Jump to content

Retrospect, Inc. Assumes Development Of Retrospect® Backup And Recovery Software Products, Releases Retrospect 9 For Mac


Mayoff

Recommended Posts

New Release Improves Stability and Performance, Adds Support for Cloud Storage

 

PLEASANTON, Calif.—November 2, 2011—Retrospect, Inc., a privately‐held company recently founded by longtime Retrospect team members, announced today the immediate availability of its first independent product offering, Retrospect 9 for the Mac. With features like data deduplication, network backup of Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, and new support for cloud‐based storage, Retrospect 9 provides critical functionality for professionals and small businesses that need more than basic data protection.

 

“We’re ecstatic to take on the development and support of Retrospect, and we’re the right team to do it,” said Eric Ullman, co‐founder in charge of products for Retrospect, Inc. “Our teammates average 10 years of experience each with Retrospect products, either as developers or in customer‐facing roles, and the core members have been with the Retrospect product since the early nineties. We are united in our mission to provide powerful, flexible—and above all—reliable backup and recovery software to our customers and to stand behind it with the best customer support in the industry.”

 

One of the new features in Retrospect 9 for Mac is support for cloud‐based storage, which provides immediate offsite backups. Retrospect 9 can target any Internet‐ connected storage that has been configured to provide WebDAV (Web‐based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) access. Cloud storage providers like Egnyte (www.egnyte.com) and Internet hosting providers like Dreamhost (www.dreamhost.com) provide affordable WebDAV‐accessible storage that Retrospect can employ for offsite backups. By choosing WebDAV, which is standards‐based, cross‐platform, and easy to configure, Retrospect is courting consultants and managed service providers who want to provide offsite storage services for their clients.

 

“Retrospect is a channel product, and we intend to provide increased functionality for our consultant and MSP partners around which they can build additional services around,” said Matt Johnson, Retrospect, Inc. co‐founder in charge of sales, marketing, and support. “With Retrospect 9 for Mac, our partners can now generate additional business and revenue by easily targeting backups to private cloud storage that they co‐locate or manage for their customers.”

 

Other Improvements

 

Retrospect 9 for Mac also includes an all‐new network backup client for Intel‐based Macs. This new, 64‐bit client uses optional AES‐256 encryption when sending backup data to the Retrospect server, and it allows users to initiate on‐demand backups and restores from the desktop or the Retrospect Client preferences pane. End‐users can also be notified of starting and completed backup operations with integrated Growl notifications.

 

Rounding out this release is a host of improvements to performance, task workflows, user interface elements, and reliability. Specifically, Retrospect can now run twice as many simultaneous operations as the previous version; it uses less memory and fewer processor cycles at idle; tape library management has been improved; Retrospect’s configuration file is more resistant to corruption; and client backups and restores are faster. Retrospect 9 also offers a new view of past backups that show only those files that were copied during the backup, making it easy to see Retrospect’s data deduplication technology at work conserving backup storage space.

 

Pricing and Availability

 

Retrospect 9 is available immediately from Retrospect resellers or www.retrospect.com as an electronic download. Boxed product will be available from resellers at the end of November. Retrospect 9 is available in 11 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

 

Free upgrade period: Individuals and organizations that purchased a Retrospect 8 license on or after July 20, 2011 will receive email notification that they qualify for a free upgrade to Retrospect 9 for Mac. New product and paid upgrade prices from previous editions are listed below. (All prices are suggested retail prices in U.S. dollars.)

 

Retrospect 9 Multi Server Unlimited Clients with ASM $1,669 new, $939 upgrade

Protects an unlimited number of networked Mac, Linux, and Windows servers, desktops, and laptops; includes one year of support and maintenance.

 

Retrospect 9 Single Server Unlimited Clients with ASM $809 new, $539 upgrade

Protects a single Mac OS X Server and an unlimited number of networked Mac, Linux, and Windows desktops and laptops; includes one year of support and maintenance; additional server client licenses are available separately.

 

Retrospect 9 Single Server 20 Clients with ASM $609 new, $409 upgrade

Protects a single Mac OS X Server and an unlimited number of networked Mac, Linux, and Windows desktops and laptops; includes one year of support and maintenance; additional server client licenses are available separately.

 

Retrospect 9 Single Server 20 Clients $479 new, $279 upgrade

Protects a single Mac OS X Server and up to 20 networked Mac, Linux, and Windows desktops and laptops; additional server client licenses and support and maintenance are available separately.

 

Retrospect 9 Desktop 5-User $129 new, $59 upgrade

Protects a single, non‐server Mac and up to five additional networked Mac, Linux, or Windows desktops and laptops; additional desktop/laptop client licenses and support and maintenance are available separately.

 

 

About Retrospect, Inc.

 

Retrospect, Inc. develops backup and recovery software designed to meet the needs of professionals and small‐to‐midsize businesses in need of precise, reliable restores, and the very best customer support available.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Retrospect is a registered trademark of Retrospect, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their registered holders.

 

Company Contact

 

Kristin Goedert

Director of Marketing Communications

pr@retrospect.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Free upgrade period: Individuals and organizations that purchased a Retrospect 8 license on or after July 20, 2011 will receive email notification that they qualify for a free upgrade to Retrospect 9 for Mac. New product and paid upgrade prices from previous editions are listed below. (All prices are suggested retail prices in U.S. dollars.)

 

 

What about customers who are paid up on their software maintainance? Do we qualify for a free upgrade to Retrospect 9?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Retrospect, Inc. a company independent of Roxio?

 

Can't say that I'm pleased that ALL holders of 8.X licenses were not given a free upgrade but that's life.

 

Good luck,

ABG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All customers with current ASM Contracts qualify for free upgrades to Retrospect 9.

 

About Retrospect Inc:

Founded in 2011 by longtime Retrospect software team members, Retrospect, Inc. is dedicated to providing reliable backup and recovery tools for professionals and small-to-midsize businesses. Our employees average 10 years of experience each in developing, supporting, or marketing Retrospect. Our customers—who can be found in every industry and in more than 80 countries around the world—use Retrospect to protect anywhere from one to 1,000 computers on their networks. It is our strong belief that data protection software should be "backed up" with the best customer support available, which we strive to provide.

 

Being a company focused solely on providing the best backup tools and support for micro, small, and midsize businesses, our direction is crystal clear. As was the case with Dantz, the company that originally created Retrospect more than 20 years ago, backup is once again all we do.

 

Retrospect Inc is NOT part of Roxio or Rovi. Our websites will all soon transition to Retrospect.com domains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Steve Maser

On the new Retrospect.com website -- if you go Store --> Upgrade from the main page, you are taken to a Roxio web page that doesn't mention 9.0 at all.

 

(Same with the "Buy" page and the two "Authorized SMB" links...)

 

Somebody might want to fix that today...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes we are working as quick as possible to fix the upgrade wizard on the website. It should be done by the end of the day.

 

Some pages will redirect to Roxio.com for a while during our server migration. We will also get an all new forum with all content and accounts moved over in a few weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We do plan on sending out an email, if our records indicate you have a current contract. If you do not want to wait for the email though, you can contact tech support and we can process your upgrade before that time.

 

Robin

 

Sure except the DNS entries still send “retrospect.com” to roxio and they don’t list you any more.

 

A URL posted here might help don’t you think?

Edited by Gibsonm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see a Retrospect 9 forum yet.

 

Like many others here, I consider my Retrospect 8 experience to have been that I somehow had to pay for the privilege of being a beta tester. I intend to hold off any purchase until I see some forum feedback on Retrospect 9.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, well. This IS news- another corporate move, a new product upgrade, new pricing scheme at least at the low end (Retro Backup used to be 3 user, now 5 and single licenses were originally available additionally)- all at once. It doesn't answer the questions everyone concerned about Retro is asking here and elsewhere... Will Retro9 meet our/anyone's needs?

 

I take it this is an employee/founder 'buy-back'? Is buy-out a better term? So what, we waited 2.5 years for is a startup company AND a new product release???

 

Retro and Rovi/Roxio parting of the ways occurred, IMO, because the fit and the product development cycle proved not a fit after all? So one question that seems top-of-mind on the corporate move is, what's going to be wonderful about a single, essentially new product company in this economy? Is it a survivable enterprise with one product that takes this long to (re)develop and has such a steep price for a new untried version.

 

What would be a good length of time to see if the product actually takes hold? One-three months? Six Months? Can you guys keep the fires burning that long on this product? What about future products? Can the dev cycle support new products? I do not believe that your business plan can survive at the employee level (it's more than one, right?) you've got without additional products especially given that the typical M&A is to combine companies to whether that situation. Hence I predict that there is a M&A combining in your future and this move is but a temporary one. Good luck on it though.

 

As to the software, I'm with the others waiting out the software user's startup experiences reviews. I will keep my $59 upgrade warm for you though. And like others, the hardware costs still have to be studied and fully determined.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Retrospect 9 Desktop 5-User $129 new, $59 upgrade

Protects a single, non‐server Mac and up to five additional networked Mac, Linux, or Windows desktops and laptops; additional desktop/laptop client licenses and support and maintenance are available separately.

 

 

Uhhhh... The trial download is for a three user version. What exactly are we buying??? :angry2:

 

How can I try this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While the desktop trial is for 3 users, the desktop purchase includes 5 users. If you need to test more clients, please download the server edition trials.

 

Also keep in mind that Retrospect Inc is not a "startup" as you describe. Retrospect as a product has been in existence for 25 years or so and has a well established customer base. In addition, the employees for Retrospect Inc have been working on this product from between 5 and almost 25 years. I have 17+ years committed myself

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While the desktop trial is for 3 users, the desktop purchase includes 5 users. If you need to test more clients, please download the server edition trials.

 

Also keep in mind that Retrospect Inc is not a "startup" as you describe. Retrospect as a product has been in existence for 25 years or so and has a well established customer base. In addition, the employees for Retrospect Inc have been working on this product from between 5 and almost 25 years. I have 17+ years committed myself

 

Thanks, Robin. That wasn't meant as a slur to your (also others' ) long commitment to Retrospect, in it's multiple existences (is it six now?). Rather to point out the reincarnations of the company taken as a new single entity (rather than the historical product's existence). Arguably it's semantics, but economically at least, I think you'll agree we have to look upon the reemergence of Retrospect as a "new" organization with so far but a single product line. Maybe it's been registered as corp all this time, but the ownership and consolidation of it into various other companies has certainly been far less than stable over the last 25 years (more like 10 years of instability over Retro's existence). Right? You definitely get that many of the users have been right there with you much of the time, up to now.

 

Five users (4 network clients, plus the local machine) is definitely what I would need to test.

 

Henry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Steve Maser

The "Upgrade Wizard" on the Store --> Upgrade page -- does not seem to work.

 

I entered my 8.2 multi-server code and it said "no upgrade available".

 

Just FYI...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "Upgrade Wizard" on the Store --> Upgrade page -- does not seem to work.

 

I entered my 8.2 multi-server code and it said "no upgrade available".

 

Just FYI...

 

Steve, the upgrade link within Retro won't work, only the download procedure specified by Robin.

 

Only way I found that works is to go to the site link in Robin's post, fill out the contact card. Then you get the email, then you go to the download link for the product that you requested, then you download the product you requested. Then you drag over the app, which apparently reinstalls/updates the engine but doesn't install a Client. I chose to save off old catalogs and uninstall everything (noting that Retro8 catalogs were stored in a different place- the root startup drive- than in Retro9 or Retro 6) with the script. The uninstall script merely ditches the files in the OS, not the app folder in /Applications/, not the Retro Folder in /Library/Application Support/ or any other files.

 

BTW, if you have any old products installed (like Retro 8) and the old engine turned off- after your install, it turns on the engine again (which would be expected). Whatever old schedules there exist in Retro 8 will try to resume without necessarily showing the Catalogs or the Media.

 

Given the above, it may be better off to start fresh. Dunno. Retro 9 seems pretty compatible with Retro 8 in regard to the file structure and use. Is it as slow?

 

YMMV.

Edited by henry-in-florida
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • What runs:
  • Retro Engine, clean install- removed old Retro 8 install from the new installer/uninstaller.
  • Retro Application
  • Three Users/Clients which includes the Server machine, installed new Client into System Prefs, uninstalling old client software.

 

  • What doesn't run/work:
  • More than three Clients
  • Client On Demand Backup (and Restore???)
  • Downloading Multi-server (once Backup has been downloaded)
  • Premade script issues a command "Run" from the menu. Acts like it runs (icon animation plays actions), but no run. This is a problem that existed in Retro 8.

  • What's up with Retro features that don't work? Not working in the trial version:
  • Scripting Rules.
  • On Demand Backup (roundly touted as a feature).

 

In thirty-five minutes, that is it so far. Feel free to add to the list.

Edited by henry-in-florida
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I went ahead and lodged my ASW code just so I could see what I was getting since the client had already spent / wasted the money.

 

I haven’t installed yet but I did notice that the disk images files (different ones for various languages) are all dated last August!

 

So potentially we could have had / known about the product 2 months ago! :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the disk images files (different ones for various languages) are all dated last August!

 

Not sure what you're looking at. The disk image I downloaded (Retrospect-900319.dmg) has a creation date of October 31, 2011. And while the application folder inside was created on March 11 2009, it was modified on October 28 2011. Which all makes sense from a development standpoint.

 

Furthermore the Retrospect application package contains lproj folders for multiple languages (en, it, ja, ko, fr, es, pt, ru, zh), making the single install appropriate for all those languages. What did you download, and from where did you download it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Steve Maser

  • What runs:
  • Retro Engine, clean install- removed old Retro 8 install from the new installer/uninstaller.
  • Retro Application
  • Three Users/Clients which includes the Server machine, installed new Client into System Prefs, uninstalling old client software.

 

  • What doesn't run/work:

[*] More than three Clients

[*] Client On Demand Backup (and Restore???)

[*] Downloading Multi-server (once Backup has been downloaded)

[*] Premade script issues a command "Run" from the menu. Acts like it runs (icon animation plays actions), but no run. This is a problem that existed in Retro 8.

 

I'm using a trial code for the multi-server version with a version of my 8.2 config80.dat file (not a completely clean install...)

 

 

So, the "On Demand Backup" is not adequately described in the addendum.

 

It appears to only work if you do it in this order:

 

1) *First* specific the location for on-demand backup in the Console Preferences (and check the box). Maybe restart the engine at this point?

 

2) *Then* add your retrospect 9 clients. If you already have them added before you check the on-demand preference box -- it won't work.

 

It took me a while to figure this out as the "addendum" PDF does not explicitly state this.

 

 

The on-demand restore worked without issue when I added a client as well (this is with an upgraded client, though, not a clean-install client...) I could restore what I backed up on-demand (however, there seems to be an update/refresh bug on the "History" tab -- you need to switch to the "Status" tab after you initiate the on-demand restore to see the actual restore process in action (or watch the icon in the menu bar.)

 

 

I did not have a problem with highlighting a pre made script, then clicking "Run" -- this put an activity in place as expected (and it ran as expected)

 

And my rules work as expected...

 

FWIW

Edited by Steve Maser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...