Top 22 Virtual Server Backup Software - DCIG

DCIG, Inc. announced the availability of its 2014-15 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 100 features on 26 different backup software solutions from 22 different backup software providers. This guide provides the critical information that all size organizations need when selecting backup software that is specifically tuned to protecting virtualized environments.

Overall Scores and Rankings

The advent and adoption of hypervisors such as Xenserver, Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux and vSphere running on Intel-based hardware has brought server virtualization to almost every size organization. Gartner’s mid-year 2013 estimates show that two-thirds of all x86 workloads are virtualized, which is up from 50% just a year ago. But as each organization rolls out virtual servers into their environment, the protection and recovery of this environment quickly takes center stage.

It therefore comes as no surprise that sizable changes in the virtual server backup software market have occurred since the release of the 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide. Vendors have tweaked and improved their backup software while others have made acquisitions and divestitures to accomplish this same objective.

By way of example, Insight Investment Partners, acquired both PHD Virtual and Unitrends and combined their products to create a new backup software offering, Unitrends Certified Recovery Suite (UCRS). Data protection company Infrascale purchased Eversync Solutions while CA Technologies divested itself of its arcserve Unified Data Protection software to Marlin Equity Partners.

In the year since DCIG released its last Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide, features and offerings have also changed. What lagged in a product’s ability a year ago may be the defining feature positioning that product ahead of others in this year’s guide. Virtual-to-physical (V2P) and physical-to-virtual (P2V) recovery are now standard features on the vast majority of virtual server backup software offerings. Features such as the VMware APIs for Data Protection (VADP,) instant recovery, deduplication, vSphere integration, and vCenter Server backup and restore capabilities are also now standard fare.

It is in this context that DCIG presents its 2014-15 guide. As prior guides have done, it puts at the fingertips of organizations a list of virtual server backup software solutions and what features they offer in the form of detailed, standardized data sheets that can assist them in this important buying decision.

DCIG 2014-15 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide
accomplishes following objectives:

Provides an objective, third party evaluation of virtual server backup software that evaluates and scores their features from an end user’s perspective.
Scores and ranks the features of each virtual server backup software solution based upon the criteria that matter most to end users and then presents these results in an easy to understand tables that displays the products’ scores and rankings so they can quickly ascertain which virtual server backup software solutions are the most appropri¬ate for their needs.
Provides a standardized data sheet for each of the 26 virtual backup software solutions from 22 different backup software providers so users may do quick comparisons of the features that are supported and not supported on each product.
Provides insight into what vSphere APIs each virtual server backup software solution supports.
Gives any organization a solid foundation for getting competitive bids from different virtual server backup software providers that are based on apples-to-apples comparisons.

The 2014-15 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide top solutions include (in alphabetical order): Asigra cloud Backup; CA arcserve Unified Data Protect; CommVault Simpana 10; Dell NetVault Backup v.10; EMC Avamar and NetWorker; HP Data Protector 8.1: Symantec Backup Exec 2014 V-Ray Edition and NetBackup 7.6 and Unitrends Certified Recovery Suite (UCRS).

Unitrends jumped to the top of this year’s guide earning the Best-in-Class ranking. Unitrends placing at the top of this year’s guide is due largely to its recent acquisition and integration of PHD Virtual with an overall bundle of leading backup & restore capabilities combined with a strong software management feature set.

In doing its research for this guide, DCIG uncovered some statistics
about virtual server backup software solutions in general:

92% do data compression
81% offer instant restore capable of mounting a backup image as a VM for recovery
80% provide the option to do virtual-to-physical (V2P) restores
73% can restore single files from storage array snapshots
70% offer web-based consoles to manage their backup software
62% provide cloud access through a 3rd party cloud provider or proprietary service
54% support the 4 hypervisors: Xenserver, Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux KVM, and vSphere
54% make their virtual backup software available as a virtual backup appliance
42% make their virtual backup software available as a physical backup appliance directly or through a third party
35% support cross-hypervisor migration
30% offer WAN acceleration to the cloud and 61% of those products provide the related encryption

As with prior DCIG buyer’s guides, it accomplishes the following objectives for end users:

Lists each virtual server backup software solution by vendor
Lists out features of each virtual server backup software solution showing key features supported or not supported by each product
Scores the features most relevant to end users
Provides at a glance reference for companies evaluating specific virtual server backup software solutions or virtual server backup software features
Provides a virtual server backup software solution ranking showing how vendor products compare against similar products on the market
Offers recommendations as to which virtual server backup software solution rankings and products best align with their specific backup objectives
Provides 26 virtual server backup software solution data sheets from 22 different vendors so organizations may compare solutions from one or many technology providers.
Facilitates and accelerates the process of organizations obtaining bids on competitive products

To download the DCIG 2014-15 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer’s Guide (registration needed).