Windows Best Server Backup Software?

We have a buncha servers running Windows Server 2008 R2. Apparently, MS's built-in software is sub-par, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for what we should use.

From what Google and multiple sites say, Acronis's software is superior to Paragon, but honestly I'm not sure where to begin with this.

 

What sort of backups do you need?
What are you backing up to?
Is this for file restore or DR scenarios?

 

both DR scenarios and file restore. we need incremental+differential backup. we're backing up to one big storage server with 4 x 2TB drives likely in raid 5 or something.

 

Server 2k8 R2's backup features aren't bad for free. It does full image backups & can be scripted to do file and folder backups.
Symantec Backup Exec is always good but isn't cheap.
Acronis works well but we do find it takes a bit of fiddling.

Personally we use a combination of managed Acronis for images & customised Ahsay for remote file storage.

What's your budget?

 

Okay cool!
$1,000ish is our ceiling I believe.

We're virtualizing Linux apparently, so that's something to note. (I don't know a whole lot about virtualization software/etc but this is what i've been told)

 

Are you using vmware or hyper-v to virtualize?

Veeam is good for backing up virtual environments

 

Hyper-V I think

 

We use ShadowProtect which is similar to acronis in that it does full images but it's cheaper

 

A very good choice.

The live backup to a DR site feature is a godsend.
You can't beat having 4TB of data backup & running in the event of a server failure in 15 mins

 

Backup Exec is pretty good