The ideal PC Backup Software is one designed keeping simplicity and ease of use as the primary objective. It needs to be very simple to deploy and massively scalable, with backups that are small, non-intrusive, and require minimal end-user interaction.
Deployment of the backup software should require minimal integration with third party solutions. The program should be up and running within 20 minutes.
Scheduling needs to be opportunistic, to ensure that backups are scheduled flexibly at most convenient times. Backups which miss the schedules are automatically resumed when bandwidth becomes available again. Also, small features like deferring the first backup of the day by 10 minutes from the time user logs in, ensure that the user is not disturbed when he starts his work.
But the must-have is always Data De-Duplication (DDD), which give you smaller, faster and almost invisible backups. Advanced hierarchical caching can optimize source-based deduplication for low bandwidth consumption.
If your backup program can throttle the amount of bandwidth and CPU available to the agent for backup, this would ensure that your work never gets disrupted.
Besides these features, the ideal PC backup solution also needs to highly scalable i.e. it should have the ability to support up to 2000+ PCs on a single backup server. It should also enable the administrator to centrally view, guide and control backup users; detailed backup reports and instant alerts would also enhance protection for PCs.
Client-triggered backups are usually the best, always initiating backup and restore requests by the client over a SSL secure channel. This aids in security and scalability of the server. The administrator then just needs only to open a one-way secure port to securely backup remote users over VPN or WAN.
Among the better products in this genre is Druva inSync. Get a free trial today at http://www.druva.com/insync/laptop-backup
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