With the rapid growth in data and shift to hybrid work environments, organizations today rely more than ever on secure, efficient data backup to ensure business continuity. But with the multitude of solutions in the market, deciding the right one for your needs is crucial yet challenging.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll compare two leading players like Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud and Veeam to help you determine the best fit backup solution based on key parameters for your specific business needs – from functionality, features and support to pricing, scalability, and ease of management.
The need for modern data protection
The average organization sees data growth exceeding 50% year-over-year. Further, over 90% operate in hybrid environments spanning on-prem and cloud. Alongside this distributed infrastructure, cyber threats have also evolved sharply, making data backup more complex. Recent surveys reveal:
- Around 58% of businesses faced downtime in 2021 costing over $300K.
- Almost 40% of outages stem from cyberattacks like ransomware.
- 76% see backup and recovery challenges in hybrid environments.
To address these challenges, organizations need a modern data protection approach that:
- Secures data against advanced threats
- Enables quick recovery with least downtime
- Simplifies management across hybrid environments
- Scales cost-effectively as data volumes surge
This is where solutions like Acronis and Veeam come in – offering robust capabilities for backing up systems, applications, and data. But with distinct features and use cases, choosing what works for your environment is key.
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud overview
Part of Acronis’ innovative cyber protection solutions, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud integrates backup with next-gen anti-malware and endpoint protection. This unified approach provides organizations a complete, integrated data protection and cybersecurity platform.
Key capabilities include:
Data protection
- Backs up 30+ platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android)
- Protects 50+ applications and systems
- Local disk/NAS, physical servers, VMs, SaaS data
- Flexible backup modes – full, incremental, differential
Anti-malware/antivirus
- AI-based static and behavioral analysis
- On-access and on-demand scanning
- Auto quarantine of suspicious files
- Immunization against known threats
- Web filtering
Endpoint protection
- Device control
- Vulnerability assessments
- Patch management
- Disk health monitoring
- URL filtering
Disaster recovery
- 1-click recovery to dissimilar HW
- Orchestration workflows
- Failback capabilities
- Cloud disaster recovery
Security/compliance
- Blocks cryptominers, exploits, ransomware
- Two-factor authentication
- GDPR, HIPAA compliance support
- Encryption (AES-256) – storage/data transit
Cloud storage
- 50+ Acronis cloud data centers
- Public clouds – Azure, AWS, Google Cloud
- On-prem object storage – Scality, Cloudian
This integrated approach eliminates the complexity of managing separate systems for backup and security – simplifying administration while strengthening protection.
Veeam Backup and Replication overview
Part of Veeam’s Availability Suite, Veeam Backup and Replication focuses purely on data protection for virtual, physical, and cloud environments. It delivers extensive backup capabilities protecting hundreds of hypervisors, OS, apps, and SaaS offerings.
Key highlights include:
Backup
- 200+ backup targets – NAS, SAN, tape, cloud
- 35+ hypervisors and platforms
- 300+ applications/databases
- SaaS apps – Office 365, Salesforce, etc.
- Agentless VM backup
- Backup copy jobs – on-premises and cloud
- GFS retention policies
Replication
- Image-based VM replication
- Failover and failback orchestration
- Replica seeding from backup
- Planned failover testing
Recovery
- Instant VM Recovery
- Veeam Explorers for mailbox, DB, file recovery
- Full/file/folder recovery
- 1-click recovery workflow automation
- Self-service portal for app owners
Data lifecycle management
- Scale-out Backup Repository
- Archive tier to low-cost storage
- Built-in SOBR deduplication
- Backup data immutable storage
Monitoring and reporting
- Job success/failure alerts
- Customizable dashboards
- Compliance reporting
- Capacity planning reports
- Documentation for audits
Unlike Acronis’ integrated cyber protection approach, Veeam focuses entirely on traditional data protection and availability – without built-in endpoint security or threat prevention capabilities.
Acronis vs Veeam: Comparing core features and capabilities
Now let’s compare Acronis and Veeam Backup across key functionality for backup and recovery:
Capabilities | Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud | Veeam |
Data protection | Acronis provides greater coverage of mobile platforms with iPhone, iPad and Android backup. | Support broad application and system protection for complete data protection. |
Hybrid/multi-cloud support | Acronis enables backup storage across 50+ private cloud data centers and public cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, Google Cloud. | Veeam offers similar flexibility but a fewer number of Acronis-managed cloud regions.
|
Application and database backup | Provides extensive support for backing up business applications, databases, enterprise systems. | Supports for backing up business applications, databases, enterprise systems. |
Backup capabilities | Acronis offers adequate data protection modes like full, incremental, differential backup. | Veeam provides more advanced enterprise backup functionality for large environments. |
Built-in security | Acronis includes capabilities like anti-malware, endpoint control, vulnerability assessments. | Veeam lacks natively. |
Recovery flexibility | Simplified recovery procedures, minimizing downtime, and supporting uninterrupted business operations. | Flexible recovery options through features like Instant VM Recovery and Veeam Explorers isolating app data. |
Security integration | Acronis conducts security checks during recovery, ensuring data integrity by blocking potential threats. | Veeam lacks this without third-party integration. |
Storage support | Supports all Veeam options plus Google Storage; 50+ Acronis-managed data centers; and Software-defined storage by vendor. | Supports local disks, Azure, AWS. |
MSP-centric features | Full support for MSP business model with multitenancy and white-labeling options. | Offers only limited support for MSPs. |
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud vs Veeam: Which Backup Solution Should You Choose?
Both Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud and Veeam deliver robust capabilities, but Acronis stands out as a unified solution integrating data protection with advanced cybersecurity. With proactive threat detection, automated patch management, and AI-driven anti-malware, Acronis ensures smarter, faster, and more secure recovery while minimizing downtime and protecting business continuity. Tailored for MSPs, it offers features like multitenancy, rebranding, and cloud management. Take control of data security, simplify management, and safeguard your operations with Acronis. Discover Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud plans now on ZNetLive!
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