Backup And Recovery

The Top 10 Disaster Recovery (DR) Software Solutions

Discover the top disaster recovery solutions. Explore features such as replication, automated testing, and automatically generated history reports.

The Top 10 Disaster Recovery (DR) Software Solutions Include:
  • 1. Unitrends DRaaS
  • 2. Nakivo Site Recovery for DR Orchestration
  • 3. Acronis Advanced Disaster Recovery
  • 4. Arcserve UDP
  • 5. Carbonite Recover
  • 6. Microsoft Azure Site Recovery
  • 7. RecoveryManager Plus
  • 8. Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator
  • 9. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery
  • 10. Zerto

Disaster recovery software is an “always-on” monitoring solution that diligently tracks any alterations to protected systems and ensures those changes are backed up. This software provides intelligence that can be used to inform preventative planning and disaster playbooks. This helps to put organizations in the best position to recover from catastrophic events which cause damage to computers, networks, or servers.

Businesses – particularly small and midsized businesses – often fail to consider disaster recovery in their planning. As disasters are considered a rare, unforeseen event many organizations will neglect to develop a realistic, actionable disaster recovery plan. This leaves organizations at risk of being unable to protect themselves from an event or being too slow to respond effectively.

No organization, large or small, can afford to dismiss disaster recovery entirely. There are two main benefits to having a disaster recovery plan in place, these are:

  1. Quicker Recovery: Depending on the disaster recovery tools in use, and the recovery strategy set in place, businesses can bounce back much faster after a disaster, or even carry on with operations uninterrupted.
  2. Reduce Cost: Disasters are, by nature, disruptive and costly. By taking proactive measures to ensure a quick recovery, businesses can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and restoring or replacing compromised infrastructure. This cost saving could easily make the difference between survival and the disaster having a critical effect on the organization.

In this article, we will explore our picks for the top disaster recovery software solutions currently available. We’ll look at each vendor and their solution’s key features, then give our final comments including a recommendation for who would be best served by each solution.

Unitrends Logo

Unitrends, a Kaseya company, provides backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery solutions with a focus on automating manual tasks and streamlining data protection. Unitrends Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) is their managed backup and disaster recovery solution.

Unitrends DRaaS Features:

  • Creates virtualized versions of critical workloads, systems, and apps in the Unitrends cloud
  • 24/7/365 support through installation, recovery, and failback
  • Users can access applications within the Unitrends Cloud whilst the Unitrends support team handle failing back operations to the company’s systems
  • Automatically tests recoveries either weekly or monthly at the application level
  • Comprehensive recovery reports
  • Guaranteed 1-hour or 24-hour recovery for critical applications
  • SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant

Expert Insights’ Comments: Unitrends DRaaS is a comprehensive, yet user-friendly disaster recovery solution. Its quick recovery times and access to the Unitrends Cloud make it a strong option for organizations prioritizing business continuity. Overall, we recommend Unitrends DRaaS as a strong option for any organization looking for a managed disaster recovery service, or any MSP looking to provide their clients with managed disaster recovery.

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Nakivo Logo

Founded in 2012, Nakivo delivers a reliable backup and recovery solution designed to meet data protection requirements. It is designed to suit both SMBs and enterprise organizations, across a range of industries. Site Recovery in Nakivo Backup and Replication works to maintain operation at a secondary site while the primary site is experiencing an outage. This allows organizations to continue operating while a disaster event affects part of the network.

Nakivo Site Recovery for DR Orchestration Features:

  • Disaster recovery planning – easy to implement data replication, planned or emergency failover, and fallback
  • Workflow orchestration – automated DR sequences that can be instigated with one click
  • Disaster recovery testing – tests can be scheduled or run on demand, without disrupting network activity
  • Meet strict RTOs and SLAs with recovered VMs that are operational in seconds

Expert Insights’ Comments: Nakivo’s solution provides fast and reliable VM backup, replication, and DR for cloud, virtual, and SaaS environments. Past users praise the solution for its reliability and for Nakivo’s technical support. We would recommend Nakivo Site Recovery for DR Orchestration for organizations of all sizes that are looking for fast, simple to use disaster recovery that comes with comprehensive cloud integration.

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Acronis logo

Acronis is a Swiss technology company that delivers cyber protection for data, applications, and systems through their award-winning technology. Their solution is designed to address security, accessibility, and privacy challenges. Acronis Advanced Disaster Recovery makes disaster recovery straightforward and more efficient via orchestration, disaster playbooks, and automatic failover.

Acronis Advanced Disaster Recovery Features:

  • Disaster recovery for physical and virtual workloads
  • Reduce downtime by enabling quick and easy automated failover of the client’s network environment to an off-site server running in Acronis Disaster Recovery Storage
  • Secure VPN connection between the client’s local site and the cloud to ensure data is protected
  • Gain visibility into disaster recovery orchestration with a detailed runbook-execution, real-time view, and execution history
  • Granular control over backup and recovery capabilities

Expert Insights’ Comments: This disaster recovery solution from Acronis works to minimize downtime and reduce complexity. Acronis Advanced Disaster Recovery effectively combines cybersecurity with data protection and management to protect endpoints, systems, and data. We would recommend this solution to organizations looking to secure their data from disaster events, thereby protecting profits and operational capability.

Arcserve

Arcserve is a provider of data protection, replication, and recovery software designed for enterprise and mid-market business. Their solution, Arcserve UDP, brings together deep-learning server protection, immutable storage, and scalable onsite and offsite business continuity for a multilayered approach to protecting your physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures. The solution can utilize on and off-site backups, and rapid restore via fast access to the Arcserve Cloud.

Arcserve UDP Features:

  • Ransomware resilience – a deep learning neutral network and signature-based protection blocks common threats
  • Immutable cloud storage protects backups from deletion or alteration
  • Unified management console –smart dashboard provides powerful insightful reports
  • Availability and recovery-oriented platform – group applications by need to streamline recovery and business continuity
  • Schedule automated disaster recovery tests with advanced reporting, granular restoration, and advanced insights

Expert Insights’ Comments: Arcserve UDP delivers effective data protection and disaster recovery for a range of workloads. Users rate their experience with the solution well and praise the comprehensive set of data protection capabilities. We would recommend this solution to organizations interested in a disaster recovery solution that offers enterprise-ready features without the technical complexity of other enterprise solutions.

Carbonite Logo

Carbonite is a US-based company, founded in 2006, which provides online backup services. Their disaster recovery solution – Carbonite Recovery – offers data protection features, as well as comprehensive recovery. The solution can reduce the risk of unplanned downtime by securely replicating critical systems in the cloud and providing instant access in the event of a disaster.

Carbonite Recover Features:

  • Orchestration, boot order, and failover for multi-tier applications
  • Automated discovery of any systems in your environment
  • Built-in encryptions – protects data both in-transit and at rest
  • Self-service testing that is non-disruptive with bandwidth optimized for minimal network impact
  • Granular recovery points (minutes and seconds) allows for accurate network restoration

Expert Insights’ Comments: Carbonite Recovery’s focus is safeguarding mission critical data. It achieves this by providing reliable data protection and recovery capabilities with automatic cloud backup. Secure replication of critical systems (from your primary environment to the cloud) ensures there is an up-to-date copy of data that can be accessed as needed. We would recommend this solution to organizations looking for a full-service offering that significantly reduces downtime and, therefore, overall cost of a disaster event.

Azure Logo

Microsoft is an American multinational technology corporation that employs over 3,500 security experts. Microsoft Azure Site Recovery is their native disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) solution. It works to ensure applications are kept running during planned and unplanned outages.

Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Features:

  • Minimize recovery issues by sequencing the order of multi-tier applications running on multiple VMs
  • Ensure compliance by testing your disaster recovery plan without impacting production workloads or end users – this ensures that applications are available during outages
  • Reduce infrastructure costs by eliminating the need for maintaining a secondary datacenter
  • Enable Site Recovery between separate Azure regions
  • Scale coverage to as many business critical applications as needed

Expert Insights’ Comments: Microsoft Azure Site Recovery is a strong solution for companies looking to restore critical workloads in the event of a disaster. Past users rate the solution well and praise its ease of use and straightforward implementation. We would recommend this solution to organizations interested in an integrated solution that allows them to test their recovery plans without causing disruption for end users or existing workloads.

ManageEngine Recovery Manager Plus

RecoveryManager Plus is a unified backup and recovery solution for Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Exchange, and Zoho WorkDrive environments. The platform supports comprehensive data backup capabilities and granular restore in the case of accidental deletions, modifications, ransomware, or other disaster scenarios.  

RecoveryManager Plus offers comprehensive and granular backup options for all supported applications. This includes complete backup of all users, groups, devices and applications, security policies and more for M365, and all emails calendar entries contacts for Google Workspace. The platform supports incremental backups and allows teams to recover all objects to backed up versions instantly.

RecoveryManager Plus is quick and straightforward to deploy across all applications. Teams can configure backups for cloud apps such as M365 and Google Workspace in just a few minutes. The product supports multiple backup storage options, including on-premise or via Azure Blob Storage and Azure file shares. The admin dashboard is comprehensive, with backup delegation controls, custom notifications, automated backup scheduling, and audit reports.

RecoveryManager Plus offers a comprehensive, fully-featured solution for managing backup and recovery operations across AD, M365 Exchange, Google Workspace, and Zoho WorkDrive. The admin console is modern and easy to use for IT Managers, developers, and CISOs, across teams of all sizes. The solution is delivered as a component of AD360, ManageEngine’s unified enterprise identity and access management solution.

ManageEngine Recovery Manager Plus
Veeam Logo

Founded in 2006, Veeam is an industry leading information technology company that is focused on simplifying backups. The software works to create effective plans that can enable better control and protection for your data. Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator, protects a range of workloads including virtual, physical, and cloud-based ones from the risks that come with system failure.

Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator Features:

  • Generate comprehensive DR plans for your systems – these can be verified to prove readiness and adhere to compliance regulations
  • Perform zero-impact scheduled or on-demand DR tests to ensure required recovery time objectives (RTOs) and RPOs can be met and that critical applications continue to be accessible
  • Delegate and control secure access for critical applications and operations
  • Secure recover of single applications and of whole sites with a single click

Expert Insights’ Comments: Veeam’s disaster recovery software is easy to use with an intuitive web-based interface which establishes recovery control and confidence. The solution provides a strong set of capabilities and can be integrated seamlessly. We would recommend Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator to organizations interested in finding an effective solution that has one-click orchestration plans for critical applications, as well as comprehensive documentation and testing features.

VMWare Logo

Founded in 1998, VMware is a market leading US-based cloud computing and virtualization technology company. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery is VMware’s on-demand disaster recovery service, which is delivered as an easy-to-use SaaS solution.

VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery Features:

  • Stored replica VMs are automatically used when an attack happens
  • Live Mount lets the hosts boot virtual machines from snapshots stored securely
  • Automatic report generation – provides proof that your DR plans have been tested and can be executed correctly
  • Automated orchestration of site failback with a single click
  • DR health checks consistently run every 30 minutes, with automatic email alerts if an issue is found

Expert Insights’ Comments:

This solution is highly effective at protecting your VMs to ensure that you can continue operating wen a disaster event occurs. Past users rate their experience with the solution highly, commenting on its reliability and how little friction is causes. We would recommend VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery to organizations looking for a strong solution that is free from the complexity of legacy DR approaches and standalone backup tools.

Zerto Logo

Zerto is a Boston, MA based cybersecurity company that was founded in 2009. They provide software to simplify the protection, recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications. Their sophisticated disaster recovery service helps safeguard data and IT assets, allowing organizations to simplify disaster recovery and minimize their storage costs by backing data up to a single cloud.

Zerto Features:

  • Always-on replication – near-synchronous replication which creates thousands of recovery points for improved RPOs and RTOs
  • Journal-based recovery –a granular log of all changes allows you to pinpoint a backup close to the time that an incident occurred
  • Application centric recovery – achieve consistent recovery by protecting multi-VM applications as one cohesive unit
  • Built in orchestration reduces management time, resources, and cost

Expert Insights’ Comments: The Zerto disaster recovery solution offers fast installation and setup, an easy-to-use interface for centralized management, and seamless cloud and on-premises integration. The dashboard provides powerful visibility and analytics to ensure your recovery planning is optimized. Users praise the solutions as an effective, easy to use, and reliable disaster recovery solution. We would recommend Zerto to larger organizations looking to invest in a solution that is both robust and allows a granular level of control.

The Top 10 Disaster Recovery (DR) Software Solutions