Last week at the VeeamON conference, Veeam announced the release of their new product, Veeam EndPoint Backup Free. What’s included in Free? Veeam EndPoint Backup Free is a standalone product that can back up your Windows-based desktop or laptop. Endpoint protection products are not new, and competitors have had similar products for some time now. The disruptive thing about Veeam’s offering is the price; competitors charge for the same function. Some key features of Veeam Endpoint Backup Free: Supported for Windows 7 or higher operating systems as well as Windows Server 2008 and Windows 2012. Backup to internal or external hard drive, a NAS (network attached storage) share or a Veeam backup repository Can integrate with Veeam Backup & Replication if one is present in the environment Ability to restore to the same or different hardware, a volume-level restore, or a file-level restore Getting physical (or not) In a first glance at Veeam Endpoint Backup Free you might think Veeam has done a 180 degree turn and is entering the physical server space. Look deeper into the naming of the product – and the price point – and you can see signs of a bigger strategy. A commenter on Veeam’s blog questioned Veeam’s support of physical machines and was corrected by a Veeam employee. This is more evidence that it’s all in the wording. In a prepared statement, CEO Ratmir Timashev says “Veeam believes that modern data centers should be fully virtualized, but we also recognize that unlike servers, endpoints will always remain physical, and they need to be backed up as well. Plus, if the IT organization still has a few physical servers left in their data center, Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE can help fill that gap.” Free products usually attract users to...