I’ve had this recurring nightmare over the past year. How on Earth can we easily deploy a file sync solution for our laptop and desktop users?

Due to our company’s flexibility with end-user’s computers, we have to have rulesets (i.e. do not back up .avi or .mp3 files). Otherwise we’ll fill up our NAS/SAN with useless media files within a few hours 😉

The solution needs to sync between the end-users local computer “My Documents” folder, to their network storage space. And it needs to be able to be deployed in an automated, pre-configured way, complete with scheduling. EDIT: By deployed, I don’t mean exclusively with GPSI. I’m more than happy just running some kind of AutoIT Script or Batch file that installs the software then dumps/edits the config files for the end-user based on env variables or whatever, but it must not require any – or at least minimise – end-user interaction.

I’ve checked out SyncToy and it’s nice, but a complete pain to automate the actual Scheduling “part”.

I’m currently looking at Toucan Backup, but that seems more keen on backing up *everything*, then applying exclusions. I need something that will back up nothing, except what I tell it to.

Any ideas or pointers? I’d greatly appreciate it! 🙂