With BackupAssist v10.3, we added a new level of cloud support with the WebDAV destination. But what is WebDAV, exactly, and how does it benefit you?
WebDAV is a public or private cloud solution for your business. We currently offer both of these things in BackupAssist with Amazon AWS S3 and Microsoft Azure (Public Cloud), and rSync (Private Cloud).
One of the biggest differences is that WebDAV is incredibly flexible, and not just because it can be used as a public or private destination.
Benefits of Public Cloud Backup with WebDAV
With our latest version, you can use BackupAssist to back up to any cloud providers that supports WebDAV. That means you now have access to a lot of large and popular cloud providers, not just AWS S3 or Microsoft Azure.
All you have to do is get the backup location and password from your public cloud provider, then put these details into BackupAssist when creating your Cloud Backup job.
That means you can shop around even more for the best cloud provider for your business (and save money).
WebDAV is just as integrated into BackupAssist as our other destinations, so you still enjoy features like deduplication and integrated encryption, as you would for AWS and Azure.
Benefits of Private Cloud Backup with WebDAV
Until recently, we have only offered rSync as a private cloud option. However, WebDAV is a fully-featured new solution that supports deduplication, its own encryption, and requires no special client to be set up at the destination.
Because it doesn’t use time-consuming third-party encryption, WebDAV blows rSync out of the water when it comes to backup times. How much faster? It’s up to twenty times faster for your first-time backup.
To use WebDAV as a private cloud destination, all you need is a server or device that has the WebDAV protocol turned on. You can use a remote server or NAS device for this. Windows Server offers native support for WebDAV, but you’ll need to enable the built in IIS feature to enable it. Most NAS devices have the WebDAV option to switch on, and the same is true for Linux systems.
Using WebDAV with BackupAssist
Because not everyone wants to back up their data to the cloud – even though it’s best practice! – cloud backup is not part of BackupAssist’s core license, but rather part of our Cloud Backup add-on. You’ll need both the BackupAssist core license and Cloud Backup to backup to a WebDAV-supported destination.
You can also purchase the Cloud Backup Standalone license.
