BackupAssist v10 Beta Test Now Open: Direct To Cloud Amazon and Azure Backup

ba-v10-beta

There’s an exciting new release of BackupAssist in the pipeline so it’s that time again when we reach out and ask for your help in giving it an early road test before it’s unleashed on the public.

BackupAssist version 10 is now in Beta, so if you’d like to grab a copy from the official Beta page, you’ll get an early peek at some great new file and application cloud backup features, as well as the chance to provide your input.

Cloud backup

The version 10 beta, as you’ve probably picked up, is all about cloud backup. At the moment, it supports both file and application backup directly to either Amazon AWS and Microsoft’s Azure platform, although my understanding is that this should be easy to extend to further cloud providers in the future.

Currently, features include:

  • File and VSS application backup and restore
  • “On the fly” deduplication, compression, and encryption
  • “Zero Knowledge” encryption
  • Fast incremental backups
  • Efficient use of cloud storage

Notes:

  • This technology is best suited for files.
  • Not intended for image-to-the-cloud nor Bare Metal Recovery
  • It doesn’t yet support concurrent backup from multiple jobs/machines to a single container

Beta limitations

  • Hyper-V CSV guests are not supported for backup or restore
  • Private cloud support is not yet implemented
  • We’re aware there’s still some work to be done from a usability perspective
  • The devs have seen high memory usage and slowdowns occur in some situations, currently being investigated!

What to test

While all feedback and opinions on the new software will be very welcome, if you are able to, we particularly ask that you test and provide feedback on the following:

Making cloud backups using both AWS and Azure:

For information about free AWS Accounts, start here:

https://aws.amazon.com/s3/

For information about free Microsoft Azure accounts, start here:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/

Running full and incremental backups, using different types of data files:

  • Full backups can be done by using a new container/bucket
  • Incremental backups occur when there are existing backups in a container
  • Try backing up:
    • a small number of files
    • lots of files
    • both large and small files

Running different restore types from the Cloud, including:

  • File and folder restore
  • SQL and Exchange database restore
  • Exchange Granular Restore
  • Hyper-V Granular Restore
  • Hyper-V Full Recovery

Try with different OS, different application versions, and with different network connections (types and speeds):

Please let us know your thoughts and suggestions on what works well and what can be improved!

Where to get it, providing feedback and where to find more information

The beta is available for download from:

https://www.backupassist.com/BackupAssist/v10_public_beta.html

(this link will expire when Beta period comes to a close)

Please email all queries and feedback to:

beta@backupassist.com

Let us know how you get on, we’re eager to hear what you make of what looks like a fantastic new addition to the BackupAssist feature set.

Happy testing!



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