The dangers of losing data cannot be overemphasized, and there are numbers to show for it. A whopping 94% of companies fail after hefty data losses, with 51% of these shutting down within two years and 43% never reopening. For small businesses, this end comes faster and is almost inevitable.
Disaster recovery tools have been used to protect against catastrophes that lead to these unfortunate events. However, there is a problem where using unreliable software exposes small and large enterprises to more data security and IT performance risks. From a business perspective, these are risks that could cause losses of up to $1 million per hour.
Because of this challenge, we have compiled a list of the best disaster recovery tools in the market today. Keep on reading to learn what they are best for and how to select the best fit for your organization.
Also Read: Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Testing
Understanding disaster recovery tools and the role
When it comes to IT, disaster recovery (DR) involves protecting and revitalizing systems and entire infrastructures during and after disasters. These “disasters” are unwanted events that cause a breakdown in IT operations. Such disasters could include natural catastrophes, successful cyber-attacks, human error, power outages, and hardware failure. Disaster recovery operations aim to reduce downtime and prevent data loss.
Disaster recovery tools, hence, are software programs that support this protection and revitalization workflow. They simplify, hasten, and perfect disaster recovery operations. They help regain access and functionality to core IT systems and applications immediately, while keeping data and running states as up-to-date as possible.
Intuitiveness and automation are the primary advantages software tools bring to the disaster recovery front. They centralize the management of cross-platform IT systems and automate important DR operations. These operations include DR planning, DR testing, data backup, replication, monitoring, failover execution, security, and compliance.
Also Read: Infrastructure Monitoring Tools
Best disaster recovery tools
The best disaster recovery tools come with comprehensive features and have a track record of security and reliability over the years.
Here is our selection of the best disaster recovery tools that you can use with confidence:
1. Axcient x360Recover
Best for Microsoft Azure users
Axcient x360Recover is a managed service provider (MSP)-only disaster recovery solution that promises a recovery time objective (RTO) of one hour.
Top features
- Chain-free backup technology that ensures each recovery point is independent of others.
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) infrastructure options
- Built-in anti-ransomware technology
- Automated backup integrity verification
- HIPAA, GDPR, and AICPA SOC 2 compliant.
The pricing is determined on a quote, while a Demo and 14-day free trial are available.
Also Read: Insider Threat
2. Datto Siris
Best for Bare Metal Recoveries
Datto Siris comes with trademarked, game-changing solutions that ensure data is never irretrievably lost. It holds Software Review’s 2022 gold medal for backup and availability.
Top features
- Inverse Chain Technology for transforming snapshots into independent recovery points
- Cloud Deletion Defense solution to recover deleted backup resources
- Comprehensive restoration capabilities covering file-level instances, full virtual systems, and bare metal systems. Bare metal recovery (BMR) comes with a Fast Fallback solution to instantly sync new data
- Off-site backups for increased security and reliability, with infinite and time-based data retention options
- Backup insights
- All-in-one, cloud-based, multi-tenant management portal
For pricing, you need to request a quote. They also offer a demo.
3. Nakivo Backup & Replication
Best for Disaster Recovery Planning
Nakivo offers multi-level recovery solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprises, and MSPs. It also boasts a 4.8-star rating from Gartner Peer reviews, as well as patronization from organizations like Cisco, John Hopkins University, Honda, and Siemens, among 26,000 others.
Top features
- Compatibility with platforms like Linux, Amazon EC2, Nutanix, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle, and SQL servers.
- Customizable disaster recovery planning, including considerations for secondary failbacks and recovery workflow testing.
- Customizable, role-based permissions
- Virtual machine replication
For pricing, Nakivo is available through multiple subscription and virtual purchase plans. Subscription plans include a Pro Essentials plan, Enterprise Essentials plan, and Enterprise Plus plan all charged per workload. Perpetual plans include similarly-named Pro Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Plus plans but at significantly higher costs. A Demo and a 15-day free trial are also available to you.
4. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
Best for Extended Workload Support
Acronis Cyber Protect is a large-scale, enterprise-level disaster recovery software dedicated to managed service providers (MSPs). This solution also offers cybersecurity and endpoint management features alongside its backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Top features
- One-click automations and off-host data processing to ensure minimal recovery point objective (recovery data) losses.
- Support for over 20 workload types, including Windows, Linux, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Mac, and Hyper-V.
- Incremental and differential backup capabilities with cloud-physical migration support
- Encrypted data archives and backup support for Microsoft SQL and Exchange clusters, MariaSQL, MySQL, OracleDB, and SAP.
The cost of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is determined by a quote and available either on a Per Workload or a Per GB basis.
5. iDrive Online Backup
Best for Businesses With Tight Budgets
iDrive is a disaster recovery solution that focuses on affordability and cross-OS backup compatibility.
Top features
- Automated backups and snapshots for PCs, mobile devices, and external storage devices with up to 30 running versions.
- iDrive Express option for physical delivery of backed-up resources to limit bandwidth usage
- Web-based console to manage data administration on multiple remote computers
- 256-bit AES encryption
iDrive is available through five plans. A free Basic plan comes for 10 GB worth of data, a Mini plan for up to 500GB, and a Personal plan for 100 TB. An iDrive Business plan covers unlimited users and up to 50 TB of data, while the Team plan offers support for up to 500 users, devices, and 500 TB.
6. Nutanix Disaster Recovery
Best for Customizing Disaster Recovery Workflows
Nutanix boasts of a wide network of strategic technology alliances. It’s trusted by government agencies across the world, as well as companies like Volkswagen, Xiaomi, and Hyundai. It promises 41% faster recovery and 85% reduction in downtime.
Top features
- Customizable disaster recovery platform with built-in orchestration solutions
- Allows data backup to secondary, integrable platforms
- Backup objects on S3-compliant platforms of your choice
- Options for testing, failovers, and failbacks
- Automated recovery workflows
- Data replication within metropolitan regions for zero RPO and RTO loss
Nutanix pricing is available through a quote and you can “test drive” it through a personalized live Demo.
7. Veeam
Best For DR Compliance Reporting
Veeam is a data platform with over 450,000 worldwide customers. It comes with monitoring and analytics alongside its automated disaster recovery solution.
Top features
- Support for physical, virtual, and cloud application/SaaS deployments
- Automated disaster recovery testing
- Hybrid cloud-focused solution for agent and agent-based disaster recovery workflows
- Agent backup and recovery for Azure and vSphere VMs
- Offsite data and VM replication
- Automated compliance documentation and report generation
- Centralized, intuitive dashboard for service level agreement (SLA) monitoring
Veeam is available through three plans — a Foundation plan, an Advanced plan, and a Premium plan with an additional ransomware warranty. All plans come with a free trial and a Demo.
8. Unitrends
Best for Ransomware-Focused DR Strategies
Unitrends offers fast disaster recovery designed against ransomware attacks, promising immutability and automations that never fail.
Top features
- Special Unitrends backup appliances with up to 120 TB support
- Automated, centralized dashboard to manage over 1000 backups
- HIPAA, SOX, and GDPR-compliant data management system
- Pattern learning and analysis for ransomware detection
- Automated testing against RPO, RTO, compliance, and SLAs
- Adaptive deduplication, which includes data compression
Unitrends pricing is determined by a quote and a free trial is also available.
9. Carbonite Recovery
Best for Granular Data Protection
Carbonite Recovery is focused on cloud data replication, offering your organization recovery workflows that are powered by automations, self-service DR testing, and secure data management.
Top features
- Automated system discovery
- Byte-level replications executed in real-time
- Compatibility with cloud, virtual, and physical systems
- Pre and post-failover workflow orchestration
- Support for CentOS, Microsoft Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu. Also supports VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V
Carbonate is available in four plans. There is a Personal plan for up to 3 computers, a Professional plan for up to 25 computers, and a business plan designed for small to enterprise-level businesses. The Partner plan is designed for MSPs who wish to manage multiple business disaster recovery scenarios.
10. Arcserve Shadow Protect
Best for Extended Storage Platform/Device Compatibility
Arcserve Shadow Protect is a recovery software for SMBs and MSPs. It’s designed for centralized cross-platform protection and broad hypervisor support.
Top features
- Compatibility with VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, and more.
- Automated backup and recovery testing
- Storage-agnostic capabilities, offering compatibility with almost all storage devices
- Recovery scheduling without negative impact on production performance
The Arcserve ShadowProtect is only purchasable through an Arcserve technology partner situated near you, while a free trial and Demo are also available.
11.VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery
Best for Scale-Out File System Integration
The VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery solution promises to reduce a business’s total cost of ownership (TCO) by 60% through cloud scalability and automated failbacks.
Top features
- Pilot Lite mode to hasten the recovery of RTO-friendly critical resources through pre-deployed software-defined hosts
- Automated delta-based failback feature to optimize data transfer
- Live Mount feature integrated with a Scale-out Cloud File system (SCFS) to support immutable snapshots and instant VM reboots
- Automated DR report generation
- Regular 30-minute DR health checkups and automatic email alerts to ensure optimal performance.
There are two classes of VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery plans available — an ordinary Production class and a VMware Cloud on AWS class. The latter is available through a Single host plan charged hourly and a Production host option charged on-demand, yearly, or every three years.
12. Cohesity
Best for NIST-Compliant Recovery
Cohesity is a recovery solution focused on meeting NIST CSF standards. It has helped clients save millions of dollars and up to 99% of valuable time from downtime events.
Top features
- Centralized DR management
- DR policy framework automated through relevant SLAs
- Self-managed, Cohesity-managed, and Partner-managed DR options
- AWS marketplace integration for easy access to compliance, analytics, and ransomware prevention solutions
Cohesity’s Disaster Recovery pricing is determined after a quote, while a 30-day free trial and Demos are available to help you to get started.
Also Read: How to Reduce IT Costs
Important features to look out for in disaster recovery software
Selecting disaster recovery software from all the options in the market can be daunting. However, choosing one without these key features may leave your organization circling in the middle of a disaster.
Always pay keen attention to these specific features:
1. Image-based backup and recovery
Image-based disaster recovery involves snapshots and replications of entire systems, including configurations, data, permissions, and partitions.
Although non-image-based backups permit more specific, granular file recovery operations, image-based recovery prevents data loss and ensures immediate full system recovery.
Hence, opting for image-based data recovery software offers the most reliability. What’s more, modern solutions like Datto Siris, for instance, offer image-based recovery with granular, file-level retrieval capabilities.
Also Read: Backup as a Service
2. Cross-device, cross-OS, and cross-environment compatibility
The complexity of today’s IT world has caused IT-dependent businesses to adopt multiple solutions from multiple vendors.
These are solutions to either stay ahead of cyber threats or meet the increasing pressure of customer and business expectations. A disaster recovery solution without cross-platform compatibility does little to solve this problem but, instead, adds to the complexity.
This is why it is best to choose a tool that offers compatibility with multiple desktop and mobile operating systems, IT machine vendors, and storage solutions. You choose one that supports a host of data management platforms and IT deployment scenarios relevant to your organization, whether physical, virtualized, or cloud-based.
Also Read: Quishing — The New Threat
3. Scale-Out Storage Considerations
Scale-up and Scale-out storages are designed for managing data growth and maintaining business continuity.
While scale-up storages involve increasing the capacities of devices to accommodate more data, scale-out storages involve adding more devices to the storage environment.
Scaling up may be less expensive and reduces complexity. Scaling out, on the other hand, offers long-term reliability, aids fault identification/management, permits distributed data storage, and has unlimited scalability potential.
Hence, for disaster recovery workflows where intense computing operations are important, having software that supports the more efficient scale-out storage setup prevents operational hiccups.
Other critical features to look out for include:
- Remote data replication
- RTO and RPO management
- DR testing options
- Visualization dashboards.
Automation, encryption, and relevant compliance assurance also ensure more efficient DR workflows.
Go deeper into what to consider in disaster recovery solutions
Conclusion
We understand if you are still at the crossroads to make this important decision. There are 12 great tools that fit our recommendations, but which is best for your business or organization?
Well, the right tool for you depends on your unique business goals and disaster recovery needs. Based on SLA requirements, you first need to define recovery time and point objectives. Next, choose the right strategy for data/system replication, and identify relevant security and compliance requirements.
The above stages can effectively help you to pick a tool that offers the best in-class disaster recovery solution for your environment.
