Another open-source backup product goes commercial

Bacula Systems is now the commercial arm for the popular open-source backup product Bacula.  “It roams the datacenter at night and sucks the vital essence from your computers.”  I’m not making that up.  This is the second open-source backup product to do such, with Zmanda preceding them.  Click Read More to see what I think about this.

Short version: I think it’s great!

When Zmanda went commercial, the funding they provided fixed a few long-running complaints in Amanda.  Amanda had been around for years and they still couldn’t back up anything that didn’t fit on a tape.  Enter Zmanda and poof!  Problem fixed.  Amazing what a little money can do for an open-source project.

Now Bacula Systems has joined the fray as of October 2008.  They’re listing a team of seven on the website, but I’m sure there’s even more behind the scenes.  Now you have a choice of two open-source backup products.  Yum.  Competition!

I reminisce back to the days when Linux first went commercial and people wondered how they would make money.  Not everyone needed Linux — but everyone needs backup.  So it’s only natural that there should be open-source backup software.

Another thought is that there are a whole lot of people out there whose needs could easily be served by less-expensive backup software than what they’re currently using.  Both Zmanda and Bacula Systems offer these customers such an alternative. I, for one, see a very bright future for both companies.

If anyone has any experience with either company, feel free to contact me privately or put comments on this blog entry.

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at Sullivan Strickler, which helps companies manage their legacy data