On-premises deployment and cloud deployment
Acronis Cyber Protect supports two methods of deployment: on-premises and cloud. The main difference between them is the location of the Acronis Cyber Protect management server.
The management server is the central point for managing all of your backups. With the on-premises deployment, it is installed in your local network; with the cloud deployment, it is located in one of the Acronis data centers. The web interface to this server is the Cyber Protect console.
The management server is responsible for the communication with the protection agents and the management of the protection plans. Before every protection activity, agents see the management server to verify the prerequisites. Sometimes, the connection to the management server could be lost, which will prevent the deployment of new protection plans. However, if a protection plan has already been deployed to a machine, the agent continues the protection operations for 30 days after the communication with the management server is lost.
Both types of deployment require that a protection agent is installed on each machine that you want to back up.
On-premises deployment
In an on-premises deployment, all product components are installed in your local network.
You must use this deployment if your environment is not connected to the Internet (air-gapped environment).
Perpetual licenses are only available with the on-premises deployment.
The following options are available for installing the management server:
-
On a machine running Windows
With this option, you can install protection agents directly from the management server. If you use an Advanced license, you can create organizational units and delegate their management to unit administrators whose permissions are limited to the corresponding units.
-
On a machine running Linux
This option is recommended for Linux-only environments. You can install protection agents only locally, on the workloads that you want to back up.
- In a Docker container
- As an Acronis Cyber Protect appliance.
For more information about the installation options, see Installing the management server.
Cloud deployment
In a cloud deployment, the management server is located in one of the Acronis data centers. The benefit of this approach is that you do not need to maintain the management server in your local network. You can think of Acronis Cyber Protect as a cyber protection service provided to you by Acronis.
Access to the account server enables you to create user accounts, set service usage quotas for them, and create groups of users (units) to reflect the structure of your organization. Users can access the Cyber Protect console, download agents, and install them on their machines.
You can create administrator accounts on the organization level or on a unit level. Each account has a view scoped to their area of control. Users have access only to their own backups.
Deployment comparison
The following table summarizes the main differences between the on-premises and cloud deployments. Each column lists the features that are available only in the corresponding type of deployment. For more information about the features that are available only in the cloud deployment, follow the links to the Cyber Protect Cloud documentation.
For detailed comparison of the features included in each deployment type, see Acronis Cyber Protect Editions comparison including Cloud deployment.
| On-premises deployment | Cloud deployment |
|---|---|
|
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* For more information about activating the management server in an air-gapped environment, see To activate an offline management server.
** The feature is not available in the Standard edition.
***The OneDrive root folder is excluded from backup operations by default. If you select to back up specific OneDrive files and folders, they will be backed up. Files that are not available on the device will have invalid contents in the archive.
**** The feature is available only with the Disaster Recovery add-on.