Easy Server 2012 backup solutions with tape support?

Question

We have several smaller to midsized customers that have invested money in tape drives and tapes. They are using Symantec BackupExec on Server 2003 / 2008 and 2008 R2. Unfortunately, Symantec postponed Server 2012 support in their products  many times
already. This fact costs us many business opportunities to upgrade infrastructures to Server 2012.
DPM 2012 is good for larger customers, but less suited for smaller companies (and the DPM "philosophy change" of the backup procedures, compared to older tape based backup solutions is an obstacle as well.)
So we are looking for EASY backup solutions that support tape drives and server 2012. The "perfect" product for us would be just a tape driver and an extension to the integrated Windows Server Backup that would allow to store backups on tapes,
the same way that Windows Backup allows backups to network shared folders.
Does anyone knows EASY backup software that provides this functionality? I'm also very interested in feedback from peoples that have successfully used such products on Server 2012 and are satisfied with them.
Thank you all in advance for any help.
Franz

Answer 1

Looks like we are in the same boat here with 2012.
For all its trouble, BackupExec has been instrumental for us in providing our customers with a backup application that no other software vendor has been able to match. This includes:
1) Granular backup and restore of Exchange allowing the restore of individual mailboxes and single mail items
2) The same Granular backup and restore of Hyper-V's VMs
3) The ability to backup to Tape, Removable USB HDD and NAS and Network shares
Not even Shadow Protect cuts the mustard anymore – it’s become simply “stupid”.
Although we love the simplicity and robustness of Windows Backup, there are some very serious deficiencies including;
1) The extreme difficulty of adding additional USB HDD after the backup schedule has been created. I believe that this has partially been resolved in R2 but in 2012 it was a utter mess-up. We
resorted to hooking up two 5-port USB Powered Hubs so we could make sure that all USB HDDs could be included in the schedule - what a mission! One blown hub after the other - couldn't find one that could handle the electrical current load of 5x USB HDDs!
2) No Granular restore ability of nothing... had to resort back to the "old school" ESEUTIL "after" restoring the entire Exchange database to alternate location.
3) Backup to a Network Share is pathetic - can't store more than the current backup. What use is that? Had to resort to backing up to Network Share then including that backup in another Windows backup - go figure!
Like Franz, our customers have invested HEAVILY in Tape Drive hardware (some of which cost the customer in excess of $8000) and that excludes the cost of Symantec BackupExec.
Although BackupExec 2012 now supports Server 2012, the re-purchase of the software is not a consideration to most of our customers.
Sorry Franz, I don’t have a solution for Tape Drives yet. This is one reason why we have stayed away from deploying 2012 that already have a recent investment in Tape Drive technology.
However, because there is NO other backup solution that compares to Symantec BackupExec (version <2010), we have been successfully implementing a hybrid solution (which, unfortunately, still does not include Tape Drives) including our own business.
As BackupExec 2010 does not support Windows 2012 as a “Media Server” there IS a workaround in a “virtual environment”.
We have successfully installed BackupExec 2010 on a Hyper-V Virtual Server as the “media server” and targeted the backups to shared folders on both NAS and removable USB HDD shares (off the Host Server).
Although it works GREAT, there is still the serious deficiency of not been able to use Tape Drives (unless some really bright spark out there has an idea on how to make a Tape Drive accessible to a VM).
Another REALLY good solution in which we deployed just last week was to supply the customer with a dirt-cheap PC, install it with Windows 2008 and the Tape Drive and schedule all the normal (and yummy) BackupExec 2010 granular backups to. Remember, the BackupExec
agent WILL install and run just fine on Server 2012 - no problems there.
This has become an INSTANT hit and this is OUR solution – a very small price to pay for “real granular” backups to Tape Drive.
I hope that you find that the mentioned "good solution" a viable and cost-effective workaround.
Backup Exec DOES NOT support Windows 2012.  I just got of the phone with them today April 24, 2014.  I have been using BE since Seagate made version 7.  Every product Symantec buys eventually turns to crap!  I just left Symantec Endpoint
Protection after 13 years because it is unreliable and has very poor detection compared to other products.  In fact, it is so bad, that Symantec won't participate in any third-party evaluations that they don't pay for such as AV-Comparatives.org. 
Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Symantec!