PC & Laptop Backup

[Fantismo]

Has anyone had any experience with a solution called Attix5?

It is claimed that it is the only real alternative to Connected TLM which is the product that we have our eye on currently.

Any thoughts or ideas would be gratefully received.

Regards

Fantismo

 

[cubsupport]

We saw it as a bit slow. We chose the Thinking Safe (

http://www.thinkingsafe.com)

service instead so we didn't have to put our own hardware in place.

Cub

 

[Rols]

Have you had a look at the VERITAS Netbackup Professional solution?? or the Alteris (Previo) solution?

 

[Fantismo]

Thanks guys.

Cubsupport, you suggested that it was a bit slow.

Do you mean Attix 5 or TLM? From our experience the TLM solution is very fast.

By the way TLM is available as a managed service as is Attix 5 so the hardware argument doesn't wash with me I'm afraid.

Besides which, in my experience services like Thinkingsafe charge by the Gb so they can work out a lot more expensive over time.

Rols
Thanks for your suggestions. We looked at Veritas, but it isn't particualrly efficient in the way it stores the data on media. Haven't checked out the Alteris solution, so I'll take a look at that one.

Any more comments on Attix5 please?

 

[Tecknical]

The Attix5 product is a great product for desktop and laptop users in our experience. Once the data is stored on the backup server, incremental backups are quick and very easy (the product was designed to be used over dialup lines, so really flys over ADSL, ISDN and Leased Lines). The best feature is the ability to access the backed-up data via a standard web browser and access any backed-up files (via download or even to an email address.) This is a great feature if you need access to your data from places other than the office.

You should also try the server product which works in the same way. I do not think that the Connected product has a matching server product. The Attix5 server editions even has plug-ins for SQL, Exchange, Groupwise etc.

 

[Fantismo]

Thanks Technical
Did you carry out a comparison to TLM before you bought?

What made you choose Attix5 above all others?

And I'm sorry to ask this question, but can you confirm that you don't have any affiliation with Attix5 apart from being a customer please? I'm after objective advice.
Regards

Fantismo

 

[backupman]

Fantismo

Like you I would like to know more about Attix5, which I don't know much about, although I believe that it was developed in SA and funded by a large company who are not yet using it as their main internal software for laptop backups.
I do know the TLM product, which is specifically designed for laptops/desktops. It is used in-house by many large companies and is also available as a service from a number of service providers. TLM is specifically designed for laptops/desktops and has a facility called IROAM which allows restoration of files via a web browser in a similar way to that described by Tecknical for Attix5. The good thing about TLM is that it has been designed for laptops:- it performs a backup when it spots connectivity to the server and has a technology called SendOnce which means that if it has already backed up a file on one laptop and comes across the same file on another it doesn't transmit the second file.
I know some people who have tried using TLM to back up servers. Although the backup worked well the time taken to rebuild the server was high. I guess this is because it is designed for laptops and has been optimised for minimum backup bandwidth rather than fast restore speed for hundreds of Gb which server backup software is designed for.
Regards

Backupman

 

[Fantismo]

Thanks Backupman
You're absolutely right about TLM. It is designed for PC's only, not servers.

If anyone else has some info on Attix5 vs TLM please chip in.

 

[Tecknical]

Hi Fantismo,

Like you, I am am IT manager with a set of responsibilities, one of which was to ensure that all my users adhere to a strict backup policy of all company data. Problem being that we run a virtual office with users having home pc's & laptops along with a central server room with multiple W2k servers. As you can imagine, quite a headache to manage the backups. We looked at a couple of solutions, mainly Veritas and Attix5 (did not try Connected as they seemed a little vague on a server offering). It was not really a contest as the Veritas solutions were much more expensive and not as quick. we now have laptops, dasktops & servers backing up to a central server with a further mirror server at another site. We still perform tape backups as well, but they have not been accessed for ages (by the way, as the user can access their own Attix5 backups to perform a restore, it have cut down the technical support time by not having to retrieve files from a tape based system)

In response to your last question, we now resell the product ourselves to our customers. This is as a result of interest in the Attix5 solution and increasing use of ADSL by many more companies. I can arrange a trial for you to make you own mind up, if you like. ;-)