Settimana scorsa c’è stato il Veeam’s Next Big Thing, l’evento in cui si sono fatti diversi annunci relativi al mondo Veeam. Nel caso vi siate persi la notizia, potete leggere tutte le novità in arrivo a questo link. Ovviamente tutte questi nuovi arrivi hanno generato delle domande, ma grazie ad Anton Gostev, Vice President, Product Management at Veeam, abbiamo alcuni dettagli maggiori.
Q: Is Veeam Agent for Windows a brand new offering?
A: No, Veeam Agent for Windows is the next version of Veeam Endpoint Backup. If not the name change, we would call it Veeam Endpoint Backup 2.0 – but we needed a more generic name to reflect its full server support available with the Server edition license.
Q: Does it mean that Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE is going away?
A: Two years ago, we said that endpoint backup must be simple and free – and we stand behind this statement! We will continue to provide free edition for Veeam Agent for Windows, and have no plans to discontinue this offering. There will be NO feature loss comparing to the current version of Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE 1.5 (if you see a feature loss during beta – it’s a bug, so please report it). Moreover, this new version gets even more features: support for Windows Server 2016, much requested source-side encryption and optional periodic active fulls for better reliability of backups to a consumer-grade storage, and many enhancements as a part of core processing engine improvements. And through the integration with Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 (including Free Edition), in addition to the existing application item recovery options, you get instant recovery to Hyper-V VM, and restore directly to Azure. All of this is available with the free edition of Veeam Agent for Windows!
Q: Why are you introducing paid editions of the Veeam Agents?
A: The biggest feature of paid editions is 24.7.365 support (which also explains why we chose subscription-based pricing). Production support has been a popular demand from many customers who are not allowed to use free products with no support in their production environments, and we heard you! Additionally, paid editions bring a few additional features which focus on enterprise use cases (check out the corresponding breakout sessions linked above for details).
Q: Will there be any changes in Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 in regards to enhanced centralized agent management?
A: No. Since Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 will release much sooner than the Agents, integration level will remain as it is today for now.
Q: How can the Veeam Agents be centrally deployed, managed and monitored?
A: Centralized job monitoring (via Veeam Backup & Replication console) and reporting (via email notifications) is available for both free and licensed editions when backing up to a Veeam backup repository (just as today). Centralized deployment, configuration and management strategy depends on the deployment size:
- Under 10 agents: manual deployment and management is recommended
- Above 10 agents: using remote configuration and management API available in licensed agents to automatically deploy and configure agents with logon scripts, Group Policy, SCCM, or whatever tool or method you have in place for software distribution is recommended
- Hundreds of agents and multiple locations (hybrid cloud, remote offices, home offices, mobile users): Veeam Availability Console is recommended.
Note that this is a short-term answer for the immediate future – we are looking at providing additional options down the road
Q: How is the Veeam Availability Console licensed?
A: Veeam Availability Console requires a free license that can be obtained by qualified enterprises customers (minimal deployment size requirement) and Veeam Cloud & Service Providers at no extra cost, and it includes 24.7.365 support. However, Veeam Availability Console can only manage licensed Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Agents installations – managing free editions is not supported.
Q: How is the Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 licensed?
A: Pricing for the standalone offering is being finalized right now, but most likely it will be a per-mailbox subscription (similar to how Office 365 is licensed). At launch, we will provide all Veeam Backup & Replication customers 1 year (for Standard and Enterprise edition customers) or 3 years (for Enterprise Plus customers) subscription licenses for unlimited mailboxes free of charge.
Q: Does Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 support backing up SharePoint and OneDrive?
A: No, first version of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 is for mailbox items only (emails, calendar, contacts). As always, we’re looking forward for your feedback to help us prioritize future functionality for this new offering!