DCIG is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the inaugural 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Midsize Enterprise VMware vSphere Backup Solutions report. This report unveils the TOP 5 midsize enterprise backup solutions that organizations should consider for protecting their applications, data, and workloads hosted on VMware vSphere.
VMware vSphere Leads in Enterprise Server Virtualization
Analyst market reports that track server virtualization software indicate it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. These reports also find VMware vSphere maintains its lead as the server virtualization platform midsize enterprises most use.
Server virtualization in general and VMware vSphere specifically have transformed how enterprises manage their physical infrastructure. Used to host multiple applications on a single physical machine, vSphere simultaneously lowers costs while increasing operational efficiency.
VMware also makes multiple tools available to complement vSphere to assist midsize enterprises in deploying and managing it. Consider:
- VMware’s vRealize Suite visualizes virtual infrastructures to create and simplify virtual workflows within enterprises.
- VMware vSphere High Availability and Fault Tolerance help enterprises create and maintain virtual data centers with uninterrupted 24x7x365 availability.
These tools and others from VMware position large enterprises to create stable, high performing virtual infrastructures. However, they must still protect the virtual machine (VM) applications, data, and workloads hosted on VMware vSphere. This necessitates they acquire backup software specifically tuned for this task.
Distinguishing Features of Midsize Enterprise VMware vSphere Backup Solutions
Attributes that help distinguish midsize enterprise backup solutions from those that target small and large enterprises include:
- Optimized for the backup and recovery of vSphere environments with up to 10,000 VMs. Some evaluated solutions can back up vSphere environments with more than 10,000 VMs. However, DCIG finds the solutions and their feature sets most appropriate for vSphere environments with 1,000 to 10,000 VMs.
- Support leading guest operating systems (OSes). The breadth of guest OSes the backup software protects comes into play in midsize enterprises. All these solutions protect the primary OSes midsize enterprises likely possess. For instance, they protect all recent versions of Microsoft Windows Server (2012, 2016, & 2019). The majority (90+ percent) also support the Red Hat Enterprise and SUSE Linux OSes.
- Integrate with and create application-consistent backups for leading Microsoft applications. 90+ percent of these solutions integrate with and can create application consistent backups of the following on-premises Microsoft applications: Active Directory, Exchange, and SQL Server.
- Support for block, file, and cloud storage backup media targets. All these solutions support using local block and network-attached storage devices for storing backups. They also support using off-premises, S3-compliant cloud storage to store backup data. Of these solutions, 90 percent have gone the extra step to certify AWS S3 as a cloud storage target.
- Provide multiple restore options for VM file data and images. Using almost any of these solutions, midsize enterprises may perform multiple types of restores. All support granular file and folder restores. They also all support VM image restores to the same vSphere host, a different vSphere host, or restoring the VM with a different name.
- Email, phone, and web chat support. All these solutions afford midsize enterprises the option to contact them for support using email, phone, or web chat.
Midsize Enterprise VMware vSphere Backup Solutions
DCIG identified over 30 solutions suitable for protecting applications, data, and workloads on VMware vSphere. Of these, sixteen met DCIG’s definition of a midsize enterprise VMware vSphere backup solution. The general categories under which the features evaluated for these solutions fell included:
- Backup administration
- Backup capabilities
- Configuration, licensing, and pricing
- Recovery and restore
- Service and support
Based on these criteria, DCIG awarded the following midsize enterprise VMware vSphere backup solutions a TOP 5 ranking (in alphabetical order):
- Acronis Cyber Protect
- Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP)
- HYCU for VMware (TOP 5 Solution Profile Link)
- Quest NetVault Plus (TOP 5 Solution Profile Link)
- Unitrends Unified BCDR
Report Availability
The full 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 report is available for download immediately at the link(s) below. The full report contains additional details such as:
- A listing of all sixteen solutions evaluated
- An overview of common features across all midsize enterprise VMware vSphere backup solutions
- A list of attributes that all TOP 5 midsize enterprise VMware vSphere backup solutions share
- An examination on some of the differences between the TOP 5 solutions
- A profile of each TOP 5 solution that highlights the ways it distinguishes itself from the other TOP 5 solutions
The full 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Midsize Enterprise VMware vSphere Backup Solutions report may be downloaded by following the link below:
- DCIG Website: Link to Full TOP 5 Report
Confidentiality and Copyright
Other than excerpts from this report published in this announcement, the contents of the 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Midsize Enterprise VMware vSphere Backup Solutions report are copyrighted and may not be republished without permission. Individuals may access the full report at no cost by following one of the above links.
DCIG will release more TOP 5 reports in the weeks, months, and years to come. Please sign up for the weekly DCIG Newsletter to receive notice of their availability.