What do you sell for Backup software

[Aveyotech]

We have used various backup software in the past, all of which were expensive and complicated. Currently we have a small custom developed backup solution for our clients that backs up to a removable hard drive. This has been very effective in the past and is very simple for the clients to use and check. However, we are now wanting to implement an optional off-site backup for our clients. This would send their backups to our data servers in our main office.

I am hopeful that some of you have had similar experiences and might have a solution.

Thanks

[lpopejoy]

We use Ahsay for remote backup. We are starting to use ShadowProtect since that integrates very nicely with Labtech.

...Not sure if I can recommend Ahsay or not. It is a Java based product, which works well. However, every time I've done an upgrade, I have had terrible results (server side) and their support is equally bad. Can't really speak on ShadowProtect because I have yet to install it! :)

--Luke

[natrat]

For small business who just need data backup I use external hard drives and Cobian Backup, which also does FTP backup.

In the past few months I have been implementing Shadowprotect. It ROCKS. Did a training course with them a couple of weeks back and have done recovery on a couple of servers as a test and they both worked well. On a IBM thinkserver i didn't even need to load in the RAID drivers for the recovery CD to see all the partitions and recover successfully. Took 15 mins. The Hardware Independant Restore (HIR) functionality looks great too. I have continuous incremental images running on a couple of servers which does images every 15 mins. Extremely low overhead.

My standard SP setup is install a dedicated internal drive as the image repository and enable continuous incremental backups during business hours. On the database, file and exchange partition i have it set to image every 15 mins. On the system partition (C:) I have it set to do half a dozen incrementals a day. As a secondary offsite backup i have a seperate job which does a full image of the whole system to revolving external hard drives each night. covers most bases. Their support is pretty good in Australia as well, i had one issue with recovering to one server and the regular help Joe ran out of ideas so the Australia-wide tech support manager rang me direct and sorted it.

cheers
n

[Carl2468]

For remote backup, we use Remote Backup Systems at www.remote-backup.com... works pretty well. One thing that you have to make sure of is that your clients have adequate upload bandwidth to handle remote backup, especially if they have a lot of data.

For local desktop backups, Norton Ghost is excellent -- get a desktop back up and running in minutes.

For servers we use Symantec Backup Exec, but are in the process of evaluating Acronis for bare-metal restore.

[wtbservices]

Take a look at Image For Windows at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com. It can take an image of a live system similar to StorageCraft. It costs $39 and will run on all Windows versions including server and 64 bit (but it wont run on a dynamic disk). It can do incremental backups, and it has an image viewer that allows you to open a drive image and extract files and folders. It can compress and encrypt the images with 256 bit AES. It's also highly scriptable. It can't convert from physical to virtual or vice versa where StorageCraft can. Tech support has been phenomenal. They give you several methods to restore an image from bare metal including a Linux boot CD, a DOS boot CD, and a plugin to add to your BartPE disk.

We typically use this to supplement online backups by taking an image of the server weekly. If a crash happens it is much faster to restore from the image and then pull in the newer data from online. We do have a few clients that image to external USB drives where their data exceeds thier bandwidth. At less than $40 per server it is a no brainer.

[digitalminds]

Macrium Reflect is a similar product at $39 in which you can image Windows servers and workstations in both 32 and 64bit version. Has scripting and incremental backup capabilities with 3 different bootable CDs.

http://www.macrium.com/

[cforger]

We've switched to ArcServe a few years ago due to issues with Veritas (just before Symantec bought them, and at the time I was so unimpressed with what they were doing with Norton, I didn't want to hang around).

I am looking at getting off conventional software tho - Cumbersome, and very expensive. The big stumbling blocks are Exchange and SQL backups - Regular file system isn't hard, but having mailbox and message level backup is very useful, and you don't get that in Shadowprotect or similar products.

I forsee us moving towards a mix of online backup (which we offer), image backups, and maybe some conventional software for exchange peace of mind.

[Aveyotech]

Thanks to everyone for their insight on this matter. Now I just need to find the time to research all of these options...not to mention try them out.....Wish me luck! lol

cforger: what do you currently use for online backup?

Thanks again to everyone!

[cforger]

Avey:

We use NovaNet - And it's ancient, but we put a lot of $$ into it years ago for the licenses, and it still runs on 2003 clients, so what the heck - We'll milk it and save up some cash for Symantec Net Backup I think..

[Dan@safe-harbour.ca]

I have used Remote-backup, Vembu StoreGrid and Novanet in the past for remote backup for smaller datastores up to 100GB. I now use RoboBak and am very happy with it. Specifically what it does well compared the other products is data deduplication. It is brandable and allows me to create branded client and portals for resellers. I always use a imaging product for local backup and prefer storagecraft or Acronis.

For my larger clients I use the BDR solution from Zenith Infotech. his allows for backups every 15 minutes with standby server function through the use of virtualization.

[ebuhrendorf]

I am about to try Carbonite. Does anyone have any input on them?

[AN-Tech]

ebuhrendorf,

Make sure you are happy with the upload/download speeds. We had a client that used them for backup since it was only $5 per month. When they had a drive failure and had to download their data again it took them almost 4 weeks to get it all back.

I'm not sure if Carbonite is offering this yet but some services will offer the option to have them restore to an external drive that they will next day air to you. Obviously this would cost extra but at least you can get things back quicker.

[sapsford]

Acronis for workstation and server imaging
i always add an extra hdd in any computer i supply
disk space is cheap and can save you time
syncbackse for backups and have the backup log emailing me
also use simple xcopy and a backup method
also use the QNAP NAS's for customers offices
you can put a second one at customers home, and have them replicating

[wtbservices]

Just to add to this, for workstations Re-Bit has been pretty amazing.

[mundycomputers]

ShadowProtect is my recommendation.

But most of my clients get BackupAssist, it's cheap enough but very good software. It's by far the easiest to set up and maintain, and the support is decent too.

Still, those that will spend the money get ShadowProtect.

[springcity]

Carbonite works great but if you have DB's you will want to use Dr Backup.

[springcity]

BDR solution from Zenith Infotech is great for Disaster recovery. It is scalable and very quick/easy to restore.

[bkendall]

Symform cloud backup is a very interesting concept and works well for a lot of clients. It allows you to backup a lot of data for cheap!

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

[Robfnz]

Hi,

we use Shadowprotect as a backup solution for servers and workstations/laptops too.
As with others we allways suggest adding a second backup HD into the machine and then use a robocopy script to transfer this to an external HD either as a post backup command or run manually by the user when they connect the ext. hdd.

I am also looking at how to include some form of online backup with SP incrementals - not sure of the best way of doing it that makes it cost effective for smaller customers yet thought.

We also use the IT edition in house to image every machine we touch.
For both uses I highly recommend it.

cforger - have a look at the Granular Recovery for Exchange feature now available for SP, not cheap but does what you were looking for.

Rgds
Rob

[bkendall]

Shadow Protect also has an MSP model. You can sell the software on a subscription basis. This lowers the entry cost for your clients as well as creates another source of recurring revenue. More info here: http://storagecraft.com/msp_partner.php

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

[-David-]

I encourage my users to get Acronis true image plus as it allows an image to be copied to a new computer with different hardware incase of a mainboard failure or upgrade in the future. have tested it personaly and transfered a netbook OS to a standalone desktop with success just had to remove a few apps that where for the netbook.

[swallservices]

@bkendall - I agree that Symform's technology is nothing short of brilliant, I do have one word of warning regarding the company itself however. They appear to think that they are selling a software license (such as Labtech) and not a month-to-month service (such as GFI Max / Zenith).

Case in point - no one likes to think they will ever loose a client but let's just take a look at an example. Let's say you signed a new client that wanted desktop cloud backup for their fleet of 20 laptops. You get 20 Symform desktop licenses and deploy them. Later on the relationship goes sour and you loose the client. You're now sitting on 20 desktop licenses of Symform that you're paying monthly for that you don't have any need for.

Can you re-deploy them to another client? Sure - of course... but what if you don't have any place to redeploy them to for the time being? Doesn't matter - you're going to be paying the monthly fee for that node each and every month regardless on if it's deployed for that month or not.

I found this out the hard way - you can add additional nodes to your Symform account at any time, but you can NEVER reduce the amount of nodes. You will may monthly for each and every one of those nodes for the rest of eternity - used or not.

Since you can't cancel individual nodes your only other choice is to cancel your Symform relationship in it's entirety and stop using heir service all together - which is what we were unfortunately forced to do.

It sucks too - I loved the tech.

[hayden]

The Terrabyte stuff looks good. Has anyone used this in a server environment, if so, has anyone restored and how did they get on?

Looking for a new imaging tool. I've always used Acronis or TrueImage. I'm over TrueImages pricing...

[bkendall]

@swallservices - I did not know that. Seems like a pretty poor way to run a service. Thanks for the heads up! I have been very happy with Nine Technology. They may be worth checking out, great company.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
brad@bradkendall.ca

[swallservices]

Yeah hopefully Symform will get past these "growing pains" and come out of the process a better company on the other side.

[-David-]

Update

I have now transfered over 5 PC systems from older P4 / Amd to Duel core / i processors using acronis 2011 not tried the 2012 suite yet but I am definatly 100% pleased with acronis true image and plus pack, I encourage all my clients to use it. It will also import a windows 7 image backup file.

[drlogic]

Have a serious look at CrashPlan PROe from Code 42 (www.crashplan.com) if you are looking for data backup (i.e. don't need software which is application aware, such as for databases and Exchange, or BMR (bare metal restore)).

They have a new version coming out next year which will have the features that are currently in the consumer versions, such as mobile device access and backup sets (different files backing up to different locations with different frequencies and retention settings).

It is lightweight (engineered for laptops), auto-updating, encrypts and compresses, has great management tools and can handles hundreds of thousands of clients.

Clients can either run it on their own private cloud, our you could set this up as a service and sell it to them on a monthly basis.