News: Updated Remote Backup Service

15th October 2012
Our Remote Backup for Small Business service just got better with new features, faster backup and upgraded support for the very latest operating systems and servers, and nothing about the price is changing.

First a bit of history...

We actually started providing our Remote Backup Service back in 2001, running from a single server system colocated in Topsham, near Exeter, Devon at our sister companies offices. Back then, our typical Remote Backup customer was backing up perhaps 1GB of data, normally from a Windows Small Business Server or a simple Windows Desktop (normally running Windows 2000!). Broadband wasn't that fast, if you could get it at all, so the service had to work with "Dial-Up" connections. People had never heard of "Cloud" services, yet that's precisely what we were offering.

Since that time we've kept upgrading our Remote Backup Service, and as we've done that, our customers have increased the amount of data they store - month on month the average usage goes up, and today people store high resolution photos, video content and much more. It's no real surprise that we've had to keep upgrading and improving our service.

So what's changed?

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Support
In this update we've now added support for the very latest Operating Systems. With the new Desktop/Tablet Operating System from Microsoft (known as "Windows 8" around the corner and the server product "Windows Server 2012" also appearing, we had to make sure we're ready to go. In fact, many of our services are already tested and certified with these new platforms (indeed our Agility Desktop and Agility Mail Cloud services already have revised Customer User Guides with Windows 8 screen-shots and instructions).

Hybrid Backup - Local and Remote Together
This is a really useful feature. Traditionally backups aren't too keen on co-existing, and in many cases using 2 different backup systems or tools can break backups or otherwise make it less robust than it should be. Plus, whilst we strongly recommend that Remote Backup services are a great way to protect your data from all kinds of disasters (see our "Why Backups Matter Blog" for a great example of why local backups aren't great as a standalone solution), it can be useful to have a "local" backup too. Imagine if you'd accidentally deleted your Accounts Data Files for Quickbooks or Sage. Whilst the Remote Backup service will have them tucked away safely, if you could just restore from a local backup copy it can be faster and easier. That's why in our new update we can configure dual backups - making a local copy (perhaps to an External Drive or similar) as well as the Remote Copy. It means if there is an issue with Internet Access, local backups can still complete, and if this happens, the missing files that weren't sent remotely are picked up on the next backup run yet this doesn't break backups or cause the problems you might have if you simply "copied" or used a secondary backup product to do local backups - it's natively supported and "just works".

Support for Agility Desktop Web Files
This ones a bit clever - so bear with us. Sometimes customers ask us if we can provide "Dual" Remote Backups - there are numerous calls when it would be handy to have your Remote Backup for Small Business Service send data to multiple off-site locations. Fortunately we already offer Cloud Backup (that's what our Remote Backup Service is - only we've been offering it for many years before it was called "Cloud") - but now you can backup to both our Remote Backup Cloud AND our Agility Desktop Web Files Cloud File Storage too.

Better Deletion/Restore Interface
We've got an improved Deletion and Restore Interface - it's faster, provides the same interface for restores as well as deletions and syncs a lot faster with the server systems.

We've also improved the software with numerous bug fixes and minor enhancements too, just as you'd expect. If you're an existing customer with a Managed Remote Backup for Small Business Server Edition service, we've been upgrading your installations over the past 2 weeks and will be finishing them in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise you can get the upgrade by contacting our Support Team who can advise on things you need to be aware of if you choose to utilise some of the new features with existing Backup Jobs.

If you've not used the service, why not find out more or even enquire about buying the service. Just call us on 01392 950 950 - we'd be happy to help you.

<< Back to the Blog

News: Updated Remote Backup Service

First a bit of history...

So what's changed?

IT Survey & Challenge Quiz!

Popular VPWSYS Services: