New EMC Retrospect 8.1 backup software supports PowerMac

CNET-Owners of Time Machine-enabled Macs need not apply. But for the rest--especially small businesses that want a centralized backup solution EMC has something for you.

The company announced Tuesday the availability of its Retrospect 8.1 backup software for the Mac platform, which, unlike the previous version 8.0, now also supports the the legacy PowerPC Macs. This is good news for businesses that still have the older Mac computers.

According to EMC, on average, users of Retrospect 8.1 on Intel-based Macs can expect local backup performance to increase from 10 percent to 15 percent over version 8.0, and from 30 percent to 35 percent over version 6.1.

Performance on PowerPC systems, on the other hand, varies depending on the power and speed of the processor. If the machine run a G5 processor, for example, performance can be up to 15 percent better than version 6.1.

Other than that, version 8.1 also has a better user interface, including nicer-looking icons, improved workflow, and better responses to the user's inputs.

The new Retrospect 8.1 continues to have other features that were included in version 8.0, including:

* A customizable user interface with remote management capabilities
* The ability to perform multiple, simultaneous backup, restore, and copy operations
* Support for disk-to-disk-to-disk (D2D2D) and disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backups
* Certified AES-256 encryption of backup data
* Support for multiple network interfaces and the ability to wake sleeping computers for backup

Other than Macs, Retrospect 8 also supports Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows XP/Vista clients, in both physical and virtual environments, including those running within VMware Fusion and Parallels.

The new software is available now. The cheapest three-user license costs $129 and the most expensive unlimited license costs $1,669. Owners of Retrospect 8.0 can upgrade to this 8.1 version at a significantly discounted price.