Interview with Acronis

Acronis True Image is the online backup solution by German-based software specialist Acronis for both business and personal users running a PC or Mac in a multi-platform environment. The product’s key feature and advantage is where it got its name – Acronis True Image takes a full image of your computer’s system and allows you to fully restore both your data and system’s settings if needed. Furthermore, the system image is built up in such a way that it can be restored on any other PC or Mac from either the locally or online stored backup.

It’s clear that Acronis True Image holds a set of unique features that set it apart from many of the other online backup providers to safeguard your data. General Manager Global Consumer Business of Acronis Nat Maple runs us through the many diverse aspects of Acronis True Image, and sheds light on some of the other solutions in his company’s product suite in this interview.

How is Acronis True Image’s full system disk imaging different than the technology used by other online backup services?

Acronis True Image is the only consumer solution in the market offering a full system image backup online and locally for both Windows and Mac. Unlike other online backup providers Acronis True Image can recover an entire computer from the online backup, anywhere, anytime. This provides complete protection when a local backup is unavailable for recovery, such as theft, fire, flood or other physical damage. Our Universal Restore functionality can also recover to any make of Windows or any Apple Mac model. Of course, should you only need to restore a few files or folders, this is simple and easy from the online image.

Why should we rely on both online and local backups?

Dual Protection is a key component to any in-depth backup strategy. Local backups are fast and convenient but are vulnerable due to being physically stored within the computer. By adding a complete backup online, you’re ensuring your data is protected offsite should anything happen to your computer and local backup. Online backup also offers remote access to your files and folders from any device, or recovering your complete system anywhere in the world.

Why should we use Acronis True Image and not another cloud backup service?

Acronis True Image is the only solution offering complete full system image backup locally and to the cloud for multi-platform environments. You should backup everything, and restore what you need. Rebuilding a computer without a full system image backup takes hours and requires high levels of user interaction. Restoring from an Acronis image backup brings your PC or Mac back to exactly the same state as it was – all of the operating system, patches, applications, preference, bookmarks, passwords, Wi-Fi networks, etc.

How are Acronis True Image for PC and Mac compatible with each other?

Acronis uses a single licensing and account system allowing you to manage all of your backups in one place, and you will see all your online backups in either products’ user interface. We also offer the ability to migrate from a Windows computer to an Apple Mac by creating an image of the Windows machine, and then restoring this image into Parallels Desktop for use on the Mac. You can also restore any files from an online backup to any computer, regardless of its original backup source.
As Microsoft Windows and Apple’s OSX’s are two different operating systems, an image from one OS is not directly compatible with the other.

What makes True Image 2015 secure from today’s privacy and security threats?

High-level data privacy is critical to personal users as well as businesses, and Acronis takes privacy to the maximum level. Acronis True Image supports AES-256 encryption. Users can set their own unique password, and only those who know the password can access a protected backup. We encrypt user data on the customer side and if you use the Acronis cloud we pass this information to data centers via secure channel using 2048bit SSH. As for onsite monitoring and security in the Acronis data center, physical security is ensured via high fences, 24/7 security personnel, and video surveillance with 90-day archiving. Biometric hand-geometry scan and proximity key card are required for access. Acronis holds three data centers in the EU: in the UK, France and Germany. In compliance with EU regulations, all data of European Acronis cloud customers stays in the EU.

How do you ensure full system image backups don’t take up too much storage space over time?

Acronis True Image offers different backup methods that can be tailored to the user’s needs and require a different amount of storage and time: full backup, incremental backup and differential backup. This allows the user to determine the best backup strategy considering the available backup space. Acronis True Image also performs cleanups of older backups when they are no longer needed. The differential method is an intermediate between the first two approaches. It takes less time and space than “Full”, but more than “Incremental”. To recover data from a differential backup version, True Image needs only the differential version and the last full version. Therefore, recovery from a differential version is simpler and more reliable than recovery from an incremental one, and requires only two backup sets to be stored.

Acronis True Image 2015 is the fastest backup solution available with ultra-fast upload of backup copies to the cloud, enabling users to quickly protect their systems and data.