One of the oldest and most enduring debates in the backup space has revolved around the use of installed agents to protect computers.
Some argue that installing software directly onto your computer is the best and most secure way to perform backups. But others argue that pulling data out of your computer through a remotely connected backup server is better and more secure.
For example:
- Supporters of backup agents believe that installed backup software is superior because it can access all of the system resources and provide more powerful functionality.
- Supporters of agentless backups love the fact that large numbers of computers can be conveniently backed up without having to install and configure a backup account onto each machine you want to protect.
There are a number of reasons why you could argue for either side, and we’ve laid out some of the most important opinions in a new video called “Backup Agents vs. Agentless Backups on IBM Power Systems”.</p>
The debate also has a long history, which we’ve also laid out in order to help give some historical context about how modern backups have evolved.
This video was based on Storagepipe’s January 2014 article in IBM Systems Magazine, where we discussed these — and other issues — in the context how they affect administrators of IBM Power Systems such as i, AIX, AS/400, iSeries, Linux and other related server platforms.
Although the content is somewhat specialized, most of the information in the video is applicable to all server backups regardless of operating system.
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