In Backup Exec 2010, you have the standard backup options: Full, Differential and Incremental. Out of the box, however, the incremental backup doesn't work very well because it doesn't track moved and deleted files. So, If were to perform a full backup of 1 TB data, rename 500 GB of data, perform an incremental backup, a restore would want to restore 1.5 TB of data. The solution was to spend an extra $580 on the "Advanced Disk Backup Option" in order to enable True Image Restore, which does allow Backup Exec 2010 to be intelligent enough to track renamed and deleted files during an incremental backup.
Many believed that True Image Restore should be part of the core product and hoped that would be done with the 2012 version. However, Symantec went the other direction with it. The "Advanced Disk Backup Option", "Central Admin Server Option" and "Shared Storage Option" have been rolled into the "Enterprise Server Option" instead.
The list price for Backup Exec 2012 with basic maintenance is 1115.40 and the Enterprise Server Option adds 3357.40. So, in order to get Backup Exec 2012 with a fully functioning incremental backup, it costs 4472.80. I have not found a competing product that charges extra for a functioning incremental backup. The competitors offer this function with a price closer to the base cost of Backup Exec.
This change with the ADBO is putting Backup Exec at a competitive disadvantage to prospective SMB customers that don't need the CASO or SSO options. Customers that purchase the base product without ESO essentially have only one choice for backups, a full backup, because restoring from incremental backups without True Image Restore can be quite a mess.
I hope Symantec will reconsider this decision and roll "True Image Restore" into the core product in the future to give all customers the benefit of a fully functioning incremental backup.
