Acronis Cloud (formerly Acronis Online Home Backup) is an online backup service that works with the True Image line of software. True Image makes a disk image of your hard drive, which lets you restore your computer to the exact state it was in when the backup was made. With the Acronis Cloud, you can now store this disk image online, ensuring your entire hard drive is backed up to the cloud.
Is the Acronis Cloud a service you should consider to backup your computer? Read on to find out.
Update Dec. 2014: Added pricing for new Acronis unlimited plan.
Pros
- Disk image backups to the cloud
- Can restore from cloud, even with total system failure
- Personal encryption keeps backups secure
Cons
- Requires True Image (+$50)
- Slow restore speeds from the cloud
- No free tech support
The Bottom Line
For those who want to do full disk imaging to the cloud, Acronis True Image Cloud offers great features at an affordable price.
Acronis Cloud Plans and Pricing
Acronis has done away with their fixed-quota storage for cloud backup. They now offer unlimited storage space (with a fair usage policy of 3 TB) for $99/year. The price is for 1 PC or Mac.
You’ll also need to buy True Image for a one-time fee of $50 per computer (discounts apply for multiple computers).
Server backup plans start at $499.99/year for 500GB.
Backup Performance
The Acronis Cloud uses the True Image software to backup your hard drive (you can read my review of True Image to get a better idea of how it performs).
Backing up my hard drive to the Acronis Cloud was ridiculously easy. I selected my drive, chose Acronis Cloud as the destination, and clicked Back up now.
Setting up a disk image backup to the cloud.
After the initial backup, incremental backups only capture changes since the last backup. This is especially important when you’re backing up online, to save bandwidth and space.
True Image will also exclude certain system files from backups, such as pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys, so they don’t hog your space.
After several hours, I had a complete copy of my hard drive backed up online.
Restore Performance
To restore my test computer, I booted into my rescue DVD (created with the True Image software). After logging into my Acronis Cloud account, I selected the backup I wanted to restore. I then selected the specific point in time I wanted to restore, and the recovery points for each partition.
Acronis then got to work recovering my hard drive from the cloud.
Recovering my entire hard drive from the Acronis Cloud.
Acronis turned my blank hard drive into a working, bootable copy of my backed up system. All from the cloud. Awesome.
If you’re recovering to a new hard drive, you’ll want to make sure the hard drive is initialized. Otherwise, True Image can’t see it. When I tested the recovery function I was surprised to not see my hard drive listed. After using the Tools > Add New Disk function to initialize it, the hard drive showed up just fine.
One complaint I have is that the restore process isn’t as easy as it could be. For instance, True Image asks you to specify the restore location for each partition, which shouldn’t be needed if you’re recovering the entire hard drive. Who wants to mess with partitions, anyways?
Regardless, restoring from the Acronis Cloud is still pretty easy.
Speed
The Acronis Cloud is very fast when backing up, but I was disappointed with the restore speeds.
I was able to max out my upload speed at 7.4 megabits per second (Mbps). When restoring from the cloud, my download speed averaged 3.9 Mbps. It took a full 12 hours to recover my 25 GB hard drive. That’s not good.
Security
True Image can encrypt your backups using a password only you know, giving you complete privacy while storing disk images in the Acronis Cloud. You can select from 128-bit, 192-bit, or 256-bit AES encryption.
Support
Acronis uses a pay-per-incident (PPI) support system. The cost for a ticket is $20 per incident, so there’s no free tech support unfortunately.
Who Should Use Acronis Cloud?
Acronis Cloud backup isn’t for everyone. If you only want to backup files and folders, stop right now and choose another online backup service like CrashPlan or Backblaze (you don’t need full disk imaging).
However, if you want the convenience of restoring your entire system from online storage, the Acronis Cloud is an excellent choice. Although it can be used to backup files and folders as well, its real power is in the full disk imaging capabilities.
Specifications |
|
| Product Name | Acronis True Image Cloud |
| Version | |
| Operating Systems | WindowMac |
| Storage | Unlimited |
| Monthly Price | $8.33 |
| Average Upload Speed | 7.4 Mbps (8 Mbps connection) |
| Average Download Speed | 3.9 Mbps (30 Mbps connection) |
General Features |
|
| Free Trial | |
| Free Online Storage | 5 GB |
| Mobile Apps | Android, iOS |
| Bandwidth Controls | |
| NAS Support | |
Backup Features |
|
| File Versioning | |
| Keep Deleted Files | Forever |
| Back Up to Local Drive | |
Sync and Share Features |
|
| File Sync | |
| Selective Sync | |
| Public File Sharing | |
| Collaborative Invites | |
Security |
|
| Encrypted Storage | |
| Encrypted Transfer | |
| Personal Encryption | |
| Zero-knowledge Encryption | |
| Two-factor Authentication | null |
Support |
|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| 24/7 Support | |
| Live Chat | |
Infrastructure |
|
| Data Center Location(s) | 11 data centers in the U.S., France, Germany, UK, Russia, Singapore, Japan, and Australia |
Geoff Akerlund
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