Acronis pulls a list of all virtual machines running on a host from vCenter, and can automatically register virtual servers for backup. For VMware environments, the tool integrates directly with vCenter, so you can manage all virtual machines from within the Acronis management console. Like CA ARCserve and Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition offers agentless backup for virtual machines. The Dashboard, designed for quick operational decisions, provides an all-in-one glance at all configured and running backup and recovery operations, with color-coded alerts for successful or failed tasks. I found its console to be so intuitive that I could do most tasks without having to check the documentation. One of the product’s biggest selling points is the simplicity of its administrative interface. The software provides strong continuity-of-operations capabilities in an easy-to-configure, easy-to-license form. While it also supports traditional servers, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition is tailored specifically to backing up and restoring virtualized servers on VMware, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V and Parallels platforms. But the company’s backup software should win it some fans, especially among organizations trying to move to a virtualized infrastructure.

Acronis advanced server