We've been hard at work on the next major release of MSP360 Backup and today we're excited to announce version 6.0 which brings several, highly-anticipated new features and performance improvements to the product.
Resuming Image-Based Backups from Point-of-Failure
Prior to version 6.0, MSP360 Backup could not resume an image-based backup that stopped as a result of user intervention or an internet connectivity issue. This forced MSP360 Backup to completely re-upload the image on next execution because it could not re-use the partial upload from the previous execution. We are happy to report that in version 6.0, we've implemented upload resumption for image-based backups, which allows MSP360 to upload only the new blocks in those cases where a backup plan was prematurely terminated.
Further reading Resuming Image-Based Backups
Storage-Specific Retention Policies in Hybrid Backup
In previous versions of MSP360 Backup, hybrid backup plans used the same retention policy for both the local and the cloud backups. In version 6.0, you can now create different retention policies for local and cloud backups. As an example, you might decide to keep 90 days worth of backups locally and 30 days in the cloud. Or, you might use the cloud for long-term backup storage and keep only the latest backups locally.
Further reading Storage-Specific Retention Policy for Hybrid Backups in MSP360 Backup
Support for Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Amazon recently announced its latest S3 storage class — S3 Intelligent-Tiering. It's primarily aimed at customers who want to automatically optimize storage costs when data access patterns change. For example, objects stored in S3 Intelligent-Tiering that are not accessed for 30 days are automatically move from the default, frequent access tier (S3 Standard) to S3 - Infrequent Access. Objects accessed while in the infrequent access tier are automatically moved back to the frequent access tier - without any retrieval fees. This approach is convenient when you do not know at the time of backup how frequently backup files will be accessed.
Further reading MSP360 Backup 6.0 support for S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Direct Upload to S3 Glacier
Another S3-related improvement is the ability to back up data directly to the Glacier storage class instead of the previous approach where data would first be uploaded to S3 - Standard and then moved to Glacier via an Object Lifecycle Policy. To back up data directly to Glacier, select the Glacier storage class on the Compression and Encryption step of the Backup Wizard.
Further reading Direct Upload to Amazon S3 Glacier vs Upload Through Amazon S3
Expedited Image-Based Backup
Another key feature of MSP360 Backup 6.0 is the significantly improved restore times of image-based backups. We all know that restore time is critical when it comes to disaster recovery, and the faster you can revive a server, the better. With this in mind, we've implemented a few tweaks in MSP360 Backup 6.0 that provide a significant boost in performance to image-based restores.
Further reading Expedited Image-Based Backup
Purchasing Maintenance Inside the App
MSP360 Backup 6.0 frees you from the inconvenience of manually visiting our website to purchase maintenance. Instead, you can purchase maintenance from within the application to ensure you get all future updates and priority support. To learn more about maintenance and how you to purchase from within MSP360 Backup, check out our dedicated:
Further reading Purchasing Maintenance inside the App