Before the end of 2014, the Azure team has release many updates to improve the performance, the features and the support. One of the most important is the possibility to protect Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 with Microsoft Azure Backup. Maybe this is not very friendly for the classic end-user but is a great news for business IT Pro and in particular for the mobility users where they are not in office or under the classic backup solutions.
Protect a client is very similar like a server. First of all is necessary create a new Backup Vault, figure 1, but is also possible use one Vault for server, client and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012.
Figure 1 – New Vault
After creation is possible download the Vault Credential, figure 2, a file that will be imported into Microsoft Azure Backup client. From this page is also possible download the agent.
Figure 2 – Vault Credentials
Install the agent into the client and start the registration wizard, figure 3; select the vault credential file, to create the handshake. After few seconds you will be ready to create a new Backup Plan; select the items that you want protect, figure 4 and go ahead.
Figure 3 – Registration Wizard
Figure 4 – Backup Wizard
With the latest update of Azure Backup, customers can specify daily, weekly, monthly and yearly retention policies – figure 5. Customers can now retain their data for up to 99 years in Azure!! Another cool feature is possibility to start backup from existing Storage repository. This possible thanks Azure Import/Export service. Rather than sending the initial backup copy over a congested network, customers can ship the disk containing the initial backup copy to the nearest Azure datacenter.
Figure 5 – Retention Policy
After the first backup job, you can find the new client into Azure portal as showed in figure 6. If you want restore data from another computer, in case of client failure, is possible; for more information check the article Azure Backup: Restore from Another Computer.
Figure 6 – New Client
I’m sure that in the next release we will see many new features and new implementation for Windows Client.
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