Backup software is very expensive. It's one of the few applications that hasn't dropped in price over the years. It typically costs about $500 to purchase backup software for a single server. With NovaBACKUP, a single server only costs about $150!
Someone will inevitably ask, "But Van, NTBackup is built into Windows and costs nothing. Why purchase NovaBACKUP?" That's a great question. I've found NTBackup to be somewhat unreliable. Also, NTBackup doesn't support software compression or email notifications.
I've used NovaBACKUP in two different installations and have had good experiences in both cases. It covers all of my mandatory features:
- Software Compression
- Email Notifications
- Batch files can be run before and after the scheduled backup jobs.
- It supports external hard drives, CD-RW/DVD-/ RW, tape drives, and other media.
- Jobs can be scheduled to run as a service (i.e. you don't have to be logged in to run the backup jobs.)
I can offer one tip. NovaBACKUP has two methods for running scheduled backup jobs: NovaBACKUP Scheduler and Windows Task Scheduler. Use the Windows Task Scheduler because it works more reliably. I had intermittent problems with the NovaBACKUP scheduler not working when the computer was rebooted and left at the login screen.
To learn more about this application, go to http://www.novastor.com/.