Copy of Datto Appliance: An Inside Look at Hardware Specs & Pricing Going into 2025

This page was originally published at https://invenioit.com/continuity/datto-appliance/

Overview of Datto’s Appliances

The Datto appliance is the foundation of Datto’s unified backup and recovery solutions. It’s a dedicated backup device that resides on site to back up your data and replicate it to the Datto Cloud. In this post, we take an inside look at Datto’s flagship appliance (SIRIS), including key benefits, specifications, pricing and how it compares to other Datto appliances.

What is a Datto appliance?

A Datto appliance is dedicated hardware for data backup and recovery. It’s the central component of Datto’s all-in-one BCDR solutions, which unify a local backup device with redundant off-site storage in the Datto Cloud. When data loss occurs, files or systems can be restored from the appliance or from the Datto Cloud.

Benefits of Datto appliances

The key benefit of deploying a Datto backup appliance is that it provides dedicated resources for backup and recovery processes. This enables faster, more frequent backups and faster restore times, especially when using virtualization or performing full restores of entire machines.

Another primary benefit of Datto’s appliances is that they are tightly integrated with the Datto Cloud. This creates a fully unified BCDR solution that enables backup and recovery locally and in the cloud.

Below, we outline the many additional capabilities of Datto’s backup systems, including Inverse Chain Technology and built-in ransomware detection. But first, let’s look at what’s under the hood.

Datto Appliance features & specs (SIRIS)

Specifications

The Datto SIRIS appliance is available in varying sizes and form factors, with storage capacities ranging from 2TB to 60TB. This enables organizations to deploy the right backup device for their infrastructure and continuity objectives.?

Tip: Datto groups its SIRIS appliances into three levels, using naming conventions that denote the storage capacity. For example, the SIRIS 5-2 (or S5-2) denotes a storage capacity of 2TB, whereas S5-60 is the 60TB device.

Appliance layout

The layout of each Datto appliance is slightly different, depending on the model you choose. Here’s a glimpse of the SIRIS 5 2TB appliance, which is a 1U rackmount device:

1.???? Storage Array drive

2.???? Universal Audio jack (Not used)

3.???? USB 3.1 Type C

4.???? USB 3.1 Type A (x2)

5.???? SD Card reader

6.???? HDD Activity Indicator

7.???? Power button

8.???? Storage Array drive

9.???? USB Type C (x2) This also serves as the Video Output (USB-C to HDMI adapter included)

10.? Remote Power Switch Connector

11.? Serial Port

12.? 1 GbE Network Port with LED indicator

13.? 10 GbE Network Port with LED indicator

14.? Power supply connection

Additional Datto appliances

In addition to the SIRIS models highlighted above, Datto offers a few other backup devices to fit the needs of different organizations.

Datto S5X appliance

The Datto SIRIS 5 X Appliance (or S5X for short) is the small-but-mighty Mini PC version of the SIRIS 5. It weighs just over 3 pounds and is designed with a solid-state OS drive, which can deliver greater speed and performance. Capacity is limited to 2TB, so the S5X is generally recommended for businesses with smaller backup requirements and/or fewer agents.

Device specifications:

·?????? Form factor: Mini PC

·?????? Capacity: 2TB

·?????? Array: 2TB Non RAID

·?????? Dedicated OS drive: M.2 128GB PCIe NVMe Class 35 Solid State Drive

·?????? CPU: Intel Core i3-10100T processor

·?????? RAM: 16GB DDR4

·?????? NIC: 1x1GbE

·?????? Weight: 3.04 lbs.

Datto ALTO appliance

The Datto ALTO is a MicroPC backup appliance built for smaller organizations. Like the S5X, ALTO features solid-state OS and storage drives for fast backups, restores and VMs. Capacity is 1TB, making it ideal for businesses with smaller backup requirements.?

?Device specifications:

·?????? Form factor: MicroPC

·?????? Capacity: 1TB

·?????? Storage drive: 1TB PCIe NVMe Class 40 0 m.2 SSD

·?????? Dedicated OS drive: 128GB SSD

·?????? CPU: Celeron G5900T (2c/2t, 3.2GHz)

·?????? RAM: 8GB DDR4 (1x8GB) Non ECC

·?????? NIC: 1x1GbE

·?????? Weight: 3 lbs.

Datto Networking Appliance

The Datto Networking Appliance is not a backup device, but it’s worth mentioning here as it’s another example of dedicated on-prem hardware provided by Datto. The Datto Networking Appliance (DNA) is a high-performance router with fully integrated 4G LTE failover, built-in firewall and intrusion detection. It’s one of several networking products offered by Datto, including Wi-Fi access points and switches.

Choosing the right Datto backup appliance

Since Datto offers several different appliances, organizations must be careful to deploy the right backup device for their needs. Datto provides some helpful tips on properly sizing an appliance. But as a general rule of thumb, companies should choose their device based on how much data they need to back up and how many machines.

Datto recommends selecting an appliance with a storage capacity that’s at least 2 times greater than the used disk space on the protected machine (this practice is referred to as the 2-3x multiplier rule). For example, if you’re backing up a 2TB server, then you may want to deploy a Datto SIRIS 4TB appliance or larger.

The table below provides a general guideline for selecting the appropriate appliance for the number of agents to be installed.

Note: These are just rough estimates provided by Datto as a guideline. Actual usage of devices by agent quantity can vary significantly depending on a variety of factors, including configuration, encrypted agents, and the volume of data being protected.

Datto’s appliance-free backup solutions

In addition to the physical SIRIS and ALTO devices, Datto also offers appliance-free backup solutions for protecting endpoints and servers. These solutions provide direct-to-cloud backup, which means that files are backed up directly to the Datto Cloud, bypassing the need for an on-site appliance.

·?????? Endpoint Backup: Protects Windows servers, virtual machines (VMs), cloud instances, desktops and laptops with the ability to restore individual files and folders or perform a?full bare-metal restore.

·?????? Endpoint Backup with Disaster Recovery: Protects all production workloads on Linux and Windows servers & PCs, with the ability to spin up workloads in the Datto Cloud, in addition to other restore methods.

Backup & recovery capabilities

It’s important to remember that a Datto appliance is just one piece of a multilayered backup and recovery solution. The device is driven by Datto’s robust backup software, which is seamlessly integrated with the Datto Cloud. This creates a fully integrated BCDR stack with several capabilities that make it unique from competitors’ backup products:

·?????? Inverse Chain Technology: Every incremental snapshot is a fully constructed recovery point, making backups faster and more resilient, while also eliminating the need for slow chain rebuilds.

·?????? Ransomware protection: All backups are automatically scanned for ransomware as part of the backup process.

·?????? Fast recoveries: Protected files, folders and entire systems can be recovered in seconds from the Datto appliance or the Datto Cloud via several restore options.

·?????? Instant virtualization: Backups can be booted as virtual machines (locally, in the cloud or hybrid) for instant access to protected systems.

·?????? Rapid Rollback: Major unwanted changes, such as a ransomware infection, can be quickly reversed without needing to reimage an entire machine.

·?????? Cloud Defense: Even if cloud backups are deleted (accidentally or maliciously), Datto offers a failsafe to promptly undo the deletion.

·?????? Backup Verification: Backups are automatically test-boosted to ensure they are viable. Plus, Datto’s Backup Verification provides script execution to verify that applications are accessible.

·?????? Backup Insights: Datto’s web-based interface makes it easy to locate and restore lost data by identifying file changes between any two backup points.

·?????? Security: Datto employs the highest security standards across its backup devices and cloud storage, including end-to-end data encryption, multi-factor authentication and ransomware-proof ZFS snapshot files.

Pricing for Datto hardware

Pricing for a Datto SIRIS appliance starts at $995, but some of the upfront hardware costs may be discounted fully with certain deployments or manage-service agreements. Pricing will also vary based on the appliance model and storage capacity, as well as the number of devices you need to protect and the desired length of data retention in the Datto Cloud. Given the variable costs of each deployment, the best way to get accurate pricing is to request a quote.

Reviews & testimonials

Datto’s appliances are highly regarded for their reliability, performance and ease of deployment. In independent reviews, users consistently cite Datto’s robust hardware and integrated cloud as key factors that deliver a better backup and recovery solution than competing products.

Datto SIRIS currently has an 8.6 score out of 10 on TrustRadius with 96 reviews. Among Datto reviews from our own clients at Invenio IT, one customer stated: “The Datto SIRIS is simply the most important device in our network rack. This ingenious device has saved the day in many emergencies while migrating files and making hardware upgrades.”

Conclusion

Datto’s appliances bolster a company’s data protection by providing dedicated hardware for backup and recovery. These local devices are fully integrated with the Datto Cloud, providing redundant off-site storage with the ability to restore data instantly from the cloud or the on-premises appliance. Datto offers a variety of appliance options for its SIRIS and ALTO BCDR solutions, enabling organizations to deploy the right hardware for their infrastructure.