Acronis Cyber Protect Reviews

We were using Acronis Backup for Windows Servers, such as Windows 2003 and 2008 operating systems. We had old Windows systems and we were using Acronis Backup.

Acronis Backup is easy to use.

When you are using enterprise hardware and software that increases over time, there need to be better and more management features. For pure backup software, it is fine, but when it comes to managing a large infrastructure it is lacking.

I have been using Acronis Backup for approximately seven years.

Acronis Backup is not scalable.

We have 10 people in my organization that use the solution.

We are a large company, we are the Steel Authority of India Limited. We span across all of India. We are the biggest steel manufacturers in the country, we have more than 60,000, people working in the company. Generally, I am using Veeam, but there may be other parts of the organization still using Acronis Backup.

The technical support of Acronis Backup is not very responsive in support. We needed it a few times, but it was not very readily available.

We were using Windows backup before Acronis Backup. I use currently using Veeeam backup.

The initial setup is very simple. The full deployment process took half an hour.

We did the implementation ourselves. We have a team of ten that can do the maintenance of the solution.

The return on investment was great because it saved us many times, it saved our lives many times. We lost a machine and we could recover it using Acronis Backup. The return of investment measurement is great.

We were on a perpetual license for Acronis Backup.

I evaluated Cohesity.

We started using this solution because it was recommended by a German company called Siemens.

We no longer use Acronis Backup but we wanted to at that time continue with it. However, Acronis did not want to listen to us to enable us more possibilities for us to consider them. Their response was very cold. We looked into other companies, such as Veeam and Cohesity and we went with Veeam.

I rate Acronis Backup an eight out of ten.

For clients utilizing OneDrive within Microsoft 365, having an online backup solution like Acronis is imperative. It allows you to recover data in such scenarios or instances where data has been accidentally deleted.

One of its most valuable aspects is its user-friendly interface. It's straightforward for clients to manage their assets independently, which might be convenient for them.

The licensing approach becomes intricate when dealing with SharePoint. Unlike individual user data, SharePoint data isn't bound to specific users; it's accessible by various users within the organization. Yet, they mandate a license for each user connected to SharePoint, irrespective of their level of utilization. This complexity raises concerns, particularly concerning the backup of SharePoint libraries. For example, if ten users access a SharePoint library, they assert that even if only one user is licensed, you must still procure licenses for all users to maintain compliance, even if they're not actively utilizing the service. Such a policy may pose compliance challenges, particularly when users intermittently access SharePoint data.

I have been working with it for six months now.

I would rate its stability as an eight out of ten.

I would rate its scalability capabilities eight out of ten. I believe that for medium-sized organizations, the solution should suffice unless there are specific reasons indicating otherwise. However, for larger cloud-based organizations, it's uncertain, especially if they are relatively new to the analytics box backup segment or lack experience in providing unlimited storage licenses. Additionally, larger organizations often have more stringent compliance requirements, which may not be fully met by the product.

The initial setup is straightforward.

You can configure the entire setup in approximately thirty minutes or less.

When purchasing licenses for the product, they operate on a user-based licensing model. If you have six users, you purchase licenses accordingly. I find the pricing structure satisfactory, it is around $25 per year. I would rate it seven out of ten.

When comparing to other vendors, based solely on my knowledge of their names as I haven't worked with them directly, I recall trying out the trial console of Barracuda, which seems somewhat similar. Barracuda was one of the pioneers in cloud-to-cloud solutions, whereas Acronis followed suit later on and wasn't initially a leader in this field. Acronis used to sell storage separately, which was considered a drawback, especially when you had to estimate how much storage your users would require. However, they have since introduced unlimited agent licensing, which addressed this issue. Another major player in backup, Veeam, initially followed a similar approach of providing your storage or purchasing it separately from cloud providers like Azure or AWS. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

Our customers primarily use the solution for backup purposes, focusing on gaining insights into the backup process. They seek real insights into the backups, determining whether the images are virus-influenced. The key objective is to identify clean images that can be restored, allowing for a smooth restart of production. Restoring an infected version could lead to the point where the product environment gets infected and goes down. It helps with both backup and cybersecurity. 

From my perspective, the most valuable features in Acronis Cyber Protect include ransomware protection and antivirus. These features not only add significant value but also play a crucial role in closing deals. When selling backup for Microsoft 365, these security features, like ransomware protection and antivirus, serve as a starting point to offer backup and protection.

Integrating backup and antivirus in one platform has significantly enhanced data protection for our customers. It uses a single agent for both backup and preventing ransomware attacks. This approach eliminates the need for different agents installed on end-user computers, addressing performance concerns.

For cybersecurity needs, the patch management feature in Acronis Cyber Protect has proven highly effective. It comes in handy when new patches are released, particularly for third-party applications that are not Windows-based. Third-party applications like Chrome may have vulnerabilities, and Acronis Cyber Protect enables the easy deployment of updates to ensure end-users are running the latest versions.

The tool's dashboard for daily operations is useful, but I find that it could benefit from enhancements, particularly in terms of reporting. While exporting reports, the format is not fancy as it appears on the dashboard. The exported files are typically in Excel CSV or PDF format. 

I don't know if this feature is already there or not, but when doing a backup from Microsoft 365, We have groups distribution list groups where we list all the users that we need to have the backup for. So if there's a way that we can pull the members of the group to be taken for a certain backup plan, that will be really because otherwise, I need to go and look for the users one by one, and it doesn't help when you have 500 or 1000 users.

One feature that I would like to see in the product is the ability to automatically uninstall or remove devices from the portal when they have been off for more than 30 days. Currently, there is a case where the device being off for an extended period indicates the employee has likely resigned.

I have been working with the product for more than three years. 

The tool is stable. 

The product is scalable. 

The product's technical support is helpful. 

Positive

I have used Veeam and Commvault. 

There's good documentation on the Acronis Cyber Protect website on how to do things, plus the training courses that we took from its portal. They really help. We also have support from the product's presales engineers. They always support us whenever we run into a problem.

For a Microsoft 365 backup plan, the deployment process typically takes around half an hour, where we explain to the customer how things are done. However, the duration of backup plans involving endpoint devices with Acronis Cyber Protect varies based on the organization's size.

A considerable amount of resources is needed for massive deployments in large organizations. This is particularly true when the devices are not centralized in a managed platform, meaning they are not joined to an active directory or MDM solution. In such cases, the tool's agent must be installed on each device individually, or network scanning may be attempted, but it often proves ineffective. Joining the devices to an MDM or an active directory streamlines the deployment process. Otherwise, having a list of users and installing the agent individually for each one becomes necessary.

We had two to three instances where the users had complained that the agents made the systems slow. 

The product's ROI comes at a great value. 

The tool is cheap compared to other products. 

I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

The solution is a premium backup solution. It can back up disks, tape, and clouds.

The user interface is very good.

They have storage node software. It's safer and better for data deduplication and network traffic. 

It offers the best pricing.

So far, the support I've received is very good. 

The setup is very easy.

I don't have any notes about missing features.

We would always support better pricing. 

I've used the solution for ten years. 

I'd rate stability ten out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. The performance is good. 

I'd rate scalability ten out of ten. It easily extends. 

We are resellers with a couple of customers. 

Technical support is excellent. They are fast, responsive, and knowledgeable. We are very satisfied with the level of service. 

I've also used Veeam Backup. It's very similar to Acronis. Veeam does have a separate console for its backup.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes two hours. 

You have an installation file that includes everything you need. You can do a backup within two hours. 

The cloud is integrated into the same console as the local backup. 

We only need one person to manage the setup process. 

We can set up the solution ourselves for our clients. 

The solution does provide a good ROI. 

The pricing is excellent. It's one of the best-priced on the market. I'd rate the solution ten out of ten in terms of affordability.

Users do need to pay a licensing fee. There are no extra fees for the solution. That said, you can buy various subscriptions depending on what you need. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. I'd recommend the solution to others. 

We primarily use the solution as a backup.

The good thing is that it's a central console. In that console itself, we have multiple options. You can install a file sync option. With the backup itself, you can take a second backup with the client's own cloud and the universal backup, which is like a complete image of the server backup level. 

That restoration is very good on the Acronis side compared to other products. 

They have their own cloud. Users can work with Azure or AWS as well.

It's very easy to manage. We are an MSSP partner, so we have multiple customers in a single console we can easily manage. There is no need for a server requirement. The server is okay for a backup. If all the backups are in Arcserve, we need a separate server to install the backup. There is an additional cost associated with that approach, however, here, there is no cost. 

The solution is easy to set up.

It is very stable. 

Scalability isn't an issue.

This is a perfect option for an SMB.

Comparatively, depending on the setup, it can be costly. 

On the cloud side, security could always be better.

If you are taking a secondary backup on the cloud, more compression would be better. It would help reduce sizing.

I'm not certain how effective the solution would be for enterprise-level companies. 

We'd like the ability to be able to restore on-premises. Right now, we can only restore on the cloud. 

I've been using the solution for the last five to ten years. 

It's stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

We don't have issues with scalability. We're mostly selling to SMB customers, not enterprises. It can scale for their purposes. Typically companies in the category we work with have 50 to 100 users, or maybe a maximum of 200 users.

Normally, we get support from our team. 

Normally, we used to provide Veeam as well. That said, Veeam has a completely different product and a different portfolio. They have a different cloud-based option, and Veeam doesn't have a cloud-based option. Which we would use would depend on the client's needs. Both products are good. If a client has multiple servers for backing up, Acronis is best. The way they are priced is completely different as well. As an MSSP partner, we typically get good pricing with Acronis. We don't have the same relationship with Veeam.

This product is very straightforward to set up. It's not a complex process. 

We are an MSSP partner for the Acronis Cloud, so we are getting a good price.

We have a lot of customers on Acronis right now. 

I'm handling the presales, so I'm involved with implementations in all of the environments. 

I would rate the solution eight out of ten. 

I use the product to protect key servers and workstations. We run mission critical servers where downtime cannot be afforded. Acronis is the only solution I trust to get us back up and running after a major catastrophe.

It has saved us from certain financial ruin after important servers containing financial data were stolen during a robbery. We were able to restore backups to new hardware and carry on with business as usual.

Incremental image backups are the most valuable part of the software. Using this feature we are able to restore to any previous backup. It is more than file backup, it backs up the entire disk, containig operating system, software and data. By restoring an image to a new hard drive, we can run the restore and reboot, and immediately be back in business.

Over the years they seem to have changed the interface to be more of a graphical interface and they have omitted the ability to use the interface using a keyboard only. When you are in a data center environment and you don't have a mouse with you, or for some reason the mouse is not working and you need to restore, it is extremely difficult/impossible. 

If you don't have a mouse, there seems to be no way to move between the icons. In the old days it was compulsory to design software interfaces that were compatible with both the keyboard and mouse. You could press 'Alt-R' for restore and 'Alt-B' for backup, or something like that. Those functions have been removed from the product and it's very frustrating.

Another one feature I would like to see added is an agent to back up MySQL databases as well. They've got an agent to back up Microsoft SQL, but there is not an agent to back up MySQL databases.

I have been using Acronis Backup for more than 20 years.

Acronis Backup is very stable. I'm using it for critical servers and workstations — it runs really well.

It's very easy to add more machines. You can install as many as your license allows.

I would say they're very supportive and really helpful. The guy even came up to our site to help and gave us some assistance and training as well. I can't complain about that at all.

I switched 20 years ago, so whatever I used before Acronis would not be not relevant now.

The TrueImage versions are super easy to install. The initial setup is really easy if you know what you're doing. You just have to download it from the web, run it, and install it. It's very straightforward, there's nothing really difficult about it. The only little technical bit comes with the Cyber Cloud versions where you now have to install a Cyber Cloud console, and then you have to create a backup job and you have to assign the backup job to a computer. For an average person, that would be slightly tricky to do, whereas a reseller or a service provider could easily do that.

Deployment on one machine only takes a few minutes. You literally select the product you're going to install from the cyber console, download the agent, install the agent on the computer, create the backup job, and then link the backup job to the agent. It probably takes about 10 minutes to set up the whole thing.

We do all installations ourselves, but I had to get support from Acronis initially to get up to speed on all the features. They are really professional and gave all assistance where required.

Massive peace of mind and the certain knowledge that we can recover from any disaster goes way beyond the cost of the product.

The installation fees are very reasonable and the monthly/annual licensing fees are minimal for the features you get.

I looked at VeeAm, Backup Exec, Solarwinds and Redstor. Veeam requires the installation of SQL even on workstations. In my experience this impacted overall performance of workstations. Backup Exec I found frustrating to administer and Solarwinds, although fantastic for File Backups and Office365, is not ideal for image backups. The bare metal restore (BMR) for Solarwinds is extremely basic and only restores to the first available SATA drive it finds. I accidentally overwrote important data using Solarwinds BMR since it does not warn you or give you an option to choose a destination drive for the restore. And after the BMR the machine did not want to boot, meaning I could not rely on the solution in times of crisis. Redstor is a great product and works well, but it is complicated to get to know and even after a course on it, I still felt a bit lost. Plus it was really expensive compared to Acronis.

Acronis now includes a feature called Cyber Protect, which performs anti-malware scanning and protects everything on your system. It can also check for Microsoft patches and helps you to stay updated and protected. It has a very accurate disk health monitor that could warn you of imminent drive failure. It also protects the integrity of your online backups against ransomware. From start to finish, not only does it protect your hard drive, it protects the integrity of the backups as well.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. You might require assistance to create backup plans and to link them to backup agents, and also for the fact that it doesn't have the ability work without a mouse. 

We use this solution to back up our emails. It is compatible with Office and Microsoft 365. There are two models and it can be used per workload or per workstation, which gives you roughly 50 gigs of backup per work station. 

You can basically decide what you want to back up, at what time and whether you want it done on desktops or laptops. Once you make this decision, you then pay per gig. 

We have distributors that we buy Acronis through. For cloud backup, hybrid and on-prem, this is a good solution.

The Acronis panel is user friendly and tracking backups across a number of different devices is great. Acronis provides prompts and reminders to users if certain files are not backed up. 

There are a lot of products out there that are a little bit stronger than Acronis where AV is concerned.

Your backups are always limited to the amounts of bandwidth that you've got available. The bigger the bandwidth you've got, the smoother the solution works. You get to set the frequency and the times to run your backup. You can run your backups either daily, weekly, monthly or on an adhoc basis. 

This solution is exceptionally scalable. If you're a customer and you're using 800 gigs at the moment, we will allocate a slot for one terabyte for you. We'll give you a 20% cushion and you'll pay only for what you use. 

The initial setup is straightforward and can be completed in 30 minutes. Some of the smaller businesses we work with, want us to run this for them while other manage this process themselves. 

This is a plug and play solution so you don't need a lot of people for maintenance once you have set up the permissions. When maintenance or attention is needed, you will receive alerts. 

We pay approximately eight Euro cents a gig. We are platinum partners so we get some very good rates and we pass that on. The eight cents includes our profit. There are no other additional costs, unless you want to include DR.

We briefly considered Veeam, Metallic IO and Redstor. As a backup solution, Acronis is great. 

If you are the IT manager, you can do a lot with this solution without needing to complete heavy maintenance or heavy labor intensive programs. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

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.