Comparing Leading Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Systems
Effective business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) systems are no longer a luxury for businesses. As the digital world continues to become increasingly complex and interconnected, the risk of cyber threats and their subsequent costs continue to rise, and security breaches have become the leading cause of business downtime today.
BCDR systems are now a necessity for any organization looking to protect its data, prevent costly downtime, and recover rapidly from unexpected disruptions.
In this guide, we compare four of the market’s leading BCDR providers and solutions. Our comparisons will give you all the information you need to choose the optimal solution for comprehensive data protection.
The Vendors
Veeam
Veeam is a well-established business continuity and disaster recovery service provider. It is renowned for its complete and extensive data protection solutions that cover virtual, on-premises, and cloud data storage environments.
Veeam services businesses of all sizes and scopes and provides a variety of systems, features, and functionalities to meet differing business needs.
Datto
Datto provides personalized, turnkey BCDR solutions to managed service providers (MSPs), which target small to medium businesses with their services.
Its core services include numerous backup and disaster recovery tools, and it provides functional networking and business management systems for MSPs.
Axcient
Axcient offers specialized BCDR services focusing on cloud-based solutions for MSPs. The vendor provides a complete suite of disaster recovery solutions, including security tools and business continuity and backup and disaster recovery modules.
These data security tools have been engineered by MSPs to safeguard client data and promote streamlined business continuity should a breach occur.
Infrascale
Infrascale offers cloud-focused BCDR solutions, including a range of tools designed to serve the needs of businesses of all sizes and scopes.
The Infrascale platform provides disaster recovery and backup tools and robust cybersecurity features. These enable organizations to protect their applications, systems, and data against a spectrum of digital threats.
Target Market and Use Cases
Veeam caters to various organizations, from small to medium businesses (SMBs) to large-scale enterprises. Its scalable solutions make it optimally suited to a variety of use cases, ranging from physical server and cloud workload protection to virtual environment management.
Datto’s target market consists mainly of MSPs that manage IT infrastructure for small to medium businesses. Its user-friendly solutions are designed to be simple to manage and scale, making them ideal for MSPs with multiple clients.
Axcient also serves MSPs with solutions tailored to the specific needs of SMBs. It adopts a cloud-first approach to business continuity and disaster recovery, providing an extensive collection of products within a unified platform for seamless BCDR management.
Infrascale provides its services to a broad spectrum of businesses, including SMBs and major enterprises. Like Axcient, it adopts a cloud-first approach to BCDR, as well as a robust focus on cybersecurity to provide a cutting-edge complete solution for its clients.
Deployment and Infrastructure
Each service provider offers unique infrastructure and deployment methods in line with the needs of its target market.
Veeam prioritizes the provision of flexible deployment methods, ranging from cloud and hybrid to on-site deployment. It also supports several infrastructure environments, including public clouds like Azure and AWS, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere. The software is entirely virtual. To run Veeam’s program, you’ll need multiple repositories, a Veeam Backup & Replication Server, proxy data movers, an SQL database, and a WAN Accelerator.
Datto’s deployment primarily focuses on appliance environments and uses hardware devices kept on-site at clients’ locations. This strategy simplifies both deployment and management for MSPs, although it sometimes requires investments in extra hardware.
Axcient’s cloud-based deployment approach delivers its solutions as services. This eliminates the need for physical hardware and significantly streamlines the management process.
Like Veeam, Infrascale delivers flexible deployment options, including cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployment. It supports a spectrum of infrastructural environments and serves a range of customer requirements with its core offerings.
Backup and Recovery Capabilities
Backup and recovery features are an essential inclusion in any solid BCDR system. All of the vendors listed offer a range of backup and recovery capabilities to protect business data.
Veeam’s list of backup and recovery features is extensive. The vendor’s solutions include file-level recovery, image-based backups, and application-aware backups. It also supports a variety of recovery methods, from bare-metal and cloud-based recovery to instant VM recovery and beyond.
Datto protects its client’s data on every level by offering rapid recovery features. These are supported by screenshot verification and instant virtualization. Its solutions also include ransomware protection and inverse chain technology for quick and efficient data backups.
Axcient’s range of backup and recovery capabilities is extensive. The service provider offers file-level recoveries, image-based backups, application-aware backups, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), and cloud-based recovery methods.
Infrascale’s solutions combine several disaster recovery and backup capabilities, including bare-metal recovery, file-level recovery, and image-based backups. The data protection solution’s cloud-based recovery methods and wide range of covered recovery scenarios create a comprehensive approach to data recovery.
Cloud Integration and Storage
Veeam supports integration with cloud platforms like Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS. It also facilitates a number of cloud storage options, enabling users to use the cloud to enable their disaster recovery and data protection efforts.
Datto adopts a unique approach with its own custom data storage cloud platform. The vendor offers integration capabilities with numerous cloud providers to meet the varying needs of its clients.
Axcient also uses its own cloud platform. It provides a secure and scalable solution tailored to the storage and disaster recovery needs of MSPs and their customers.
Infrascale, too, uses its own cloud infrastructure for data storage and recovery. Facilitating integrations with many key public cloud platforms, it provides customers with flexible options for their BCDR processes.
Management and Usability
Veeam simplifies management with a centralized console through which users can manage, monitor, and personalize their backup and recovery efforts. The platform has an intuitive interface that most intermediate users will find easy to navigate. Certain features included in the service will require some level of technical skill.
Datto provides a digital management interface that focuses on being simple to use, even for beginners. The interface is specifically designed for use by MSPs, enabling them to streamline the process of managing multiple devices and clients through a single dashboard.
Axcient’s cloud-based management console provides a comprehensive, centralized overview of users’ disaster recovery and backup operations. Its interface is simple to navigate and use, both for MSPs and for their BCDR clients.
Infrascale’s web-based management interface has been engineered to be simple and highly intuitive to use. It offers a unified overview of all cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and backup functionalities that enable users to manage all of their BCDR operations simultaneously for maximum efficiency.
Pricing and Licensing
Each BCDR solution provider has its own pricing and licensing structures.
- Veeam: Offers a range of pricing and licensing options, including subscriptions, cloud-based pricing structures, and perpetual licenses for its clients. Although this pricing system is complex, it enables users to choose specific products and capabilities in line with their individual data security strategies.
- Datto: Focuses mainly on providing subscription pricing for its solutions. Subscriptions are priced on a sliding scale depending on the number of users and devices included in the plan. This provides transparent and predictable pricing for MSPs and their clients.
- Axcient: Also offers subscription-based pricing. Its prices are based on the volume of storage and core features included in each plan. This pricing and licensing structure makes the platform highly scalable. It also enables MSPs and their clients to adjust their plans seamlessly according to their evolving needs.
- Infrascale: Uses a subscription-based BCDR pricing too. The vendor’s licensing plans are varied and flexible, serving a broad spectrum of needs and budget requirements. Its prices are largely based on how many users and devices are protected under a specific plan, as well as the features included therein.
Support and Community
BCDR platforms with large and active communities offer significant advantages to their users. These communities can provide helpful insights and resources for effectively managing backup and data recovery efforts and making the best use of the platforms themselves. Customer service is also critical, as MSPs deserve the same excellent service and support they provide to their customers.
Veeam’s community is vast and generally quite active, providing a wealth of resources and channels for seeking support. The platform also provides varying levels of support, including assistance via phone and online chat. Users can also seek professional support services for more complex queries and challenges. Veeam has won several awards but none specifically for customer support.
Datto’s community of MSPs is strong and well-connected, offering great support and interaction for users. This platform also supplies support through its extensive online forums, databases, and direct channels of assistance. They offer a single training opportunity included in the purchased ‘Welcome to Kaseya’ program.
Like Datto, Axcient has a highly active MSP community. Assistance can be reached via phone and online support, as well as through a specialized partners’ portal, complete with ample resources and user training guides. Datto does not have any awards specific for customer support. Their access to support is based on what support tier you have purchased.
Infrascale users can secure comprehensive support and assistance through online, phone, and email channels. This platform also offers its own dedicated knowledge base and community forums, which are especially useful for finding answers to niche questions and handy user guides for Infrascale’s most popular services and features. Infrascale’s support team is recognized with significant annual awards from the Stevie Awards and Inc Power Partners.
Core Product Performances
The Veeam Data Platform, Datto Unified Backup, Axcient x360 Recover, and Infrascale Backup and Disaster Recovery are all engineered to streamline and optimize backup and recovery efforts.
Backup and Recovery
All four BCDR vendors provide robust and efficient backup and recovery capabilities. These include application-aware backups, image-based backups, and file-level recovery operations. They also all support various data recovery processes, including cloud-based recovery, bare-metal recovery, and instant VM recovery.
All four providers offer data immutability as part of their backup systems, and Veeam, Datto, and Axcient also offer air-gap backups. All offer failover testing, although Veeam’s testing process can be tedious, and all provide a range of data replicating options as well. Veeam and Infrascale rely on replication chain, replica seeding and mapping, and replicating from backups, and Axcient replicates to its x360Recover Vault.
Microsoft 365 Backup
Veeam, Datto, Axcient, and Infrascale all provide comprehensive backup and recovery solutions that can be integrated with Microsoft 365. This functionality provides protection for vital information like contact information, emails, and files stored in OneDrive.
The features and prices of each vendor’s Microsoft 365 backup tools may vary. Be sure to compare their respective offerings to your organization’s needs to secure optimal data protection.
User Reviews
Based on reviews on PeerSpot and Google, the following trends in user experiences have emerged:
Veeam Reviews
The Veeam data platform has notably positive reviews. User reviews highlight its ease of use, backup frequency, and functionality. They have also listed its features and product quality as some of its key benefits.
Some reviews also praise the platform’s robust and secure configurations, speedy backup and restoration processes, and compatibility with a wide range of different hardware types and models.
Datto Reviews
Datto’s BCDR solution has garnered positive testimonials for its responsive customer service, functional cloud services, and robust security.
Many users also appreciate its integrity and screenshot verification features, its ransomware protection, and its Datto Cloud Continuity local and cloud backups.
Axcient Reviews
Axcient users recommend the vendor’s user-friendly x360Cloud portal and its extensive features. Many reviews highlight the convenience of instantly viewing container backup status and streamlined integration with cloud services like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Infrascale Reviews
Infrascale’s users have praised the platform’s benefits for streamlining and enhancing backup and disaster recovery efforts. Some reviews note that it is easy to use and navigate and offers easy integration with a range of backup and storage solutions.
Others highlight the service’s rapid backups and restoration of essential files and SQL data, and its fast and reliable server backups.
FAQs
All four service providers use the encryption standard AES-256 for superior data protection at rest and in transit.
Yes, all of these BCDR platform providers are compliant with HIPAA regulations. Veeam is also certified as a HITRUST service provider.
Veeam and Axcient are certified by FINRA, the US-based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
All four service providers – Veeam, Datto, Axcient, and Infrascale – offer data immutability and failover testing.
Veeam, Datto, Axcient, and Infrascale all offer cloud-based and on-premises data backups for users. Additionally, Axcient, Datto and Infrascale also boast hybrid backup capabilities.
Many BCDR platforms require IT-level knowledge to manage their operations effectively. Infrascale includes user training in its service plans, making it simple to learn how to use the platform optimally.
