Backups are an essential component of an enterprise computing environment. Operating an information technology (IT) infrastructure without a viable backup solution in place is simply tempting fate. The ever-present risk of data loss and the threat of cybercrime make it imperative that decision-makers insist on a reliable backup solution.
Many different backup solutions are available to businesses. They range from native backup procedures offered by public cloud service providers (CSPs) to dedicated third-party software. It can be difficult to identify the tool that best fits a company’s needs.
Factors that Influence the Selection Process
Taking a methodical approach is often the best way to find the right software solution. Answering the following questions regarding your company’s backup requirements will go a long way toward making an informed selection.
What are your data storage and recovery requirements?
The first step in selecting a backup solution is to understand what your company needs it to do. Your business should develop backup and recovery policies that address the ability to quickly restore mission-critical systems and databases. Regulated industries may have additional concerns about long-term archives for specific data resources.
Do you have bandwidth limitations?
A cloud-based backup solution demands a minimum amount of bandwidth to successfully protect enterprise data resources. Backups must be able to complete within a set operational time window and enough network capacity needs to be available for restores. In some cases, bandwidth concerns may necessitate an on-premises and self-managed backup solution.
Will the solution address your complete infrastructure?
Modern computing environments are not confined to a single physical data center. The solution you choose needs to be able to back up all of your company’s infrastructure components. This includes on-premises systems, cloud solutions, remote machines, and endpoints.
Do you need reporting and alerting capabilities?
Effective data protection requires visibility into the backup environment. The reporting and alerting capabilities of a backup solution may be a determining factor in the selection process.
What type of vendor support is offered?
If problems arise with the backup solution, you need to be confident that you can quickly obtain the necessary level of vendor support. Prompt resolution of issues affecting backup and recovery is critical in providing effective data protection.
Four Reliable Enterprise Backup Solutions
After determining the features and functionality you need in a backup solution, you can begin to look at specific offerings. The following four industry-leading enterprise backup solutions all provide some noteworthy features or capabilities that may make them an excellent fit for your company.
Cohesity
Cohesity’s flagship backup and recovery solution is named DataProtect. The tool is available as a backup as a service (BaaS) offering or as self-managed software. This flexibility allows companies to implement the solution in their existing on-premises or cloud-based IT infrastructure. Licenses can be transferred between self-managed infrastructure and Cohesity’s BaaS solution.
Managing an organization’s Cohesity environments is simplified by the use of a unified and centralized interface. The tool offers fast recovery capabilities that enable customers to meet service level agreements (SLAs). A layered security strategy provides threat defense to minimize the risk of ransomware or other cyberattacks.
One limitation of Cohesity’s BaaS offering that may influence its selection for a company is its lack of support for a localized copy of backup datasets. This can negatively impact recovery if a customer’s network is down.
Druva
Druva’s Data Resiliency Cloud is a BaaS offering that runs and manages backups using Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. The solution protects diverse environments comprised of on-premises, cloud-native, SaaS systems, and remote endpoints. Druva provides comprehensive data management that includes support for data deduplication, tiered storage, and disaster recovery. Licensing is based on capacity usage, ensuring customers only pay for what they use.
Druva focuses on protecting data in AWS and has limited capabilities for multi-cloud environments. The solution has substantial bandwidth requirements for backing up directly to the cloud which may be a deciding factor in the selection process.
Veeam
Veeam offers customers the Veeam Platform which is comprised of backup, replication, monitoring, and analytics capabilities. Stand-alone modules enable Veeam to be used with public cloud infrastructures and disaster recovery procedures. The tool supports customers of any size with a proprietary product design that employs the same codebase for all environments. Veeam supports all major public cloud providers and integrates with a wide variety of platforms and applications including container-based workloads.
Managing Veeam can become complex as the environment grows. The company does not offer a native BaaS solution, relying on its Veeam Cloud and Service Provider (VCSP) partner network. This can result in an inconsistent customer experience and designates support responsibilities to the VCSP.
Veritas
Veritas is the company behind the popular NetBackup and Backup Exec data protection solutions. The company’s offerings are favored by large enterprises with diverse backup requirements. They provide on-premises and cloud-based backup solutions that address the needs of modern data-driven businesses.
Veritas offers multiple deployment options including virtualized and physical backup appliances. The tool has been redesigned to facilitate integration with cloud resources. This updated architecture auto-scales client and snapshot services to reduce the need for dedicated cloud resources. One negative aspect of this solution is the requirement for customers to update licenses to access new features.
Get Expert Help in Making Your Selection
VAST has extensive experience in helping companies implement a robust enterprise backup and recovery solution. They also partner with the four vendors whose enterprise backup offerings we looked at above. This puts them in an excellent position to determine which data protection solution best fits the needs of your company.
VAST can navigate the complexities of BaaS pricing to make sure you get the most from your cloud computing budget. They can identify the best solution for your company and assist in its implementation and management. Let VAST find the best way to protect your data and keep your company’s valuable information secure.
