Skip to content

Storware Backup and Recovery: A Trustworthy Alternative to Acronis

When it comes to safeguarding critical data, your backup solution should be dependable, user-friendly, and backed by stellar support. Unfortunately, many users of popular services like Acronis are finding that these solutions fall short, especially in moments when reliable recovery matters most. The following case highlights a severe issue with Acronis and makes a strong argument for why Storware Backup and Recovery is the superior choice.

The Cost of Unreliable Backup: A Real-World Example

Consider the story of a long-time Acronis customer who entrusted thousands of dollars’ worth of 3D printing STL files to Acronis for safekeeping. What happened next is a nightmare for anyone reliant on their data:

1. Data Loss: After experiencing an external hard drive failure, this user turned to their Acronis backup, only to find themselves unable to download anything from the website. Despite having an active backup, they were forced to spend money on a separate data recovery program just to recover some of their files.

2. Inadequate Support: Acronis’s customer support failed to provide timely or adequate assistance. After weeks of back-and-forth communication, remote desktop sessions, and multiple failed attempts to retrieve the data, the user was left with zero resolution. Escalations to the development team went unanswered, leaving the customer stranded.

3. File Corruption and Download Issues
: Even after figuring out how to download files in bulk, the user discovered that several files had been corrupted, showing up as 0KB in size—a devastating outcome for important, paid-for data.

4. Poor Customer Service
: Acronis failed to follow up, ignored emails, and provided no clear direction for recovery. What’s more, the user noted that dealing with Acronis was worse than their experiences with notoriously difficult industries like American health insurance.

Why Storware Is a Superior Solution

In contrast to Acronis, Storware Backup and Recovery is built to avoid the pitfalls experienced in this user’s case. Here’s why Storware stands head and shoulders above Acronis:

1. Reliable and Accessible Recovery: Storware ensures that your data is always within reach when you need it. Unlike Acronis, where this user faced download restrictions, with Storware you can easily restore data in bulk or selectively retrieve individual files. Our platform eliminates the frustration of file corruption and guarantees data integrity. Furthermore, you can store your data in multiple locations to add a layer of redundancy.

2. World-Class Customer Support: At Storware, our support team is proactive, knowledgeable, and readily available to help you in moments of need. You won’t be passed from person to person or left waiting weeks for answers. Our technical experts resolve issues swiftly, ensuring you’re never left without access to your critical data. There is therefore no first or second line of support, all team members are perfectly prepared to face the most demanding tasks. Additionally, activating the Storware Insight option allows our support team to proactively respond when reports from the client instance show any irregularities.

3. Flexible Backup Solutions: Storware offers a wide range of backup configurations, including local and cloud-based options, to suit your needs. Unlike Acronis, which forced the user to manually download each file individually, Storware offers seamless, intuitive options for bulk restoration.

4. Integrity and Transparency: We believe in keeping our customers in the loop. Whether it’s updating you on escalated cases or ensuring that you are aware of all available options during a crisis, we prioritize transparency. You will never be left in the dark with Storware.

5. Ease of Use: While Acronis’s Sync feature forced the user to painstakingly download each file or folder, Storware’s intuitive interface allows you to manage backups and recoveries with minimal effort. Our platform is designed to make your life easier, not more complicated.

Download the Storware vs Acronis battle card to learn more

Don’t Let Data Loss Ruin Your Day

The Acronis user’s experience serves as a cautionary tale. When it comes to protecting your valuable data, choosing a reliable and efficient backup solution is crucial. Storware Backup and Recovery offers a superior alternative that can safeguard your data and provide peace of mind.

Choose Storware for Peace of Mind

At the end of the day, your data is invaluable, and you need a backup provider that takes its role seriously. Storware Backup and Recovery delivers reliable protection, fast recovery, and unmatched support, so you never have to experience the frustration and losses faced by so many Acronis users.

About Storware
Storware is a backup software producer with over 10 years of experience in the backup world. Storware Backup and Recovery is an enterprise-grade, agent-less solution that caters to various data environments. It supports virtual machines, containers, storage providers, Microsoft 365, and applications running on-premises or in the cloud. Thanks to its small footprint, seamless integration into your existing IT infrastructure, storage, or enterprise backup providers is effortless.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Storware Partners with Version 2

Storware Boosts APAC Presence with Version 2 Partnership

Storware has announced partnership with Version 2 Digital, one of the paramount IT distributors in APAC region. Cooperation between Storware and Version 2 is a sign of the right set of circumstances for scaling data protection direction to the diverse markets of the western Pacific Ocean.

With a local presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China, Version 2 has a portfolio of compatible and trusted solutions and distributes IT products, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Building strong relationships through a comprehensive network of channels, Version 2 deals with a variety of enterprise domains and government organizations.

 Partnership highlights:

  • Market awareness and local presence through major regional business centers of finance, trade and technology parks enhances capabilities to distribute data protection and recovery strategy to new customers.
  • Professional team with deep technical background increasingly helps APAC companies’ IT departments by delivering turnkey solutions among a large number of the world’s brands.
  • Assistance in building partners engagement and product essential knowledge of data safety.

Storware sees the growing interest and tremendous involvement in building digital environment in APAC region. We are excited to enlist the support of Version 2, our strategic partner, in establishing new opportunities for Storware Backup and Recovery on this market. Their robust expertise and confidence in product advocacy ensure comprehensive custody to deal with end-user challenges. Collaboration with Version 2 strengthens position into delivering confidence of data security and accessibility at all times to a wide range of businesses – comments Jan Sobieszczanski, CEO of Storware.

Cooperation between Storware and Version 2 reinforces assured leadership in the Asian Pacific’s technology landscape, creating new opportunities to reseller partners and confidence in delivering advanced data protection and recovery solution.

Storware’s innovative data protection solutions align perfectly with our mission to provide our clients with the most advanced and reliable technology solutions available. We look forward to working with Storware to help businesses in the APAC region safeguard their data and ensure business continuity – comments Carlos Cheng, Managing Director of Version 2 Digital. This distribution partnership combines Storware’s industry-leading data protection technology with Version 2 Digital’s regional expertise and customer-centric approach, creating a powerful synergy that will drive the adoption of best-in-class data protection solutions in the APAC market.

About Storware
Storware is a backup software producer with over 10 years of experience in the backup world. Storware Backup and Recovery is an enterprise-grade, agent-less solution that caters to various data environments. It supports virtual machines, containers, storage providers, Microsoft 365, and applications running on-premises or in the cloud. Thanks to its small footprint, seamless integration into your existing IT infrastructure, storage, or enterprise backup providers is effortless.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Exploring the Differences Between Community FOSS, Open Core, and Commercial OSS

Understanding the differences between community open source, open core, and commercial open source software is important when making choices that lay the foundation for systems and applications, as these decisions can have cascading effects on costs and flexibility for internal users and/or downstream customers.

In this blog, we break down the key differences between these three categories of open source software, and we’ll share some important considerations for teams deploying OSS both internal and external to the enterprise.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in 2019 and was substantially updated and revised in 2024.

What Is Community Open Source Software?

Community open source software, also known as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), is source code owned by a group of volunteers that have organized around a shared problem. Community open source projects are free and open to the public, and they’re bound by a permissive or restrictive license.

Related resource:How Does Open Source Licensing Work?

Open source communities bring people with shared interests together to collaboratively build something. Some of the most popular and widely used community open source projects are backed by nonprofit foundations such as the Apache FoundationLinux Foundation, or Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Foundations add an air of legitimacy and garner inherent trust among users who might otherwise worry about adopting software built by a disparate cohort of individual contributors.

There are millions of FOSS projects but in the 2024 State of Open Source Report, respondents mentioned Linux, Jakarta EE, Apache Server, Docker, Kubernetes, PHP, WordPress, Python, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, and Eclipse IDE as among the most business-critical for enterprise. 

FOSS logos

Back to top

What Is Open Core Software?

Open core is a commercial model of software delivery where a company creates (or contributes heavily) to a “core” version of open source software, allowing users to freely adopt, adapt, and distribute it under an open source license, and then wraps that core version with advanced features, extensions, or enterprise-level scaling and availability under a proprietary license.  

This approach allows a company to leverage the collaborative nature of open source to build a community around the free version, which benefits from diverse contributions and widespread adoption. At the same time, they generate revenue by monetizing premium features aimed at larger organizations. This sometimes quickens time-to-market for a more commercially sustainable product.

Examples of open core software include Cloudera Data Platform, Oracle Linux, SUSE Linux, Redis, Grafana, Confluent Kafka, MongoDB, and GitLab.

Back to top

What Is Commercial Open Source Software?

Commercial open source vendors provide professional services for fully open source software. All features and functionality of that software remain open and freely available, and the company generates revenue through consulting, hosting, and support. 

Like open core, the commercial open source software approach benefits from the community-built software as a foundation. Although COSS companies likely contribute to the software, they don’t license their contributions separately. Instead, they provide value to their customers by professionalizing the implementation and adoption phases. 

RHEL and Rancher by SUSE are examples of COSS.

Get the Latest State of Open Source Report

The State of Open Source Report includes insights, analysis, and trends from a global survey of OSS users working in industries like finance, technology, retail, manufacturing, government, and more.

Download

Back to top

A Note About Open Source Definitions

The above definitions draw clean lines for the purposes of comparing and contrasting open source models; however, some companies employ multiple models across their portfolio. As companies grow and add products, this gets more prolific. In some cases, the lines drawn between these models (particularly COSS and open core) become progressively more gray.

A good example would be Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is sold under a proprietary license; however, it is made up of code from two upstream open source products (Fedora and CentOS Stream). In this case, it borrows from the open core model, but there isn’t a true single free version that it extends.

Back to top

How to Choose Between Community Open Source, Open Core, and COSS 

All these options are based on the open source model, so they all have the potential to benefit from the power of a collaborative and transparent development process. When compared to proprietary internal development or purchased vendor software, all these OSS models can fundamentally reduce cost and time-to-market, while increasing security, stability, and innovation.

With each of these open models, there are costs. The cost of commercial options, either open core or COSS, are more obvious, and come in the form of license fees, maintenance contracts, hosting costs, support subscriptions, and consulting services. However, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) also has associated costs that are more hidden. Adopting FOSS requires organizations to dedicate internal staff and infrastructure to hiring, acquiring, and maintaining the skills necessary to install, configure, upgrade, and contribute to sustainable development of the free-to-use software. It’s important to not forget about these shadow costs when considering FOSS for enterprise use cases.

The “F” in FOSS stands for free as in freedom, not absence of cost.

Knowing there are costs associated with all options may help organizations focus on the value and predictability of each of those costs. 

Here are some questions that can help steer an organization toward a defensible return on the investment:

  • What features are included in the commercial edition? Do I need those features? Are there alternatives that can achieve the same result?
  • What license(s) are associated with the software? Are they permissive, restrictive, or proprietary?
  • Does my organization have the skill and bandwidth to implement, maintain, and support the product?
  • How mature is the product and the backing community or commercial support vendor?
  • Is there a single commercial vendor that can serve all my open source software needs?

The table below illustrates, at a high level, some of the benefits and drawbacks worth considering: 

Type of Software

Benefits

Drawbacks

FOSS

  • Ability to try various solutions without vendor lock-in, thus a low-stakes entry
  • Information is shared readily within the community
  • Responsiveness of the community for patches and potential vulnerabilities
  • OSS can lack funding to maintain the software and fix security vulnerabilities
  • It may only provide a partial solution for your requirements
  • Integrating multiple OSS products can be challenging

Open Core

  • Often more regular updates and patches
  • SLA-backed support options, up to 24/7 for mission-critical services
  • Legal indemnification and liability during crises
  • Vendor lock-in can happen based on reliance on enterprise features
  • License changes could restrict your use
  • Restricted contribution models can diminish the value of the community
  • Could encounter a liability risk if the product is not upgraded
  • Enterprise features, hosting, and monitoring can be costly

COSS

  • SLA-backed support options, up to 24/7 for mission-critical services
  • Legal indemnification and liability during crises
  • Maintain full value of the community model
  • Value of expert knowledge when you need it, without the associated cost when you don’t
  • Adoption of additional complimentary FOSS packages may be required to achieve Open Core equivalent feature sets

Back to top

Final Thoughts

The decision to choose community open source software vs. open core or commercial open source software comes down to the depth and breadth of the projects, budgets, and use cases, as well as the scale of the environment(s).  There are situations where it makes sense to invest in commercial backing for open source development and other times when it might be better to implement a community-based solution. The three models outlined in this article layout a spectrum options that cover most needs.

Perhaps the most fundamental consideration is whether to:

  1. Spend valuable internal staff time on the installation, configuration, troubleshooting, training, maintenance, and support of the OSS that lays the foundation for the applications needed to deliver value to the business or downstream customers
    or
  2. Engage a vendor to ensure the organization has a secure, stable, and performant platform that enables internal staff to focus their time and energy on developing and maintaining domain expertise in delivering top quality applications needed to drive value for the business or downstream customers.

About Perforce
The best run DevOps teams in the world choose Perforce. Perforce products are purpose-built to develop, build and maintain high-stakes applications. Companies can finally manage complexity, achieve speed without compromise, improve security and compliance, and run their DevOps toolchains with full integrity. With a global footprint spanning more than 80 countries and including over 75% of the Fortune 100, Perforce is trusted by the world’s leading brands to deliver solutions to even the toughest challenges. Accelerate technology delivery, with no shortcuts.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.