ConnectWise BCDR (formerly Recover, or Continuum) is a combination of disaster recovery technology and Continuum's NOC with 24x7 monitoring and troubleshooting support, supporting MSPs with extended BDR capacity.
Continuum was acquired by ConnectWise in late 2019.
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Datto SIRIS
Score 8.5 out of 10
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Datto SIRIS is a BCDR solution built for MSPs to prevent data loss and minimize downtime. Utilizing a cloud-first approach, MSPs can offer their clients local backup and recovery with a cloud-based repository and full disaster recovery in the cloud. All of this administered from a multi-tenant cloud portal that allows MSPs to view, manage and recover client data from a single interface.
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Pricing
ConnectWise BCDR
Datto SIRIS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConnectWise BCDR
Datto SIRIS
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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Datto sells 100% through the channel. Specifically, Datto partners with managed service providers (MSPs). The MSPs then sell direct to small and mid-sized businesses, worldwide.
Continuum is well suited for an MSP who has several clients running backups. Everyone knows how important backups are. Having Continuum Recover helps eliminate the need for a full-time employee to check backups. Backups can take a long time to check daily manually, but Continuum Recover helps eliminate that need.
Datto is a fantastic option for smaller businesses who don't have as large of a budget. It might work well for larger businesses as well, but the features are not exactly on par with more prevalent backup solutions. So, that should be kept in mind while determining a good fit for a company. But if selling a backup solution is met with push back, this can be a great option to give a good working backup solution. It offers the main features solutions should have, so it's definitely not a compromise. Just keep in mind the features it does not offer.
The platform offers a powerful feature set that includes block-level backup, granular file recovery, and more.
Not only we are able to recover data from our customers, but we're also able to backup and continue business operations whether a single or an entire server goes down.
All our server and desktop patching is properly managed and tested.
Simple agent setup for new machines to be protected. A new machine can be setup on the server in under a minute whether it be a Linux or Windows based machine.
Local virtualization on the Datto is quick to start up. After a physical problem with a server I had the machine locally virtualized on the Datto before users had a chance to report service issues to me.
Nothing to do on my end to get backups shifted to offsite data center. Schedules are setup for each machine or group of machines and I sleep well knowing all our backups are safely stored offsite.
Initial backup sync: The downside to the cloud backup is that, if you have a lot of data, you need an external hard drive to seed to the cloud. And you usually have to request this after you've already got everything else working.
Unsyncing: We have pretty decent bandwidth, but with 8TB of data, we'd get syncing issues with the cloud servers every 3 months or so. The only way to address it was to request another external drive and resync it, but that also meant losing the older data.
Availability and support: Datto only operates through MSPs and VARs, and will not help you directly without putting in a ticket with your provider. This causes delays, and extra epenses, and if you grow beyond the need for an MSP, you have to keep them around for at least that piece.
Usability is great. The web interface is simple and easy to use. While various options are available for client backups, it is very easy to re-use settings of the existing client, so adding new clients is a very fast process. Configuration of the agent on the client-side cannot be easier as well. Datto dashboard provides an overview of the client status, and email notifications can be configured for various events.
Support is pretty good. The issue is that they don't have any SLA so they get to you whenever. Though, if you hound them, they usually bump you up in the chain and get back to you. Their techs are fairly knowledgeable. Occasionally the first level support isn't the best, but once it bumps up to the next level, they are good.
My specific example or reason for this rating goes back to a need for support after a client on this platform has a fire. In a nutshell, Datto had no idea how to BMR the image back to the server correctly, and as a result, the RAID on the server was lost, due to the Datto BDR environment not being able to see the RAID card, and the support technician knowing how to inject drivers.
We evaluated Infrascale, and that was a really bad product. When it worked, it was fine. But when it didn't, nobody knew what was going on. Seeing green checkmarks usually means good, but not with Infrascale. You really had to dig into each job to see if they were successful. There was way too much time consumption. That issue is eliminated with Continuum Recover
Datto seemed to be better than other vendors I trialed, and I inherited an Alto device, so it was easy to stay with them. I also assumed the backups had been working with the previous contractor, but it turns out they had been failing for months and no one knew it.
In most cases, Datto will provide the appliance free of charge with a 3-5 year contract which results in a modest monthly fee instead of a large initial outlay and monthly fees.
The contract's warranty is top-notch. Failed drives or issues with the appliances are replaced/corrected with free replacements and shipping.
