ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
restore the systems are more limited. Taking
a snapshot image of a system includes the
hardware configuration, operating system,
registry, data, applications, user settings,
access rights, user preferences, browsing
histories, and so on. Each workload is linked
to a specific hardware or virtual machine
where it is stored. Typically, in a system
there is no separation between the end user
workload and the operating system platform
and its settings.
Restoring a system remotely is therefore
not as straight forward as it appears.
Things get more complicated when the
system at the other end, where the restore
is happening or the recovery location,
does not match the configuration of the
original system where an incident may have
happened. This gets further exacerbated if
the original system was a physical machine
and the restore system is a virtual machine,
or the reverse.
System restore in real life can include the
following possibilities: between different
hardware configurations and operating
systems, between different types of
systems that is physical and virtual, and all
combinations in between.
Global cloud storage vendor Acronis,
provides a method that lets an organisation
easily migrate workloads and production
systems, whether they are physical or
virtual, to other physical or virtual platforms,
interchangeably. The primary solution
is Acronis Backup 12 that protects data
across the following mixed environments:
Microsoft Windows and Linux servers,
virtual VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V,
cloud Microsoft Office 365 mailboxes, Azure
virtual machines, Amazon EC2 instances,
Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint,
and Active Directory applications, local
and remote Microsoft Windows and Mac
workstations and laptops, iPhone, iPad, and
Android devices.
John Zanni, Acronis Chief Marketing
Officer and Senior Vice President Channel
and Cloud Strategy, points out it is incorrect
to assume that a backup taken from a local
system will be restored on an identical
system remotely. Not only is it likely that the
The Acronis Backup administrative console.
hardware and operating configurations will
be different, but even the end-user policies on
the recovery system may be different.
“Our backup is based on image snapshot
technology, of everything that is working,
every machine, physical and virtual
servers. This is possible to a granular
level.” This snapshot image, whether of one
system or the entire datacentre, is saved
locally on-premises, at a scheduled date
and time. It can then be saved remotely at
other physical locations or in the cloud in a
hot standby fashion.
End-user control of backup and restore
operations are managed through the
Acronis Backup administrative console
either on-premises or from the cloud,
managing physical, virtual, and cloud
machines locally or remotely. The
console can assign backup plans to one
or more machines, review status updates,
and receive alerts, all from a single
console. Acronis Backup allows data to
be replicated from physical to virtual
machines and the reverse, physical to
physical machines, and virtual to virtual
machines, and not necessarily of the same
vendor or configuration.
The Acronis Backup administrative console
is a key part of the Acronis solution and
extends the physical machine to the virtual
machine and the cloud as well. “Our core
competency is through the management of
data and to be able to protect the data. As
an IT administrator, I really love it since I
have one console for physical, virtual, cloud,
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