I am currently using MSP360. I tried Comet the first time and switched when it was deprecated the first time.
I have many home users and several clients with servers and VM’s.I like to do image backups of the VM’s. I do not like having to restore the images from the cloud as it takes a very long time. When I needed to recover a VM with MSP360 it took 2 days to download.
I can use local storage but it would require me to run duplicate backups; one for the cloud and one for local storage.
I have used Unitrends and I really like it. It does local backups and then uploads the backup to the cloud. This is very efficient.
I am looking for information on Comet and Acronis. Which works best? Which is most cost effective? What experiences have you had with either?
Well the speed of downloads doesn’t have much to do with the backup vendor itself and has more to do with the storage vendor, and the bandwidth available at the site performing the download. I assume you are using Wasabi in conjunction with MSP360, right? If so, that is likely part of the speed issue. They are insanely cheap but not the fastest storage. It shouldn’t take 2 days, though, unless you had really bad bandwidth speeds at the site, or it was a monstrous amount of data you were trying to recover.
If price is your sole concern I’d focus on Comet, because they also use Wasabi for backups which makes storage relatively cheap. That said, if you plan to really grow your backup business then you are likely to grow out of something like Comet as you begin to qualify a better class of customer at your MSP with deeper requirements. So if that is the case I’d recommend graduating right to Acronis.
Acronis can literally do anything, and that includes even deploying MAV and EDR through their agent if you wanted it to. Their storage is quick, and their UI is “okay.” It takes some getting used to but it’s fully functional. Their storage pricing is competitive compared to most other vendors, but it’s not really very competitive when compared to Wasabi when it comes to straight pricing.
Based on what you wrote above, you’d probably be good with Comet, assuming you don’t see growing backup requirements in your business. Otherwise just go with Acronis and don’t look back.
Other vendors that are highly regarded would be Veeam and Cove. There are others, but those are the ones I hear MSPs using most frequently.
I tested Acronis a looong time ago and didn’t care for it. I can’t speak to it now nor can I speak to Comet.
That being said, I trust both Syncro and Andy’s opinion. Syncro has spent the last few years VERY thoughfully planning rheir integrations. If it’s in Syncro you can be assured it’s not garbage.
If you are looking for cost effecive, robust and don’t mind it being outside of Syncro, I highly recommend RedStor. https://www.redstor.com/
I’ve been uing it for over a year and have nothing but good experiences.
Still, if you’re looking for integrated and good, trust in Andy and Syncro and go with one of the integrated products.
I use Amazon storage at MSP360 - they had special pricing. Even though it said there are no charges for downloading the data, my testing proved otherwise; I got charged for it. I remember downloading the image when I had to recover a system. I late Friday afternoon and it finished on Sunday.
Price is ALWAYS secondary for me. It needs to suit my needs first.
I tried Comet in the first go-round. I didn’t have issues, but it was deprecated before I got to testing server backups. I don’t think it was going to work with my VM backup requirements.
I have used Acronis a few years ago. I still have the personal account.
Can Comet do image backups of VM’s?
Do Acronis or Comet have any trial period?
I looked at the page App Center page for Acronis. Pricing looks complicated. Lots of options very little detail as to the differences in the options.
The Comet page has pricing but t doesn’t really tell me what I need to know. For example, it says: ’ * Disk Image Backup: $3.00 per device’.
Well, I have one server, (device), with 7 VM’s. So, I would expect to pay $3 to back them up. If I change my interpretation of ‘device’, then I have 14, 2 disks for each VM. That’s $42.
I am leaning towards a combination of Acronis and Comet. I have about 100 endpoints at MSP360. Only about 3-4 Hyper-V servers and a few standard servers.
I don’t want to spend hours in a separate system trying to keep up with the backups. I found out I am not getting notification when the backups don’t run or have errors. I do get the emails. Also, if the computer is not online I can’t look at the details until it comes online.
If Acronis and\or Comet have a trial period I will probably try them both. I am leaning towards Acronis for now.
Thank you aj1. I have worked with Andy before, and I read many of his posts. I, too, trust him.
I have tried redstor. It seemed like a lot of work. And, no, I don’t like so many “Intergrations” that are not truly integrations. Webroot is the perfect example. If setup properly in syncro it will usually deploy. When I change the effective policy in Syncro it will remove it as well. Until recently that was about the extent of the “integration”. They have added buttons to execute full and quick scans. I have never seen an alert, a ticket or anything indicating a detection in syncro. I have to go to the Webroot console. And, when I do that, I will always find endpoints that did not get deactivated or haven’t checked in for weeks or even months. My work-around for the alerts is to configure the Webroot portal to alert me.
Sorry about my little rant about “integrations”. That’s not the topic here.
Comet is $2 per endpoint which is for file backups, then an additional $3 per endpoint if they need image-based backups.
In the example you provided, it would be $5 per device if they all needed image-based backups, and that is on top of the server fee they charge which is $49 a month.
You can get trials of both. Comet’s is a timed trial, Acronis’ is a little more interesting. Any time you spin up a customer in Acronis you can set them up in a production state or a trial state. Trials are good for 30 days, after which they switch to production. You can always spin up a new customer in a trial whenever you want, so you could always trial this at a customer regardless of how long you’ve been active in the platform for… which is nice.
From my perspective, I’d highly recommend choosing one or the other. It’s just not worth the hassle of managing multiple platforms for backups. It still sounds to me like Acronis is a better fit, but as I mentioned before Comet will be cheaper. But in order to set yourself up for success, especially at scale, definitely consider picking just one.
Comet backup is amazing.
We send backups to our private cloud as well as wasabi.
Restoring files is a breeze from the comet server web interface.
Regarding image backups I recommend using local storage as restore time will always be an issue over an internet connection. Or preferably a combination of both local and offsite.
Very interesting. MSP360 has been a pain for us as it doesn’t provide a whole lot for growth and now with them trying to force a lot of the RMM stuff with little to no integrations makes it hard for us.
I would love Acronis if it let us use our own storage. We have a massive Object Storage cluster we built at our DC that we want to continue to use.
We are now eyeballing Comet as they have been working hard on improving things and growing out.
Wish that Syncro partnered up with either Comet or MSP360 because of the self storage capabilities.
We’ve really been happy with comet. IT’s easy to check for errors in backups through syncro or their portal in 5 minutes each day. They will do everything you’ve said. And they just changed their vmware/hyperv pricing to be even more competitive. When was the last time you saw a vendor lower prices… They just did.