Coming in a week:
http://www.macrium.com/pages/version-7.aspx?pagename=version-7
Key features:
1. Central Management Console: (CMC) Technically this is already available for v6 (mentioning it for feature #2 below); it lets you deploy endpoints for desktops (XP or later) & servers (Server 2003 or later). No cost. Nice for workplac environments & also if you have a bunch of computers at home that you want to manage backups for easily:
http://www.macrium.com/cmc.aspx
2. Changed Block Tracker: This basically sets a continuous monitoring system for file changes on NTFS volumes. This reduces the time it takes to do a differential or incremental backup, whether it's a physical or virtual hard drive, by logging the changes in realtime rather than doing a scan & then doing the backup. That translates out to a drastically reduced backup time (ex. a VHD incremental backup can be reduced from hours to minutes). Enhanced backups for multiple daily backups will come soon after the first release (I'd imagine they'll have a streamlined multiple-times-a-day option panel).
This is a cool feature because you can have a workstation zap small backups of just the changed files throughout the day. I work with a lot of DCC & CAD folk (Maya, AutoCAD, etc.) who could really use this feature when they goof a file up or get bit by a system bug. And when paired with the CMC in feature #1 above, you can have a whole office backing up the local machines all day long without issue. This is pretty awesome because you can buy a 100TB Synology NAS for under $10k these days, which would give you massive retention for workstations & servers, all done automatically & multiple times a day, without hassle. Or for standalone local machines, an 8TB USB drive goes for $209 shipped on Amazon right now.
3. Macrium viBoot: This is an enhancement to an existing feature - you can boot a Macrium backup file to Hyper-V instantly. Especially when paired with CMC & the new changed block tracker with the upcoming intra-daily backup scheduling feature, if a machine fails, you can (1) instantly boot the last backup as a virtual machine, (2) recover files, (3) zap the image over to a replacement SSD/HDD if that's what fried (via a USB dock or other slave system), and (4) do a V2P migration to different hardware if needed (another great Macrium feature).
There are a lot of great backup systems out there; I started out on Norton Ghost, migrate to Macrium several years ago, and have had really good luck with it. It has saved my hide many times over. Oh also, if you work a lot with virtual machines, VeeamZIP is free & awesome - basically like Macrium, but to zip up virtual machines for backup:
https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html
http://www.macrium.com/pages/version-7.aspx?pagename=version-7
Key features:
1. Central Management Console: (CMC) Technically this is already available for v6 (mentioning it for feature #2 below); it lets you deploy endpoints for desktops (XP or later) & servers (Server 2003 or later). No cost. Nice for workplac environments & also if you have a bunch of computers at home that you want to manage backups for easily:
http://www.macrium.com/cmc.aspx
2. Changed Block Tracker: This basically sets a continuous monitoring system for file changes on NTFS volumes. This reduces the time it takes to do a differential or incremental backup, whether it's a physical or virtual hard drive, by logging the changes in realtime rather than doing a scan & then doing the backup. That translates out to a drastically reduced backup time (ex. a VHD incremental backup can be reduced from hours to minutes). Enhanced backups for multiple daily backups will come soon after the first release (I'd imagine they'll have a streamlined multiple-times-a-day option panel).
This is a cool feature because you can have a workstation zap small backups of just the changed files throughout the day. I work with a lot of DCC & CAD folk (Maya, AutoCAD, etc.) who could really use this feature when they goof a file up or get bit by a system bug. And when paired with the CMC in feature #1 above, you can have a whole office backing up the local machines all day long without issue. This is pretty awesome because you can buy a 100TB Synology NAS for under $10k these days, which would give you massive retention for workstations & servers, all done automatically & multiple times a day, without hassle. Or for standalone local machines, an 8TB USB drive goes for $209 shipped on Amazon right now.
3. Macrium viBoot: This is an enhancement to an existing feature - you can boot a Macrium backup file to Hyper-V instantly. Especially when paired with CMC & the new changed block tracker with the upcoming intra-daily backup scheduling feature, if a machine fails, you can (1) instantly boot the last backup as a virtual machine, (2) recover files, (3) zap the image over to a replacement SSD/HDD if that's what fried (via a USB dock or other slave system), and (4) do a V2P migration to different hardware if needed (another great Macrium feature).
There are a lot of great backup systems out there; I started out on Norton Ghost, migrate to Macrium several years ago, and have had really good luck with it. It has saved my hide many times over. Oh also, if you work a lot with virtual machines, VeeamZIP is free & awesome - basically like Macrium, but to zip up virtual machines for backup:
https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html