If you don't have to manage your client's email and their email archiver Acronis works very well. If you're looking for just a backup service for what's on a particular computer then Acronis is perfect. It is easy to use, so newcomers are not overwhelmed with features.It does not include as robust features as Barracuda and Cloudberry, but it does work well as just a backup.
It may be cheap but the system stuck in the 90's, the UI\UX are not as you will expected. The alerts are not provide reliable evidence and human supervision is needed constantly. The system not knowing how to backup automatically the secondary server in the availability group, you need to configure that explicitly.
It's really easy to automate a backup. You can choose where you want the back up to be stored (locally or online) and how frequent you want your backups to be. And then just let it run on schedule.
It's very customizable. You can choose what you want to back up, where you want to back it up to and how frequently your backups should run.
Recovery is (I have only had to do it once) really fast and smooth. I was able to get back to a working state without calling in for support and all my stuff was right where I expected it to be.
It is very reliable. Backups very rarely fail and are easy to fix when they do.
When you're adding a new SQL server, sometimes the install from the management server to the SQL server will fail. I'm guessing this happens because of some version difference in Windows components or similar. Not a huge deal because you can just copy the agent to the SQL server and install it there, but considering how easy everything else is, I would expect this to be a little more fluid.
I ran into a situation where part of our business decided to move their servers to a third-party data center. When they took away a SQL server that I was managing with SQL Safe, anything having to do with that policy took forever. Click. Wait 10 minutes. Window reacts. I'm guessing this is because the Management Console is trying super hard to contact the server in question, but I wish it handled losing a server better than it does.
We have renewed our subscription over the course of a few years now. We used to use Backup Exec and it was tedious and difficult to obtain our backups when needed. Acronis just fits our environment style and the way we prefer to do business and use our third party software.
Although the capacity range for the price is impressive, the access to the user console is not trivial and it is necessary to be guided for the first visits. And also since there a broad support of data storage technologies for back-ups, the connection process can be sometimes tricky, not surprisingly. It is why the Professionnal Services teams is so important at Acronis to help facilitate the installation processes.
I only got one issue resolved for more than 20 cases open. The escalation is ineffective. Most of the time, I have the feeling that I know the solution better than the support technician. Overall, case management is time-consuming, as our resolution rate is really low
I don't have any real key 'insights' per say except that it wasn't difficult at all, and do not be afraid to dabble in its tools and settings. It is quite intuitive with built in common sense. I cannot say enough good things about our companies experience when using this backup software.
Acronis allows us to use lower cost storage hardware and a reasonably priced cloud storage. Datto is a great product, but the cost is much higher. IDrive was not able to backup every type of endpoint.
SQL Safe is the first managed backup solution I've used. Before SQL Safe I used SQL's native backup mechanism and scheduling. And as an extension of that I used Ola Hallengren's SQL Server Maintenance Solution (which is a set of scripts that take amazing advantage of SQL's native capabilities). However whenever changes were needed (moving backups to new storage, adding/removing a server), it just took a long time because I had to touch each server. With SQL Safe, I can seriously change the backup location of every server I have by changing one policy setting. Likewise, I can quickly add or remove a server from being backed up with a few simple clicks.
The ability to back up multiple servers from one source is a great tool to have for businesses that have equipment in different locations on the same network with a variety of software data to back up such as SQL, Exchange or a Files Server. You can decide to purchase individual server licenses as well if you would like to keep the process separate or have multiple sites where your data is housed.
SQL Safe allows me to spend less time managing my DR plan and still maintain confidence that my backups and restores are solid. Saving my time means saving money.
SQL Safe does an amazing job at backup compression over and above SQL's native compression. SQL backups are probably our single largest consumer of network drive space. Any product that helps reduce my network footprint, saves money.
