It is finally here!  Red-Gate has released their latest backup software--SQL Backup. The GUI has been completely redesigned and it has something very interesting called time-line management.  This feature allows you to see all of your backups jobs on a timeline control.  This allows you to see where your backup jobs are overlapping so that you can adjust them accordingly. 

For each registered SQL Server instance that is connected, the time line shows a summary of the activities on that SQL Server instance. A grey block represents a scheduled and/or a successful job.  A red block represents indicates a failed activity or conflicting backup jobs.  Backups job show up a little green squares while restores show up as blue blocks.  Finally a future job is designated by a green block. 

If more than one backup or restore operation is scheduled at the same time on the same SQL Server instance, the time slot in which the conflict occurs will be highlighted pink, and the conflicting operations will be highlighted in red. 

Also new are reports.  In previoius versions if, you need to produce a report for your boss or clients, you had to pull up your sleeves and dig into SQL and Excel.  Red-Gate has used the Microsoft Report control (think reporting services reports) to generate some basic reports. 

There are three basic types of reports:
1.  All backup history which lists all backups that have completed.  This includes successful backups, backups that have warnings associated with them, and failed backups.
2.  Backups with warnings lists all completed backups that have warnings associated with them.
3.  Failed backups lists all completed backups that have failed.

From there you are able to generate a report based on a Single Server or across multiple servers. 

They have also added several other features, worked on performance (I can't wait to test this on one of my busiest boxes), worked on threading, made it Vista compatible and a whole host of others things. 

Make sure to check it out  www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Backup/index.htm . They have done some really great work.