Acronis Cyber Protect Reviews

We use it for the backups.

The advantages to me are I make two backups. I make a backup of the entire server that goes offsite. That's for disaster recovery. And then I make another copy of just two virtual servers that write on the physical server to a local NAS device. That way, I can do file-level restores.

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I have used it in the past. Not the same software, but the same company, and had success with it, and it was fairly easy to use. This one is much more complicated, but there are a lot more things involved in a backup. I have had issues with this one just in completing backups. Sometimes, for some reason, it has to run several times in order for it to do it completely, so I put in a ticket. We worked through it and it just seemed to solve itself, and neither one of us, neither the technician nor I, knew what it was doing or why it did, it but it fixed itself.

I also think the fact that it is extremely customizable means that it's really easy to get something wrong, and it not work as intended. So I would say, if there was a wizard that would lead you down a road, when creating a backup, that would probably be better than having to go online or call somebody to actually do a backup. It's not intuitive whenever you're trying to do something. You don't know whether you need to make a plan first or whether you need to make a backup first, it really depends on what you're trying to do and you really can't do that without asking somebody a question.

The problem that I've had would be more along the lines of it connecting to something else to back it up. For example, I'm currently having a problem with the way, when you have to select a network, I can't select a network location. I have to map a drive on the server, and then I have to select the mapped drive in order for it to put the backup out there.

I can't say this location is where it needs to go. I actually have to map a drive instead of going, "Just go to this IP address, this shared location, and put it here," I can't do that. It won't take it. I have to actually map a drive and put it in there for it to go, "Okay." If for some reason there's something wrong with that map, then the backup can't go there, even though I can ping the location, I can pull up the location, the software doesn't do that. 

Or, if it does do that, I don't know how to get it to do that, which I would say would be my complaint with it, the fact that there's not a lot of intuitive ways to be able to do something. In other words, it expects you to have the knowledge of how to operate it in order to set it up. If it's giving you a yes or no question and you don't know what this means, whatever that question is - "Do you want to do this, yes or no?" - if you don't know what "this" means or what "this" does, then I don't know how to answer that question

The problem is I can't select Help and it says, "Okay, if you're doing this, this is what you need to do. Or, this is for this, so if you want this, select yes. If you want this, select no." There's none of that. There's just me saying, "I don't know what this means." So, then I have to google it, try to figure it out.

If there was a wizard that would say, 

- "What are you trying to do?" 

- "I want to do a backup like this." 

- "Is it going to be offsite, online, another server?" 

It would create the configuration by asking questions through the wizard. This is what Microsoft has been doing for decades. That's how their stuff gets set up correctly. If Acronis had one of those - and it might, I just don't know how to get to it, or to start it - for it do the stuff for you, that would be a big thing for me.

No issues as far as it locking up or crashing, just actually getting it to do a backup, and do it correctly.

Any time that you do a backup that's not at the local level, it's online, you're at the mercy of whatever your connection is. If your connection is not good or stable, then you're going to have issues.

The issue is, when I did an offline backup - I don't know if it was my connection or because of how the software works or how it handles its packets - to upload the initial backup up took something like four days. That's a long time to me.

After the initial backup is done, when it does its daily backup offsite, it only takes about 20 minutes, 30 minutes. It's normal for it to take longer for the initial backup because you have to put all new information up there. After that you're just changing, it's a just a differential, so that's normal. When I'm doing the backup to the local, after the initial one, it takes about six minutes to do the backup.

The problem is that to get that initial thing done is painful. After that, the backup works okay.

I've talked to tech support several times. I would say they're a seven or eight out of 10.

This is going to sound bad, but this is the way it is in a lot of tech stuff. Whenever I call tech support and talk with somebody, and I can't understand them because of their accent, it's a problem. When I have support from a non native English speaker, it's very hard for me to understand stuff, and when they have to repeat things several times because I'm not sure what they're saying, to me that's a communication issue. If I'm calling the company, and I need support on their product, and I can't understand the person that I'm speaking with, then that's a communication issue that's not on me. That's on the company. 

It's not just Acronis that is like this, there are a lot of companies that are like this, and I understand why they do it. I'm just saying as an IT professional, it's very frustrating when you have to ask somebody to repeat things several times, or I repeat it and it's not correct, and they repeat it. And, we spend most of our time trying to figure out what each other is saying instead of fixing the problem. 

To me that's extremely frustrating.

We used the inherent Windows Server Backup in the operating system. And the reason we switched is, the way it's configured, for me to save to a location that's local, it has to take the entire location. In other words, I have to dedicate the entire NAS device to the backup, and it will reformat all of it and take all its space for the backup. 

I didn't want that. I have a NAS device that has other backup stuff on it that is not part of the server backup. It's archived information, so I couldn't do it that way. So for me to have a backup I would have to do the backups manually every day.

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You could use training for setup, but if they just made quick tutorial videos, for example, this is how you do a backup, a local backup, and have the video go through and do it. You would watch it. You would be looking at the same screen as you look at if you were doing it yourself. And then somebody would narrate. "This is what you do: you do this, you do this, you do this." Just walk through the steps. It doesn't have to be really detailed. Rather, when you get to an option where there's a question, and it's a yes or no question: "This is where you select this." Just a little video that's two minutes or three minutes long that shows you how to set up a backup. Something as simple as that.

A lot of people in the tech industry, or people who do this for living, they learn things quicker this way; in other words, show me once, I can do it. 

You don't need to have it for the lowest common denominator, make it kind of a medium level. Worse case scenario, they just rewind and watch it again. To me, if they did that then you'd have little videos where you see how to do things, how you use the app. Instead of it being written out, it's actually where I can visually see it. Some people learn better reading something, some people learn better doing something, some people learn better watching something, so give them different avenues.

Yes, we evaluated Norton, which I don't like. Acronis. And then, of course, the Microsoft solution.

I like Acronis as a company and the backup solution. Like I said, I've used it before, and it was very easy to use. It was a different backup solution than the one I'm currently using, but still made by Acronis. 

The same thing with Norton, I've had experiences with Norton, and it's a pain. There is always a problem, I have had configuration issues and restore issues using Norton. I don't know if it was that particular situation where it was a problem, but I've use Norton a couple of times and it's always been problematic. Every time I've used Acronis in the past - I've been doing this for 25 years - I haven't had any problems. So my experience in the past taught me to steer away from certain things. I don't use anything that has that word "Norton" on it. Seriously, whether it's antivirus, backup, it doesn't matter. Every time I've ever use any of their products it's always been a pain to get it configured and for it to work properly.

I would say it's not a steep learning curve, but there's a learning curve, learning how you want it set up, because of the amount of options that you're given. It's good that you have a lot of different options. It's also bad that you have a lot of different options, because it is really easy for you to be able to make a selection that's not going to optimize your backup solution. So, I would say that as long as you know what you need, and you're familiar with the software, then you should not have many problems, with a little bit of learning/reading about the app before you use it.

I would say Acronis is about nine out of 10, overall. Some documentation or some wizards that would help you through the process, especially if you're new to the software, would benefit. I'm never going to give anybody a 10, so nine would be a 10, because everything can be improved. I don't believe in a 10.

The beauty with it, I can just buy my license and backup in these machines. In addition, it is cost effective compared to other backups. 

Acronis has many features, which are really very interesting, when it comes to data backup and recovery, especially disaster recovery (DR).  

It would be nice to have it on the cloud platform without using third-party equipment. There are some backup solutions which whereby if someone wants to do data backup they can do exchange server backups, Outlook backups, but what I am interested in is if a client is interested in a backup solution, he can easily backup his own information from a standalone machine. For example, using the desktop direct to the cloud without necessarily first buying a NAS to put a NAS in place.

It is a stable product.

No issues. What I came to realize is if our storage space is coming to full, I have seen the option expanding it. I do not think I have any problems with scalability.

It is not hard a hard thing to set up. Acronis is one solution I have interacted with and it is a bit simpler/easier compared to some other ones which I have interacted with. When it comes to setup, I have no problems. 

When it comes to elements like cost, I think it is the only backup solution which has perpetual licenses, whereby you buy the license once and for all.

I would like to know if there is any other distributor where I can get this solution without necessarily first waiting for one distributor to respond, where there is no confusion, in most cases things do not move right. Look at Acronis, we only have one distributor in East Africa and you can request a price from a distributor and they take their time. Really that one is disturbing some of us a lot.

No.

Server backups, including all of our VMWare servers and a few physical Windows Servers. 

I don't worry that the backups aren't running or panic when a storm is coming through; it just reassures us because we've  seen what it's doing, what it can do, and that it's doing what we're asking it to do. For example, if somebody deletes a file out of their Home folder or a shared folder, then knowing that I've got it and that I can get it back fairly quickly is important. Also, if a VM server were to go down we would be able to recover.  It's just that sense of security and peace of mind.

My favorite feature is that we use it for backing up our VMware environment and then, we just have a few physical servers. I like that I can configure a single backup so as to backup all the VM servers. I also like that it gives you a place for backing up to multiple locations of all the backup jobs/plans.

Other features such as setting up the vaults, email notifications, restoring a full VM, restoring just down to files and folders (once you know exactly how to do it, it's very easy and quick to do) are also valuable. So, there are a lot of things that I really like about it.

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We have been using this solution for almost a year now.  I'm not sure about the improvements aspect because it has been a learning experience for me. However, I know that any time I've come across an issue with it, I open a case with support by calling  or starting a chat session and they help me figure it out.

A lot of the times, it was just something that I was doing wrong. Setting everything up has been fairly easy. In terms of monitoring it, most of the issues that I've had were on the user's side, for example for the restoring part, I was doing it the wrong way. However, once they walked through with me and showed me exactly how I needed to do it, then it worked perfectly. 

I have not experienced any stability issues. I had to add some more RAM to my Management Server, and then I had some issues with my Synology NAS, but other than that, no other issues were experienced.

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It seems like I haven't had any issues since I added the RAM to the Management Server, but it does seem to start being sluggish because I have it running on a Windows 7 machine. So, I'm considering trying to move it over to a true server (either a 2008 or 2012 Server) and then, to update that. However, it hasn't been an issue since I added the RAM. We added three physical machines that we're backing up now. It was super easy. Once we had the lessons, added that in and got those backed up really quick. That was really nice. We know, at any point, if we have a VM or a physical server that we need to add to make sure it's getting backed up, we know exactly what we need to do and that it's very capable of handling it.

More reliability of backups and security.

The configuration of automatic backups and the full image of the hard drive, so in case something happens I can recover the full hard drive.

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Installation could be easier.

The stability is a really good characteristic. Even if the PC is off, the software tries to apply the backup.

No, the application has very good support. The only difficulty is in the security of each computer login. In general, the application is excellent.

The knowledge is excellent from the support people. The only difficulty is regarding the support hours, because they are a long way from us in terms of time zones.

Not myself. But at this company they had Carbonite, a really bad application. We switched because of this application's features that permit us to do many things.

It was difficult because of the security logins that are different for each computer.

This application, which we bought through PC MALL, was expensive. A month later I discovered the price was totally different. I already told fiends the application works very well, but they should buy it at a different price than we paid.

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Barracuda Backup and EaseUS Todo Backup.

Proceed with it, it's a good application; just check the price.

Also, I can explain to my friends the “issues” I have had during the installation so it can be implemented faster and more easily.

One license per VMware Host to backup all the VMs on that particular host.

Management console is able to control all backups from one location.

Error log interpretation will come back with some great big number, then it will want to go to the internet, but it is a silent site. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to really tell what is going on.

I have used the solution for five to six years.

No issues with stability.

No, but it doesn’t do cleanup at all. I have set to keep data for four months on some backups, then they are marked to be deleted, but never delete. Consequently, I run out of disk space, then I manually have to purge the backups from the management console. This feature has never worked.

Very knowledgeable.

This was our first solution.

It was fairly straightforward.

It is better than most.

Veeam. They seemed okay, but they didn’t do physical computers and I needed both.

If you are looking to implement this product, "Do it."

Version 11.7 was good, but 12.5 is much more sophisticated. It does a lot of things that 11.7 didn't do, like protecting from ransomware. The structure and the organization of it is better than 11.7. In terms of backups, it works more efficiently. It takes less time to do the backups than 11.7 did, and a whole lot less time. From my perspective, it does what it's supposed to do. It backs up and secures my data.

If you get hit by malware and it says, "I'm gonna crash your machine in five minutes," or something like that, this software finds it out and recovers it right away. It restores your machine automatically to where it was. That's an enormous stride forward.

If you need to recover, it's the best recovery software I've ever used and I've been in this business for over 30 years. Plug a disc in and tell it to recover this machine and it's done. You walk away from it and it's done. Reboot it and it's perfect.

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This might be a lack of understanding on my part, but it's difficult to purge old backups.

Also, there's something in it that detects ransomware. But it's detecting a program that runs in the background of my machine that it thinks is ransomware. But it's a printer equipment utility that runs in the background. I copied the link and put it in the "these are okay" section of the software, but it still gives me errors.

Scalability is great. All you need is a license and it will handle up to a 1,000 machines.

I'm very pleased with it. Support is wonderful, the people are great and they know their stuff. I even had one person supporting me on a Sunday afternoon when he was off work.

It was a Microsoft backup. The stuff that came with the file server, SPF 2008. It was absolutely awful compared to Acronis. Acronis is dedicated to doing backup.

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Version 11.7 was a pain to install on a workstation, but 12.5 is nothing. You go to a workstation, put the software in, and register the license, then it's done.

I've reimaged servers and been back up and running in exactly no time with the completely new hardware. 

The Universal Restore allows you to reimage a computer without having to have all the drivers. It allows you to boot the machine; once you get the machine up and running, then you can install the drivers.

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It doesn't seem to do the following on the server but it does so on the work station: It does not delete locked files. So I created a small batch file that, after the backup, I go in and I run. That deletes all the extraneous lock files. I tried running the batch file automated but it would not run for some reason.

I keep five months of full images of the server. And my work station, I keep three copies, three months' worth. And I backup my data separately. All the data is on a server and nothing is on the computer.

I backup data daily, five copies of it. Every five days, I overwrite the first one. So I've got five days of data, and three days of images and of the workstation, and five copies of the server image. I do it automated every month and I've never had a problem.

I've used all of them. I've used Norton Ghost, and years and years ago something called FastBack. Norton Ghost is really the only other one, but my experience is there are more problems with using it than Acronis.

Very simple. I can create a backup program in just in minutes because I know the program so well. It is very easy to set up if you know anything about computers, and even if you're not familiar with computers.

It takes me no time at all and the backup procedure is pretty much straightforward, depending on how complicated your system is. 

I'm using the pro version. Personally, I think that the home version is more complicated to set up than the professional version, for some reason. You would think it would be the other way around.

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Buy it. Simple. It's the best backup. I've used it to restore a number of machines without any trouble at all. It's very simple with a hard drive. It makes it much easier if you have a complete new system.

• Central management of backups; convenient way to manage and monitor backups.
• Ability to restore backup to machine with different hardware.

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The software requires a number of network ports to be open between the management machine and the clients and backup devices. It would be good to eliminate the SMB port requirement between the management machine and the backup device.

It would also be helpful to reduce the number of required ports between the clients and the management machine to just one incoming and/or outgoing port.

Bare metal recovery of a machine from backup requires hard drive drivers to be manually loaded. It would be helpful if the various hard drive drivers were included in the recovery boot media.

No.

No.

Technical support has been excellent.

We switched to Acronis Backup because it allows us to easily manage and monitor our backups.

The initial setup was straightforward. The management interface is intuitive.

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There are cheaper backup solutions around, but they are not as straightforward to set up and to use and lack some of the features of this product. By researching pricing for the same product on Google, we were able to negotiate a good deal.

We did evaluate other products and Acronis Backup Standard best met our needs, subject to our budget constraints.

This is a great product. When evaluating different products it is important to test the recovery from backup. Acronis provided better recovery from backup options than some other products that we evaluated.