Veeam Backup & Replication Review
Updated November 24, 2021
Veeam Backup & Replication Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Veeam Backup & Replication
Overall Satisfaction with Veeam Backup & Replication
We use Veeam Backup & Replication as our Disaster Recovery option as we do not host an off-site DR setup. We have a server set to specifically perform the Veeam backups and copy them to the hard drive while a second job runs that copies these backups over to a tape that is taken off-site. It gives us the ability to know that although we do not have a quick recovery option of we use our server hardware we do have the data available to us in 24 hour increments off-site and away from the office.
- Very well represented among a large number of companies, which means troubleshooting is usually limited to Google Searches to find answers as someone else has run into the issue before.
- Veeam Backup & Replication does a great job of deduplication in making the backups both smaller and faster vs. our previous options.
- Recovery options are plentiful and available in assorted ways to give you a full amount of options whether you want to recover a whole VM or just a file from within the VM.
- The interface/GUI for Veeam Backup & Replication is fairly simple to use and learn and does not require extra training.
- Veeam Backup & Replication assumes that companies use it will be broadcasting their backups off-site but a slot of SMBs do not want to pay for copious amounts of cloud space. Unfortunately, Veeam Backup & Replication's tape capabilities, though do-able, are more limited than I would like.
- Veeam Backup & Replication's licensing is needlessly complicated and requires an expert to fully understand if you have a unique setup of any kind.
- Veeam Backup & Replication's smooth and fast running backups require very specific settings on your VMs such that if you do not follow every detail and requirement to the exact recommendations it is hard to get the system running when you first implement it.
- Veeam Backup & Replication allowed us to re-purpose our LTO 6 tape backup strategy and reuse it to continue to keep backups offsite.
- Although it does not allow for instant or quick DR capability having Veeam Backup & Replication in our toolbox has allowed us the choice or not spending a large amount of money on a separate DR site.
- Veeam Backup & Replication is more expensive than our previously used tape solution such that although it allows us to avoid the need for a DR site it has added cost to our overall backup bottom line.
Our Veeam Backup & Replication implementation currently protects 15 virtual systems hosted on a 2-server Hyper-V Clustered farm as well as one singualr Hyper-V virtual setup bringing our total physical footprint to 3 Hyper-V machines and the singular Veeam Backup & Replication server. One of our virtual machines is set up in a manner that I could not do the typical blob like VM backup and have had to install the Veeam Backup & Replication local client to do a backup directly from the client. We do not back up any systems in the cloud. This setup is what we anticipated when purchasing the product and has worked as we expected from our research.
We do not currently use Veeam Backup & Replication to backup to any cloud platforms, by choice, so have not benefited from Veeam Backup & Replication's ability to do so. With that said I am a big fan of Veeam Backup & Replication's capability to extend DR and backup to the cloud and think it is the best option to do it if you are going to purchase the space for it to take place.
We have actually found Veeam Backup & Replication's ability to copy data to be very limiting. We would prefer if jobs could be set up to copy data, whether daily or weekly, from one location to another along with checking for changes in this data so nothing is over written nor does it waste time copying items that have not changed. We have had to go back to relying on MS Robocopy and/or Xcopy to perform these needs.
Prior to going with Veeam Backup & Replication, we used Backup Exec to backup up our VMs and data files to tape. The big difference between those two has been the ability of Veeam Backup & Replication to back up to disk first then copy those backups to tape giving us both the ability to take backups off-site and keep local copies of backups to more quickly restore as needed. We considered the possibility of staying with Backup Exec but found that the majority of organizations I spoke with recommended Veeam Backup & Replication as a more robust and full-featured options. Veeam Backup & Replication is slightly more expensive that Backup Exec though I think it is worth the extra cost.