IBM Cloud Backup allows for backups of various applications. However, IBM Cloud offers software agents for some of the more common software systems that are backed up, which include: Bare metal restore, Microsoft SQL and Oracle. Each agent is available as an add-on to your IBM Cloud Backup service. To add an agent to your service, contact the sales team, by clicking on the "Let's Talk" button. Note that the plug-ins listed here are only compatible with Windows servers.

You can back up your data as frequently as you like. Within WebCC, backups can be made manually or can be scheduled as a single or recurring instance made daily, weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule. Schedules can be updated or canceled at any time.

IBM Cloud Backup allows for data-retention depending on where you want to roll back to. Daily retention schemes hold data for seven days, while weekly schemes hold data for one month, and monthly schemes hold data for one year. At the end of each period, the oldest data set is rotated out and the first "delta backup" made becomes the oldest available restore point.

The first backup is a "seed" (a complete, full backup). The next and subsequent ones are "deltas" (changes only), and are equivalent to, and still considered a "full backup." You're able to restore all or individual files. This technology allows for "full backups" to be made each session but saves enormous amounts of space on the backup server and decreases the amount of time each subsequent backup takes to complete.

By default, all encryption over the wire (OTW) is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption. You can also choose to store data in encrypted format using AES 256-bit.

Note: You must remember your encryption password. Your data can't be restored without your password. If you lose your password, you won't be able to get your data back. Compression ratios allow for zero compression to a maximum ratios compression that, depending on file type, might be compressed anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent.

The system state backups include, but aren't limited to, COM + class registration database, registry, boot files, system files and performance counter. It's all dependent on your system. System files vary by OS and service packs. Usually there are several thousand of them. MS Windows makes a dynamic list of these DLLs when you include them in the backup. Including the system files allows you to recover from corrupted system files, or if you accidentally uninstall some service packs, or want to recover with a bare metal restore. It allows you to return to the state of the backup without having to reinstall the OS from the installation kit, and then installing each service pack separately.

Note: No user data file is included in system state backup. A system state backup job should be configured as a standalone job. There should be no other data source included in a system state backup job.

By default, the base client has state-of-the-art technology to handle most open files running on the OS. In rare cases, if backups fail because of open file limitation, there are secondary plug-ins you can purchase to get improved open files handling. Generally, you don’t need the open-file plug-in unless you see errors in your backups for open files, in which case you can order the plug-ins.

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