George Miller
What to Look for in a Perfect Backup and Disk Imaging Software?
Backup and disk imaging software are becoming more sophisticated, hence the expectations of users are even becoming more sophisticated. People now expect an ideal disk imaging software to have cloud storage integration. In addition to this, the backup software must be business-oriented. Hence it must be able to handle both workstations and servers. Some of the best disk imaging software that is anticipated to meet up with these new demands are Cloudberry Backup, Acronis Backup, Novastor NovaBackup, Paragon Hard Disk Manager Advanced and Acronis True Image. Some of the best features I would like to highlight in disk imaging software are:
Unlimited Cloud Support
I would say that this is one of the basic features of an ideal backup/image software which stores images on remote server. The ideal image backup software must provide multiple cloud storage support – this is a feature that can be found on Cloudberry and Acronis Cyber Protect.
Advanced Restore Feature
Ok you can ask “What’s the problem? It’s obvious that any backup software should be able to restore”. And you are 100% correct but what I would like to see in the best backup software is the ability to restore an image to dissimilar hardware. This means the software must be able to backup and restore the image onto a different device with a different hardware from the one the image is located. File-level restoration from image is also important, and this features means the software must be capable of browsing files in the image and then restore or backup the specific file instead of creating a full backup.
Here is a screenshot of Acronis Backup dashboard, you can see that the software has a nice, intuitive interface with many options, so you don’t have to be a tech guru to start using it.
Tech Support
Tech support for backup up software has become more sophisticated than ever. Ideal, the vendor of a backup software must have a functional and regular customer support for technical and non-technical issues. Aside the customer care support, other supports expected from a 2018 backup software must include; Product updates, video tutorials, product Frequency Asked Questions (FAQs) with answers, user forum and maintenance renewals. All these components can help users get quick help from the tech support and they also provide all needed resources and tools that will facilitate user experience with the backup software.
If you can’t find a specific information you are looking for, from any of the resources provided, then you should be able to email the technical support for free or call a toll-free number for assistance.
Here is a good support page of Novastor Novabackup, as you can see there are many support options, free support number, live chat, pre-tech support and what is more important all requests are handled by U.S. based support team.
Price
Prices do vary when it comes to Image backup software and quite often prices are determined by the number of features that are included. Prices of some basic backup software such as CloudBerry backup and Handy Backup can start from as low as $35 for a single license per year. Advance backup software such as the standard Acronis Backup may start from $69 per year for a single license. One good thing about advance backup software such as Acronis is that you can enjoy a 30-day free trial offer before you sign up for the standard or advance version.
Advance backup and data recovery software like Acronis Backup may also vary prices based on cloud storage. While the $69 price may provide you up to 1 TB of storage, unlimited storage will cost much more. Similarly, multiple licenses are also more expensive than single license.
For basic backup software like Paragon Hard Disk Manager, you can expect the professional Suite version to cost up to $99 per license, which can backup the Windows PC server. If you want a version that can provide image-based backups for Windows server, Windows PC, MySQL, SQL Server, VMWare, Hyper-V, and Oracle, then you may spend up to $250. If you are looking to invest in quality backup software then you should be budgeting some hundreds of dollars.
Conclusion
If you don’t expect much from data, file and image backup software, you may want to settle for the basic software that offers basic features, however, if you want backup software that can also work as a business solution, then you cannot but watch out for the features outlines above. Secondly, more feature-packed backup software this year are expected to carry higher but affordable price tags that may run into hundreds of dollars.
