Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We sat down for a chat with Leandra Lombard, our Office Administrator who has been with the company since August 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

So I had to go and hunt down your actual job title for this piece because internally we just affectionally refer to your title as Mama Bear. What does your role entail?​

Yes, I am known as the office Mama Bear. I look after everyone, so sort of office manager meets people manager.

It's a mixture of paying the bills, doing payroll, taking care of the office, making sure there are snacks and supplies, spear heading wellness initiatives, checking in with people and seeing how they're doing, general admin tasks, and event planning.

Twice a year we have a week-long event called CometCon. We get all our remote team members into the Christchurch office for team building events, educational talks, and time to socialize. I ensure everything runs smoothly for those events, from flights and accommodation to making sure there are delicious meals, to booking fun, team-building activities.

What attracted you to work at Comet?​

During my first phone interview with Josh, our General Manager, he was so real and down to earth. There was no pretence, and I loved that. When I had my second interview, as soon as I walked into the office, I knew I wanted to be here.

The leadership team really look at people, not just their job titles or skills on paper, but who you are as a person and if there is a strong cultural fit. I love that about Comet.

How would you describe the team culture?​

I've worked in many different capacities in different companies and industries, but I have not encountered a culture like Comet before. Everyone is so welcoming and accepting. You can really be yourself and feel like you belong. We like to have fun, work hard, and take care of each other.

What's your favorite thing about Comet?​

The biggest thing is the people. Absolutely. Everyone is so genuine and accepting. They talk about companies being like families but for a lot of companies, it's all talk, no show. Comet really does feel like a little family. In the best way. Without any crazy aunts.

Why is wellness so important to you and for the company?​

It’s important to me because I’ve seen what a difference it makes when people get the right nutrition, proper rest, and some sunshine. It impacts not only physical, but mental health as well.  For some people, it can be life changing. By emphasizing wellness and giving the team weekly tips and reminders, I feel like I can make a difference in people’s lives and wellbeing.

What are some of the health and wellness initiatives at Comet?​

One initiative we have implemented at Comet is that the company pays for our employees to have health insurance through Southern Cross. Included in that is an add-on Keeping Well module designed to encourage people to eat well, move more, and take care of themselves.

Every week we have free fresh fruit in the office. We also have an entire Slack channel dedicated to Wellness to share information such as YouTube videos, resources, healthy recipes, and to discuss different wellness topics and ideas. At the Friday all-hands meetings, I’ll go over one of those tips each week.

Do you have any favorite wellness resources?​

When it comes to sharing healthy recipes, I am a huge fan of Nadia Lim, a chef from New Zealand. She does healthy in a holistic, delicious way which makes it more fun.

I’d also recommend the Mindset Mentor podcast by Rob Dial. It’s all about mindset, growth, mental health, and wellness. It gives me reminders to keep checking in on myself and be kind to others and myself.

What are some of your interests or hobbies outside of work?​

Working part time hours at Comet affords me the time to volunteer on Tuesdays as a stylist for Dress for Success. It’s an incredible organization of women helping other women thrive by achieving economic independence through professional development tools and programs.

What do you like about living in Christchurch?​

I am originally from South Africa. What I love about living in Christchurch is the freedom and the safety I feel here.

Having been through the earthquakes and seeing how Christchurch pulled together to help each other, how neighbours were looking after each other, and people were taking strangers into their homes, seeing the sense of community and how strong it is here is something I truly value.

We know everyone at Comet loves food. Do you have a favorite recipe you like to cook?​

  I love making a slow cooker chili. It has about 10 different kinds of vegetables, legumes, and a little bit of meat. It is delicious, freezes well for meal prep, and you can just heat it up and put some avocado and tomato on top for a quick, healthy and delicious meal.

Do you have any top wellness tips?​

Eat the fruits and vegetables. Prioritize sleep. Get some sunshine. Go for a walk. Take your breaks…all the things we know we should do but sometimes forget or deprioritize.

Remember, we are all doing the best we can, some days are going to be amazing, and some days won't. Allow yourself to be okay with that and give yourself a break sometimes.

Hello,

Today we are announcing new pricing plans. Comet has always been a flexible platform, and we want to make it easier for you to build out the backup environment that’s best for your business.

The Comet community is at the heart of everything we do. We’re committed to our mission of helping MSPs provide great backup services. We recognize that different partners have different needs. With that in mind, we have designed plans that fit various use cases and allow businesses to scale and grow.

We’re introducing five different tiers, with options to suit a variety of deployments. Plans are based on configuration and usage of management consoles, devices, and boosters. Only pay for what you use, with no hidden fees.

What this means for you?​

• You can choose your pricing plan in the billing section of the account dashboard here.
• If you need help selecting a plan, feel free to reach out to our team and we’d be happy to discuss your specific business requirements.
• If you want to migrate from Self-Hosted to Comet-Hosted, you can use our new migration tool with these step-by-step instructions. Or you can raise a support ticket for assistance with the process.

Our team is here to help if you have questions or need assistance selecting the best plan for your business. Get in touch with us at partners@cometbackup.com.

Thanks for being on this journey with us.

Thank you,
Josh

Josh Flores
General Manager
Comet Backup

FAQs:​

What are the differences between the pricing plans?​

The pricing plans are based on configuration and usage of management console licenses, devices, and boosters. These plans are designed to be flexible for different use cases and backup environments. You can read about the plans in more detail and compare them here.

I’m a Comet-Hosted customer, how does this change affect me?​

Our Professional plan is designed for most Comet-Hosted customers. On this plan there are no changes to your monthly costs or features.

If you use both Comet-Hosted and Self-Hosted, the Advanced plan is best suited to your needs. Check out this detailed comparison chart to learn more.

I’m a Self-Hosted customer, how does this change affect me?​

Our Starter, Growth and Advanced plans are all designed for Self-Hosted customers. Check out this detailed comparison chart to learn more.

Can I change my plan later?​

Yes, you can upgrade your plan in the billing section of your account at any time. If you want to downgrade your plan, please contact our team partners@cometbackup.com for assistance.

Can I migrate from Self-Hosted to Comet-Hosted?​

Yes, the migration tool is ready. The migration process will likely take about 10-20 minutes, with little to no interruption to your customers and services. You can either run the migration yourself with these step-by-step instructions. Or you can raise a support ticket for assistance with the process.

Do note that using a Comet-Hosted Server will incur a $49 monthly fee, and there are some differences in feature between a Comet-Hosted and Self-Hosted Server. Please check out the features parity in our product page.

What happens if I don’t select a plan?​

If you haven’t selected a plan, one of our account managers will review your account and move you onto the plan that best aligns with your usage. If you’d like to change your plan after that, you can upgrade your plan in the billing section of your account at any time. If you want to downgrade your plan, please contact our team partners@cometbackup.com for assistance.

What is the difference between Comet-Hosted (cloud-hosted) and Self-Hosted?​

Comet-Hosted is automatically configured and is cloud-hosted, with no system requirements, and has fully managed quarterly updates, so it is easy to maintain.

Self-Hosted is our more customizable option. It can be hosted anywhere including on-prem or in the cloud, which makes it more flexible in complying with regulatory requirements.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

It’s that time of year again, the leaves are changing color, pumpkin spice lattes are back on the menu, and Halloween is approaching. October is also Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an international initiative that educates people about online safety and empowers individuals and businesses to protect their data from cybercrime.

History of Cybersecurity Awareness Month​

Cybersecurity Awareness Month was launched by the National Cybersecurity Alliance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October 2004 as a dedicated month to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. October 2024 marks the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

How MSPs and IT Providers Can Observe Cybersecurity Awareness Month​

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great opportunity for MSPs and IT Providers to remind end users and clients about how they can stay safe online. It’s also a great time to audit and review your clients’ security situations and educate them on the importance of cybersecurity and a strong backup solution.

Secure Our World​

The enduring theme for Cybersecurity Awareness Month is Secure Our World. This theme recognizes the importance of taking daily action to reduce risks when online and connected to devices. Below are the simple actions we should all take not only during October, but every day throughout the year to stay safe online.

Four Easy Ways to Stay Safe Online​

Here are some simple tips to remind end users and clients how they can protect themselves and their data online.

• Use Strong and Unique Passwords – A strong password should be long, random, unique, and include all four character types, including uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols. Password managers are a powerful and useful tool to help you create and maintain strong passwords for reach of your accounts.

• Turn on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – MFA refers to the separate methods of verifying one’s identity in order to access an account. This may include logging into an account with a password and then re-confirming with an authentication code. Enabling MFA offers an extra layer of protection.

• Recognize & Report Phishing Scams – Learn how to stay alert for phishing attacks, which refer to the attempt to trick people into sharing valuable data or visiting malware-infected websites.

• Keep Your Software Updated – Updating your software regularly ensures that you have the latest security patches, bug fixes, and updates on your devices and apps. Having outdated software may be a vulnerability that a cyber-criminal could exploit.

Bonus Tip: Have a Solid Backup Solution​

One critical aspect of cybersecurity that MSPs should highlight is the importance of having a reliable backup solution. While cybersecurity efforts focus on preventing breaches, attacks such as ransomware or phishing incidents can still happen, and when they do, a strong backup system can be a lifesaver.

MSPs should use Cybersecurity Awareness Month to remind clients that a proactive cybersecurity plan must include both defensive measures and a strong data backup strategy. By having secure and frequent backups, organizations can mitigate the worst effects of an attack and bounce back faster, saving time and money.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We sat down for a chat with Darwin Dingel, one of our Developer Team Leaders who has been with the company since March 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What are some of your interests and hobbies?​

I enjoy playing lots of basketball. I have two kids, my son is nine and my daughter is five. Sometimes I play video games with the kids.

With the family, during summer we try to get out and go camping. We’re just starting to do some easy overnight hikes all together.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background?​

I'm originally from the Philippines. After a couple of years of working, I moved to Malaysia for half a year, then I moved to Singapore for five years. After that my wife got a software testing job in New Zealand and we moved here. We’ve been in Christchurch for 11 years now.

You came to Comet with a lot of experience. What’s it like to change industries?​

Prior to Comet, I worked on embedded systems – so mostly programming on chips, a more hardware-based application. I was in that field for about a decade and I was looking to do something different.

Sometimes it’s hard to make that change if you’ve been in one situation for a long time; people might think you are only an expert in that one area. Before I left my previous role, I was already studying other programming languages to be able to shift to another product.

What attracted you to work at Comet?​

You can feel how human the company is. Sometimes when you're in a company, you know that you turn out work, but you don’t see the impact of that work. At Comet, there is the feeling that customers are not just an account number, they are actual people and businesses that we are trying to help. So, that's really refreshing for me.

What do you love about working at Comet?​

I moved from a product where you can’t really see your work – you just see a device there with blinking lights. But with Comet, you can see the differences you’re making with the software and how that’s helping the IT professionals we work with.

I love how we prioritize the customer experience. It’s not, “How are we going to get more money out of this somewhere?” It’s more about, “How do we help the customers get the most out of our product” and actually helping people.

How would you describe the team culture at Comet?​

It's really people centric, which is very refreshing. The people at Comet are really nice. When I first started, I was nervous because I was shifting to a new field. During your first week at Comet, you have pre-scheduled “get-to-know-you” catch-ups with lots of team members. Those informal chats were really nice and immediately helped put me at ease.

How would you describe the work-life balance?​

As a father, I have to be a bit flexible because the kids’ schedules sometimes change. Comet is great about that. We’re allowed a lot of flexibility to prioritize family.

I also enjoy the mix of working two days a week remotely and a few days where you meet people in the office; it’s a good balance.

Can you tell us about how you became a Dev Team Lead?​

I first started at Comet as a developer. I led the VMware project last year. Then an opportunity came up, Comet was growing and work was going to begin being divided between two dev teams. I was promoted to lead one of those teams.

How is work divided between the two dev teams?​

Both teams work cross-functionally across the entire product. Some developers do have in-depth expertise in certain areas, but the goal is to cross-train the teams so we’re never overly reliant on a single person for one area.

Our developers work on multiple parts of the product, and because you get exposed to more parts of the system, you learn a lot really quickly.

What does your day-to-day usually look like?​

As a Team Lead, I facilitate the Astro Dev team’s daily stand up meetings and one-on-ones with each of those developers. Each morning I look through our team’s project management board for progress updates, checking in on tasks that need attention and helping to unblock work. Then I run through any support tickets that have been escalated for dev work. After that I jump into my own development tasks.

What's your favorite part of being a team leader?​

It’s exciting to be more across all areas and getting to know how things work. As a developer, you get assigned tasks and focus on that area until you’re finished with a project. As a Team Lead, I enjoy being exposed to other parts of code that I wouldn’t otherwise be asked to look at. I like having a high level understanding of what’s happening across the product, it’s really interesting.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a developer ?​

Just get started, and keep learning. There are so many resources on the internet now, you can start learning anything you want on YouTube. Then there are open source tools, including many of the tools being used by developers in corporate, so you can get started really quickly.

You will fail at times, and the good thing about it is that you can start again, just keep going and keep learning.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

History of National IT Professionals Day​

National IT Professionals Day, or IT Pro Day, is celebrated annually on the third Tuesday in September and recognizes the technical experts and the critical role IT plays in our modern world. National IT Professionals Day was originally created in 2015 by SolarWinds, an IT management software provider. This year IT Pro Day falls on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.

What are IT Professionals and what do they do?​

IT Professionals are the technical experts who make sure our networks and systems run smoothly and play a crucial role in managing and securing technology environments within businesses and organizations.

Whether it’s desktops, laptops, mobile devices, servers, networks, databases, applications, or cybersecurity, IT professionals keep our organizations going.

These are some common roles within the IT industry:

• Systems Administrator
• Network Engineer
• Help Desk Technician
• Systems Analyst
• Database Administrator
• Information Security Manager
• Software Developer
• DevOps Engineer

How to observe and celebrate #ITProDay​

Here are some ideas on how to celebrate and acknowledge the everyday IT heroes in your life:

• Remember your password and use the password manager
• Submit a support ticket instead of sending a DM or emailing IT directly
• Restart your computer and make sure the software is up to date before asking IT for help
• Complete the cybersecurity trainings and do not click on phishing emails
• Do your best to avoid spilling coffee on your laptop or keyboard

In all seriousness, we appreciate all the hard work that talented IT professionals do every single day. IT professionals and technical experts are essential to the success of every part of an organization, no matter how big or small.

To celebrate IT Pro Day, you can also give a shout out to your favorite IT person, buy them a coffee (or a snack), and thank them for keeping our systems operating and running 24/7.

Thanks to all the IT professionals out there!​

Written by Callum Sinclair - Product Engineering Manager.

This article covers what's new in our latest Quarterly release series from June 2024 to August 2024. Read the release notes here.

Comet 24.8.0 Tethys​

We're very pleased to announce our latest Quarterly release series - Comet 24.8 Tethys. This is the the latest entry in our quarterly rollup series, that branches off from our main rolling Voyager development into a fixed target for you to qualify and build your service offering upon.

Tethys is a moon of Saturn and is named after the Titan from Greek mythology. The best photos and scientific data about Tethys come from the 2015 visit by the Cassini spacecraft, named after Giovanni Cassini who discovered Tethys in the 1680s. Tethys was thought to be the closest moon to Saturn for 100 years, until Mimas and Enceladus were discovered in the 1780s, pushing Tethys out to third place. Tethys' orbit is still close enough to Saturn that it passes right through Saturn's magnetosphere. On Earth this would make for a dazzling aurora, but Saturn's auroras are only visible in UV light.

Tethys is a lot smaller than our own moon, at only 1% of the mass, and it seems to be almost entirely made of water ice. The nearby moon Enceladus has geysers that spray ice out into space, and this tends to create a thin ring around Saturn of ice particles. Tethys orbits right through this area and is sandblasted by these ice particles, making Tethys extremely shiny and and reflective.

As for the software, Comet 24.8.0 Tethys brings 7 new features and 25 enhancements, including support for advanced Windows metadata; granular restore from Linux filesystems; additional retry features; the ability to bulk convert from Storage Role to direct-to-cloud storage; and much more.

The full set of changes can be found in the release notes.

Webinar announcement​

If you'd prefer to watch rather than read, we're hosting a webinar to discuss this new quarterly release and all the new changes. Please register before we go live on Tuesday 10 September (4pm EDT / 1pm PDT) to catch up on all the latest Comet news with Comet's CTO, Mason and Product Engineering Manager, Callum. As usual, there will be time for a live question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation.

As well as that, we have many more videos available on our website, including guides on getting started with Comet, individual features, demonstrations with our technology partners, and webinars for previous quarterly software releases.

Configurable Retries For Failed Backup Jobs​

When a backup fails, it can lead to manual interventions or escalations to your technical team. Both of these are time consuming and frustrating when they occur. To prevent this, Comet retries 1000s of times during a backup to make sure it succeeds. Comet does this by retrying S3 APIs to make sure uploads and downloads succeed, as well as retrying any network errors that we determine as retryable.

Even though Comet has 1000s of retries within a backup, errors that can cause a backup to fail are inevitable. This can be from many various and often external factors such as service disruptions or hardware failures. When a backup fails due to these errors, often restarting the backup will succeed.

Our new Configurable Retries feature allows you to configure how many times a backup should attempt to retry when an error occurs, and how long it should wait to retry the job again. When this feature is configured, Comet will not mark a backup job as failed if it going to retry again later. Instead it will be marked as "Running (retry)" so you are able to see that Comet is still trying to get a successful backup.

It is important to note, that when Comet retries a job using this feature it needs to rescan all of the data in the Protected Item again. This is because it starts the job again from scratch. This does not mean all of your data will be uploaded again as Comet makes use of client-side deduplication and compression. This means that only the changes that weren't uploaded in previous attempts will be uploaded to the Storage Vault.

You can configure the new retry feature in two different ways. The first is by policy. You are able to configure per policy how long Comet should wait after a bacukup job fails, as well as how many times Comet will retry a failing backup job before it reports the error status. When a user has this policy applied, all Protected Items configured for this user will have the new retry feature applied.

You can also configure this feature per Protected Item. This provides you with a lot of flexibility as you can select Protected Items you would like to retry, rather than applying it to all Protected Items configured for a user.

To do this, you will see a new option on the Protected Item Schedule

Overall, this is a great new addition to Comet as it allows our MSPs to have Protected Items dynamically retry when an error occurs. This will help reduce the number of escalations to technical teams for intermittent issues.

Restore Windows Disk Image Backups From Linux​

In Comet 24.8 Tethys, Comet users will be able to restore Windows Disk Image backups directly from a Linux device. This makes cross-platform data recovery a lot easier as you no longer need a Windows device to restore Windows Disk Image backups.

To restore Windows Disk Image backups from Linux, you can use the Comet Backup desktop app or the Comet Server web interface. Because the Disk Image backup will have been performed by another device, you will need to login to the Linux device using the same username and password as the Windows device. This will allow you to restore Protected Items from other devices. The examples below are from the Comet Backup desktop app running on Ubuntu.

Once you have selected the Windows Disk Image Protected Item you would like to restore from you have four different methods to recover the files. These are restore to physical device(s), restore as virtual disk files, granular restore and restore as VMware virtual disks.

Restoring to physical device(s) allows you to write the data directly to a physical or virtual drive that is connected to the Linux device. You can then use the drive to boot the restored Windows device.

Restoring as virtual disk files allows you to create a VMDK file that contains all of the restored data. You can then load the VMDK into your preferred hypervisor such as VMware ESXi to boot the restored Windows device.

Granular restore allows you to recover a selection of Files and Folders without having to restore or boot the whole disk. This is great if you just need to grab a couple of important files quickly without having to restore the entire Windows device.

Restoring as a VMware virtual disk is similar to our virtual disk restore mode, except it converts the VMDK into a format that is bootable by VMware without any other steps required.

Each of these options provide you with flexibility to recover data from our Windows Disk Image Protected Item, whether it's the entire device, or just a couple of urgent files you need to grab.

Linux Based USB Recovery Media For Windows Disk Image Backups​

We are excited to introduce a new Linux based recovery media to restore Windows Disk Image Protected Items. Prior to Comet 24.8 Tethys, creating USB recovery media relied heavily relied on Windows to create a small ISO with Comet pre-installed to restore Disk Image backups.

The Windows based recovery environments relied on WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) or Windows To Go to be installed on the device creating the recovery media. This meant for distributions of Windows where WinRE or Windows To Go is not available, it is not possible to create USB recovery media for Comet.

In Comet 24.8 Tethys, you will now be able to create a Linux based recovery environment. The process uses Docker to create a Debian based ISO with Comet pre-installed. This works well with our new Windows Disk Image backup restore capabilities from Linux announced above.

To create a Linux based recovery image, click "Create Recovery Media" on the Comet Backup desktop app. If the device also has Docker installed, you will see the new Linux ISO option becomes available.

Once the recovery image has been created, simply image it to a USB device. You will then be able to select it as a bootable device.

Once the recovery media has booted on the device, you will automatically be logged in and shown the pre-installed Comet Backup desktop app.

Automatic Storage Vault Locking Cleanup​

Sharing a Storage Vault is a fantastic way to reduce storage costs as Comet is able to deduplicate data across all devices that share a vault. This means, we only need to store one copy of the same file that exists on all devices. To ensure data is safe at all times, Comet uses Storage Vault locking to ensure one device doesn't remove essential data that another device was using.

If a PC shuts down unexpectedly such as if a laptop runs out of battery, Comet may leave a Storage Vault locked. This prevents other Comet devices that share the same vault from working, as when a Storage Vault is locked it means a device is running a data sensitive operation. One such operation is a retention pass.

Comet attempts to clean up Storage Vault locks, but this only happens when a new backup job runs. To improve how frequent backup jobs fail due to Storage Vaults being locked, Comet will now automatically remove vault locks when a devices wakes from sleep or when it boots.

This is a great improvement for our customers who have multiple devices sharing the same Storage Vault.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We sat down for a chat with Ben Frengley, one of our software developers who has been with the company for three years since September 2021. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Where did your passion for tech start?​

It probably started with my parents – they both did computing training for agricultural farmers and forestry. Growing up we always had a bunch of computers around. When I was a kid, I was set up playing Pokémon Blue on an emulator on Windows 95.

My earliest memory of programming is my dad teaching my sister and me to write Blackjack in Visual Basic for Applications and Excel. I was maybe ten or so.

What attracted you to work at Comet?​

The actual interview process was fun. During my interview with Mason, our CTO, we spent 90 minutes talking about writing compilers and emulators. We had an immediate rapport. I could see the clear passion Mason has for technology and programming. I really enjoyed our conversation and could tell Comet would be a good place to work.

How would you describe the team culture?​

Comet is a very people-first company and very human. It's a workplace where it's more about the people than the product. The team members at Comet are clearly interested in and passionate about technology.

The team culture is very collaborative, in terms of how we approach problem solving and goal setting, we work together on addressing how to achieve things and everyone, at every level, can get involved.

Everyone’s contributions and ideas are welcome, from team leads to junior developers. You feel like you can immediately get involved in the discussions, which I think can be intimidating in other workplaces.

What does your day-to-day look like?​

I work on a lot of different things at once. I’m often the person who looks into obscure software bugs customers encounter. I also enjoy proactively combing through the code to identify issues and fixing them up. So it's pretty varied each day.

You were a mentor to Jackson, one of the junior developers. What did you enjoy about being a mentor?​

It was very rewarding because when Jackson came in, he was at the beginning of his career. He was still finishing his university degree while he was started working here in the junior developer / support role, so he was quite fresh.

It really gave me an opportunity to help shape someone's thinking about software and development and how to approach problem solving. Everybody at Comet is incredibly lovely, so he was just very fun to teach as well.

Being a mentor taught me a lot about communication and understanding how other people approach problems because people think in very different ways. It’s beneficial to see how the other person approaches things.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a developer?​

Always ask questions and ask why. My number one tip for working out what’s going wrong is to read the error messages – read the thing that tells you what’s going wrong. It sounds obvious, but it's a real skill that takes practice.

You learn when something goes wrong you have to learn how to connect the dots and oftentimes there are very obvious hints on where to look, you just have to pay attention and learn to filter out what's relevant and how it relates to the internal state of your program when it went wrong.

Thoroughly reading your error messages and your stack traces and all of the information that you get given when something goes wrong is the first thing that you should do. It's easy to fall into the trap of jumping straight back into your code to find the why without first understanding the what and where.

What keeps you passionate and moving forward in the field?​

I like problem solving – it is very logical but also creative. I really enjoy digging and understanding why something is the way it is and I think that's why I end up on a lot of bug investigations.

There's a lot of satisfaction in learning how something works and then putting all the little pieces together to figure out why it's not working exactly how it should. I think that's just a fascination from my entire life that applies extremely easily to software development.

What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?​

I like rock climbing, bouldering, hiking, reading, and playing games. I got a 3D printer recently, which is fun. I also like growing lots of plants; I have chilli plants and a collection of maybe 30 succulents and some orchids.

We know everyone at Comet loves food. Do you have any favorite recipes?​

I've always been into baking. My mother loves cooking, that's where I get that from. When I was a kid we would always have fresh bread out of the bread maker. Then I got a bread maker for my 21st birthday and I still make bread.

These are some cookie recipes that I’ve been using recently: The Ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie video from YouTube and this Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Written by Callum Sinclair - Product Engineering Manager.

"What's New?" is a series of blog posts covering recent changes to Comet in more detail. This article covers the latest changes in Comet Voyager over July 2024.

There were six Comet releases during July - four in the Voyager release series, plus two updates for our Enceladus release series.

We've landed a few large and exciting features:

Back Up and Restore Advanced NTFS Features​

The NTFS filesystem on Windows supports many advanced features. One feature is its advanced permission and ACL support, allowing control over which Windows user accounts have access to read or access certain files. Another special NTFS feature is Alternate Data Streams (ADS), which allow the file's main content to be accompanied by entirely different data streams.

In Comet version 24.6.2 or later, we have added a new option "Back up extra system permissions and attributes" to configure for File & Folder Protected Items.

When the new option is selected, Comet will back up the following additional NTFS data:

• Attributes (system, hidden, integrity)
• Alternate Data Streams (ADS)
• Extended Attributes (EA)
• Full Windows permissions (SACL / DACL)

The extra permissions and attributes are preserved for files and directories. When the file or directory is restored from a Windows device, the permissions and attributes will be re-applied. If the restore takes place on a non-Windows device, the extra information will not be available.

Protecting Alternate Data Streams on Windows devices is vital for maintaining data integrity, application functionality and security. You can now easily include these important attributes in your backups, ensuring a robust and secure backup strategy.

Granular Restore for FAT32, EXT4, and XFS filesystems​

Granular Restore enables the recovery of individual files and folders from within a virtual disk image, without having to restore the entire disk.

As part of Comet 24.6.3, we have improved our Granular Restore feature to work with FAT32, EXT4, and XFS filesystems. For partners protecting Linux based Virtual Machines using our Hyper-V or VMware Protected Items, you will be able to recover individual files and folders without needing to restore the entire VM. To make use of this feature, all you need to do is upgrade to Comet version 24.6.3 or later.

This means you are able to recover data faster, reducing downtime and enhancing productivity.

Improved retries for S3 Storage Vaults Downloads​

Networking related errors are an inevitable part of downloading data from a S3 Storage Vault. Previously, when downloading data from an S3 Storage Vault, Comet would attempt up to 10 retries to successfully download the data. However, each time an error occurs, the process has to start over from the beginning. This is particularly problematic for Comet's index files, which can become quite large.

If Comet is unable to successfully download the index files, it is unable to start the back up job. This is because the index files are a critical part of how Comet backs up data to Storage Vaults.

With Comet 24.6.2, we have improved downloads from S3 Storage Vaults to dynamically restart from where they left off, instead of starting over from the beginning. This means that when an error occurs, Comet can resume the download from the point where the interruption happened. This reduces the amount of data that needs to be re-downloaded and improves the overall reliability of Comet when backing up to a S3 Storage Vault.

Notice: Windows System Backup Protected Item Deprecation​

Our Windows System Backup Protected Item is being deprecated. Before we added our Disk Image Protected Item, Windows System Backup Protected Item was a great way to backup and restore entire Windows disks. However, it required spool space (temporary storage) to be able to perform this backup. This means for a 500GB disk, Comet requires an additional 500GB of free space for this Protected Item to work.

As part of our deprecation process for our Windows System Backup Protected Item, upon upgrading to Comet 24.6.3 or later, back up jobs for this Protected Item will now finish with a warning status. Please convert these Protected Items to Disk Image Protected Items before this option is removed from Comet in November (Comet Release 24.11).

We're committed to continuously improving our services and look forward to delivering even more enhancements in the future. Thank you for your continued support!

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

History of SysAdmin Day​

System Administrator Appreciation Day, or SysAdmin Day, is celebrated on the last Friday in July and recognizes all the IT professionals who keep our organizations up and running around the clock. SysAdmin Day was created in 2000 by Ted Kekatos, a system administrator, and has been celebrated around the globe since. This year SysAdmin Day falls on Friday, July 26, 2024.

What is a SysAdmin and what do they do?​

SysAdmins are the everyday IT heroes who keep our hardware and software running smoothly, manage our organizations’ IT environments, and keep our networks and systems secure. They are critical to supporting all your organizations’ IT operations in various areas, including:

• Data backup
• Managing users (permissions, troubleshooting, etc.)
• Configuring and updating systems
• Network security
• Cybersecurity protocols
• Hardware and software troubleshooting

Backups for System Administrators​

Backing up data is an important part of a SysAdmin’s role in safeguarding organizations and businesses. Backups help protect data against human error, hardware failure, ransomware, and natural disasters.

Comet Backup is an all-in-one backup solution built for IT teams and managed service providers (MSPs) to help protect businesses and prepare them with a disaster recovery and business continuity plan. Comet Backup is highly configurable, supports a broad range of backup types, and has flexible storage options.

Top 5 Tips for SysAdmins using Comet Backup​

Here are some tips and best practices for SysAdmins using Comet Backup:

1. Configure and check user permissions – user profiles are used in Comet’s encryption and key management, and therefore, act as a security boundary.

2. Enable MFA (multi-factor authentication) for admins and end users – secure backups and logins with strong passwords and MFA for an additional layer of security.

3. Set a retention policy – to save storage space and ensure required data is kept for compliance and business continuity.

4. Automate backups on a regular schedule– to ensure consistent data protection, improve business continuity, and reduce recovery time.

5. Set up custom email reports – to ensure that unsuccessful jobs and warnings can be investigated and addressed as soon as possible.

Thank you to all SysAdmins & IT professionals!​

While SysAdmin Day is a great reminder to express thanks to your organizations’ system administrators that keep everything running 24/7, we think they should be celebrated every day as our IT heroes.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We sat down for a chat with Josh Flores, our General Manager who has been with the company since before the launch of Comet Backup in 2017. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What is your role and how long have you been at Comet?​

I’m the General Manager and I’ve been at the company for about 10 years, before Comet became Comet. I have done pretty much every job here at Comet, apart from coding.

Tell us about when you first started working with this leadership team.​

I first joined the company when it was Nexus Data Backup, a large backup provider for medical centers, law firms, and other businesses across New Zealand.

A few years later, we sold that backup MSP side of the business. During this time, we had developed our own internal tool, called MyClient, for monitoring all the backup solutions we were using.

Then after a number of years, we launched Comet Backup based on our experience running those earlier businesses.

How did the team decide to develop Comet as a backup solution?​

Running MyClient was interesting because we were the integration tool for all of these other backup products. We interacted with the MSPs that were using our tool to manage their backup solutions and we heard a lot from the MSPs about the tools they liked and didn’t like.

We also heard from the MSPs about what they wanted in backup software, but they couldn’t necessarily find. We were getting to the point that the MSPs were asking us to custom build features in MyClient to cover the gap in that functionality that they wanted in their backup software.

Since we were already doing some backup development, we explored the idea of building our own backup solution. That's when we went through the process of R&D. After beta testing and development, we launched Comet in February 2017.

What excites you most about Comet?​

Every day there’s something new. There’s always new types of customers, new advancement in the technology. Since the early days, our team has grown dramatically. We now have a customer base spanning 120 countries, and vendor relationships around the world. Every quarter, we’re expanding in really exciting ways.

How would you describe the team culture at Comet?​

It’s amazing. We have a very dedicated team that are really interested in the company, in our customers, and what they're doing. And that passion is contagious.

We also have a very diverse and international team, people from different industries and different cultures. All of that adds to the amazing team culture Comet. Work is always fun when you enjoy the people you work with.

How have you maintained the team culture as the company has grown?​

We're selective in our hiring process to prioritize ensuring people will be a great cultural fit. Occasionally, we’ve interviewed candidates who have an outstanding technical skillset, but they would have altered the team dynamic and we’ve passed on those opportunities.

I’d rather hire someone who’s hard working, eager to learn and has a positive attitude and train them up a bit. It’s incredibly important to me to nurture and protect the team environment we’ve built.

How does Comet support the culture of both the remote and office based teams?​

Comet has a hybrid working model with a few days in the office and a few days where team members can work from home. We also have some team members who are fully remote.

We try and do absolutely everything we can do to ensure that if you're remote, you still feel like one of the team. On Slack we have our weekly virtual coffee catchups. We really encourage people to talk, not just about work all day, but also to connect on a personal level because that makes spending time together so much more meaningful.

We have different Slack channels like the pets channel, food channel, games channel. People often share photos of their holidays. Stuff like that. It keeps things fun.

We also have CometCon twice a year where we get everyone together for a week for our internal company conference to connect and hang out in person.

Tell us more about CometCon.​

CometCon is an opportunity for us come together to collaborate and connect in person. Teams that don’t work as closely on a daily basis will lead sessions where the whole company gathers to brainstorm and learn from one another.

A recent example of this is our marketing department did workshop on our website. And developers who normally wouldn’t give input on that area of the business had a say in the process.

Everyone is encouraged to share their opinions, to critique how we do things, to offer up new ideas. Anyone, at any level, can propose and give one of the scheduled talks on a topic they think would be useful to the company.

It's also a chance to have some fun together. The social events and the food is always a highlight during the week, especially the taco truck. We spend a lot of time focusing on building the product, but it’s also really important for us to have balance and have fun.

What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?​

In my free time I really like to chill out – I’m into movies, I do a lot of reading, going to the pub, walking the dogs. I'm also really into cooking and trying new stuff, like barbecuing.