DCIG is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the inaugural 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software Offerings report. This report unveils the TOP 5 backup software offerings that organizations should consider for protecting their applications, data, and workloads hosted on Microsoft Hyper-V.
Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V: A Primary Server Virtualization Platform
Analyst market reports that track server virtualization software market expect it to continue to grow. While forecasted rates vary, analysts generally put its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 5-6 percent. These same analyst reports also identify Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V as one of the primary server virtualization platforms used by enterprises.
Server virtualization in general and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V specifically have transformed how enterprises manage their physical infrastructure. Used to host multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine, Hyper-V simultaneously lowers costs while increasing operational efficiency.
Microsoft also makes multiple software tools available to assist enterprises in deploying and managing Hyper-V. For example, enterprises may use Microsoft Windows PowerShell and Hyper-V Manager to centralize and automate Hyper-V management. Many also use Microsoft’s Failover Clustering and Hyper-V Replica. These provide high availability (HA) and VM replication and disaster recovery (DR), respectively.
These other tools from Microsoft and its partner community position enterprises to create stable, high performing virtual infrastructures. However, enterprises must still protect the applications, data, and workloads hosted by these Microsoft Hyper-V VMs. To do so, enterprises may acquire backup software specifically tuned for this task.
Common Attributes of All Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software Offerings
DCIG identified about 30 offerings suitable for protecting applications, data, and workloads hosted on Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V. Of these, 24 met DCIG’s definition of Microsoft Hyper-V backup software. In evaluating these Microsoft Hyper-V backup software offerings, they shared commonality in their support of the following features. These included:
- Support Microsoft Windows Server as a guest operating system (OS). All offerings, with one exception, protect recent Microsoft Windows Server editions (2012, 2016, and 2019) when deployed as a guest OS on a Hyper-V VM.
- Compress backup data. All offerings, with one exception, can compress backup data.
- Use local block and AWS cloud storage backup media targets. All offerings support the use of a local block storage target for storing backups. All offerings, with one exception, may use AWS S3 cloud storage as a storage target.
- Encrypt data at-rest. 96% of the offerings encrypt data at-rest.
- Email alerts. All offerings, with one exception, may be configured to send out alerts and notifications using email.
- File and folder restore. All offerings, with one exception, support the granular restore of files and folders of a Hyper-V VM.
- VM restores to same or different Hyper-V server. 90% of the offerings provide the flexibility to restore a Hyper-V VM to the same or a different Hyper-V server.
TOP 5 Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software Offerings
Of the 30 backup offerings that DCIG evaluated, 24 of them met DCIG’s definition of a Microsoft Hyper-V backup software offering. The general categories under which the features evaluated for these software offerings fell included:
- Backup administration
- Backup capabilities
- Configuration, licensing, and pricing
- Recovery and restore
- Service and support
Based on these criteria, DCIG awarded the following Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software offerings a TOP 5 ranking (in alphabetical order):
- Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP)
- Commvault Complete™ Backup and Recovery
- Quest NetVault Backup
- Unitrends BCDR
- Veritas NetBackup
Report Availability
The full 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software Offering report is available for download immediately at the link below with registration. The full report contains additional details such as:
- A listing of all 24 software offerings evaluated
- Attributes that the TOP 5 Microsoft Hyper-V backup software offerings share
- An examination of the differences between the TOP 5 software offerings
- A profile of each software offering that highlights some ways in which each one distinguishes itself from the other TOP 5 offerings
DCIG: TOP 5 report link
Confidentiality and Copyright
Other than excerpts from this report published in this announcement, the contents of the 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Software Offerings report are copyrighted and may not be republished without permission. DCIG will release more TOP 5 reports in the weeks and months to come. Please sign up for the weekly DCIG Newsletter to receive notice of their availability.