Target discs are on a large appliance where disc I/O is not an issue. I have lots of capacity on the write; other transactions are occurring and completing. The problem is getting the backup data from the SQL2k there, faster.

I have noticed the 12gigs of Ram on the target server, maxing, during the backups. I suspect its slowing down the transfer because its "full", but I don't know, just guessing.

I think its maxing (and paging) because the backed up databases being sent to it, are 10+ gigs large, and it has to capture it all, before/as it writes it to disc.

You know, maybe that's my problem. My network I/O goes up to 20 Mbps when nothing else is talking to the target server, but drops to like 3 Mbps when other servers start unloading on it. Again, its writing it all, but maybe the network I/O is dropping because the server is out of RAM to take on more.

Disk I/O has always been slightly faster than Network I/O, while memory is pegged.

Can anyone concur or rebuke my speculations?

Thanks,

Tony