Retrospect killed?

[emulator]

I was just reading this article on "The Register":

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/18/emc_retrospect_eight/

 

It basically states that Retrospect 8 has been killed. I would REALLY like to hear a response from EMC on this, as our organization is really deeply steeped in Retrospect software. To migrate to another solution would be quite "inconvenient" for us right now :-(

 

Any and all, please shed some light on this.

 

Marc Hoffman

[Mayoff]

EMC never announced any product called Retrospect 8.

 

As many of you have read in the Register, EMC Insignia underwent some changes recently. Rather then focus on non-Retrospect products, EMC Insignia is now focusing all of it's energy on Retrospect. Some of the best and most dedicated Retrospect team members are continuing to support, sell and develop (Mac and Windows Engineers) Retrospect. You will continue to see me and others in the forums, and you will hear the same friendly voices on the phone you are used to hearing when you call us.

[Mayoff]

The following is an email recently written by Larry Zulch sent to Retro-Talk:

 

Greetings, Retro-talk list:

 

I wanted to address some of the changes in EMC Insignia that have recently been discussed in this forum. Before I do, though, I want to thank each of you for your use and support of Retrospect. It has been more than 22 years since my brother Richard and I founded Dantz.

 

For the last couple of years, we've used the Dantz / Retrospect team's expertise to broaden EMC's presence in small and medium business. We've helped develop and sell storage array hardware and storage resource management, replication, and collaboration software. They are good products and will now be supported by the original teams that owned them. I look at that as incubation work that is now complete.

 

Pulled out of that much larger team is a core group that has recently been assembled to focus exclusively on Retrospect. In that team are some of the very best people we had at Dantz, such as Laurie Gill, an engineer and 18-year veteran who knows every nook and cranny of Retrospect and kept the Macintosh version going when we neglected it; Greg Wang, in QA and hardware support since 1999; Matt Johnson, who has been driving sales through more changes than you can imagine; Robin Mayoff, who joined Dantz in 1994, running tech support and keeping a presence online; Julie Heck, in charge of marketing, and a host of others, all under John Palmer, who was head of operations for EMC Insignia and someone that I came to trust, and more, to admire.

 

These people, this team, is highly motivated and completely dedicated to your and Retrospect's success. They have something to prove, and I hope you'll give them a chance to do so. Out of that could come their and my fondest wish, which is a revitalized Retrospect setting the agenda for data protection software.

 

Don't take any comments about offices changing for more than they are. The team is moving to existing facilities in Pleasanton and have kept a great attitude through disruption and change.

 

I will say that new versions are coming.

 

Again, thank you for your support of Retrospect.

 

Regards,

Larry Zulch

[hrtmath]

As a Dantz customer since DiskFit 1.0, I'm relieved to read your post. I've dealt with hundreds of technology companies over the years, and Dantz has consistently provided the best experience of all. Thanks.

 

Tom

[Richy_Boy]

I'm also very concerned about this as I 'was' about to update from 7.0 Multiserver with value-pack to 7.5 etc etc. I have personally found 7.0 troublesome in respect to the HUGE amount of time to build snapshots and the regular open file backs and other errors (which only a client reinstall seem to clear).

 

Anyway, it's a product I decided to use a couple of years back and I have read that 7.5 fixes many of my concerns with it... however, I'm not willing to throw good money after bad to 'patch up' my current version if there is going to be no further development on Retrospect by EMC.

 

I appreciate your comments Maynoff, yet the brief replies to direct questions on The Register and other IT sites smacks of Staff and Management being silenced somewhat, like watching a politician avoid telling hte truth. At this time your faithful Retrospect clients need some FIRM and DETAILED responses otherwise you'll find many of them looking elsewhere when it comes to update time unfortunately.

 

Please don't take this as a direct moan at you, it's not intended as, but it's very frustrating when your own users can't find out details on this matter or any information about the product roadmap... as you must have a roadmap somewhere to be in business...

 

Regards,

 

Rich