What happened to the great program you used to have????

designtoscano

Is anyone else as disappointed as I am that, for the same price as the Standard version sold for, the Lite version been stripped of almost every feature that made SQL Backup worth buying to begin with? No encryption? Only basic compression? No email notification?? But it's still $300??? What's the point in buying that? I can just write winzip code into my SQL scripts and accomplish the same thing.

If you're going to offer such a stripped down version, you should really strip down the price as well. Better yet, bring back the Standard version (with all the feature it used to have) and price it appropriately.

Terrible decision, guys.

CBrooking

Hi designtoscano,

We're sorry that you feel this way about SQL Backup Lite. We still have many customers who benefit from this edition of SQL Backup, and we continue to add new customers every month.

Without wanting to list all the features (which you can see at http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Ba ... arison.htm), we believe that SQL Backup Lite still offers great value for money. The compression supported is still very good, and it means that people don't need to go with workaround "native backup; then compress" approaches that suffer from severe limitations -- consider the elapsed time, and the amount of disk space needed by such solutions, which are significantly higher than required for SQL Backup Lite.

We also offer substantial discounts for multi-license purchases, both for SQL Backup Pro and SQL Backup Lite, which brings down the total cost of the purchase.

I hope this response has helped with regards to your feedback. Please do get in touch if you have any further questions.

With best wishes,
Claire

designtoscano

**we believe that SQL Backup Lite still offers great value for money**

See, this is the problem.... SQLBackup Lite offers SIGNIFICANTLY LESS operational value for the money than SQLBackup Standard did, and yet, the you feel that you should get the same monetary value in return for it. That's completely ridiculous.

I've never seen a company actually remove critical functionality in a new release of a product, not add a single new meaningful feature, and try to charge the same money for it. Not even Microsoft can get away with that.

Just because you believe that your product offers the same value as it did before doesn't mean it actually does. That's just a marketing spin. In reality, it offers nowhere near the same value for the money as it did before. SQLBackup Lite should have been released as a discounted 3rd option to the product line, not as a replacement for a "Hall of Fame" product like SQLBackup Standard.

You can bet your last quid that there are lots and lots and lots of other customers who feel the same way as I do, too. And I believe that when support contracts start expiring, and people have to choose between paying 3x's as much for the equivelant product they just had or exploring other options, Red Gate will begin to realize what a gigantic mistake they made.

CBrooking

Hi designtoscano,

I wonder if I could give you a call so that we can discuss your concerns together in further detail. Two of my colleagues responsible for SQL Backup in the product management and sales teams would also be keen to hear your feedback. If a discussion over a phone call would be of interest to you, please don't hesitate to drop me an e-mail (claire.brooking @ red-gate.com), and I would be happy to arrange a time with you as soon as possible.

With kind regards,
Claire Brooking