BackupBuddy 6.0 – First Look at New Features

iThemes has released version 6.0 of BackupBuddy with several new features, like Deployment, as well as improved performance. Here’s a first look at all of the new features and how you can improve backup performance on your site.

Update: Ran the new version on a BIG site that had time out issues and an archive size over 5GB. The new version ran quick and smooth, no hint of time out errors. And archive file size was near 3GB. I’m thrilled with the changes!!!

Deployment Feature

One of the biggest new additions to BackupBuddy is Deployment. It allows you to push changes from a development site to a production site, or vice versa.

And the selection is granular. You can select what parts to push or pull, including:

• database (whole or by table)
• plugins
• theme
• media

This will be a huge bonus to designers and developers who are revamping an existing site.

The new Deployment Feature is still in Beta while the iThemes developers are gathering feedback from designers using it.

Google Drive Integration

Another new feature is the ability to select Google Drive as a remote destination for backup files.

For better security, it is always advised that you store your backups off your hosting. And, since Google Drive is available for free to all Gmail users, this is a big deal. You have 15GB of free storage to share across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.

With a Google Apps account, you have 30GB of storage.

Better Archive Control

So you don’t run out of storage space for your backup files, BackupBuddy now gives you finer control of overwrites.

You can now limit by:

• type (full, database, or files)
• Size
• Age

Performance Enhancements

I consider the most important changes in this update to be enhanced performance features.

BackupBuddy can now automatically deal better with slow host servers. That alone will stop it from timing out so much on cheap hosting.

But, if the backup does time out, the notification system has better triggers now.

Smarter Transfer

For quite a while BackupBuddy has been able to chop an archive file into chunks for better transfer to a remote destination.

iThemes has improved the way it handles these chunks, especially on slow host servers.

This will ensure that your backups make it to their storage destination, and with fewer chances of glitches.

I Use BackupBuddy

I use and recommend BackupBuddy to all of my clients, especially my VIP Site Management clients because I know who has to fix any issues with the site.

BackupBuddy is my safety net.

No matter what happens, I know the backup is good.

When you get it, I appreciate you using my affiliate link. That helps support all of the free info I make available on BlogAid, like this free report on How to Backup Your WordPress Site