Backup management software roundup: What's on the market?
Organizations in search of a backup management tool may find what they're looking for in one of these products. Check out tools from vendors including Veeam, Veritas and Rubrik.
Backup management can be a difficult enough task, even before factoring in the amount of data organizations create daily. Backup admins need to keep this data safe from a variety of threats but must also ensure that it is still accessible. Luckily, there are tools available to help.
Backup management software goes beyond data protection and can help ease the burden on backup admins. Some software vendors provide automation capabilities, compression, deduplication and recovery features.
There are numerous backup management software vendors on the market. Even so, vendors' respective products are not created equal. Each has its own unique features and capabilities. Below is a breakdown of some of the leading backup products and their key advantages.
Veeam Backup & Replication
Veeam started out as a tool for backing up virtual machines, but over time Veeam Backup & Replication has evolved into a comprehensive backup management software tool, capable of backing up a wide variety of virtual, physical and cloud workloads.
Veeam introduced new capabilities in version 11 of the product, including a transition to continuous data protection (CDP). This eliminates the need to create snapshots that were previously required for replication jobs. Veeam also introduced a hardened repository designed to keep backups safe from hackers and ransomware. This repository utilizes single use credentials and stores backups in an immutable format. Additionally, Veeam enabled the instant recovery of SQL Server and Oracle databases.
Rubrik Cloud Data Management
Rubrik offers backup and recovery capabilities for virtual machines, databases, and for cloud native applications with its Cloud Data Management product.
Rubrik Cloud Data Management enables admins to create automated backup jobs and offers an instant search and recover feature that allows admins to locate and recover data to a live system without any down time. It uses CDP, which reduces data loss and helps organizations meet low recovery point objectives.
Rubrik is a good choice for organizations that want to incorporate their backups into existing workflows. A native API makes it possible for an organization to access backups from its existing tools.
Backup management software goes beyond data protection and can help ease the burden on backup admins.
Commvault Backup & Recovery
Commvault Backup & Recovery provides reliable data protection and is a solid choice for organizations interested in backup management software. It provides backup capabilities for VMs, file systems, databases, SaaS applications, containers, endpoints, and offers granular recovery capabilities. Commvault uses end-to-end data encryption, data deduplication, granular recovery, and supports copy data management.
Some users reported confusion around the Commvault licensing model. To combat this, the company introduced Complete Data Protection in July 2020. This enterprise-level tool combines backup and disaster recovery capabilities into a single product with simplified licensing. With Metallic Cloud Storage Service, Commvault Backup & Recovery software users can now use the Microsoft Azure public cloud as a backup target.
Acronis Cyber Backup
Acronis Cyber Backup is one of the lower cost options for business data protection, with licenses starting at $69. Virtualized environments are licensed by Acronis on a per-host basis. Cyber Backup protects a variety of workloads, but is particularly known for its wide support for virtualized environments. Acronis goes beyond VMware and Hyper-V protection and supports other hypervisors, such as Red Hat, KVM, Oracle VM and Citrix XenServer. Acronis also incorporates AI-powered ransomware protection into Cyber Backup.
Cyber Backup is available as a part of Acronis Cyber Protect, which is an integrated data protection tool that combines backup, disaster recovery and zero-day attack prevention.
Cohesity DataProtect
Cohesity DataProtect provides protection for both legacy and modern workloads. DataProtect is delivered as a service, and organizations can have it up and running in a matter of minutes. Organizations can host the software on premises, in a public cloud or hosted by a Cohesity service provider.
DataProtect can protect physical and virtual workloads, as well as databases. It also protects a variety of SaaS applications and offers native support for various enterprise storage vendors, including Dell, HPE and Pure Storage.
DataProtect can create unlimited snapshots in the same format as the original VM environment without an effect on performance. It also offers instant recovery of both VMs and files. The MegaFile feature breaks larger files into smaller chunks, which reduces the time required to recover those files.
Veritas
Veritas provides a centralized interface that enables admins to perform a variety of backup management tasks from a single console.
Veritas has taken steps to improve Backup Exec performance. Recently, the company released version 2 of its accelerator for VMware and Hyper-V. This accelerator dramatically improves backup performance in virtualized environments. Other notable new features include integration with Azure Stack HCI, the ability to use S3 storage as a backup target and support for Microsoft SQL in-memory online transaction processing.
