-based servers running Microsoft Windows 2003 and can simultaneously leverage Microsoft SQL Server as a database.

Pricing: Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server Version 2.0 starts at $9,995 for 100 mailboxes. The NearPoint eDiscovery Option is $2,000 for 100 mailboxes. Additional options are the NearPoint Disaster Recovery Option, PST Archive Option and the NearPoint Compliance Storage Option, priced at $1,000 each for 100 mailboxes. For environments with more than 2,000 mailboxes, the price is $40 per mailbox for NearPoint and $16 per mailbox for the eDiscovery Option. Additional options are each priced at $8 per mailbox.

SearchExchange.com editors