Acronis - what to buy

I maintain the computer systems for my church and I am doing research on Acronis' software. I don't understand the difference between their Backup & Recovery Workstation and Advanced Workstation packages.

Not sure if you saw it but below is a link to a comparison between their business products.

http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/#compare

Basically, with advanced you can remotely manage backups. But to me it sounds like this isn't the direction you are interested in.

Also, with Advanced you could use a tape drive as a backup destination (you will be using your NV+ though) and you have the option for de-duplication add-in.

I envision configuring each individual system non-remotely. However I would like to (if possible) remotely check from my laptop at home, the backups that are stored on the NV+ as well as be able to extract individual files. Can this be done with either package?

This can be done with either package. In conjunction with ReadyNAS Remote you can mount the images remotely and extract individual files.

IMO, from what you posted I would purchase 4 Workstation licenses. Cheaper and less complicated. Personally I would get the Universal Restore option and the maintenance as a peace of mind too.

Good luck and post your experiences and/or questions if you go this route.

Not sure if you saw it but below is a link to a comparison between their business products. http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/#compare Basically, with advanced you can remotely manage backups. But to me it sounds like this isn't the direction you are interested in.

I did see the comparison chart and I read the information they have on their website, but it was not clear to me what they meant when they used the terms "Remote", "Centralized Management", "Management Server", etc..

So as I waited for a response, I downloaded the PDF documentation and started to go through both the "Workstation" and "Advanced Workstation" Users Guides. Though I still need to read more, I think I now understand the basic difference between the two. The Advanced document indicates that
The Console provides a GUI and remote connection to the agents and other components.
Usage of these components is not licensed.
And it also describes the Agents for Windows which are I presume are the actual processes that do the management and backup on the individual systems.

This can be done with either package. In conjunction with ReadyNAS Remote you can mount the images remotely and extract individual files.

So there is one major thing that is not clear to me. If I only have the Management Console installed on my personal laptop (I don't want to buy a license for my laptop, just manage others), AND I have access to my ReadyNAS NV+, AND the client computer is shut off, can I extract files from the backup files on the ReadyNAS?

To my knowledge, I think the ability to mount images (thus being able to extract individual files) is available in the agent and not in the management console.

You probably want to use the chat feature on Acronis' website (I think they buried it under support now) to verify that it correct.

FYI, The advanced versions also use a license server which can be locally installed on each machine, or a single centralized server, but it does add some complexity.

The non-advanced versions just ask for the key at installation.