Appliance endpoint licensing

At its most fundamental level, licensing for x360Recover revolves around the protected systems being backed up by an appliance at a client site. 

Each protected system present on an appliance is counted as an endpoint and needs to be assigned a license suitable for the operating system on the machine.

x360Recover distinguishes between server and desktop operating systems, with different billing rates for each.  

Windows Desktop operating systems -  (i.e. Windows 7/8/9/10/11 etc.) as well as macOS laptops and workstations  - are treated as desktop endpoints for purposes of licensing and require a desktop license to be assigned to the appliance.  

Windows Server operating systems -  (i.e. Any Windows version with ‘Server’ in the name, like Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2022, etc.) as well as all Linux operating systems -  are treated as server operating systems and require a server license to be assigned to the appliance.

Self-hosted endpoint licensing

Protected systems under endpoint licensing that are located solely on the appliance and/or on a self-hosted private vault are considered ‘Self-Hosted’ for licensing purposes.

Depending on contract and tiering levels, each partner has a billing rate for self-hosted servers and self-hosted desktops.

Appliance storage licensing 

Unlike endpoint licensing, with storage licensing the number of protected systems present on an appliance is not considered.

Rather, the total amount of storage used by backup data on the appliance is the limiting factor.

An unlimited number of protected systems may be backed up on an appliance licensed using storage licensing, but the total space of all backup data, including retention, must fit within the licensed storage amount on the appliance.

Storage licensing includes the right to replicate each protected system licensed on an appliance to an Axcient vault, with “unlimited” cloud storage, under the following terms:

• Each protected system located on the appliance may be replicated to an Axcient vault, without regards to total storage size in the Cloud
• Each protected system replicated to an Axcient Vvult will be assigned a fixed retention schedule policy that may not be edited or configured by the partner, depending on which class of storage license is assigned to the appliance.
  1. Storage Licenses with 3-Year retention adhere to the following retention schedule:
     • Retain All Snapshots for 7 days
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Day for 31 days
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Week for 9 weeks
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Month for 12 months
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Year for 3 years
  2. Storage Licenses with 10-Year Retention adhere to the following retention schedule:
     • Retain All Snapshots for 14 days
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Day for 62 days
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Week for 18 weeks
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Month for 36 months
     • After 7 days, Retain the last snapshot of the Year for 10 years

To be eligible for Cloud Storage on the Axcient vault, the protected system MUST remain present on the appliance with at least ONE full backup.  

Important: If you delete a protected system licensed via storage licensing from the appliance, the protected system replica on the Axcient vault is considered billable as a Cloud-only server or desktop instance.  You must delete the Cloud data from the Axcient vault when deleting the system from the appliance to remove it from billing.

Direct-to-Cloud licensing

Direct-to-Cloud endpoints are stored solely on a vault, and the vault acts as the backup server for the protected system.  

Direct-to-Cloud endpoints on an Axcient-hosted cloud vault are essentially ‘Bundled’ licenses, since their backup service and storage are located on an Axcient hosted vault. (See ‘Bundling’ below.)

Direct-to-Cloud endpoints on a self-hosted private cloud vault are essentially ‘Self-hosted’ licenses, since their backup service and storage are located on a self-hosted private cloud vault.  

Depending on contract and tiering levels, each partner has a billing rate for self-hosted and Axcient-hosted Direct-to-Cloud servers and desktops.

Axcient-hosted vaults

Maintaining your own Datacenter and Cloud vault infrastructure is complex and costly, and most partners prefer to use Axcient hosted vaults rather than creating their own.   All partners have the option to use an Axcient vault for their off-site replication data.

Endpoint licensing with Axcient-hosted vaults 

When you enable replication from an appliance in Endpoint licensing mode to an Axcient vault, the protected system is then considered a ‘Bundled” license.  This means that the Self-hosted Endpoint license is now “Bundled” with an Axcient Cloud-storage License.

Depending on contract and tiering levels, each partner has a billing rate for bundled servers and self-hosted desktops.

Endpoint licensing with self-hosted private vaults

Unlike with Axcient-hosted vaults, there is no additional license fee for replicating protected system data to your own self-hosted private cloud vaults.  Protected systems on an appliance in endpoint licensing mode are still considered ‘Self-hosted” for licensing and billing purposes when replicating only to a private cloud vault.

Storage licensing with self-hosted private vaults

Storage licensing includes bundled storage on an Axcient vault.  Replicating a protected system from an appliance licensed in storage licensing mode solely to a private cloud vault does not modify the storage license cost.

Retention settings for protected systems licensed in storage licensing mode that are replicated to a self-hosted private vault are not fixed and may be modified to any desired value on your self-hosted vault.

Parking a system

Create a Backup Schedule on the appliance or vault that is set to ‘Disabled’ by unchecking the ‘Enabled’ checkbox in the schedule details.  (It can be Classic or Policy-based, either one, so long as the schedule is not enabled.)  A good practice is to create a schedule named ‘Disabled’ for this purpose.

Assigning a protected system to a Disabled backup schedule will trigger Recover Manager to place the system into a Parked status. This interim solution is available now.

Once ‘Parking” is officially implemented within the UI, partners will be able to manage Parked state directly from the protected system Details page on the appliance or vault. Parked protected systems will be prevented from receiving backups, and will be blocked from retention cleanup.  (All protected system data will be frozen as-is for historical preservation.) This official solution will be implemented later in 2024.

Licensing and billing of parked systems

Self-hosted protected systems in a Parked state are not billable, and will be excluded from billing.   This includes Endpoints that are present only on an appliance and/or self-hosted Private Cloud vaults, including self-hosted Direct to Cloud protected systems.

Parked protected systems that have data on an Axcient hosted vault will remain billable as a Cloud-only Server or Desktop instance.

• Parked “Bundled” appliance-based Endpoints with a replica present on an Axcient hosted vault will be billed as a Cloud-only Server or Desktop
• Parked Direct to Cloud Endpoints on an Axcient hosted vault will be billed as a Cloud-only Server or Desktop

Important: Licenses must still be assigned for parked endpoints on an appliance. You cannot reduce the number of licenses assigned to an appliance to fewer than the number of devices actually present on the appliance. parked endpoints will be excluded from billing despite the assigned license count.