Acronis True Image 2014 - what's new?
Hello!
It so happened that the recent return of Acronis to Habr coincided with the release of a new version of our popular product Acronis True Image. According to the already established tradition, the new version will be wearing the number 2014 - the year in which the product will mostly live. In this issue, let's talk about what's new in this version.
To begin, let me remind you what Acronis True Image is, and then tell you about the new functionality.
In short, Acronis True Image is a solution that allows you not to worry about your data. We often compare such products with insurance, of course, it would be better not to need it, but if a problem arose, then the data return must be reliable and fast. Therefore, we pay the most attention to the reliability of data storage.
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Today Acronis True Image is a comprehensive data backup solution that can protect both individual files or directories, as well as hard disks or partitions. The most popular in our product is exactly the backup of entire disks. This method provides the most complete protection of your data, as it can save not only files, but also the entire operating system. For example, roll it back to a state in the past, when it was not infected with a virus or one or another program you did not install was installed.
Another important point in protecting your data is how you keep your backups. Acronis True Image offers plenty of storage space for your backups (network, FTP server, CD / DVD, etc.). But all these storage sites imply that you yourself must manage them and ensure that the backup does not accidentally disappear (well, there is little ..). The second disadvantage is that in the modern world a computer is a mobile device, and often there may not be access to the location where your backups are stored.
Therefore, we thought, and we had the following solution - the use of Acronis Cloud for backup copies of disks and partitions. In this case, you can kill many birds with one stone at a time:
1. The Acronis Cloud storage system ensures their safety. In our "cloud" - a distributed server system. Even if several servers are down, data is not lost and replicated to other servers.
2. Storage in the "cloud" ensures the availability of your data from anywhere in the world. That is, if necessary, you can recover this data, for example, directly at the hotel during your trip. And of course, you can upload new data to the cloud at any time.
3. Backup to the “cloud” of entire disks allows you to share your data with friends and colleagues. However, such advantages of data storage are probably already known to many.
When backing up to the “cloud” (read, uploading a large amount of data) and restoring from the “cloud”, new requirements for the product arise that were not available during local backup:
• Transmission of personal data over the Internet requires an encrypted protocol.
Data is transmitted over an encrypted channel (TLS), and the copy itself can be completely encrypted (AES256).
• Thin and unreliable channel places separate requirements for data transmission.
Here we will stop in more detail, since the solution is complex and interesting.
The biggest problem is pouring the first consistent backup. Of course you should not expect that pumping, for example, even 100GB of data will pass without breaks and problems. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to fill in a part of the data, survive the break, and continue the fill from the interrupted place. In this case, it is necessary to obtain a backup copy in a consistent state.
What have we done for this? In essence, our copy of a disk is a copy of all its files and a separate copy of the service information about the disk (active, system, markup, etc.). The backup of service information is small in size and is pumped quickly. Files flow like in a regular file backup, so it’s pretty easy to find the last point when the connection is broken and continue with it. That is, even if your channel is not fast, sooner or later the first copy of your disk will be flooded, and then incremental data will be poured in, which, as a rule, are much smaller. However, in the case of incremental backup, data download works exactly the same as the first full backup.
Let's talk now about the recovery of their data from the "cloud". Here we have three options:
1. You need to download or somewhere to transfer individual files. This can be done either through the web interface, or through a smartphone (iOS, Android).
The file can be simply downloaded, you can create a link to it and send it. Soon it will be possible to post on Facebook or Twitter.
2. Roll back your disk (including system) for some time ago. In this case, incremental recovery will work. Acronis True Image will find the changed files and replace them with those that were saved in the backup for a certain time. In case this is a system partition, the program will reboot into the Acronis shell (it’s been a long thought how to say it in Russian) and perform the operation there.
3. Completely restore the system from the “cloud” to an empty disk or a new computer, even if there is another hardware. This option is, of course, the longest, but a recovery is being made here, which can be continued in the event of a break.
Actually, here is a short description of the work of disk backup in the "cloud". We are waiting for your questions and comments.
It so happened that the recent return of Acronis to Habr coincided with the release of a new version of our popular product Acronis True Image. According to the already established tradition, the new version will be wearing the number 2014 - the year in which the product will mostly live. In this issue, let's talk about what's new in this version.
To begin, let me remind you what Acronis True Image is, and then tell you about the new functionality.
In short, Acronis True Image is a solution that allows you not to worry about your data. We often compare such products with insurance, of course, it would be better not to need it, but if a problem arose, then the data return must be reliable and fast. Therefore, we pay the most attention to the reliability of data storage.
')
Today Acronis True Image is a comprehensive data backup solution that can protect both individual files or directories, as well as hard disks or partitions. The most popular in our product is exactly the backup of entire disks. This method provides the most complete protection of your data, as it can save not only files, but also the entire operating system. For example, roll it back to a state in the past, when it was not infected with a virus or one or another program you did not install was installed.
Another important point in protecting your data is how you keep your backups. Acronis True Image offers plenty of storage space for your backups (network, FTP server, CD / DVD, etc.). But all these storage sites imply that you yourself must manage them and ensure that the backup does not accidentally disappear (well, there is little ..). The second disadvantage is that in the modern world a computer is a mobile device, and often there may not be access to the location where your backups are stored.
Therefore, we thought, and we had the following solution - the use of Acronis Cloud for backup copies of disks and partitions. In this case, you can kill many birds with one stone at a time:
1. The Acronis Cloud storage system ensures their safety. In our "cloud" - a distributed server system. Even if several servers are down, data is not lost and replicated to other servers.
2. Storage in the "cloud" ensures the availability of your data from anywhere in the world. That is, if necessary, you can recover this data, for example, directly at the hotel during your trip. And of course, you can upload new data to the cloud at any time.
3. Backup to the “cloud” of entire disks allows you to share your data with friends and colleagues. However, such advantages of data storage are probably already known to many.
When backing up to the “cloud” (read, uploading a large amount of data) and restoring from the “cloud”, new requirements for the product arise that were not available during local backup:
• Transmission of personal data over the Internet requires an encrypted protocol.
Data is transmitted over an encrypted channel (TLS), and the copy itself can be completely encrypted (AES256).
• Thin and unreliable channel places separate requirements for data transmission.
Here we will stop in more detail, since the solution is complex and interesting.
The biggest problem is pouring the first consistent backup. Of course you should not expect that pumping, for example, even 100GB of data will pass without breaks and problems. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to fill in a part of the data, survive the break, and continue the fill from the interrupted place. In this case, it is necessary to obtain a backup copy in a consistent state.
What have we done for this? In essence, our copy of a disk is a copy of all its files and a separate copy of the service information about the disk (active, system, markup, etc.). The backup of service information is small in size and is pumped quickly. Files flow like in a regular file backup, so it’s pretty easy to find the last point when the connection is broken and continue with it. That is, even if your channel is not fast, sooner or later the first copy of your disk will be flooded, and then incremental data will be poured in, which, as a rule, are much smaller. However, in the case of incremental backup, data download works exactly the same as the first full backup.
Let's talk now about the recovery of their data from the "cloud". Here we have three options:
1. You need to download or somewhere to transfer individual files. This can be done either through the web interface, or through a smartphone (iOS, Android).
The file can be simply downloaded, you can create a link to it and send it. Soon it will be possible to post on Facebook or Twitter.
2. Roll back your disk (including system) for some time ago. In this case, incremental recovery will work. Acronis True Image will find the changed files and replace them with those that were saved in the backup for a certain time. In case this is a system partition, the program will reboot into the Acronis shell (it’s been a long thought how to say it in Russian) and perform the operation there.
3. Completely restore the system from the “cloud” to an empty disk or a new computer, even if there is another hardware. This option is, of course, the longest, but a recovery is being made here, which can be continued in the event of a break.
Actually, here is a short description of the work of disk backup in the "cloud". We are waiting for your questions and comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/193428/
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