Acronis Cyber Protect Reviews

Before I had this product, I was doing backups one disk at a time using the tool that comes with Microsoft. I do database work and my projects are large enough that I need multiple disk drives and it was just getting to be too much record-keeping. In some cases, I didn't do my backups manually when I should've, and I lost things because of it. Acronis allowed me to organize all that and automate it and so now, my backups happen automatically; I don't even have to think about them.

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I use two products. I use the backup solution and I use something called Disk Director, which is a related product. Together, they allow me to manage all of my storage space. I'm a software developer and I'm often reconfiguring things. These tools help me backup my workstations and servers on a regular basis. They also help me reconfigure for a new project.

As far as the functionality goes, I haven't had a single issue with it. Rather, I've had some issues with the understandability of the interface. I think if they had someone with expertise in user interfaces to look at this, they could clean up the user interface. There are things that I had to do that aren't even in the normal software package. In other words, I had to go to their website and run some other tool, and I had to run it from the command line. I know how to do that, but I'd rather not have to. Granted, it was something that if I had done things right in the first place, I wouldn't have to do, but still I don't see any reason why they couldn't wrap up all their functionality in one user interface and be done with it.

Once I learned how to use it, I've had no issues with it. I had a little bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but it's my own fault because I didn't read the documentation before I started. I would say the product is easy to use, but I would recommend that anybody using it read the documentation from end to end first.

Stability's not an issue for me because I'm a software developer, kind of a one-man band here, and so I have a server and a number of work stations. So far, I've used this for three months with one server and one workstation, and I haven't run into problems. Its performance seems to be speedy relative to other tools that I've used; they seemed to be quite slow. My impression is that it's quick but I haven't really benchmarked that.

On my servers, for example, I have seven disk drives and I schedule a backup. I finally figured out I should do a backup of each disk drive separately and I scheduled them an hour apart. The backup of a 1 TB disk drive happens well within the hour. It's not an issue anyway because if you schedule seven backups to go in order, they only run one at a time. I had huge amounts of disk drives connected to one server; it would take quite a while, but I don't see a way around that.

Some people use an appliance to perform backups. If you use an appliance on your network, you can have a problem with network usage. By an appliance, I mean a set of disk drives that are in their own little box; it's called network-attached storage and that's what most people use for backup. I would imagine it would perform well, but I can't prove it.

One feature that makes backups easy, once I understood it, is you can set up a backup plan that says, in effect, “backup to the W drive”, where W is the drive letter. You can say, “every Sunday backup to the W drive” and that's a backup plan. Then, you can go to as many work stations as you want and you can tell them to backup to the W drive as defined on that work station. I can use the same backup up plan for five work stations with five different backup drives, as long as I give them all the same label. It makes it very easy to set this up. I can see how this could be rolled out to a much larger installation than mine.

Technical support was excellent. You have several options for how to contact support. You can send them an email but I haven't tried that. The only method I've used is online chat. You open a chat window and wait a few minutes. Someone comes online and you have a conversation with them. They tell you the answer and they stay online until you solved your problem. Then, they send a followup email with a summary. It's essentially a record of your interaction and they ask, "Is your problem solved?" They keep the case open until I verify that the problem is solved. I don't know any better way to do it.

They also have the option that, if I give them permission, they will actually take over and do something. I have used that with other vendors but I haven't used that with them. They asked me if I wanted to do that, I said, "No, I'd rather learn to do this myself." It seems to me, based on the state-of-the-art and other pieces of software that I use, they're right up there. I have talked to five different people and they were all very knowledgeable. I should mention that I've used this with one of my customers. I actually used it with them before I used it here and I was very happy with that.

Previously, I was doing this manually by making copies of hard drives and setting a copy aside. In some cases, if I said, "Oh, I don't need this anymore, making a backup of a disk to a series of DVDs." That worked for different clients. When a client says, "We're done”, I don't have any reason to keep their work online. The one thing I have not tried is to back up anything onto permanent offline storage like a DVD. I have a solution that does a good job at that now, and that's not something that I would schedule.

The strength of Acronis is that you schedule things and you basically don't have to think about it anymore. Whereas, the backup offline, I do that here and there. It's not something I do on a regular basis at all. In a way, I don't care whether they do that well or not, but it looks to me like they would do it. I just have to try it.

Initial setup would be straightforward if I had read the directions. Let's put it that way. I just went ahead and installed it when I got the package. I ran the setup and took the defaults. Here is the way this works: There's a backup manager and you're supposed to manage all your backups from there. Then, there's a backup service that runs on each computer that you're backing up.

What I didn't understand when I set this up is I was installing a different manager on each computer. I had to go to every one to do the backups and I said, "This isn't right, there's got to be a way around." What I found out is, if I had read the directions, they would have said, "Well, you can run the backup manager on a central computer or you can run it in the cloud, or you can run it on each separate computer.” The third option doesn't give you any centralization.

I needed some help from them to change over from what I did and get it all in one computer. They were able to help me in one chat. They told me exactly what to do and when I did that, it worked. All of a sudden, the light bulb lit up about how this works.

Doing what this is capable of doing, the cost of it is in line. I have worked for clients that had big data centers with big racks of blade servers, and so I suppose their server count is in the thousands. One client in particular was using this solution in that setting. Every server has a second network card, so they have two separate networks and one of them is used just for backup because they have very stringent requirements for online service. They have to be online 24/7. They have the production network in the front and behind it they have this other network on which they do backups and redundancy. They're replicating servers all over the place. I think this product is fine, which is what led me to it. I'm essentially using a Ferrari to go to the grocery store, as far as I'm concerned; if you get what I mean.

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The last job I did, I recommended this solution for a modest-sized building company. Their yearly revenues are about $30 million, so they're not a little remodeling contractor. They're building new homes but they're not a big company with hundreds of people, either. They asked me to come in and help them automate their office. They were not doing backups of anything, so they had their whole accounting system on a 10-year old computer with no backup. When I looked at it I said, "Here is a disaster waiting to happen." I set this all up for them.

I do have to go back there and see that it's all working, but it was all working when I left, assuming they didn't disrupt it somehow. I was very happy with how it worked for them. An experienced IT professional could bring this up without any help just by reading the documentation because it's very good. Anyone who isn't an IT professional should hire somebody to figure this out because the documentation is written at a high level. I'm talking about the corporate product, by the way, which I assume is what you're interested in.

For the small construction company, I didn't need the corporate product because they don't have a server, so I used the home product. The home product is much easier to use than the corporate, because the corporate has a lot more choices and things that are squeezed together. The single product they sell for home use they’ve kind of separated from the business one. It's a little bit more complicated and so you have to know how to drive it.

But, my main piece of advice is to hire someone who has either done this before or, at a minimum, is smart enough to read the documentation and set it up for you. My second piece of advice is, move into this in a sensible way. Get it up and running on one server and one workstation and see that you can manage it. Once you've got that working, then add more workstations or more servers to that. It is a solution that, assuming all of your servers are in one place or your workstations are all in the same network, you can run all of your backups - you can run them all - from one place.

In a larger organization, I would say you want to have a workstation that's identified to do this, and you have maybe several people with access to that workstation so they can manage these backups. It has a very good interface. I can see the status of every computer that I'm backing up; it shows me where it is. It shows me when the last backup was done, and if one is in progress. It also shows me the percent completion. I can go in there and click on somebody's computer and say, back it up now.

I can't think of anything that I would add to it. As far as what I need to do, I wouldn't add a thing.

It is perfect for small- to medium-sized business installations. I don't know for a large installation. By large, I mean more than a hundred computers. From what I've seen so far, I could easily manage the backups for five servers and 95 workstations without any problems at all. In my past experience, before such products were available, backing up individual workstations was a nightmare. 20 years ago, there was no way to do this kind of thing. You had to go around to each computer and run a backup. We had IT support staff running around form one computer to another and setting up the backups. Then the owner of the computer would decide, "Oh, my computer is running too slow. Oh, it's running a backup, I don't wanna do that," so they would kill it and then they wouldn't get any more backups. It's just having this level of automation I would consider to be essential. I think they've done a good job at that.

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. 

We use the solution for its backup and granular object restore features.

The solution helps us quickly backup clients' data in Office 365 following the move to the cloud from on-prem.

The solution's most valuable feature is cloud backup. Using it, we don't have to go through every mailbox, SharePoint site, or OneDrive account to configure the backup, you can almost just fire at your tenancy and forget.

The solution's reporting feature could be better. There are many false negatives and retriable errors.

We have been using the solution for around eight months.

It is a very stable solution, but we face challenges extracting reports. I rate its stability as an eight.

We have around 90 users in our organization whose Office 365 data is being backed up via Acronis. It is a very scalable solution but depends upon the business requirement. I rate its scalability as a nine.

We previously used on-prem Exchange and used Veeam to back up the on-premises server, we have since moved to hybrid exchange with the mailboxes in the cloud.

We worked on the solution's demo software initially to understand the process. It took us a week to complete it. I rate the process as an eight.

We took help from a third-party vendor for a part of the solution's implementation. Later, we installed the rest of it ourselves. It requires one or two administrators for deployment and maintenance.

It is a low-cost solution. But, its storage cost is high and varies at times. I rate its pricing a two or three.

I advise others to get a demo of the solution in the first instance. Also, they should take timely updates on storage costs. Apart from this, it is easy to use. I rate it as an eight.

We use the solution to take backups of applications and files.

The tool’s licensing and pricing are economical for SMB customers.

The solution needs to have better stability. I would like to improve the tool’s support through calls.

I have been working with the solution for eight years. I use the tool’s latest cloud version.

I would rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten. The solution is stable. I haven’t faced any stability issues.

I would rate the tool an eight out of ten. Acronis is an agent-based solution and it is scalable. We have around 50 customers.

The tool’s support is quite difficult. Support is mainly available only through the mail. The toll-free numbers are not available.

The tool’s initial setup is straightforward. The overall deployment takes one week to complete but the software can be installed within a day. You need to install the management console and then pick up the agent. We can take the backup post these processes.

The deployment was done in-house.

We have seen ROI with the use of the solution.

I would rate the solution’s pricing an eight out of ten. The tool’s subscription is yearly.

I would rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. Acronis is a cost-effective solution compared to other vendors. I haven’t faced any issues with the tool’s performance. The solution’s support was different before. Now, the support is changed. The solution needs only one engineer to manage the deployment and maintenance processes.

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.

Backup and recovery are the most valuable features.

We are able to remotely backup machines from locations across the United States from one centralized point. We are also able to restore/reimage machines the same way. This saves us the ability of shipping and configuring, which kills a lot of time and puts the machine back in service.

The compatibility, i.e., the backups need capability with the version 11.7 to 11.5 which need to work together; currently, they don't work together at all. If you image a machine with version 11.7, then you cannot use an 11.5 image. It should be backwards compatible.

If an image is created using the Acronis Workstation Backup and Recovery version 11.5 and if you have a newly created boot disc with version 11.7 to restore that image back to another PC – you simply cannot. Every time an attempt is made to recover a machine using this method, it errors out.

The Acronis Workstation Backup and Recovery version 11.7 is not backwards compatible. So, in order to restore the image, I would have had to create the image originally with the version 11.7. This needs to be corrected or it would cause a lot of work for the tech to recreate ALL of their images using the 11.7 version. This can be a tedious process.

We have been using this solution for five years.

There were no stability issues.

We did not experience any scalability issues. The Universal Restore allows you to scale up and down, which is fine.

I have contacted technical support about once or twice during this five year period. I would give them a seven out of 10 rating.

The setup was straightforward. It was just following the directions on the screen.

We evaluated Symantec Ghost and this product.

It is very user-friendly and allows us to do on the fly imaging without having to take down an X-amount of facilities or schedule a time for backups; we can do backups on the fly as and when they are in use.

Getting an image of a server machine just for disaster recovery purposes is valuable.

We have used it to back up systems and we have recovered systems. The amount of features that it has and reliability has been really good.

When we first started, we didn’t have the ability to back up servers, per se, that had RAID drives on them. Years ago we were trying Ghost backup or some other more consumer-based products. Then when we found Acronis, we were actually able to back up the server OS on a RAID drive Blu-ray.

The newer version 12 was a little bit hard to set up and get licensed. When I went to version 12, the actual license page wouldn’t come up in an Internet Explorer browser, so we had to change to another browser as a workaround to get to the licensing page. That happened on at least two different installations of that version.

I haven’t worked with 12.5 yet, but this issue was on Version 12. I worked with technical support and we tried a couple of things, but then, that licensing page would always come up blank in Internet Explorer. Then, when we changed to a different browser, it did come up and we were able to license it.

I have been using Acronis for about 10 years.

We didn’t have stability issues. After I got it licensed, it worked fine.

I would rate it high in that department.

I rate technical support a 10 out of 10.

We were using Norton or Norton Ghost or maybe DriveImage Backup. Then, we switched because we needed a solution for backing up the server OS, and then for servers that contained more than just one single hard drive in a RAID configuration.

Setup is straightforward.

We did look around at the different options. I can’t recall the names of them now, but other commercial server-level products that would do the same thing, but they were probably a little higher in price. At the time they are higher in price and Acronis was more competitive that way.

I would recommend it. At my company we’ve used it widely. It’s actually in a lot of our best practices documents to use this product, so we've kind of adopted it unofficially.

I use the solution in my company for backup purposes.

The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and its user-friendly interface compared to other tools.

If there is an option to use the tape drives again as a backup repository for the cloud deployment, it can help users in a similar way to the on-premises deployment phase. Currently, there is no option to use the tape drives again as a backup repository for the cloud deployment.

I have been using Acronis Cyber Protect for two years. I use the solution's latest version, which is Acronis Cyber Protect 15.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I can install the product anywhere, including on a regular VM for the management console, and run it there. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Around 50 people in my company use the product.

The solution's technical support is helpful. The solution's technical team always responds quickly within the day and even offers remote services. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

My company did not use any other tool before Acronis Cyber Protect, and we were simply using Google's backup tool with 200 GB.

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward. One of the strong points of the tool is its ease of deployment.

The solution is deployed on a hybrid cloud model.

The solution can be deployed in 30 minutes, specifically to set up the management console. It may take even less time if you are installing the agents on all the machines. In general, it is a user-friendly and quick process.

I think that the prices of the product go up every year. If one is extremely expensive and ten is absolutely cheap, I rate the product price as six. There is no need to pay anything extra apart from the standard licensing fees attached to the product.

In our organization, we use backup and disaster recovery to recover some of the data from the laptops of employees who did not handle their files properly. With the help of the backup, we got the missing files.

Acronis Cyber Protect improved our company's security posture against threats as it gave our company some visibility on the files that got through the normal Microsoft Defender but had to be quarantined by Acronis Cyber Protect. My company needed file generations or old files on cracked software.

The features of Acronis Cyber Protect I find the most valuable for data protection is in the area of encryption for backups.

The cybersecurity and backup in Acronis Cyber Protect benefit our company's IT strategy because we now have a better and more reliable solution than just Microsoft Defender. With Acronis Cyber Protect, my company now has assurance that if we ever get ransomware attacks, we have backups in place to recover data.

The usability and the implementation of the tool are good, straightforward, and user-friendly.

The tool has impacted our company's recovery time objectives by lessening the RTOs and RPOs. Even the time for backup has been automated with the tool. In our company, we just run the backups at the end of the day, and so I think it has lessened our RTOs and RPOs by 50 percent.

There is no need for troubleshooting or maintenance since the product runs smoothly.

I recommend the product to others. The product is good but improvements in the form of innovations and new features need to be introduced.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.