A reliable enterprise backup and recovery solution is an essential component of a viable information technology (IT) environment. Backup and recovery offers protection for valuable systems and data resources and is a critical part of a disaster recovery or business continuity strategy. Businesses that fail to address data protection with a viable backup and recovery solution are taking an enormous risk.
While many companies have legacy backup and recovery procedures in place, they may not effectively address the realities of computing environments in 2022. Protecting software as a service (SaaS) offerings as well as hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures may not be possible with legacy tools, necessitating the search for more comprehensive solutions.
The availability of multiple enterprise-grade backup and recovery solutions can complicate the selection process. Decision-makers need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the products and how they fit into their business strategy. This post provides some information that will help companies make the right choice in backup and recovery software.
Why Backup and Recovery Matters
An organization’s data is its most valuable asset and needs to be protected with a reliable backup and recovery strategy. The existence of good backups can be the difference between a short and controllable outage and a business-impacting disaster. It is essential to have a viable backup and recovery strategy in today’s data-driven business world.
A few examples will highlight the critical nature of a backup and recovery solution to address various data loss scenarios.
- Backups can be used to recover from a ransomware or malware attack while avoiding lengthy system outages and not acquiescing to cybercriminals’ financial demands.
- Faulty system upgrades or failed migrations can inadvertently delete data that can only be recovered with valid backups.
- Human error is an ever-present danger that can result in the loss of business-critical data.
The Gartner Magic Quadrant Report
Gartner is a respected research authority that provides informative reports on many types of products, industries, and trends. The Gartner Magic Quadrant Report on enterprise backup and recovery software solutions provides a wealth of information about the major industry vendors. The report provides a view of the current and future state of enterprise backup and recovery software that can influence an organization’s selection process. Its focus is on solutions that address the evolving needs for backup and recovery in complex IT infrastructures.
The report categorizes software solutions in four ways. They can be considered:
- Leaders;
- Challengers;
- Niche Players;
- Visionaries.
A product’s ability to execute and its completeness of vision is indicated by its location on the report’s chart. Backup solutions can take various forms. They can be offered as a managed backup as a service, a software package, or a dedicated appliance that is integrated into a computing environment.
Gartner’s goal in producing this report is to offer analysis that decision-makers can use to review and modernize their backup and recovery procedures.
Core Features of Backup and Recovery Solutions
All enterprise backup and recovery solutions need to provide a set of core capabilities to effectively serve the needs of modern businesses. These features include:
- The ability to backup and recover files, databases, and applications from on-premises systems;
- The capability to backup and recover data stored in public cloud computing models;
- The capacity to create multiple copies of backups for enhanced resiliency, disaster recovery, and other business requirements;
- Flexible retention policies that enable data to be saved according to business objectives;
- The facility to report on the success or failure of backup processes.
All enterprise backup and recovery tools should offer these capabilities. If they don’t, they should not be in consideration as a solution to protect your computing environment.
Unique Features of Specific Backup and Recovery Solutions
In addition to its core capabilities, many backup and recovery tools have specific features that make them attractive solutions in certain cases. The additional features available in some backup and recovery solutions include:
- Data protection and backup for endpoints, workloads such as containers, and remote sites or edge computers;
- The availability of tiered data management that makes use of multiple targets such as on-premises and cloud storage;
- Bare-metal recovery capabilities;
- The capability to use the tool to facilitate data discovery and regulatory compliance;
- Managed disaster recovery procedures;
- Data anomaly, ransomware, and malware detection.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Specific Solutions
Gartner’s report details some of the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions it reviewed. This information can represent the deciding factor in whether a particular solution is right for an organization. A few examples will show the kinds of issues found in specific solutions.
- Arcserve is not a good choice if your business needs to backup containers.
- Dell’s Avatar product can experience performance problems when recovering Data Domains.
- IBM’s Spectrum Protect Plus lacks support for popular cloud databases such as those from AWS and Azure.
The issues found in these solutions will only affect a subset of customers and should not be seen as an indictment of the product’s viability. This information simply clarifies the tool’s functionality and provides data to help an organization select the right solution for its unique needs.
Choosing the Right Backup and Recovery Solution
Every company has unique business requirements and objectives that require tailored software and hardware solutions. Your company’s existence could rely on the ability of its backup and recovery solution to successfully restore systems in the event of a disaster or cyberattack. In regulated industries, some data elements are required to be backed up and retained long-term to address compliance standards.
Aligning business requirements with the right backup and recovery solution can be a daunting challenge for IT decision-makers. VAST partners with many of the backup and recovery solutions referenced in the Gartner report. Customers can take advantage of VAST’s extensive experience in backup and recovery and data protection.
VAST’s expertise in data protection enables them to evaluate your environment and business objectives and recommend the most effective enterprise backup and recovery solution. Let VAST help your company address the complexity of data protection with an enterprise backup and recovery tool that addresses your unique requirements.
