https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2010/S00051/acronis-true-image-2021-review-back-up-and-securi.htm
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Acronis True Image 2021 review - back-up and securi |
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Acronis True Image 2021 promises to keep your data safe for
around A$100 a year. It protects PCs and Macs from
disasters, accidents, criminal attacks and
ransomware.
Two years ago Acronis added security features adding ransomware protection to back-up. The most expensive version of the software included blockchain certification. I’m not convinced that is necessary. Yet there are those who find it useful.
The 2021 version of the software adds more protection. Acronis says it deals with malware, malicious websites and code injection. This means the security software has to work in real-time.
There’s the timely addition of protection from videoconferencing interference. This is a threat that emerged during the Covid-19 lockdown. The feature is not included in the MacOS version.
In effect, Acronis repackaged its enterprise security technology for individuals and small businesses.
True Image 2021 has a clean, straightforward interface. This hasn’t changed since I reviewed True Image 2019 more than two years ago.
It’s not immediately obvious how everything works, but it is easy to learn. The trick is to mouse your way around the user interface and try all the options.
Once you’re done, you can leave True Image to
work without day-to-day intervention, although it is likely
you will need to revisit the app.
Back-up remains the focus. You can create images of entire drives, partitions, folders or even individual files. True Image can back-up your network drives and add back-ups for your mobile phone or tablet.
There are options to do a full back-up,
this can take a long time, or to do a differential back-up.
This means backing up everything that changed since the last
back-up.
The default is daily. There’s a twice daily option which I’ve set to back-up about half way through my working day and then late at night. That way I’m never going to lose more than a few hours work.
More frequent back-ups are possible, but this can tie up resources.
There are options
to remove older back-ups when you are running out of space
on your target disc. You can do this manually or leave it to
the software. You can also set up
validations.
The A$98 Advanced plan includes 500GB of cloud back-up storage. There is a A$140 plan with a terabyte of storage. These prices are for one computer.
Acronis’ per computer price drops if you add more, but you don’t get more cloud storage.
This
complex price structure is strange given that everything
else about True Image 2021 works to hide complexity. I’m
concerned that buyers can end up buying more than they need,
or not enough.
While testing I ran into a couple of interesting observations. First, there may be times when you want to turn off protection. I did this when bittorrenting a copy of LibreOffice 7 for review.
True Image’s security stopped my bit
torrent client from working. Fair enough. To allow it
through I paused the software, then forgot to restart. The
next morning an email arrived telling me the scheduled
back-up failed. This is excellent. It’s easy to forget to
switch back on and leave yourself without back-ups or
protection. Getting a non-intrusive reminder is the best way
of fixing this.
The router remained installed. When I went to update the drive replica, True Image responded with a message saying replication would restart after I connected to an approved Wi-fi network.
This protection would stop True Image from automatic drive replication when, say, a laptop connects to public Wi-fi. It takes a couple of clicks to resume replication with a new router.
True Image’s replication
will wait until the everyday back-up is complete. It handles
tasks one-by-one, not in parallel. This is useful on slower
connection.
Back-up times vary. The time indicator on the user interface gives a rough guide, but don’t take it seriously. It warned me a full drive back-up of 340 GB would take 52 minutes. I left it running and checked 30 minutes after starting to find it had finished.
Incremental back-ups of around 200 MB take a couple of minutes. Again, the times reported on the user interface can be misleading. The ‘less than one minute’ turned out to be a few seconds over two minutes.
Early back-up software, including earlier versions of True Image, could hurt system and network performance. I found this year’s edition of Norton LifeLock ties up all system resources when in full flight and then some. That is another story for another time.
True Image 2021 has no noticeable
impact on performance. Automated back-ups can happen while
I’m on a Zoom call and I’d never know. I haven’t seen
a spinning Mac beachball while using True Image. This is in
part down to plenty of headroom on a fibre connection and
Wi-fi 6 local network, but, as mentioned, Norton struggles
with the same resources.
You won’t need to pay for Acronis back-up and a separate security suite. You won’t need to learn two user interfaces. This is important if you don’t have full time IT professionals to call on for help.
Getting both back-up and security in a single integrated package from one source simplifies both.
Today, True Image is comprehensive to the point of providing more protection than everyday users or small businesses need.
It could be overkill for your needs.
If your data is precious or your work makes you a security target you should consider True Image.
If you handle other
people’s data it could be essential. It makes sense if you
work for a company or agency that requires high levels of
security. Choose it if losing your data for more than a few
minutes will cost you money.
Acronis True Image 2021 review - Complete back-up and security was first posted at billbennett.co.nz.
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