Speeding up the backup process can help lessen the risk that data will be corrupted. That's just what Quest Software Inc. enables you to do with its LiteSpeed for SQL Server version 4.0. Named the Gold Award winner in the General Database Utilities category of SearchSQLServer.com's Products of the Year, it is a backup and recovery software product that provides integrated compression and encryption in the backup process.

This product earned top marks for its functionality, performance and ease of integration, and it exceeded or matched the scores of all other contenders in innovation, ease of use and support. The only area in which LiteSpeed falls short, according to our judges, is in value, where Silver Award winner Atadore PromptSQL 1.0 prevailed.

Through its compression and encryption technology, LiteSpeed for SQL Server is said to achieve up to 95% backup compression, up to 75% faster backup and restore times, reduced disk and tape storage requirements and reduced network bandwidth requirements.

Quest's LiteSpeed for SQL Server maintains all the existing functionality of the SQL Server native backup method. It integrates with existing infrastructure without requiring proprietary hardware or applications. It is fully programmable and scriptable with T-SQL, command-line interfaces and a graphical user interface that resembles the Microsoft Management Console.

The software also offers the following new features:

• New Enterprise Console: Manages backup jobs on multiple servers from same console.
• Object Level Recovery: Enables selective recovery. Users can restore one table from a multi-table backup.
• Remote Deploy: Runs deployment from desktop to multiple SQL Servers.
• Reporting: Reports on failed and completed backups.
• Native Command Substitution: Enables LiteSpeed without having to change previously developed backup scripts. DBAs can generate scripts through a graphical interface.
• Increased compression levels: From 3 to 10
• Increased encryption levels: From 2 to 4
• Support for 64-bit SQL Server: Optimized for Itanium processors

Price: Quest LiteSpeed for SQL Server version 4.0 is priced starting at $795.

SearchSQLServer.com editors