PCWorld’s Arcserve ShadowProtect SPX Review: Continuous Data Protection Doesn’t Get Any Better

PCWorld, the respected global computer magazine published monthly by IDG, says its mission is to “help you navigate the PC ecosystem to find the products you want and the advice you need to get the job done.” That’s why we are excited to share PCWorld’s review of Arcserve ShadowProtect SPX, titled “Highly effective continuous backup with virtual perks.”

The review’s subhead perfectly describes who can benefit from ShadowProtect SPX: “With broad support for virtual HDDs and machines, this continuous data protection / disaster recovery program is a good fit for small businesses and IT alike.”

Continuous Data Protection: Pros and Cons

The review lists four “Pros” for ShadowProtect SPX:

• Fast and reliable continuous data protection
• Super easy restores to real or virtual hard drives
• Handy timeline overview
• Excellent disaster recovery

To be fair, the review also listed three “Cons” for the product, which we won’t quibble with:

• Slightly daunting login dialog
• Image-based backup only
• Pricey for end users

The verdict? “ShadowProtect SPX’s image-based continuous data protection makes it easy to protect your system.”

ShadowProtect SPX Design Features

We appreciate that the review calls out that “ShadowProtect is heavily slanted toward quick and easy disaster recovery.” That’s why we built it. The review also describes how easy it is to use ShadowProtect SPX’s recovery capabilities, letting you restore individual files and folders from an SPX backup simply by clicking on the Mount Image icon in the UI pane below the point in time you want to recover. That creates a virtual hard drive mounted under Windows, where you can browse and copy files like any other Windows volume.

The review says you shouldn’t worry about future compatibility using ShadowProtect SPX because you can restore to a virtual hard drive (Microsoft VHD/VHDX or VMware VMDK). You can then browse from VirtualBox or VMware and restore directly to a virtual machine (VM). The review also points out that ShadowProtect is easy to set up a job in and has an attractive, simple interface.

Read the complete review here.

And take advantage of our 30-day free trial to see the benefits that ShadowProtect delivers on Microsoft Windows virtual and physical servers, desktops, and laptops, Linux virtual and physical servers, or both.