The Best Backup and Disaster Recovery Tools for 2021 and Beyond

Solutions Review’s annual Vendors to Know in Backup and Disaster Recovery provides the details on some of the most critical solution providers in the space.

The editors at Solutions Review continually research the most prominent and influential backup and disaster recovery vendors to assist buyers in search of the tools befitting the needs of their organization. Choosing the right vendor and solution can be a complicated process; it requires constant market research and often comes down to more than just the solution and its technical capabilities. To make your search a little easier, we listed the vendors to know in backup and disaster recovery.

Note: Companies are listed in alphabetical order.

Vendors to Know in Backup and Disaster Recovery, 2021

Acronis offers backup, disaster recovery, and secure file sync and share solutions. The company also provides data protection in any environment, including virtual, physical, cloud, and mobile. Acronis True Image 2020 is personal backup software that enables users to duplicate their system, effectively capturing all of their data for system recovery or disk migration. Acronis Cyber Backup is aimed towards businesses of all sizes and offers proactive ransomware protection. In 2020, Acronis acquired 5nine Software, CyberLynx, and DeviceLock. The vendor also released Acronis Cyber Protect. In May of 2021, Acronis raised $250 million in private equity from CVC Capital Partners.

Actifio enables Virtual Data Pipeline (VDP) technology and a "data time machine" for the enterprise, eliminating backup and restore windows and creating virtual, point-in-time copies of data on-demand for use by any business application. Instant data recovery means no delays in restoring data for any use. It's enabled through a simple consumer-grade interface that is SLA-driven and application-centric in applying data protection. Actifio's differentiated features in backup and recovery deliver functionality that can speed up backup modernization, improve recovery point and recovery time service levels, and apply granular protection at the application and VM level. In December, 2020, it was announced that Google acquired Actifio to enhance Google Cloud data protection.

Altaro provides users with Virtual Machine Backup and recovery solutions. The provider's flagship product, Altaro VM Backup, has a straightforward UI that facilitates its use while being full-featured to create a robust backup strategy. The solution comes equipped with an outstanding support team determined to help clients succeed in protecting their environment. Everything can be managed and monitored from a single dashboard or by using the vendor's online management console. Altaro VM Backup is an easy-to-use backup solution for Hyper-V and VMware. The solution boasts VM backup in less than 15 minutes. In early 2021, Hornetsecurity acquired Altaro for an undisclosed amount.

Arcserve offers several different backup products, including Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), Arcserve Replication and High Availability, Arcserve UDP Cloud Direct, UDP Cloud Hybrid, and a legacy offering. UDP provides comprehensive Assured Recovery for virtual and physical environments with a unified architecture and an easy-to-use console. The product enables organizations to scale their IT environments easily while delivering against recovery point and recovery time objectives, on-prem, or in the cloud. It also allows for the automated disaster recovery testing of business-critical systems, applications, and data, without business downtime or impact on production systems. Recovery testing can be fully automated or performed on a scheduled basis. Recently, Arcserve and StorageCraft completed a merger.

Asigra is built for cloud computing environments and designed to offer backup efficiencies by allowing enterprises to capture, ingest, and store less data. Designed for compatibility with public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures, the Asigra Cloud Backup solution is equipped with agentless software architecture, global deduplication, and data compression technology along with NIST FIPS 140-2 certified security. In addition, the vendor reduces recovery time objectives and eliminates silos of backup data.

Axcient offers a single solution that incorporates data protection, disaster recovery, archiving, and test/dev. The vendor provides two self-service platform options that can be managed by a single user: Axcient Business Recovery Cloud, which is the legacy solution, and Axcient Fusion, which was unveiled in 2016. Axcient Fusion is built to run on the public cloud, and both platforms offer one-hour and eight-hour RTO options. Axcient enables users to mirror their entire business in the cloud, thereby simplifying data access and restoration, failovers, and virtualization.

Barracuda Networks offers a complete cloud-integrated solution to protect physical and virtual environments that includes software, appliance, and offsite replication. The solution is simple to deploy, easy to manage, and offers users unlimited cloud storage. With an extensive range of supported environments and integration with copy file sync and share services, organizations can replace multi-vendor piecemeal backup solutions with an all-in-one appliance. The platform supports replication to another Barracuda appliance for private-cloud data protection or secure transfer to the Barracuda Cloud. In 2020, Barracuda acquired Fyde for an undisclosed amount.

Carbonite offers enterprise cloud-based backup, recovery, and storage solutions. The Carbonite Data Protection Platform allows organizations to deploy the right form of protection for each type of data in their systems—from long-term backup to rapid recovery, data migration, and endpoint protection. The vendor's Cloud Disaster Recovery centralizes data backup and recovery on all computers distributed throughout an organization's locations. Agents automatically back up the data over the internet to a highly secure data center. Additionally, in May 2020, OpenText completed its acquisition of Carbonite.

Cobalt Iron's flagship SaaS-based backup solution, Compass, reduces complexity and the amount of time spent on backup. Additionally, the software improves overall data protection performance. The enterprise data protection platform offers four main product components: Commander, Analytics Engine, Accelerators, and Accelerator Operating System. With this solution, users can access a range of analytics, driven data management capabilities through a unified web user experience. Additionally, the solution offers ransomware detection, alerting and notification, remediation capabilities, and is available in AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, and Alibaba.

Code42 offers backup, disaster recovery, and data loss protection solutions. The provider's data loss protection solution (Next-Gen DLP) detects insider threats, satisfies regulatory compliance requirements, automatically monitors file activity across computers and the cloud, and facilitates incident response. Additionally, Code42's security, IT, and compliance professionals can protect endpoint and cloud data from loss, leak, and theft while maintaining a collaborative culture for employees. This solution is recommended for backing up user data in the cloud or on-prem for compliance and simple recovery.

Cohesity is a data management company that manages, protects, and extracts value from enterprise data. The provider's flagship tool, Cohesity DataProtect, safeguards a wide range of data sources on a single web-scale platform. The solution can be deployed on-premises on qualified platforms in the data center, public cloud, and on the edge. Additionally, the platform utilizes a scale-out architecture that starts with a minimum of three nodes and scales without disruption by adding nodes to the cluster. Through this solution, users have the ability to use backup data directly on the platform without needing to restore it, which allows for the consolidation of other use cases, including dev/test and analytics.?Recently, Cohesity raised $250 million in Series E funding and is currently valued at $3.7 billion.

Commvault provides data protection and information management software to help organizations protect, access, and use all of their data economically. The vendor has a long list of supported public cloud providers, hypervisors, big data support, and database protection. The platform is primarily offered as a software-only solution, but Commvault also has an appliance option and an enterprise-grade SaaS offering for backup and recovery through?Metallic. Commvault also acquired the data storage solution provider, Hedvig. The vendor's software, solutions, and services are available directly through the company, as well as through a global ecosystem of partners.

Datto?offers backup and disaster recovery appliances, Software as a Service (SaaS) data protection, and managed networking products. The provider has more than 5,000 managed service providers across the?globe that sell?its products.?Datto?also boasts nine data center locations?worldwide, including?the U.S., Canada, Iceland, the U.K., Germany, Australia, and Singapore.?Datto?is offered for data on-prem?in a physical or virtual?server?or in the cloud via?SaaS?applications. The vendor is completely channel-driven and recently released SIRIS 4, a business continuity and disaster recovery solution built for MSPs.?In 2020,?Datto?went public and acquired?Gluh. Additionally, Datto acquired the cybersecurity company, BitDam, in March 2021 for an undisclosed amount.

Dell EMC's backup and recovery solution is a prepackaged backup suite made up of several different?components available?for individual sale. These include?Avamar, Networker,?and Data Protection Adviser, with options for cloud backup and archiving. Dell EMC's solutions give a full range of data protection, from archive to continuous availability for physical, virtual,?and cloud environments. The provider enables digital transformation through hybrid cloud and big-data solutions built on a modern data infrastructure,?bringing?together?converged?infrastructures, storage, and servers. The recently launched all-in-one Integrate Data Protection Appliance combines Data Domain with?Avamar?and DD Boost for Enterprise Applications.?

Druva?delivers data protection and management for the cloud era.?Druva?Cloud Platform is built on AWS and offered as-a-Service.?Druva?Phoenix simplifies data protection, improves visibility, and significantly reduces the risk, cost, and effort of managing complex data. The solution operates seamlessly and can be managed from one location, giving IT?administrators?full visibility and control over server backups and data composition.?Druva?is used worldwide by over 4,000 companies at the forefront of embracing?the?cloud.?Additionally,?Druva?recently?acquired?SFApex?for an undisclosed amount. In April of 2021, Druva also raised $147 million in Series H funding from a group of investors.

FalconStor?provides data protection and recovery. The tool automates complex recovery processes to ensure data can be recovered before business operations are impacted. Users can proactively detect and alert performance bottlenecks and health risks using a real-time analytics module with historical and real-time trends and reports and streaming analytics.?FalconStor?also enables wide area network (WAN)-optimized replication options for disaster recovery and remote office protection. Users?can?reduce or eliminate backup windows and recover data as well.?

Hitachi?Vantara?is a?wholly-owned?subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., and offers an expansive portfolio of products for integrating, managing,?and analyzing data. Hitachi's portfolio of data management solutions?is?best suited for modern?environments. It?can help?organizations?quickly?improve their key performance metrics, including business continuity, backup windows, operational recovery,?and disaster recovery. The tool also provides data protection and recovery for complex enterprise architectures.?Hitachi?Vantara?recently acquired Waterline Data and?Containership.

HYCU specializes in multi-cloud data backup, management, migration, protection,?and recovery for on-premises and hyper-converged (HCI), Google Cloud, Azure Cloud,?and multi-cloud infrastructures. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., HYCU harnesses 25 years of sophisticated IT experience, insights from over one million users, and works with more than 25,000 customers worldwide. The result is alignment with industry leaders and a competitive advantage in the multi-cloud space. HYCU’s flagship products, a purpose-built Data Protection solution for?Nutanix, a managed Data Protection as a?Service for Google Cloud Platform and Azure Cloud, and HYCU Protégé,?a Multi-Cloud Data Protection Solution offer one-click cross-cloud migration, disaster recovery, and consolidated management. Recently, HYCU earned $87.5 million in Series A funding from Acrew Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.

IBM offers a wide range of technology and consulting services, including predictive analytics and software development. The vendor's backup and disaster recovery solution, Spectrum Protect, is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It enables backups and recovery for virtual, physical, and cloud environments. The tool also offers VM protection with?a?searchable catalog and role-based administration. IBM Spectrum Protect is a suite of software offerings designed to help organizations manage and protect their data by simplifying backup administration.?

Infrascale?offers an enterprise-grade disaster recovery solution that provides failover to a second site with the flexibility to boot from the appliance or cloud. The product is delivered as a physical or virtual appliance and includes disaster recovery software.?Infrascale's?dashboard?simplifies?data protection?management?by providing a single view through which the entire suite of services is deployed. An administrative dashboard, accessible from any browser or device, makes it easy to recover mission-critical applications and systems with pushbutton simplicity. Infrascale recently released a next-generation backup and disaster recovery solution for SMBs.

Micro Focus offers scalable solutions with built-in hybrid IT management analytics, security, and data management. The vendor merged with?HPE in 2017?and?now?provides?Data Protector, a comprehensive, centrally managed backup and recovery software for physical and virtual environments. Data Protector offers high-performing backup and recovery across various data repositories, applications,?and remote sites in physical and virtual environments. It standardizes and consolidates backup and recovery processes?so businesses?can improve reliability, gain business resiliency,?and reduce costs.?

NAKIVO offers a data protection solution for VMware, Hyper-V, cloud, and AWS EC2 environments. The vendor boasts five-star online community reviews,?impressive?customer support scores,?and more than 10,000 global deployments. Over 150 hosting, managed, and cloud services providers?use?NAKIVO's software to?deliver virtual machine Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to their customers. The vendor also has over 4,200 channel partners in 140 countries.?

Rubrik?primarily provides data protection and data management in hybrid IT environments with its flagship product,?Rubrik?Cloud Data Management?(RCDM).?The platform is a scale-out-architecture-based data protection tool with cloud integration, live mount for Oracle Databases, support for Office 365 backup, and support for SAP HANA backup. Additionally, in 2018?Rubrik?acquired?Datos?IO, a company specializing in data protection of?NoSQL?databases.?The vendor also offers Polaris Radar, a solution?that?provides?ransomware?detection and remediation.?Rubrik's?solution is recommended to buyers looking to protect highly virtualized on-prem?environments and hybrid environments that leverage Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services?(AWS). In late 2020, Rubrik acquired Igneous.

StorageCraft?offers backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions for servers, desktops, and laptops.?The vendor’s?solutions reduce downtime, improve security and stability for systems and data, and lower the total cost of ownership. The vendor boasts four offices globally, 11,000 partners,?and has backed up over one million devices.?StorageCraft's?business?focuses?on data protection and restoration tools that are offered via value-added and channel partners. However, it also?provides?scale-out storage, replication, recovery, integrated data protection, and more. The solution is supported by on-prem and cloud-based environments, as well as hybrid deployments. In March of 2021, StorageCraft completed a merger with fellow BUDR company, Arcserve.?

Unitrends?Enterprise Backup provides a package of on-prem?backup, backup to the cloud, cloud-to-cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) backup, and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) via integrated appliances and?software-only?offerings. The provider leverages high-availability hardware and software engineering with support services to provide all-in-one backup and continuity.?Unitrends?also offers hypervisor host-level security for?VMWare, Hyper-V,?and?XenServer?and more traditional security for physical servers and databases. Unitrends, a Kaseya Company also?provides?Recovery Assurance, available with Enterprise Plus, which delivers automated, application-level consistency sandbox testing of physical servers, Microsoft Hyper-V, or VMware?vSphere?VMs.??

Veeam?Backup & Replication is a data protection and disaster recovery solution for virtual environments of any size. It provides fast, flexible,?and reliable recovery of virtualized applications and data. The provider unifies backup and replication in a single solution, increases?the?value of backup,?and reinvents data protection for VMware?VSphere?and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments.?Veeam?offers free promotions for physical server backup and O365 Exchange Online. The solution also features data center functions, including tape support and snapshot storage integration, along with key?deduplication?backup integration.?Recently,?Veeam?was acquired by Insight Partners for $5 billion.??

Veritas?Technologies provides backup and recovery, business continuity, information governance, and storage management tools. Its?NetBackup?product is a single and scalable solution that can protect physical, virtual,?and cloud workloads. Multitenant support is optional, and the solution is available on a converged platform that requires minimal administration, even in large environments. It eliminates point products and improves productivity within a business using centralized, policy-based management.?Veritas?also incorporates innovative technologies for data reduction and bandwidth efficiency?while providing extensive indexing and search capabilities.?To extend its digital compliance portfolio,?Veritas?acquired?Globanet in 2020 and HubStor in 2021.?