What needs improvement with Acronis Backup?

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.

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.

The pricing could be improved. The licensing method for Microsoft 365 and Google is not that great.

The support and documentation must be improved. It's hard to find information. The portal is a little bit finicky. We must search for exactly the right thing, or it is difficult to find solutions.

The product needs to have a simple DR process.

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

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

To put it simply, if a customer, end user, or technical person encounters an issue and needs to consult with an Acronis support technician, the process can be too lengthy. This is an area that needs improvement. I will refrain from criticizing their support team as I am unfamiliar with their infrastructure. All the necessary features are already included in the current version. All the necessary features required to set up a proper backup are already present in Acronis Backup. Therefore, there is no need to add any additional features to the product.

Because Acronis Backup is an on-premises solution, there is extra overhead. It's harder to manage, and there's no real remote access. You have to physically log in to the machine to manage it. The reporting feature works fine, and you will be able to send out reports. However, that is where it stops. The deployment could be improved and could be through a network chain. If we need to deploy two machines that are not connected to the internet but connected to two different networks, it would be great to have a machine with dual mix that has access to the backup server and to those machines. It would be like a relay that you can install on the machine with a two-mix, and that machine can then connect to your backup server and to the other machines. You should be able to see the other machines on that network and be able to deploy to it and push jobs to it.

The pricing is significantly higher than it was last year, which is understandable since they have introduced new technology, such as transitioning from backup to cybersecurity. This has required a large investment in development, so it is reasonable for Acronis to raise the price. However, existing customers may be taken aback by the sudden price increase when they renew their accounts or licenses. Talking about the Acronis Service Provider platform, I wish Acronis had a feature that would allow me to set an expiry date for created customers and issued licenses on both the "Per Workload" and "Per Gigabyte" options. This way, I could receive a reminder when a customer's subscription is about to expire without the need to integrate third-party tools. Unfortunately, this is not available in the service provider portal. This would be extremely helpful for service providers and should be included in the future. Since Acronis stopped selling perpetual licenses, Acronis should take action to ensure that perpetual licenses are not functional if customers do not renew them. They should also strive to set reasonable renewal prices for perpetual licenses and create a mechanism to help us and customers who want to upgrade their licenses to subscription or service providers without being burdened with an exorbitant fee. It is clear that Acronis must review its pricing model and create a system that will make it easier for customers to upgrade without breaking the bank. We're losing customers due to the fact that there is a huge gap between renewing perpetual licenses and subscription licenses. On the other hand, perpetual licenses, which are valid for life, do not require renewal for the software to continue working. Therefore, customers may be hesitant to renew maintenance support for these licenses due to the higher cost even if they won't get any updates or support, but many of them still say that the software is stable enough for them and they don't need to renew. However, with a reasonable price, many customers are now renewing. With these significant price increases for their perpetual license renewal, I found it to be unreasonable. However, I have no issues with their subscription and service provider models. Acronis needs to find a way to address the price increases for their perpetual licenses.

We want an application deployment process similar to that in Microsoft SPM, system center, where we can deploy OS. With Microsoft SPM, we can deploy specific applications through the console, a feature missing in Acronis Backup that should be included to improve the solution. Additionally, the reporting can be improved.

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

The problem we face is competition. For the backup competition, we have Commvault, Veritas, Arcserve, and that kind of competition. The customers in Sri Lanka are mainly looking at Gartner records. Since Acronis is very new to the market, we can't compare it with those data center backup solutions, as they lead the way and get all the coverage. That's the main issue we are having. Apart from that, the feature set is very unique. We'd like it if Acronis Backup could focus a little bit on brand awareness in marketing. If they can manage something like an STCM, or something that does mass deployment for software into the Cyber Protect console, it would be great. If we could have a mass deployment option using Acronis, that would be helpful.

I believe that the next release should be easier to configure as this one is difficult to configure even the easiest of tasks.

It could back up more things. I don't think it can back up Box and some of the other third-party ones. Not that we use them that much, but the more they can do, the better it would be. There could also be better integrations with RMM tools.

Acronis needs to improve several things. They need to improve storage, backup plans, and stability.

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.

The solution could be better if some of the features were more in-depth.

It would be nice to have a partition that I can boot and reinstall when taking a backup image from the operating system. As we are going for CD, it would be nice to have external storage connectivity. The ability to integrate with different platforms should be added as a feature. It would be nice to have the restoration also from the server itself.

We had few issues previously, however, when we raise a ticket with Acronis, we have a local partner. There are some limitations to the backup. When the client does backups, we found some limitations when introducing computers to their backup - even just their site interface-level backups. We had some incidents with Hyper-V environments. When we scheduled a backup, they had to open up Check Point before they're taking a backup. Yet, due to some issues, even though there were no any Check Points solutions at the server-side, it was still giving an error from the Acronis side saying there's a Check Point issue. The client, for some reason, cannot take a backup because of Check Point. I'm not sure if this issue has been addressed in the newer software or not. However, even just yesterday we updated to a new system and the client still has issues sometimes. We had an incident when configuring reporting with Office 365. If the customer is using Office 365 through a cloud conveyor service, it gets a little difficult to configure the reporting part to get notifications to the customer. In the next release, they need endpoint-level security. They say they're trying to build their system and product into something that will allow customers to not have to restore their backup. With more ransomware and other malicious attack protection, they could alert you to vulnerabilities. This is in the pipeline, or about to be released. I have yet to see any alerts as we just added the newest version yesterday.

It would be better if they made it easier to obtain images for laptops and desktops. It isn't easy right now to have many different types of desktop computers. This is because Microsoft is changing a lot of things in Windows 10. Sometimes the computers don't work well, and you need a lot of time to recover the users' information. It's also difficult to get the users' laptops to work with this because Windows can crash in some models, and it takes time to recover all the information.

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.

Acronis Backup can improve on the virtualization backups because they are not as good as Veeam Backup.

Acronis Backup can improve the latency when the file size is larger, we have had issues. Additionally, they could allow more flexibility when searching for information and I cannot download the CBIS backup copy information which could be made easier.

I have no suggestions for improvements as I have only used the product for a month and have yet to really discover all of its aspects.

This solution would not scale well in a large environment. It could have a better ability to manage backups over a longer period.

A little bit more integration would be good. It should support broader platforms.

One improvement that could be made is adding the option to download files in a PST format when doing a 365 or Google Cloud to cloud backup. This is something that is currently being worked on by Acronis. A second improvement would be to support SAP databases as integration with SAP. Although Acronis do support SAP databases and a backup of complete servers as an image-level backup or volume-level backup is possible, this requires the use of certain scripts.

The new version has anti-malware and software management features, but these features should be enhanced. It is working as an exclusive solution along with the backup and recovery. Support could be improved. For complex cases, support should be available quickly and without any delay.

I don't find the product to be overly scalable. The product would be better if they offered more integration capabilities.

Mobile backup is something that would be good to have. I can't think of anything else, but some performance enhancements and additional features would always be welcome.

We have sometimes issues with the child copies and other similar functions, but it's normal with any backup solution. We need to fix those issues first in order for us to be able to do the backup properly.

In some cases, at the time of reinstallation, some disasters happen. For the licensing on the computer the name of the computer and domain, everything is removed from the registry level. Then we have to install the Acronis from the start for it to work properly. Otherwise, the Acronis software will cause a lot of trouble at the time of reinstallation. That's where they need to improve the product. In the case people want to install the same software with the same hardware, it should not stop me. Acronis Standard software should improve the backup log report.

I would like to have more cybersecurity integration to properly round up the product and its offering. In terms of cybersecurity, if the offerings can be more versatile so that it is not just a backup solution, it would be great. Some addition to cybersecurity would really be helpful so that it becomes a kind of a suite of products. Backup and recovery form a part of the broader security strategy. Its integration with other cybersecurity solutions would provide proper visibility to not just your cybersecurity dashboard but also to all of your backups. You would have a pretty good view of the entire security landscape that you are managing. It should definitely be more stable, and it should support larger platforms. It can maybe support cross-cloud implementations.

We have issues with the SQL databases which are supported but not so successfully, it's a little shaky. It seems to tie up the use of the database, locking it to some extent. The big issue is that users are not able to access the databases when it's doing a backup. Some of our customers work around the clock and need continual access. The SQL backups have to work better so that they have MySQL or Maria support. We still use CloudBerry sometimes and it doesn't have that issue. It does the backup without tying up the database and it's still accessible to the user. That's something that Acronis have to improve. The other is the antimalware application, which is good in theory, but doesn't work so well. It uses a lot of resources and causes issues with some applications. That occurred when we switched from Webroot to Acronis Antimalware. In some instances, we had to go back to Webroot. There are some great concepts but not always such great executions.

The solution could improve by providing more database backup features and have better integration with many different types of databases. We cannot implement it in all of our infrastructures.

It doesn't support all of the databases. Maybe in the future, it could support databases such as MySQL, or Postgres, as these are some of the customer's needs. We are looking for IT solutions to backup all systems that our customers are using. It supports Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Exchange, but it does not support Oracle databases or Postgres. There are many other types of databases that Acronis does not support. I would like to see more mobile applications available. It would be very nice. We would like Acronis as an all-in-one, or all-in-box solution. It should be sold as storage, licensing, and application all in one unit. We like to provide complete solutions to our clients rather than having to tell them that they must purchase additional storage. With Barracuda, the device D190 comes with one terabyte backup, and no additional requests have to be made to the customer. It would be good if Acronis could get the recommended hardware.

The solution is on-premises and therefore is not very scalable. The solution already covers all of the requirements I need. I don't recall missing a feature or capability. The solution could use a single sign-on integration that can default to the admin dashboard. Right now, it's only username and password. If you had had an additional two-factor authentication, this would be beneficial for me.

The backing up of virtual machines in VMware and Nutanix needs better integration and the performance of the solution needs improvement.

The biggest problem that we have is when the antivirus is installed, the whole machine runs very slowly and some of the machines hang. We had installed it on 500 machines, but when our customer started having issues, we uninstalled it. It seems that it is not able to work on the servers. Our customers were disappointed with this product and discontinued the service.

The problems that we face are often related to the customer's network, although sometimes there are problems with the software, such as an error in the configuration. There is no perfect product.

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.

They can include something called a backup appliance. Although Acronis is a software-driven company, it would be good for customers to have some kind of backup appliance on top of a lightweight operating system. This will also reduce the cost. Currently, the customers have to buy the hardware in addition to the operating system, which increases the overhead in terms of procurement.

When I first started using Acronis, I found it a little bit confusing when it came to the configuration. Sometimes I have a problem where my settings need to be reset. However, I have been using it for so long that I know what I have to do it fix them.

I would like to have more hardware space. It would make it better. I would like to have two more terabytes.

They do a lot of maintenance. In the span of six months, maintenance is done at least twice and you are told that it is coming up, with apologies for the inconvenience. It's a distraction, and it interferes with the backup schedule. Also, it can happen at a time where some critical systems are required to recover. I would like documentation or a video demonstration on how to restore active databases. At this point, it can restore pictures and common files, but we want to be able to support all kinds of customers so backing up and restoring active databases are important.

For some customers, it doesn't just depend on the type of product that you use, but on the infrastructure of the customer as well. Some customers don't have the potential or the infrastructure to support a cloud-based solution as a backup. That's why he had to go to on-premises and use a hybrid solution, which is why using SolarWind for our customers. So for smaller companies, it's a little more challenging to maintain. But it's hard to say because you could have a very small company, but they have the potential of moving everything using a cloud infrastructure because they have the local infrastructure ready to support that kind of service. But another company may not have the infrastructure to support that kind of service. There are many factors for what kind of services are good for one customer and not good for another one, including the speed of data transfer that the customer can allow. That will determine if you're going to use a backup cloud solution versus a hybrid solution. Actually, with Acronis, you can back up almost everything that you need to back up, including the engine database. So I don't see what else we could add to that solution for improvement. When I look from the customer's perspective, everything is there. What could be good is just to have a simple package that could be appropriate for small companies who don't have the requirements for using the cloud solution. Maybe they could just have something a little more on-premises that could allow Acronis to do the customer's backup and then bring it to the cloud. That could be something that Acronis could try because everything now seems to be going to the cloud.

One of my clients is using version 11.7, which I feel has quite a few bugs and is not easy to work with. I always recommend that my clients upgrade to version 12.5. It is much more stable and better than the older version. When an error occurs, the information is not always easy to understand and these messages should be made more clear. Because our system is not connected to the internet, we cannot use the incorporated links to the knowledge base.

We're based in Hong Kong and I think if Acronis could provide local support and some local consultants that would be an improvement. I've just carried out the trial on the solution and actually there is no technical support available for this product. There is also minimal documentation available and if that could be improved it would make a big difference.

I'll be completely honest, it's a very annoying product. The whole product structure is confusing. You can actually get to do what you want to do. But Acronis seems to have a singular ability to make things difficult.

I feel like this product a little bit locked in the past. This is not a feature-rich solution. I would like to see a more SaaS-based solution, perhaps more cloud-centric. Essentially, keeping in lock-step with the other companies out there doing platform (PaaS) or software (SaaS) as a service, solutions. We would like a more cutting edge, cloud-based DR solution that uses, for example, compression algorithms to make sure that backups run faster.

The manual is too simple.

They need to continue working on it to make it work more smoothly and faster.

Better centralized management, because I use it across multiple clients. To have a console that centrally manages them would be nice.