The purpose of this article is to provide its audience with the top backup solutions for 2024. My goal is to provide you with a brief overview deep enough to start exploring deeper with two or three vendors.
Why I’m Writing About Backup Solutions
I was sitting in my office overlooking the lake. Our backup software vendor was in the room. A sales guy and his systems engineer. The Systems Engineer said something that struck me, which led me to want to write this article.
He said, “we are no longer living in the age of cybersecurity. We are now living in the age of cyber resilience”.
If you work for a company that has not been hacked, consider yourself lucky. It is a nightmare. And it will eventually hit.
State of the Industry
If anything describes the state of backup and disaster recovery solutions today, it is an increased emphasis on ransomware and cybersecurity. It is imperative that your organization is backing up their data in what Veeam calls its “3-2-1-1-0 Golden Backup Rule“. Three copies of data, on two different storage media, one offsite copy, one offline copy, and zero backup errors.
Each vendor in this list approaches cybersecurity and cyber resiliency differently and it is important to know which vendor is going to be the right fit for your organizational goals.
1. Veeam Backup
I am a Veeam fan. I use it today in my environment and love working with the people and knowing that it just works. That being said, it’s definitely not for everyone.
Veeam Backup & Replication is a comprehensive data protection and disaster recovery solution designed for virtualized environments, particularly those running VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. Veeam is recognized for its user-friendly interface, robust backup capabilities, and focus on providing efficient recovery options.
Pros:
- Veeam Backup offers a wide range of backup options, including virtual machine (VM) backup, physical server backup, cloud backup, and more.
- Veeam Backup is known for its user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows.
- Veeam Backup utilizes advanced technologies like Changed Block Tracking (CBT) and inline deduplication to optimize backup performance and minimize storage space requirements.
- Veeam Backup provides robust recovery options, including full VM recovery, file-level recovery, and application-item recovery.
- Veeam Backup pushes on premise workloads directly to cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and Google Cloud Platform.
- There is a strong community of Veeam partners who have deep expertise in their solutions.
- Can do immutability in Azure and Amazon S3 or on prem storage that supports immutability
Cons:
- While Veeam Backup offers a range of features and capabilities, it may be considered relatively expensive compared to some other less mature backup solutions.
- Veeam’s abundance of features and options can be overwhelming for users who are new to backup and recovery concepts.
- Running backup jobs and maintaining backup repositories can consume significant computing resources.
- Does not directly provide air gapping but can through external processes (e.g. tape backup or isolating in Azure/AWS). Hosting in AWS and Azure is much more expensive than on premise hardware.
Veeam Customer Sweet Spot
- Small Business
- Midmarket
- Enterprise
2. Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is a comprehensive data protection and management solution offered by Dell Technologies. It provides organizations with a unified platform for backup, recovery, replication, and data management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. PowerProtect Data Manager is designed to simplify data protection operations, improve efficiency, and ensure the resilience of critical business data. Below, I’ll outline some of its key pros and cons:
Pros:
- PowerProtect Data Manager offers a centralized platform for managing data protection tasks across diverse environments, including on-premises, virtualized, and cloud-based workloads.
- The solution is highly scalable, capable of protecting data across large-scale enterprise environments with ease.
- PowerProtect Data Manager supports a wide range of data protection capabilities, including backup, snapshot management, replication, deduplication, and disaster recovery.
- PowerProtect Data Manager enables organizations to protect and manage data seamlessly across disparate platforms, including public clouds like AWS and Azure.
- The solution provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing administrators to monitor backup performance, track resource utilization, and identify potential issues proactively, ensuring the integrity and availability of critical data.
- Can be setup for air gapping and immutability (see reference architecture)
- Cyber Resilience on premise is more cost effective than its cloud-comparative option.
Cons:
- Implementing and configuring PowerProtect Data Manager may require a high level of expertise, especially in complex enterprise environments or where cyber resilience architecture is needed. This can get expensive.
- This is really a cost that can only be absorbed by enterprise-sized organizations.
- Lots of infrastructure associated with PowerProtect Data Manager.
- There is going to be a smaller community of experts that are able to support this solution. Make sure you partner with the right people.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Enterprise
3. Dell EMC Data Domain:
Dell EMC Data Domain is a purpose-built data deduplication storage system designed to address the challenges of data protection, backup, archive, and disaster recovery in modern IT environments. Data Domain leverages industry-leading deduplication technology to optimize storage efficiency, reduce backup windows, and improve data recovery capabilities. Below are some of its pros, and cons:
Pros:
- Extremely high deduplication ratios. If you’re looking for a backup target that is going to help you save terabytes of space, this is it.
- Super fast backup and recovery operations.
- Very reliable with high data integrity (has RAID protection, continuous fault detection and self-healing).
- Super scalable with zero disruption.
- Can be a backup target for almost any backup software including Veeam and Druva.
- Can be setup for air gapping and immutability (see reference architecture)
- Cyber Resilience on premise is more cost effective than its cloud-comparative option.
Cons:
- Very expensive in terms of up front cost, but what you spend upfront you save immensely down the road.
- It’s a little complex, just make sure you partner with the right people to get this implemented.
- Maintenance expense can get to be a lot in year 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. Make sure you negotiate 5 years up front.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Small Enterprise
- Enterprise
4. Dell EMC Avamar:
Dell EMC Avamar is a data backup and recovery software solution designed to protect and manage critical enterprise data efficiently and securely. It utilizes patented global deduplication technology to reduce storage requirements and optimize backup performance. Below are its pros and cons.
Pros:
- Data deduplication technology reduces storage space requirements.
- Fast Backup and Recovery
- Very scalable
- Includes encryption and data integrity features
- Can be setup for air gapping and immutability (see reference architecture)
Cons:
- Complex – make sure you partner with the right people for implementation and support.
- Can be resource-intense. Make sure your infrastructure will support Avamar.
- Avamar is really designed to work well with Data Domain. They were purpose-built for each other. If you’re not using Data Domain, make sure you understand integration complexities.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Enterprise
5. Cohesity
Cohesity is a data management platform that offers a comprehensive suite of services, including backup and recovery, data protection, file and object storage, data analytics, and more. It aims to simplify data management for enterprises by consolidating multiple siloed data management functions into a unified platform. It is offered as an on premise appliance or software.
Pros:
- Single platform for managing various data management tasks, such as backup, recovery, archiving, and analytics.
- Cohesity’s global deduplication technology reduces storage requirements.
- Cohesity is highly scalable.
- Cohesity offers support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Cohesity provides advanced security features, such as encryption, access controls, and data integrity verification.
- Can provide air gapping and immutability (see solution brief)
Cons:
- Higher upfront cost compared to some other data management solutions.
- May be complex for some to setup. Make sure you partner with the right people.
- Cohesity’s data deduplication and compression processes can introduce performance overhead.
- Vendor Lock-In: Organizations may become dependent on Cohesity’s platform for their data management needs.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
6. Rubrik
Rubrik is a cloud data management platform that offers a range of services including data backup, recovery, replication, archival, and analytics. It aims to simplify and streamline data management operations for enterprises, enabling them to protect and manage their data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments from a single, unified platform. It is offered as an on premise appliance or software.
Pros:
- Single backup and recovery platform.
- Rubrik’s policy-driven approach automates data protection and management tasks, simplifying operations and reducing the risk of human error.
- Integrates with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
- Instant Recovery.
- Global Deduplication.
- Can support immutability and air gapping (see solution brief)
Cons:
- Cost.
- Setup and support – partner with the right people.
- Rubrik’s primary focus is on cloud-based data management, which may limit its compatibility and support for certain on-premises environments or legacy systems.
- Rubrik may have limitations in integrating with certain third-party applications or platforms, requiring additional customization or manual intervention to achieve seamless integration within the IT ecosystem.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Mid-market
- Enterprise
7. Commvault
Commvault is often thought of as the king of the castle in the domain of backup and recovery software. It has enjoyed a long tenure as a mature backup solution and is a comprehensive data management platform that provides backup, recovery, archive, replication, and disaster recovery capabilities for enterprises.
Pros:
- Single software for managing various data management tasks, including backup, recovery, archive, and replication.
- Commvault supports deployment in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
- Commvault offers a wide range of features and capabilities, including deduplication, encryption, snapshot management, and data analytics.
- Commvault’s policy-driven approach automates data protection tasks.
- Commvault is highly scalable.
- Can provide air gapping and immutability (requires Air Gap Protect)
Cons:
- Commvault is relatively complex due to all the features. Make sure you partner with the right people.
- Commvault is considered an enterprise backup solution and really only fits there due to the cost model.
- Commvault can be resource-intensive.
Customer Sweet Spot
- Enterprise