Backup Compression in SQL Server 2005 I noticed that simply zipping my backup files reduces the space used by 70%

My idea was to, initially, backup the databases to a local server; then, using Bacula or Cobian (I don't have a budget), compress it and then ship it to our remote SAN.

Did you face similar challenge? If so, how did you overcame it?
There are commercial (Redgate for example) and free products that will do this for you as part of the backup.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mssqlcompressed/