Endpoint Backup FREE stays free, with new support options and new name, Veeam Agent for Windows and Veeam Agent for Linux

I've been using Veeam Endpoint Backup to protect physical laptops and desktops for my extended family since its release nearly 2 years ago, and recommend it to friends who are often former Windows Home Server fans. Yeah, VEB doesn't have central management, but it can email daily backup reports, backup to local drives, network shares/NASs, and/or B&R (Veeam Backup & Replication) repostories. It can also backup basic Windows Servers right up through Windows Server 2016.

When bringing one of my sons back to college just last week, you can bet his workstation and laptop are VEB-protected with daily backups, to help reduce the threat from the likes of Cryptolocker. I even do an automated local and remote daily backup thing over a private VPN, but I'll tell you all about that another day. See also my list of recent Veeam articles below.

Yesterday, Veeam had their NEXT BIG THING day, releasing a new set of videos and articles about their growing product line. When it comes to the slice of the hype that directly relates to Veeam Endpoint Backup users, what do you know, it's Veeam's Clint Wyckoff:

• Veeam Agents for Microsoft Windows and Linux Summary

  

That's the very same guy I had the opportunity to late night walk-and-talk with back at VMworld 2015. By chance, we had left Veeam's big party at the same time when I struck up the conversation with him, heading back to our hotels near Union Square together.

For the full analysis of what Veeam's big day yesterday could mean to your physical and virtual backup needs, check out these new articles:

• Lots of new stuff coming from Veeam
  Aug 23 2016 by Jim Jones at koolaid.info

  While Endpoint is and will still be available for standalone installations, we finally have an enterprise managed version we’ve been looking for and we truly can have one centrally managed Veeam installation for our virtual, physical and workstation backups

• Veeam releases paid for Agents #VeeamBigNews
  Aug 23 2016 by Nick Furnell at Talking-IT.com

  Key Points:

  • The Free version will always be available, and will always be Free.
  • Workstation – Support for Cloud Connect integration, local backup cache support ‘mobile workers’
  • Server – As Workstation plus Guest Files indexing, support for ‘local applications’ such as SQL

Note, these agents will require the new Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 that's coming up in October, see also Free NFR of Veeam Availability Suite v9 with Backup & Replication for VCPs, vExperts, and many other certified professionals..

ReFS

The 9.5 release will feature Advanced ReFS (Resilient File System) Integration. This ReFS will be a big deal. See also a new Microsoft TechnNet article just published today:

• What’s New In Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition Part 5 – Storage
  Aug 24 2016 by MVP Mark O'Shea at Microsoft TechNet

  

Aug 30 2016 Update

Based on new information, I've updated the title of this article.
Anton has done a great job clearing up a lot of information surrounding the VEB name and product plans in his weekly Veeam Community Forums Digest for tinkererguy [Aug 22 - Aug 28, 2016]:

Q: Is Veeam Agent for Windows a brand new offering?
A: No, Veeam Agent for Windows is the next version of Veeam Endpoint Backup. If not the name change, we would call it Veeam Endpoint Backup 2.0 – but we needed a more generic name to reflect its full server support available with the Server edition license.

Q: Does it mean that Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE is going away?
A: Two years ago, we said that endpoint backup must be simple and free – and we stand behind this statement! We will continue to provide free edition for Veeam Agent for Windows, and have no plans to discontinue this offering. There will be NO feature loss comparing to the current version of Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE 1.5 (if you see a feature loss during beta – it's a bug, so please report it). Moreover, this new version gets even more features: support for Windows Server 2016, much requested source-side encryption and optional periodic active fulls for better reliability of backups to a consumer-grade storage, and many enhancements as a part of core processing engine improvements. And through the integration with Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 (including Free Edition), in addition to the existing application item recovery options, you get instant recovery to Hyper-V VM, and restore directly to Azure. All of this is available with the free edition of Veeam Agent for Windows!

Q: Why are you introducing paid editions of the Veeam Agents?
A: The biggest feature of paid editions is 24.7.365 support (which also explains why we chose subscription-based pricing). Production support has been a popular demand from many customers who are not allowed to use free products with no support in their production environments, and we heard you! Additionally, paid editions bring a few additional features which focus on enterprise use cases (check out the corresponding breakout sessions linked above for details).

Q: Will there be any changes in Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 in regards to enhanced centralized agent management?
A: No. Since Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 will release much sooner than the Agents, integration level will remain as it is today for now.

Q: How can the Veeam Agents be centrally deployed, managed and monitored?
A: Centralized job monitoring (via Veeam Backup & Replication console) and reporting (via email notifications) is available for both free and licensed editions when backing up to a Veeam backup repository (just as today). Centralized deployment, configuration and management strategy depends on the deployment size:

• Under 10 agents: manual deployment and management is recommended.
• Above 10 agents: using remote configuration and management API available in licensed agents to automatically deploy and configure agents with logon scripts, Group Policy, SCCM, or whatever tool or method you have in place for software distribution is recommended.
• Hundreds of agents and multiple locations (hybrid cloud, remote offices, home offices, mobile users): Veeam Availability Console is recommended.
  Note that this is a short-term answer for the immediate future – we are looking at providing additional options down the road.

See also at TinkerTry

• All Veeam Endpoint related articles.

• Superguide: Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE

• Save backup storage using Veeam Backup & Replication BitLooker, a free way to reclaim wasted space in your VMs
  Jul 06 2016

• Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE works well with Windows Server 2016 (beta) already, here's how
  Jun 25 2016

• Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE 1.5 released with email notifications and enhanced protection from CryptoLocker
  Mar 17 2016

• Free NFR of Veeam Availability Suite v9 with Backup & Replication for VCPs, vExperts, and many other certified professionals
  Mar 13 2016

• Microsoft left the home backup server market, is Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE about to take over?
  Dec 05 2014

See also

• Restore from FAT, NTFS or ReFS
  Veeam Help Center

• VEEAM’S NEXT BIG THING – VEEAM HAS ARRIVED!
  Aug 23 2016 by Anthony Spiteri at Virtualization is Life!

• There's one weekly newsletter that any VMware or Hyper-V professional will enjoy, already has 35,218 subscribers

Disclosure: Veeam has been an advertiser on many virtualization sites for years now, and Veeam is currently running a BuySellAds-purchased advertisement along the top of TinkerTry as well. All TinkerTry advertisement goes through third party BuySellAds. None of my articles are sponsored posts, and note that there are currently no affiliate links for Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE, or any of their other products. TinkerTry.com, LLC is not a Veeam Pro Partner. There are no commissions for any Veeam products folks buy after reading one of my articles.

I reserve the right to freely write about topics that I choose, whenever I choose to, an essential part of what makes blogging about home virtualization labs, storage, and backup so much fun.