If you’re on the hunt for a good data backup software, incremental backups offer one of the most sophisticated backup strategies. Incremental backups are often referred to as “smart” backups because they only backup the files that have been changed since your most recent backup. This makes your backups smaller and faster than a full backup would be. Best of all, incremental backups do the best job of capturing your most recent file changes so you won’t lose the file versions you’ve been updating — whether you experience a virus, human error, technical failure or other data hardship.Before you decide on the right incremental backup software for your data, be sure to take a look at these 3 incremental backup providers:
Nordic Backup
Nordic Backup has a range of incremental cloud backup plans for businesses and personal users. What makes Nordic Backup one of the best incremental backup providers is that it runs continuously and quietly in the background, backing up file changes as they’re made and doing so without disturbing users with alerts and dialog boxes.
Because it backs up files continuously, the chances that you’ll ever be unable to recover a previous file version (or current file version) of your data are slim to impossible. Continuous backups mean your data is backed up all the time so your changes are never missed or excluded from your backup set.
They also offer unlimited previous file versions, making it even easier for businesses to recover any file any time they need it or notice it’s gone missing. Many of the common causes of data loss (ie: viruses, human error, etc) go unnoticed until it’s too late. It’s common for incremental backup providers to limit their file version histories to 30 day time periods. If a changed, virus encrypted, or deleted file is noticed after that 30 day window has closed, the file version you need could be lost forever. With Nordic Backup, this is never the case.
Nordic Backup can be used by businesses to backup an unlimited number of computers (whether Mac, Windows or Linux), and NAS devices. Thier Small Business plans also include the following features:
- Unlimited local and external hard drives
- Anywhere, remote file backup & restore
- Continuously synced file backup
- Unlimited previous file versions
- Military grade 256-bit encryption prior to backup
- Redundant local backups
- Automatic & continuously synced backup
- Multiple data centers & redundant servers
- Friendly, U.S. based support
All of these features combine to make Nordic Backup an ideal choice for small businesses looking for a reliable incremental backup software from a trusted provider. Businesses with more complex setups with multiple servers and data types can get the same features and more by taking a look at their universal server and database cloud backup plans.
Acronis
Acronis is another cloud backup provider that utilizes an incremental backup software. Rather than running continuously, the user sets when they want to schedule an automatic backup to run whether daily, weekly or monthly.
Acronis also works on Mac and Windows, uses 256-bit encryption, and depending on the plan you choose, can backup multiple computers within your organization. Should your computer ever crash, they also allow you to restore that data to move your data to a new device using their Universal Restore feature. Depending on the amount of data lost, their software allows you to recover individual files as well as initiate full system restores.
Like Nordic Backup, Acronis also offers server backup. With Acronis, you can also choose to backup Windows Server, VMware, Windows Server, Linux, Hyper-V and Microsoft SQL if you need to backup data on more than just your computers and laptops. You can learn more about the servers and systems they support here.
Their plans also include:
- Backup for unlimited computers
- Physical and virtual server backup
- Disk imaging technology
- Bare-metal recovery
- Granular backup and recovery for files and disk images
- Local storage backups
- And more
Macrium
Similar to Nordic Backup and Acronis, Macrium also offers 256-bit encryption with it’s incremental backup software, however it’s unclear whether Macrium’s encryption is end-to-end (protecting data from unauthorized viewers even during transit to the cloud).
Like Acronis, Macrium allows users to set when they want to schedule their automated backup to run, with settings for weekly, daily or monthly. Backups don’t run continuously on Macrium, but they do continuously maintain a defined number of a user’s most recent incremental backups by consolidating the oldest incremental files into a single synthetic delta.
If a user’s data is lost or deleted and needs to be restored, they can recover data from single, or multiple full backups via Macrium’s advanced delta detection technology, RDR. The company claims this recovery technology can cut restore times by 90% or more, helping businesses get back up on their feet faster after a data loss scenario.
If you also require server storage, their server options are slightly more limited than Acronis. Their Server Plus plan supports MS Exchange and MS SQL. Similar to Nordic Backup, Macrium allows its users to set custom retention rules for their data — providing better retrievability of previous file versions than a 30 day version history window could.
Other features Macrium includes:
- Incremental and differential backups
- Disk imaging
- File/folder backups and masks
- Scheduled backups
- Backup compression
- And more
Each of these providers has it’s own 30 day trial, allowing users to test the product before they commit with a payment. These free trials can be found as follows:
No matter which provider you select, an incremental backup will save your business time, money, and headaches over a full backup. Incremental backups are a great way to reduce the storage space your backups fill up, while still retaining all of the data and file changes you need to fight back against data loss due to viruses, human error, natural disaster, technical failure and more.
