In the realm of virtualization, VMware stands as a cornerstone, empowering businesses with the flexibility and efficiency of virtual environments. As organizations increasingly rely on VMware for their critical workloads, the need for robust backup solutions becomes paramount. The potential risks of data loss, system failures, or cyber threats underscore the importance of implementing reliable VMware backup solutions.
In this blog post, we will delve into the dynamic landscape of virtualization and explore the top 3 VMware backup solutions that ensure the resilience and security of your virtualized infrastructure.
1) BDRSuite – Our Top Pick for VMware Backup
BDRSuite is the most cost-effective VMware backup solution for protecting your VMware virtual machines (VMs) with unmatched reliability. As the best VMware backup & replication software available, BDRSuite offers comprehensive features specifically designed for VMware environments includes agentless VM Backups, ransomware defense, built in encryption & compression, automated backup verification, offsite copies, cloud backups & more.
- Agentless image-level VM backup: BDRSuite offers agentless image-level VM backup for VMware, which includes application-aware backups and forever incremental backups as well.
- Flexible backup storage options: BDRSuite provides a range of backup storage options, including on-premises to local disks, NAS, SAN, or tape, in the cloud including S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage
- Near Continuous Data Protection (CDP): With RPO and RTO less than 15 minutes, BDRSuite allows businesses to have guaranteed business continuity in the event of a disaster.
- CBT based incremental backup: BDRSuite uses VMware CBT to track and backup only the changed blocks each schedule.
- VM Replication with Failover & Failback: BDRSuite provides entire site-level protection by replicating business-critical VMware virtual machines to a secondary DR site.
- Instant & Granular Recovery: You can restore an entire VM in less than 15 mins or you can restore only individual disks and files/folders from backup.
- Centralized Management: BDRSuite provides a single, easy-to-use management console for centrally managing all backup operations with reporting and notification capabilities.
Key Benefits:
- FREE VMware Backup: BDRSuite offers free backup for up to 10 VMware VMs with all core backup and recovery features.
- Cost-Effective Backup: With BDRSuite, you can backup and protect your VMs at $1.80/vm/month
- Free Trial: BDRSuite offers 30-day fully featured free trial for you to explore in your environment. Download now!
2) Veeam
Veeam Backup & Replication is a backup and recovery solution that provides image-level backups of VMs. It treats VMs as objects, not as a set of files. When you back up VMs, Veeam Backup & Replication copies a VM image as a whole, at a block level. Image-level backups can be used for different types of restore, including Instant Recovery, entire VM restore, VM file recovery, file-level recovery and so on.
When a backup job is initialized, the Veeam Backup Manager process is started on the Veeam backup server. Veeam Backup Manager reads job settings from the Veeam Backup configuration database and creates a list of VM tasks to process (one task stands for one VM disk). Veeam Backup Manager connects to the Veeam Backup Service. The Veeam Backup Service is responsible for coordinating the backup process and managing interaction between Veeam Backup & Replication components.
- Simple, scalable protection: Veeam Backup & Replication provides simple, flexible, reliable, and powerful capabilities that modernise protection. It is designed to be easy to control, and backups complete quickly with image-based, single pass backups that leverage VM, hardware, and OS snapshots.
- Image-Based Backups: Veeam utilizes image-based backups for VMware environments, capturing entire VM images for comprehensive protection.
- Instant VM Recovery:Allows for quick recovery of VMs directly from the backup file, minimizing downtime.
- Veeam Explorer: Provides granular recovery options for individual files or items within VM backups, supporting applications like Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Active Directory.
- SureBackup and SureReplica: Verifies the recoverability of backups and ensures replicas are functional through automated testing.
3) Acronis
Acronis Backup Solutions for VMware Deployments is a comprehensive backup and recovery solution that provides fast, easy backup and recovery for virtual machines (VMs) running on-premises . Here are some of its key features:
- Flexible recovery options: Acronis Backup Solutions for VMware Deployments offers a wide variety of vSphere VM backup storage options, including on-premises to local disks, NAS, SAN, or tape, in the cloud to Acronis Cloud Storage, or to any combination of the two .
- Agentless Backups:Acronis offers agentless backups for VMware, eliminating the need for agents within each VM.
- Flexible Recovery Options: Supports full, incremental, and differential backups with flexible recovery options, including file-level recovery and full VM recovery.
- Acronis Active Protection: Provides real-time protection against ransomware and other cyber threats, helping prevent unauthorized access to backup data.
- Cloud Integration:Facilitates cloud backups and storage, allowing users to store backups in the Acronis Cloud or other supported cloud services.
- Automated Backup Plans: Offers easy-to-configure automated backup plans for efficient and scheduled data protection
Conclusion
The top VMware backup solutions highlighted in this blog post offer a spectrum of features, catering to diverse organizational needs. Whether prioritizing ease of use, scalability, or advanced functionalities, each solution brings a unique set of benefits to ensure the integrity and recoverability of your virtualized assets. As the virtual landscape evolves, the right backup solution becomes the linchpin for sustained success in the dynamic realm of IT infrastructure.
