Barracuda Backup - by far the best backup solution on the market
December 22, 2017
Barracuda Backup - by far the best backup solution on the market
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with Barracuda Backup
My company has a Barracuda Backup appliance in place for our primary solution. The entire company's data is stored in the appliance as well as all server and database configurations. It automatically replicates all data to the Barracuda cloud servers for offsite backups.
- Thorough selection list with customized data sets per server.
- Customizable schedule for all data sources and customizable data retention policies.
- Restorability based on data age and saves space with deduplication and "smart" backup plans.
- Minor selection list issues default to "deselected" meaning unchecking a single tree of folders with new additions below the selected do not automatically get backed up.
- Funky message-level backups of Exchange require manually adding new users to the scheme or leaving several mailboxes to error out on reports if leaving "All selected".
- Compliance requirements that limit offsite cloud storage option leave "not-ready-for-prime time" copy to an external hard drive that can be rotated offsite. This software is installed on a server with the external drive connected but does NOT function as well as it should.
- Positive: an extremely flexible backup appliance that supports nearly every system out.
- Positive: "hands off" backups that require very minimal administration and management.
- Positive: cloud management of appliance provides accurate information on backup jobs, restoration, and ability to manage from any computer or share administration efforts.
- Positive: superior support for any issues that arise, Barracuda techs have never let me down.
While many solutions, such as Acronis and Symantec Backup Exec rely on number of agents or database services, Barracuda and Datto rely on total data storage. Barracuda's key feature is the hardware refresh. After 4 years of maintaining subscriptions, customers are entitled to the newest iteration of their appliance. Barracuda upgrades their models' storage space within this interval, meaning your storage capacity grows over time without having to purchase a new appliance (unless drastic data increases occur forcing a model upgrade). Datto, unfortunately, has a warranty on their units and when this runs out, the unit becomes unsupported and forces a renewal. There is no Datto hardware refresh plan.