Backup Site Collection from Central Administration
First off, there is the ability to backup an individual site collection from Central Administration. It’s very straightforward; you drill down to your site collection, select a location on the server’s file system, and start the backup. SharePoint ends up spitting out a single .bak file that you can easily pickup with your backup software. This functionality would be even better if there was the ability to schedule the backup on a regular schedule. We’ll see what happens between now and RTM.
Backup Site or List
Next, and slightly more exciting then the previous topic, is the ability to backup subsites and list items. This functionality will, no doubt, save you some time in the near future. Dealing with Stsadm export/import was always a bit cumbersome, especially if you were running different versions of SharePoint or had different site templates installed. This option even gives you the ability to choose to export security and versions. I already see time saving with this feature.
Unattached Database Restore
And last but certainly not least, is the ability to perform unattached database restores. That means that all you have to do is load your database into SQL and SharePoint will be able to restore your site, subsite, or list and restore individual content into another site collection. This is phenomenal functionality and will no doubt save you a great deal of time if you ever need to do a restore. It may also save you from having to purchase pricey third party software.
