In every industry, businesses are struggling to keep their digital assets safe because they are saddled with legacy backup solutions that cannot meet today’s data needs. The volume of data that companies must protect is growing at an exponential rate, while the risk from quickly evolving online threats like ransomware continues to explode.
IT professionals are looking for an alternative backup and recovery solution that can keep their data safe, while also providing the flexibility to grow with their business and their changing data needs. There may be a number of options these IT pros can consider, but if they’ve been reading the reviews from industry observers, the media, and their peers, it is clear that one solution should make their short list – Acronis Backup.
Since it was introduced, Acronis Backup has been turning heads and winning awards for everything it delivers – empowering data protection for companies of all sizes. In addition to comprehensive backup and recovery, the integration of the company’s artificial intelligence based anti-ransomware software, called Acronis Active Protection, makes it stand out among all business solutions.
Given reviews like the ones below, any company looking to replace their existing business backup should consider the free 30-day trial of Acronis Backup.
“Pure gold” – PCMag.com
When it comes to comparing products within a category, one of the software industry’s leading resources is PCMag.com. In their comparison of business backup, they looked at 10 solutions and awarded Acronis Backup an “excellent” rating, with four out of five stars.
While PCMag.com previously gave Acronis’ earlier solutions strong, positive reviews, their breakdown of Acronis Backup noted that “this iteration firmly establishes the company as a leader in the business cloud backup space ... Acronis Backup is a great product.”
PCMag.com highlighted several features that specifically caught the reviewer’s eye. The simplified licensing means that “anybody can figure out what they need and how much it will cost” and the installation “is about as simple as it gets”.
The reviewer was also impressed by the anti-ransomware defense that is integrated into Acronis Backup, calling it “remarkable ransomware protection”.
“It performs real-time analysis of your file system and blocks attempts to maliciously alter or delete your data,” explained PCMag.com. “By applying a series of heuristics to determine what counts as ‘malicious,’ it can prevent new forms of ransomware from altering or destroying your critical business data.”
In examining the core functionality, PCMag.com described the “wealth of recovery options” that Acronis Backup users get. That includes the business continuity provided by Instant Restore, which lets you launch your latest backup as a virtual machine directly from storage. The reviewer was clearly impressed by the fact you can launch your system without duplicate hardware or moving data.
For their final judgment, PCMag.com said, “Acronis Backup is certainly one of the best backup solutions available today. Its excellent hardware and software support, ransomware protection, and Instant Restore features are pure gold.”
“Data protection demigods” – ITWire.com
Most of the time, reviewers don’t refer to software developers as some sort of deity. That’s why the opening to Alex Zaharov-Reutt’s review of Acronis Backup on ITWire.com was such a pleasant surprise.
“The data protection demigods at Acronis have just released the latest version of its business-class Acronis Backup software,” he started. “It’s a major update to its business back-up product line ... with 170 new features to truly make this a must-have.”
The Australian-based editor continued, noting that the automated protection from ransomware puts Acronis Backup in a class by itself. “The recent WannaCry ransomware outbreak exposed the need for a secure backup to complement traditional security programs, and Acronis delivers an easy-to-use solution available to everyone.”
The review also looked at how Acronis Backup’s use of blockchain-based data certification is a unique benefit that is particularly suited for companies that depend on data integrity, like legal, medical, and intellectual property organizations.
Diving deep into Acronis Backup’s support of more than 20 platforms, the reviewer explained that such broad coverage enables businesses to adopt the environment that works for them now, while giving them the ability to adapt as their data needs and infrastructure changes.
“While most businesses do try to limit themselves to a small number of platforms for simplicity’s sake, the Acronis solution gives them complete freedom to evolve their infrastructure.” He added that when it comes to protecting an evolving infrastructure, “whether you use one platform or a dozen plus, Acronis Backup stands ready.”
“Every backup base covered” – PC Pro
Overseas, the reviews of Acronis Backup tout the comprehensive nature of the solution. One example is the review by the UK’s PC Pro, which also ran on ITPro.com, that explained, “Acronis is one of the biggest names in business data protection, and its latest Backup suite delivers a wealth of new features, including more versatile backup options, broader platform support, granular Exchange mailbox protection, and even built-in ransomware protection.”
The review specifically calls out the improved virtualization support offered by Acronis Backup, which supports six hypervisors and offers the ability to convert backups to virtual machines.
Yet PC Pro added new platforms weren’t the only beneficiaries. “Acronis also defies those who've been predicting the death of tape, by adding support for standalone tape drives, autoloaders and libraries for automated archiving.” The comprehensive breadth of coverage definitely satisfied the reviewers’ needs.
They also tested the backup functionality using a few backup types and different destinations (full testing details available in the review), and “results were excellent”.
They summed up their assessment by saying, “Acronis Backup offers an impressive range of new features, and has virtually every data protection angle covered for businesses of all sizes. With its extensive virtualisation support, ease of use and excellent value, it's our new champion option.”
“All types of environments and all sizes of infrastructure” – VMblog.com
Calling Acronis Backup “a feature rich solution designed to be accessible and easy-to-use, even for people without previous data management experience,” VMblog.com offers a detailed exploration of the product. The assessment focuses on how stress-free it is to set up and operate, given the powerful capabilities.
“Its multiplatform capability and unified management interface dramatically simplifies the management of different environments. Flexible data recovery procedure means that this solution can be used for migrating workloads between different environments.”
As with the other reviews, the defense against ransomware is also highlighted as a unique advantage over the competition. "Active protection against ransomware is a welcome addition, making backups secure and removing the need for manual data recovery post ransomware attacks.”
Without recapping the entire product review, VMblog.com’s conclusion sums it up by saying Acronis Backup “is an easy to use backup and recovery software with powerful features suitable for all types of environments and all sizes of infrastructure.”
2018 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice
Acronis was particularly honored to be named one of The Best Enterprise Data Server Recovery and Backup Software of 2018 in the 2018 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Data Center Backup and Recovery Software.
That’s because, as we explained at the time, while we love to see the media and industry watchers give positive feedback on our business backup, the real measure of success comes from winning over the IT pros who rely on our technology to protect their business-critical data every day.
If you’re not familiar with this customer survey, Gartner explains, “The Peer Insights Customers’ Choice is a recognition of vendors in this market by verified end-user professionals, taking into account both the number of reviews and the overall user ratings.”
In short, being named a Customers’ Choice for Data Center Backup and Recovery Software is big deal because it means we’ve delivered a battle-tested solution (or, in this case, a set of solutions) trusted by our business customers.
Since Acronis’ mission is to protect data, knowing that IT professionals agree we’re delivering that protection is the best review we can get.
Final thought
The changing digital landscape means there are new needs and new threats that are constantly emerging. Businesses need a new generation of data protection that’s built for today and tomorrow. By integrating innovations like active protection against ransomware and blockchain-based data certification into the groundbreaking technology Acronis is known for, it’s no wonder Acronis Backup has earned countless awards and stellar reviews.
Any IT pro looking to replace their legacy backup and recovery solution should take advantage of the free 30-day trial of Acronis Backup.
About Acronis
A Swiss company founded in Singapore in 2003, Acronis has 15 offices worldwide and employees in 50+ countries. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is available in 26 languages in 150 countries and is used by over 20,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses.