IASO & MAX Backup version 15.0 brings with it several new and exciting data protection and disaster recovery features, including:

• Backup Accelerator
• Standby Image
• Cloud Recovery Targets
• and more

Here’s a detailed run-through of what’s available and what it means for you:

Backup Accelerator

If you are looking to protect environments with large files, databases, virtual machines or applications then Backup Accelerator is the key feature of this release that you won’t want to miss.

Backup Accelerator can improve your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) by significantly reducing the pre-backup processing for these large files, effectively reducing the ongoing backup windows by as much as 90%.

How it works:

With Backup Accelerator, large files, databases, virtual machines or applications are proactively monitored for changes in between backups, instead of the backup software reactively searching for the changes after the backup starts.  This has the benefit of shaving minutes to hours off of your backup window.

You can specify the minimum file size to monitor as well as the application file types to track from within the Backup Manager. Backup Accelerator supports Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Hyper-V, and virtually any Windows platform file extension you specify.

Backup Accelerator kicks in and starts working after an initial backup to the cloud has completed or on the second backup following a system reboot.

Backup Accelerator does not monitor video, image and music files, nor files under 1GB in size.

Standby Image

How would you like to be able to protect your customers from unnecessary downtime due to data loss or system outages?

With Standby Image you can do just that, making data availability a reality for your customers. Standby Image reduces customer downtime by eliminating the lengthy restore process that typically follows a data loss by proactively creating and maintaining a local virtual image of your system that can be easily accessed in the event of an outage.

How it works:

Standby Image is enabled from within the Preferences section of the Backup Manager, where you can also specify where the Standby Image will be created and stored. This can be a local volume or a central shared network that houses Standby Images for multiple systems.

Standby Images can be created for Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 and later. Like all of our disaster recovery technologies, Standby Image requires that you backup System State as well as the bootable file system.

With Standby Image you can take recovery times from potentially days and hours to just the minutes required to mount a volume or boot a virtual machine.

In the event of an outage the Standby Image can easily be mounted as a volume in Windows Explorer or the Windows Disk Management utility with just a couple of clicks.  Standby Images can also be booted with both Microsoft Hyper-V and Oracle Virtual Box, by simply attaching the virtual hard disk to a new virtual machine.

Cloud Recovery Targets

Do all of your end customers have access to virtualization or sufficient hardware on hand to quickly replace a failed system? As their backup service provider do you have the physical or virtual infrastructure available to position yourself as their recovery site?

You may, but if you don’t then the introduction of Cloud Recovery Targets in this release is the ideal way to allow you to offer new Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) services to your customer.

How it works:

In this release we expand the Virtual Disaster Recovery (VDR) ability beyond local Microsoft Hyper and VMware to now support the Amazon AWS EC2 and Microsoft Azure public clouds as recovery targets.

VDR to a Cloud Recovery Target is supported for Windows Server 2008 /2012 and requires that you provide your existing credentials to access an established Azure or Amazon cloud account.

New Recovery Console

Available as a separate download, this multi-session Recovery Console replaces the prior single-session tool and is capable of managing restores of multiple data sources for multiple sites and backup devices to multiple recovery targets.

How it works:

The Recovery Console is a powerful tool to orchestrate continuous restore and data recovery operations for multiple systems.

To get started, identify a system with sufficient resources to handle the volume of recovery you want to manage. You will need full credentials for each device you configure for recovery.

From within the console you will have the option to restore multiple data sources to the local system, including files and folders, Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Hyper-V.  You can also perform Virtual Disaster Recovery of physical systems to any of our existing local or new Cloud Recovery Targets.

New HTML-based User Interface for Bare Metal Recovery

We’ve improved the usability of Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) with a new HTML-based interface that launches right in the browser and uses your existing custom branding (if configured). We’ve also enabled remote access and are now offering two options to create recovery boot media, one to create a USB Key and the other as an .ISO image to burn to optical media.

How it works:

BMR is supported for Windows Vista / Server 2008 and later, and requires a completed backup of System State and the bootable file system.

The process is simple, create and insert your boot media into the system, optionally configure your network setting during boot, then enter your device credentials and security key on the local system.

At this point, you can take control of the recovery remotely by launching the Backup from within the Cloud Management Console. Various tools and settings are available from with the GUI to assist with recovery.

File System Examiner

File System Examiner improves usability and provides insight into how much data you are selecting for backup prior to running the operation.

How it works:

File System Examiner runs periodically in the background and examines the local system and displays the size of volumes and folders during file selection.

Now you can remotely connect to a system to make or adjust backup selection without guessing at how much data you are about to protect.

Automatic Selection

Are you tired of configuring backup selections for all of your Windows desktop operating system users?

With Automatic Selection the Backup Manager can automatically discover and include local directories containing document, image and video files in the backup. Once configured, users can then edit the file selection to include additional files and folders as desired.

Archive Cleanup

The Archive ability with the Backup Manager is set to retain data indefinitely, however, for compliance reasons some partners have asked that we introduce a method to selectively clean that information when needed.

The Archive Cleanup function is an option presented in the Archive Preferences section that will allow users to selectively expire previously created Archive Points, freeing up cloud and local storage space as well as helping to better meet various compliance regulations.

Detailed Billing Reports

Our partners have requested additional usage details to better reconcile their monthly invoices. Going forward the monthly invoice will now be accompanied with a detailed breakout of usage per end-customer and per device.

Email Address Authentication

We have added additional authentication information to the Cloud Management Console.  Now you can define the full name and email address of a user and the user may choose to authenticate with their login or their email address.

Restore Statistics

In this release we have enhance the Cloud Management Console, Backup Manager and the new Recovery Console to include, display, and report on the details of your most recent recovery operations.

 

IMPORTANT NOTES

Updating to the latest version

Please note that version 15.0 includes significant updates to the Backup Register and upgraded clients cannot be downgraded.

Cloud Management Console

Once released, partners wishing to update to this version immediately may do so by downloading the latest Cloud Management Console from the download section of our website.  The latest CMC release will also be distributed via our auto update server shortly, typically within one week following the initial release.  Once available you will be notified upon launching the CMC and presented with the option to update.

Backup Manager

Once released, partners wishing to update to this version immediately may do so by downloading the latest Backup Manager and associated tools from the download section of our website or from the ‘Get download link’ option in the cloud Management Console.

The latest Backup Manager release will also be distributed via our auto update server, typically within two weeks following the initial release. To ensure your Windows and Mac OS clients are always updated with the latest Backup Manager client version please ensure that you have specified ‘Always latest version’ for the ‘Max version:’ setting in the ‘Partner information view’ section of the Cloud Management Console.  You can consult the support knowledge base for more details on how to set the client Max Version.

Server Tools and Utilities

Once released, the download section of our website will be updated with the latest releases of the various server and recovery tools.