Acronis Puts Artificial Intelligence To Work With Its True Image 2018 Backup And Protection Suite

If I ever need a reminder of how fast life can move, I just need to remember how often a new version of Acronis’ True Image comes out. Yup, we’re at version 2018, and based on what I know so far, it looks like it’s a worthy upgrade.

Talk of artificial intelligence is at an all-time high, so it somehow didn’t even surprise me that Acronis has found a way to wrap the benefits of AI around its popular backup product. In True Image’s case, AI isn’t used for the backup feature of the software, but instead for its Active Protection component which defends data against ransomware attacks.

As you use your computer with Active Protection enabled, the software will continually monitor how data is being accessed, detecting trends, or noticing similarities with ransomware – malware which encrypts your data, either locking it away for good, or in exchange for your hard-earned money. No one wants to wind up the victim of a ransomware attack, so True Image will pop-up a notification at the detection of a potential risk, while keeping good copies of the files safely backed up.

Four paragraphs in, I guess I should talk about the new backup capabilities of True Image. One really cool feature is active disk cloning, which allows you to clone your active (as in Windows OS) disk over to another as you use it. That way, you can easily upgrade to a beefier drive, and then reboot after the clone is finished and load into the new drive.

One of my favorite parts of Acronis’ True Image is the rescue media builder, so I was pleased to see that this year, it’s been overhauled a bit, with emphasis given to WinPE media (for improved hardware detection). Options are given to create Windows or Linux-based bootable media, although both versions can handle ext file systems.

Also worth noting is the ability to convert a backup to a virtual hard drive, automatic mobile to NAS backups over Wi-Fi, performance improvements, improved granularity over the customization of your backups (which now include added stats), as well as Instragram backup support due next month.

Acronis sells its True Image suite as a $49.99 one-time purchase, with support ending after a year from the date of its release (not your purchase). To take advantage of any of the software’s cloud capabilities, you’ll need to opt for the subscription model, which starts out at $49.99/yr. This package includes 250GB of cloud backup space, while a $99.99/yr plan bumps that to 1TB, and also adds checksum support to the mix.

I have the latest version of True Image installed, and will report back with my overall thoughts in a couple of weeks.