33 posts tagged with "blogs"

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

May is Mental Health Month, which makes it the perfect time to talk about something that often gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list in IT and managed services.

The humans behind the keyboards.

At Comet Backup, we spend a lot of time thinking about protection, resilience, and recovery. Turns out those ideas apply to people too.

We have built small wellness habits into our week, like sharing quick tips during our Friday all-hands and keeping a Slack channel full of everything from healthy recipes to reminders to log off and go outside once in a while. Nothing revolutionary. Just simple ways to keep the conversation about workplace wellbeing going.

So what is Mental Health Awareness really?​

It is not just posters and corporate emails telling everyone to “prioritize wellbeing.”

It is about recognizing that mental health matters just as much as physical health. It is also about making it normal to say:

• “I’m overloaded today.”
• “Can someone give me a hand with this?”
• “I need a break, I’ve been staring at the screen for too long.”

Mental health conversations are important because burnout rarely appears overnight. It builds slowly through stress, pressure, and constantly running at full capacity without enough time to recover.

And in IT, that can happen faster than most people realize.

Why burnout hits MSPs and IT teams particularly hard​

Let’s be honest, this industry can be intense.

If you work in IT or managed services, some of these probably sound familiar:

• Always on-call because systems do not care what time it is
• Constant firefighting where solving one issue reveals three more
• Client pressure and urgent requests landing at the same time
• Remote work or solo roles that can feel isolating
• The endless sea of tickets in the queue

It is rewarding work, but it can also quietly wear people down over time.

Burnout in MSP and IT environments often looks like:

• Feeling mentally exhausted before the day even starts
• Struggling to switch off after work
• Losing patience faster than usual
• Making simple mistakes from fatigue
• Feeling like every alert triggers instant stress

That is why protecting mental health at work is not just a “nice to have.” It directly affects team wellbeing, performance, and long-term sustainability.

5 realistic ways MSPs can reduce stress and avoid burnout​

No vague “just relax more” advice here. These are practical habits that actually help in busy IT environments.

1. Set boundaries between “online” and “always available”
One of the fastest paths to burnout is feeling like you can never fully disconnect.

Not every issue is a 2am emergency. Define after-hours expectations clearly with both clients and your team. Protecting your personal time is important.

2. Take small breaks before your brain forces you to
Micro-breaks matter more than people think. Even short pauses help reduce stress and reset focus.

Use a timer, like Pomodoro or breaktimer.app, to remind yourself to stretch, hydrate or get a cup of tea, or take a few minutes to look away from the screen (all screens, including the small screen).

3. Automate repetitive work wherever possible
Doing the same manual tasks every day drains mental energy fast.

If something keeps repeating, automate it, document it, or simplify it. Reducing repetitive workload helps lower cognitive overload and gives your team more breathing room.

4. Check in with humans, not just tickets
Make it normal to check in and have a friendly chat with coworkers—not just about tickets or projects, but about how they’re doing.

A culture of openness leads to earlier support and less stigma.

5. Move Your Body
It is easy for conversations in IT teams to become entirely task-focused.

• “Any updates?”
• “What is the ETA?”
• Did the backup complete?”

Sometimes a simple “How are you going?” matters more.

Open conversations help reduce isolation and make it easier for people to speak up before stress becomes burnout.

A few helpful resources​

If you want to learn more about workplace wellbeing, stress management, or burnout prevention, these are worth bookmarking:

• Channel Pro Network – How Can An MSP Manage Workloads To Prevent Employee Burnout?
• Headspace – Managing Workplace Stress and Burnout
• Calm - Best Mental Health Apps for Workplace Well-Being

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

It’s that time of year again, our favorite cybersecurity holiday: World Backup Day! Celebrated every March 31st, this day recognizes the essential work of backing up and protecting data.

World Backup Day started back in 2011 with a Reddit post from someone who lost their hard drive and wished they'd been reminded about backups sooner. The timing is perfect too. Landing right before April Fool's Day, it's the universe's way of saying: don’t be a fool – protect your data.

What World Backup Day Means for the Everyday IT Heroes​

If you're an MSP or IT professional, World Backup Day is a good reminder to review your backup strategies, share your expertise with clients, and remind everyone why that robust backup solution you implemented was the right call all along. Data protection doesn’t just happen on World Backup Day, it happens every single day.

Why is Data Backup Important?​

Strong backup and data protection strategies are what keep businesses running when everything else fails. You're defending organizations against:

• Data loss and accidental deletion
• Ransomware attacks
• Cybersecurity breaches
• Hardware failures
• System crashes
• Natural disasters
• Human error (coffee spilling on laptops included)

With a solid backup solution and tested recovery processes, you're equipped to handle whatever comes next. You're not just preventing disasters. You're the reason your clients and end users can focus on growing their business instead of worrying about “what if something happens?”

Staying Ahead: 2026 Backup Trends​

The backup landscape is evolving, and as an IT professional, you're right at the forefront. Here's what's defining resilient backup strategies in 2026:

Immutable and air-gapped backups: Immutable backups prevent any alterations or deletions during set retention periods, while air-gapping isolates backup data from network access. Together, they create an unbreachable defense against ransomware targeting backup repositories.

Recovery validation over features: Customers care whether their business can recover fast when something goes wrong. The winning approach combines recurring restore testing, documented workflows, and clear backup reporting. It's not about having the fanciest tools. It's about proving you can actually restore when it matters.

Cyber resilience as core infrastructure: Backup and disaster recovery teams play a key role in ensuring cyber resilience as the last line of defense. Your backup strategy is no longer just IT infrastructure, it's critical for business continuity.

Your World Backup Day Checklist for MSPs and IT Teams​

Use March 31st as a reminder to run through the fundamentals:

• Review backup coverage across all environments, including servers, databases, email systems, endpoints, and virtual machines
• Confirm you have layered backups in multiple locations, not a single point of failure
• Validate retention policies against current compliance and client requirements
• Test restores regularly and document recovery time performance
• Verify backup job success with automated reports and alerts
• Lock down access to backup repositories with strong authentication and least privilege controls

Why MSPs and IT Providers Choose Comet Backup​

When you're in the business of protecting data, you need tools that work as hard as you do. A reliable backup platform isn't optional for a strong BDR strategy. It's what lets you confidently tell clients they're covered, and actually mean it.   Here's what makes Comet Backup the right tool for IT heroes:

• Easy to use: Comet Backup has an intuitive, easy-to-use web console where you can remotely manage and protect devices. Comet is fast and easy to set up – start running backups and restores in less than 15 minutes.

• Versatile storage options: Choose between integrated cloud storage or utilize your own storage, whether that’s an on-prem solution or a S3 compatible storage provider (including AWS, Azure, Wasabi, Backblaze B2 and more). You’re in control of where your data sits.

• Fast, efficient chunking technology: Advanced backup algorithm packages data into small blocks for faster uploads and downloads, saving valuable time.

• Reliable and Secure: End-to-end encryption during backup, transit, and at rest.

• Client-side deduplication: Reduces redundant data, ensuring more efficient storage usage and cost savings.

• Incremental forever without full re-uploads: After the initial backup, only changes are uploaded, conserving bandwidth, and accelerating the backup process.

• Compression and encryption: Client data is compact for storage efficiency and secured against breaches, ensuring peace of mind.

Protect your data this World Backup Day​

World Backup Day is a great time to educate and remind your end users and clients   how you keep businesses protected and operational. As an MSP or IT provider, you're not just implementing backup solutions. You're delivering confidence, enabling growth, and making sure that when the unexpected happens, your clients and end users are ready for it.

Ready to see what Comet Backup can do for your backup strategy? Test drive Comet Backup with a 30-day FREE trial, or book a discovery call with our team to learn more about how Comet Backup can help your business.

More 2026 IT Holidays and Cybersecurity Awareness Days​

Check out our blog post on 2026 IT Holidays. These holidays and awareness days are a fun opportunity to highlight and teach the importance of cybersecurity to your clients or end users, or show appreciation for your team.

Proxmox VE Backup Is Now Available​

We're excited to announce that support for backing up Proxmox VE is now available in Comet 26.1.0 or later.

Whether you're already running Proxmox or exploring alternatives to VMware and Hyper-V, our Proxmox Protected Item will give you more options to protect VMs and virtual environments.

Learn More & Resources:​

• Watch our 2026 Q1 Quarterly Release webinar replay to see our Proxmox Backup launch, with live Q&A at the end

• Explore our Proxmox Backup solution page to learn more about the Protected Item, key features, and FAQs

• Visit our Proxmox VE documentation page to find out more about requirements, backups, restores, and more

• Pricing for Proxmox VE Backup will be:

  • $3 per VM (max. $24 per host)
  • $1 per container (max. $8 per host)

• Visit our Feature Voting page to see how your ideas and votes shape our development priorities

Proxmox Virtual Environment​

Proxmox Virtual Environment is a complete, open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization. It tightly integrates the KVM hypervisor and Linux Containers (LXC), software-defined storage and networking functionality, on a single platform. With the integrated web-based user interface you can manage VMs and containers, high availability for clusters, or the integrated disaster recovery tools with ease.

Many businesses turn to open-source virtualization to streamline their IT operations through server consolidation. Proxmox VE offers a license-free, fully featured virtualization platform that enhances flexibility, security, and reliability, making it a smart choice for modern infrastructure.

If you are looking to use Proxmox VE, you can find their comparison against VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V here.

Features of Comet's Proxmox VE Backup​

Virtual Machine and Container Backup & Restore​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item will support backing up and restoring Virtual Machines (VM's) and Linux Containers to and from a Proxmox Cluster.

Backing up VMs will also launch with Changed Block Tracking (CBT) support for fast backups as Comet only needs to back up disk sectors that have changed instead of scanning the entire disk to find what has changed since the last backup.

Restore Virtual Machines to Hyper-V, Proxmox and VMware​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item adds support for restoring VMs directly into a Proxmox Cluster. Once Comet's Proxmox VE Protected Item is launched customers will be able to restore a VM to Hyper-V, Proxmox or VMware hypervisors regardless of which hypervisor the backup was taken from.

Restore Physical Machines from Disk Image Protected Items​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item adds support for restoring physical Disk Image backups directly to a Proxmox Cluster. This is a great feature for customers needing to restore a Disk Image backup instantly without needing to acquire physical hardware to perform the restore on.

Migration Tool from Hyper-V and VMware​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item can be used to migrate VMs away from Hyper-V or VMware onto a Proxmox Cluster. There are quite a few benefits for using Comet to migrate your Hyper-V or VMware VMs.

If you have an existing Hyper-V or VMware Protected Item backup, you can migrate to Proxmox quickly without losing your backup history. This allows you to restore an older VM backup if required without needing to use any other systems or manage multiple backup jobs per VM.

Once Comet has performed a Hyper-V or VMware VM backup, if you set the Proxmox Protected Item to back up the same VM to the same Storage Vault as the Hyper-V or VMware Protected Item Comet's chunking algorithm will be able to deduplicate the backups together. This has a large number of benefits such as reducing total Storage required to maintain VM backups from multiple hypervisors and significantly faster backups as the first Proxmox VM backup does not need to re-upload a lot of data.

Comet's Proxmox VE Backup - Full Feature List & Capabilities​

Backup & Restore Capabilities:​

• Virtual Machine and Container Backup & Restore
• Backup of stopped VMs (automatically suspended during backup)
• Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for faster incremental backups
• Support for all disk types including TPM State drives
• Non-root user support for enhanced security
• Proxmox v8 and v9 compatibility
• Multi-node Proxmox cluster support

Restore Options:​

• Restore Virtual Machines to Proxmox VE
• Restore Virtual Machines from Hyper-V
• Restore Virtual Machines from VMware
• Restore to various storage backends (Local, Ceph/RBD, Network storage)
• Granular file-level restore from VM backups

Storage Backend Support:​

Supported File-Level Storage:​

• Directory (dir) - Local file storage
• BTRFS (btrfs) - Technology preview, supports snapshots
• NFS (nfs) - Shared network storage
• CIFS (cifs) - SMB/Windows network storage

Supported Block-Level Storage:​

• LVM (lvm) - Local block storage, can be used over iSCSI/FC
• LVM-thin (lvmthin) - Thin provisioned LVM with snapshots
• Ceph/RBD (rbd) - Distributed block storage with snapshots

Supported ZFS-Based Storage:​

• ZFS local (zfspool) - ZFS volumes with snapshot support
• ZFS over iSCSI (zfs) - Shared ZFS block storage

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

As we get ready for the new year, it’s a great time to look ahead and mark your calendar with key dates, including upcoming 2026 IT and cybersecurity holidays.

These holidays and awareness days are a fun opportunity to highlight and teach the importance of cybersecurity to your clients or end users, or show appreciation for your team.

Data Privacy Week​

January 26-30, 2026​

The National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) organizes Data Privacy Week to spread awareness about the importance of safeguarding personal data and ensuring online data privacy and safety. Our data is collected everyday – from your computer, smartphone, smartwatch, and pretty much every other internet-connected device. You can check and update the settings on your apps and devices to decide how this data is collected and used.

#DataPrivacyWeek

References:

• https://staysafeonline.org/programs/data-privacy-week/
• https://staysafeonline.org/programs/data-privacy-week/about/

National Clean Out Your Computer Day​

February 9, 2026​

National Clean Out Your Computer Day was started in 2000 as an initiative of the Institute for Business Technology and falls on the second Monday in February. The event promotes taking time out of your day to do some basic housekeeping on your computer, such as organizing your files and folders, updating software, and removing unused files. Before you delete any files, it’s a good idea to make sure you have a backup of your data, just in case! Don’t forget about wiping the outside of your device, and cleaning the screen and keyboard.

#CleanOutYourComputerDay

References:

• https://nationaltoday.com/national-clean-out-your-computer-day/
• https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/clean-out-your-computer-day/
• https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/clean-out-your-computer-day
• https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-clean-out-your-computer-day-second-monday-in-february

World Backup Day​

March 31, 2026​

World Backup Day on March 31st is one of our favorite IT holidays on the calendar (for no specific reason). World Backup Day reminds us to backup and protect our data. In today’s digital age, data backup and data protection is critical for businesses and organisations to help protect against cyberattacks, ransomware, system crashes, human error, and more. Having a robust and secure backup solution, like Comet Backup, will help safeguard against these data loss threats.

#WorldBackupDay

References: https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-backup-day/ https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/international/world-backup-day-march-31 https://www.worldbackupday.com/en https://nationaltoday.com/world-backup-day/

World Password Day​

May 7, 2026​

World Password Day is celebrated annually on the first Thursday of May to encourage people to use stronger passwords and secure their online accounts. Strong passwords are important for protecting sensitive information and preventing unauthorized access. For another layer of protection you can also use two-factor authentication (2FA) to secure your accounts for better security.

#WorldPasswordDay

References:

• https://www.passwordday.org/
• https://nationaltoday.com/world-password-day/
• https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/password-day/
• https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/world-password-day-first-thursday-in-may

System Administrator Appreciation Day​

July 31, 2026​

System Administrator Appreciation Day (SysAdmin Day) honors IT professionals who work behind the scenes to keep our IT systems, networks, servers, and technology running smoothly at businesses and organizations across the world. Shout out to our everyday IT heroes!

#SysAdminDay

References:

• https://sysadminday.com/
• https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/system-administrator-appreciation-day/
• https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/system-administrator-appreciation-day-last-friday-in-july
• https://nationaltoday.com/system-administrator-appreciation-day/

IT Professionals Day​

September 15, 2026​

We celebrate IT Professionals Day on the third Tuesday of September to recognize the technical IT experts that make sure our systems run smoothly. Whether its desktops, laptops, mobile devices, printers, applications, servers, networks, databases or cybersecurity, IT professionals keep our businesses humming. IT Pro Day recognizes the critically important role of these technical experts.

#ITProDay

References:

• https://nationaltoday.com/national-it-professionals-day/
• https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-it-professionals-day-third-tuesday-in-september
• https://www.holidaycalendar.io/holiday/national-it-professionals-day

Cybersecurity Awareness Month​

October 1-31, 2026​

In October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an international initiative that educates everyone about online safety and empowers individuals and businesses to protect their data from cybercrime. Cybersecurity Awareness Month reminds everyone that there are simple, effective ways to keep yourself safe online, protect your personal and business data, and ultimately help secure our world.

#CybersecurityAwarenessMonth #SecureOurWorld

References:

• https://staysafeonline.org/programs/cybersecurity-awareness-month/
• https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month

Computer Security Day​

November 30, 2026​

Computer Security Day was first launched in 1988 by the Association for Computer Security. Since then, the way we use computers has changed. Today, we use computers to stay connected almost every day – working from home, shopping online, internet banking, streaming movies, social media, and more. Computer Security Day encourages individuals and businesses to adopt good virtual habits and be proactive in protecting your data in our modern digital world.

#ComputerSecurityDay

References:

• https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/computer-security-day
• https://nationaltoday.com/national-computer-security-day/
• https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/computer-security-day-november-30

National Cookie Day​

December 4, 2026​

While National Cookie Day is not necessarily a conventional IT awareness day, we like to celebrate it each year on December 4th as a reminder to clear your cache and cookies on your web browser. Clearing your cache and cookies can help improve your browser’s performance, protect your privacy by reducing tracking, and free up a little bit of space on your computer.

#NationalCookieDay

References:

• https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/cookie-day/

Be Proactive All Year​

No matter what time of the year, it’s always important to be proactive and take action to keep ourselves and our organizations safe by backing up data, securing accounts, using strong passwords, and having good cyber hygiene and habits.

If you are looking for a fast and secure backup solution, you can test drive Comet Backup with a 30-day FREE trial! Start running backups and restores in 15 minutes or less.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We’re back with the seventh edition of CometCon, this time as a 2-day mini version of our company-wide internal conference. Each year we host a mid-year and end-of-year CometCon where local and remote team members gather at Comet Backup HQ for presentations, ideation sessions, team bonding, and fun activities.

Here are some highlights of our end of year CometCon:

Speaker Series​

At each CometCon, team members from all departments are invited to give a presentation. The sessions are focused around how we can improve the product and experience for our partners and customers.

We heard from the dev team leaders, enjoyed a few technical deep dives, and had a great session from marketing. It’s always a highlight to share knowledge across departments and learn from experts across the company.

We also hosted a few virtual sessions, including welcoming a new team member based in the US and a conversation with Christian, CEO of WebPros, our parent company.

This Speaker Series also included an external group, Pākiki Security, who ran an interactive Capture the Flag challenge, testing our cybersecurity skills (leader board and chocolate prizes included).

In-Person Connection​

One of the most valuable parts of CometCon is the time spent together as a team. Connection is a huge part of the Comet culture, and we love having our remote team members join us in person. Throughout the event, we scheduled time for open collaboration where people could brainstorm ideas, work side-by-side, and just hang out (boardgames optional).

Team Awards​

This year’s Team Awards featured a special guest presenter and a collection of very niche, ultra-specific awards for everyone on the team. A standout moment: the coveted ‘Meme Lord’ title went to Mike, one of our Dev Team Leaders. It was a lot of fun guessing who won each award, and everyone got to pick out a prize.

End of Year Celebration​

As usual, our end-of-year party coincided with CometCon and included a healthy dose of friendly competition. This time we battled it out with darts and a quiz-style gameshow at Serve Social (plenty of laughs, surprises, and bragging rights included).

That’s a Wrap​

There’s always a special buzz in the office during CometCon, energizing conversations, creative ideas, and plenty of laughs. Events like this remind us how lucky we are to work with such a talented and supportive team. We’ve loved spending this time together, and we’re excited for what the new year will bring.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

We’re updating our quarterly software release schedule to make it easier for you to take full advantage of new features, enhancements, and improvements.

Why We’re Making This Change​

Our Q4 release has traditionally landed at the end of November each year, followed by the quarterly webinar in early December. This can be a busy time for many MSPs and IT teams.

To better support your planning cycles and avoid the end-of-year crunch, we’re shifting our 2026 release cadence so that each quarterly release lands earlier throughout the year.

The New 2026 Release Schedule​

Starting next year, our quarterly releases will arrive at the end of:

• January (26.1)
• April (26.4)
• July (26.7)
• October (26.10)

This schedule gives teams a more balanced cadence throughout the year with more time and space to adopt new features, review changes, and plan upgrades.

We’re excited to bring you another year of enhancements, performance improvements, and new capabilities!

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

Autumn is here again, which means sweater weather, pumpkin spice lattes, and horror movie marathons. For MSPs and IT providers, October also marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a global initiative to raise awareness about staying safe online and protecting valuable data.

In 2025, the cybersecurity “spooky season” is scarier than ever. The villains have leveled up with more sophisticated phishing tactics, AI-generated deepfakes, and ransomware attacks lurking around the corner.

So, what does this mean for MSPs and IT teams? You’re not just the IT providers – you’re the first line of defense against these threats. Your clients and end users trust you to keep them and their businesses secure.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the perfect time to re-engage clients, refresh their defenses, and remind them why you are their trusted IT partner.

The 2025 Cyber Threat Landscape​

Remember when phishing emails were incredibly obvious? Think of the ones from the ‘Prince of Nigeria’ that started with ‘Dear Sir/Madam,’ requesting a wire transfer of $500,000? Those days are long gone. Now, we’ve entered the age of AI-powered cybercrime, where the threats are smarter, craftier, and more convincing.

The Rise of the Machines: AI-powered Scams & Deepfake Attacks​

Attackers are now using AI to craft highly realistic emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, fake voices, and even video messages. Generative AI makes vishing (voice phishing), impersonation, and fraud not only easier but nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

Cybercriminals are now using AI to clone voices with scary accuracy. Imagine getting a voicemail from someone who sounds exactly like your boss asking you to  pay an invoice. Plot twist: it's not actually your boss.

Every business, no matter how big or small, is now a potential target for these sophisticated impersonation scams and attacks.

The Human Element: Still Your Secret Weapon​

While everyone's talking about AI this and machine learning that, the truth is that cybersecurity still comes down to people making good decisions. While technology is critical, people remain a target. Studies consistently show that poor training amplifies breach risks.

This is where your expertise as MSPs and IT providers shine. You're not just managing servers and fixing printers (we know you do that too, and we appreciate you for it). You're educators and translators, helping clients understand cybersecurity in a practical, business-friendly way. By training end users to spot and stop attacks, you help businesses build a stronger first line of defense.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Action Plan for MSPs & IT Providers​

Here are three practical ways to put Cybersecurity Awareness Month into action with your clients this October:

1. Educate Your Clients About AI-Powered Threats

Your clients need to know that the game has changed. That suspicious email might not have obvious red flags anymore. The text message from the bank might seem legit. The person calling about "urgent payment verification" might sound exactly like their trusted vendor. Help your clients build the mindset that healthy skepticism isn't paranoia – it's survival.

2. Implement the "Core 4" Cybersecurity Practices

Remind clients and end users of four simple but powerful habits:

• Use strong passwords and a password manager: Unique passwords, passphrases, biometrics, or secure password vaults make life harder for attackers
• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA): But don’t blindly hit “approve.” Always double-check: was that login really you, or was it someone else?
• Recognize and report phishing and scams: Look out for typos, spoofed domains, or “urgent” requests that don’t quite feel right.
• Keep software updated: Hit “update”, get another coffee, and let the security patches and software update.

These aren't new concepts, but in 2025 they're still critical steps that anyone can take to stay safe online.

3. Backup, Test, Restore, Repeat. (Did we mention backup?)

We might be a little biased here, but backups are like your insurance policy against ransomware and data loss. A backup is great, but a tested restore is even better. Make sure to verify that the backup has run, and that you can restore the data from the backup.

Free Resources For Cybersecurity Awareness Month​

The National Cybersecurity Alliance and Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have put together some excellent free resources that you can use with your clients.

Head over to StaySafeOnline.org and CISA for downloadable materials, educational content, and a Cybersecurity Awareness Month toolkit that you can customize for your clients.

These resources are perfect for client newsletters, security training sessions, or quarterly security reviews (when you remind clients that yes, they do need to take cybersecurity seriously).

More 2025 IT Holidays + Free Marketing Resources​

Check out our blog post on 2025 IT Holidays for more cybersecurity awareness days, and download our free marketing resources to help educate your end users about how they can stay safe in our digital world.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

IT Professionals Day falls on the third Tuesday of each September and was established in 2015 to celebrate the IT pros who keep everything running behind the scenes. This year #ITProDay is on September 16th, 2025.

We celebrate the everyday IT heroes, the people who know how to fix everything, and when to just say: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Let’s be honest: a lot of people think IT is just about fixing the printer.

But we know better.

You’re juggling ransomware scares, patch management, cloud migrations, “urgent” tickets, and also making sure the backups are running, verified, and ready to save the day when disaster strikes.

Tips on how to celebrate #ITProDay​

For the end users out there, here are a few quick things you can try before calling your MSP or IT team. These small steps won’t solve every problem, but they might save you a ticket (and earn you some brownie points with IT):

1. Restart the device: It really is a classic.
2. Make sure it’s powered on: We’ve all missed the obvious once or twice.
3. Check if it’s plugged in: Sometimes it really is because it’s not plugged in properly.
4. Install updates when prompted: They’re there for a reason (and IT will thank you later).
5. Back up important files: If you don’t, your IT pro already has your back (literally), but a little extra caution never hurts.

Why IT Pros Deserve More Than Just a “Thanks”​

MSPs and IT pros do far more than the rest of the world sees:

• You’re the first line of defense against cyber threats
• You keep businesses running with secure, tested backups
• You restore the “lost file” that was actually in the recycle bin all along… but also the critical data that saves a business
• You save the day without most people even knowing it needed saving

Backups don’t check themselves, restores don’t test themselves, and disaster recovery doesn’t happen by magic, it’s all thanks to the IT professionals out there.

Happy IT Professionals Day!​

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.

Today (and every day), we raise our coffee mugs to all the IT professionals, the real MVPs and everyday heroes.

More 2025 IT Holidays + Free Marketing Resources​

Check out our blog post on 2025 IT Holidays for more cybersecurity awareness days, and download our free marketing resources to help educate your end users about how they can stay safe in our digital world.

Written by Michelle Wong - Marketing Specialist

ShadowTech25 at Comet Backup​

This August, Comet Backup was proud to take part in ShadowTech25, a nationwide initiative from TechWomen giving high school girls across Aotearoa New Zealand the chance to experience a day in the tech industry, connect with women in tech, and explore future career possibilities.

We welcomed five students Year 9-11 from Akaroa Area School to our Christchurch office for a day of learning, inspiration, hands-on activities, some fun games and plenty of laughs. The day was designed to show that tech is a diverse field, and that in addition to programming, there are many different career pathways available.

Along the way, they discovered that tech is about so much more than coding, it’s about creativity, problem-solving, teamwork…and sometimes even pizza.

Inspiring Future Generations​

The students got a behind-the-scenes look at how a global software company operates, and how technology plays a role in every department. They explored areas such as customer success, marketing, software testing, product development, and engineering, seeing how each area contributes to building great software.

The day included:

• Meet & Greet: Introduction to the Comet Backup team and an overview of how our different departments work together
• Office Tour: Showcasing our space themed decorations, artwork, astronaut mascot, and of course, the very popular snack trolley and candy jars
• Women in Tech Panel Q&A:  Personal journeys in tech, career pathways, and life lessons from the Women of Comet, representing a range of industries and roles
• Interactive Sessions: Fun ice-breaker games, plus hands-on activities and talks on software testing and brand marketing (using TikToks and memes to communicate what we do)
• Pizza Lunch: At Comet we love connecting over shared food (especially pizza!) and enjoyed chatting with the students about their hobbies, sports, and favorite apps

Opportunities In Tech​

One key takeaway for the students was that technology careers aren’t limited to coding or programming. There are roles that combine creativity, problem-solving, communication, and technical expertise.

Another insight was that the Women of Comet came to tech from a variety of backgrounds and education, showing that not all career journeys are linear, and that there’s no single ‘right’ career path.

It was also fun for the Comet team to chat with the students and learn what technology and apps they use at school and in their everyday lives.

Before and After​

At the start of the day, we asked the students:

What comes to mind when you hear ‘Women in Tech’?

Each student wrote their thoughts on a sticky note. Most answers were focused on coding, programming, and computer science, a common perception of tech careers.

At the end of the day, we asked the same question again. This time, the responses were broader and also included using skills like creativity, problem solving, roles in marketing, testing, product development and more. One student summed it up perfectly “women can do anything.”

Seeing that shift in perspective over just one day was inspiring, and exactly what ShadowTech is all about.

Why it Matters​

At Comet, we believe diversity strengthens our team and our industry. Initiatives like ShadowTech help open doors and inspire the next generation to show young women that there’s space for them in tech, no matter their backgrounds, skills, or starting point.

Seeing the students’ perceptions shift from “tech equals coding” to “women can do anything” was the highlight of our day.

A huge thank you to TechWomen NZ for making the ShadowTech program possible, and to all the Comet team members who helped make the day welcoming, memorable, and full of inspiration (and snacks). We can’t wait to see where these talented students go next in their journeys!

Written by Callum Sinclair - Product Engingeering Manager

Proxmox VE Backup Is Coming Soon​

We're excited to announce that support for backing up Proxmox VE is on its way to Comet Backup. Whether you're already running Proxmox or exploring alternatives to VMware and Hyper-V, our upcoming Proxmox Protected Item will give you more options to protect VMs and virtual environments.

Learn More & Sign Up For Updates:​

• Join the waitlist to get email updates, info about beta testing, early access, and more
• Register for our Q3 Quarterly Release product webinar to join the the official launch webinar, with Q&A at the end
• Watch the announcement video clip from our Q2 Quarterly Webinar
• Visit our Feature Voting page to see how your ideas and votes shape our development priorities

Proxmox Virtual Environment​

Proxmox Virtual Environment is a complete, open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization. It tightly integrates the KVM hypervisor and Linux Containers (LXC), software-defined storage and networking functionality, on a single platform. With the integrated web-based user interface you can manage VMs and containers, high availability for clusters, or the integrated disaster recovery tools with ease.

Many businesses turn to open-source virtualization to streamline their IT operations through server consolidation. Proxmox VE offers a license-free, fully featured virtualization platform that enhances flexibility, security, and reliability—making it a smart choice for modern infrastructure.

If you are looking to use Proxmox VE, you can find their comparison against VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V here.

Features of Comet's Proxmox VE Backup​

Note: Features listed here are work in progress and may not be avaliable during the beta

Virtual Machine and Container Backup & Restore​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item will support backing up and restoring Virtual Machines (VM's) and Linux Containers to and from a Proxmox Cluster.

Backing up VMs will also launch with Changed Block Tracking (CBT) support for fast backups as Comet only needs to back up disk sectors that have changed instead of scanning the entire disk to find what has changed since the last backup.

Restore Virtual Machines to Hyper-V, Proxmox and VMware​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item adds support for restoring VMs directly into a Proxmox Cluster. Once Comet's Proxmox VE Protected Item is launched customers will be able to restore a VM to Hyper-V, Proxmox or VMware hypervisors regardless of which hypervisor the backup was taken from.

Restore Physical Machines from Disk Image Protected Items​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item adds support for restoring physical Disk Image backups directly to a Proxmox Cluster. This is a great feature for customers needing to restore a Disk Image backup instantly without needing to aquire phyiscal hardware to perform the restore on.

Migration Tool from Hyper-V and VMware​

Our new Proxmox VE Protected Item can be used to migrate VMs away from Hyper-V or VMware onto a Proxmox Cluster. There are quite a few benefits for using Comet to migrate your Hyper-V or VMware VMs.

If you have an existing Hyper-V or VMware Protected Item backup, you can migrate to Proxmox quickly without losing your backup history. This allows you to restore an older VM backup if required without needing to use any other systems or manage multiple backup jobs per VM.

Once Comet has performed a Hyper-V or VMware VM backup, if you set the Proxmox Protected Item to back up the same VM to the same Storage Vault as the Hyper-V or VMware Protected Item Comet's chunking algorithm will be able to deduplicate the backups together. This has a large number of benefits such as reducing total Storage required to maintain VM backups from multiple hypervisors and significantly faster backups as the first Proxmox VM backup does not need to reupload a lot of data.

Proxmox Backup Beta Program​

How To Get Early Access To The Beta Program​

In August, Comet will be launching early access to our Proxmox VE Backup beta as a new Protected Item type in Comet's Voyager series. Try the Protected Item for free during the early access beta period until early September.

Please note:

• The beta is not for production use
• Check this link for known beta limitations

Stay Tuned​

We'll be sharing more updates and information as we get closer to launch.

Make sure to join the waitlist to get email updates about beta testing, early access, and stay in the loop.