Backup Solutions for Windows and Linux Servers

Being an IT Professional, it is very important task to know about backup solutions for our daily data on Servers. In case of Windows Servers and file level backup we have many options which we will discuss here. First, I would recommend System State Backups (For Physical Servers) as it is free from Microsoft and off course a useful tool.

The other important thing is if you need to find out how you want to take backups? If disk, in disk-based systems you can have very useful features such as Shadow Copies (on Windows), deduplication (NAS), these can make even just simple backups (e.g. robocopy batch routines, or a pure file-based backup product like SyncBackSE) into highly powered backups.

Here is the list of backup software with little description. You can choose one according to your requirements.

1)      Cloudberry – is good for file backups you can configure scheduled backups of essential data to a local device as well as to cloud i.e AWS and Azure in limited budget. It is inexpensive and support Virtual Shadow Copy (VSS) and image level backup

2)      Commvault - It is useful for individual files and folders to backups. Data is protected by installing agent software on the physical or virtual machines. It is enterprise level data platform that contains modules to backup, restore, archive, replicate and search data. You can access data via browsers    

3)      Veaam – It is good and excellent. In low budget using Veeam end point protection it's free but it's application aware however you can backup schedules for files. Otherwise use Veeam cloud connect which will allow you to backup to disk and is application aware. Veeam is a good backup solution for Windows Servers. Its new version has agents for physicals which makes it a complete backup solution. Veeam backup and replication is good for the File Level backup.

Veeam is also excellent for backup and items-recovery such as Exchange and SQL databases. A solution like Veeam backup & replication should be enough to cover all your needs from files /database or even full disk or snapshot backups, it usually also fits nicely with highly virtualized environments

4)      AWS – you can use AWS storage services for data protection.

5)      TSM – an enterprise level backup and archiving software by IBM TSM (IBM Tivoli Storage Manager) used to protect against data loss.

6)      Rapid Recovery – by Quest is another backup software which can take backups from physical, virtual or easily connect to cloud. You can monitor and manage your environment in multiple site. With Rapid Recovery other capabilities included are cloud backup, SQL Server, Exchange Server and Virtual Servers.

7)      BackupExec – backup and recovery solution for virtual, physical and cloud by Varitas. Supported platforms are VMWare and Hyper-V virtualization, Windows and Linux Operating Systems, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google cloud storage.

8)      Carbonite – provides Evault option with many other options for backup servers, Data Center and endpoints data. It is useful in file level backups.

9)      Crashplan – available for personal and small business data by code42 for files to backup.

10)  StorageCraft ShadowProtect - is a great solution. You can get the benefits including Image-based backup and the ability to recover at a file level too. On premise and variety of cloud options. It also provides backup and disaster recovery, data protection, and managed system migration for Windows systems -on virtual and physical machines. Recover systems, applications, and data to the same or different hardware or virtual environment.

11)  Datto Devices – which do block level backups and allow for bare metal restores as well as differential backups and restores. It also provides replication to cloud according to schedules

12)   Microsoft Azure Backup Service – takes backup at System State level as well as Bare-metal level. You can take backups of File Data, Sharepoint data, Hyper-V, SQL and Exchange Server.

13)   BackupPC – is a free disk to disk backup software having web-based front end which is user friendly. It also gives facility of cross platform including Linux, Solaris etc. It works well backing up windows system states.

14)  Unitrends – offers series of products for Physical and Virtual Servers including Hyper-V, VMWare and XenServer.

15)  Yosemite Server Backup – is cross platform software by Barracuda Networks is useful for Server Backups. It can backup of Microsoft Active Directory, MS Exchange and MS SQL Server.

16)  Arcserve – is also a good option for backup of your servers

17)  Acronis – Acronis saves backup files in TIB format which allows you to view the folder structure directly. Only open the TIB and find what you need. It also has cloud space available. The interface is user friendly.

18)  Comodo Backup – gives you free 10GB online storage account.

19)  Macrium Reflect – is a backup and disk imaging software program for Microsoft Windows.

20)  Iperius – it allows automatic backups of files and folders on devices i.e external USB, Hard Drives, NAS, Cloud storage and FTP Backup. It is good for windows.

21)  Vembu BDR Suite – is a user-friendly backup and disaster recovery platform without complications. It offers backup for Physical and Virtual environments.

22)  Retrospect – it can take backup of computers running Microsoft, Linux and MacOS.

23)  DPM 2016 Enterprise – Data Protection Manager is by Microsoft System Center and its application aware backup including SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint and Hyper-V.

24)  vRanger – simple wizard-based installation and auto-discovery tool to locate both VMware and Hyper-V assets.

25)   Easeus – offers data recovery software, backup and recovery software, partition manager and PC utility software to recover data.