VMware SRM vs Veeam Backup & Replication comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Apr 10, 2022

We performed a comparison between Veeam Backup & Replication and VMware SRM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most reviewers of both solutions agree that the installation is a straightforward process.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability. Veeam Backup users say it is high performing, flexible and user-friendly. Several Veeam Backup users note that better integration options are necessary. VMware SRM users say it has good replication and recovery capabilities but can be difficult to synchronize with other environments.
  • Pricing: Veeam Backup reviewers feel that it is an expensive solution. Some VMware SRM reviewers say that the price of the product is fair, while others say it is expensive.
  • ROI: Veeam Backup reviewers report seeing an ROI. VMware SRM reviewers do not mention ROI.
  • Service and Support: Most users of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of support they receive.

Comparison Results: Veeam Backup & Replication comes out on top in this comparison due to its robust performance and user-friendly interface. Veeam Backup & Replication also has a significant ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware SRM vs. Veeam Backup & Replication Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Once you get it set up, everything is smooth, and the recovery is excellent.""The restore capabilities are the most valuable features.""The main feature for Veeam is that it's built primarily for virtualization, such as VMware or Hyper-V.""The most valuable features are the backup and restoration of our VMs. Additionally, they add features regularly.""The WAN accelerator feature has been the most valuable for me. That feature reduced the time needed to complete the task from 25 days to less than a week! This is compared with the original tools used: ntbackup, robocopy and Windows Server Backup.""Pricing is fairly reasonable and not overly expensive.""Sandbox feature is like a power tool for troubleshooting.""Veeam Backup Replication's snapshotting and cloning are the most valuable features."

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"The most valuable feature of the solution is the automatic recovery of the virtual machine if it goes down.""The solution is simple to use and has effective automation.""It eliminates the need for complex compliance requirements, making it a highly effective solution.""The thing I like the most about SMR is the reduced cost of management.""The stability of SRM has been excellent. It gets a nine-out-of-ten.""I would rate the ease of setting up and configuring my recovery plan in VMware SRM, a ten out of ten, with ten being the easiest.""The installation and initial setup are straightforward.""Virtual Machine Recovery during DR situation, with automation and easy to use menus and options."

More VMware SRM Pros →

Cons
"Integration with other equipment could be improved.""If they could add more support for all of the modern hypervisors, that would make Veeam much better and more flexible to work with. For example, there is no solution for VM to VM replication when it comes to Oracle OEM servers.""I think that Veeam could improve some performance issues when the backup itself is restored. I'm also using HPE StoreOnce, which has deduplication, and when I'm trying to test or run backups, it takes a lot of time. I think they could improve the testing for backup copies.""The SME that helped us with the implementation would probably have more insight because he used it way more than we have. We just use it for making sure that our backups are done daily, and the replications are being performed between sites. We haven't had any issues at all with it other than the fact that there is a slight process to acquire additional licenses if we want to expand our number of hosts. That's because it is based on the number of cores and threads that are used.""I have found that the reporting could improve in its structure.""It could use DR features similar to Zerto.""The parallel backup process from the Veeam server to Veeam has some limitations. The number of parallel backups should be increased and the compressional is very low. Sometimes it is half or one-third, but other backup solutions' compression levels are very high.""In the next release I would like to see a bit more intelligence as far as a solution or troubleshooting - to put it more on the level of resolution and not simply identifying there is a problem."

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"In my view, if VMware comes up with an appliance-based solution like vCenter Server (which was also Windows-based), it will be much easier for deployment. I""There needs to be better stability during heavy capacity in future releases.""What I think can be improved is the data replication aspect.""The technical support is not very good and needs to make an effort to improve.""In general, the drawbacks of VMware SRM, where improvements can be made, stem from the fact that it is an expensive and complex product.""It would be good if this solution could integrate configuration management software such as Chef Infra.""The back sites sometimes are very, very complicated.""SRM may hit some OS issues related to IP changes, but they are usually OS related, especially in the 2008 realm."

More VMware SRM Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "If you have Exchange, Oracle, SQL, or a supported SAN, then I suggest getting at least an Enterprise edition. It’ll pay for itself in no time."
  • "The pricing and licensing is better than the competitors, but it could be better."
  • "Room for improvement is actually more in the way of licensing. The really good and useful features are in the Enterprise plus edition, and that one is really expensive."
  • "Since pricing is per socket, it is not expensive to add capacity as you go along."
  • "The licensing is based on the number of cores you have in your ESX or Hyper-V environment."
  • "The price is a bit high. Licensing type is VMware friendly, so it is easy."
  • "I think the price is good when you choose the Essentials Suite, but when you buy a full featured version (for instance the Enterprise Plus) the price is a little bit expensive."
  • "Setup cost and licensing of Veeam are nothing to complain about when compared to similar products for enterprise backup recovery solutions."
  • More Veeam Backup & Replication Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Compare to hardware-based replication, I think software based replication is best and cheap."
  • "Licensing costs explode after 75 VMs."
  • "The price of this solution is on the expensive side."
  • "The cost of SRM is a little bit high, especially for smaller companies."
  • "The cost of SRM is on par with market rates."
  • "The licensing costs are increasing."
  • "It is about $3,000 a year for the 25 pack. The package gives you the ability to protect up to 25 virtual machines."
  • "There is an annual license to use this solution."
  • More VMware SRM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Comparing the features of the four is not the right approach. You need to develop a list of requirements for backup and DR that are specific to your organization and then compare each of the four… more »
    Top Answer:Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too But Veritas Netbackup is a… more »
    Top Answer:Nakivo is my favorite backup software. Below are the main benefits of Nakivo compared to Veeam 1. Low cost. 2. Backup storage with global deduplication (this is the main requirement of a backup… more »
    Top Answer:I rate the product price a five to six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a very high price, and ten is a very low price.
    Top Answer:The solution must provide better integration with third-party vendors.
    Ranking
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    19,735
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    Rating
    8.7
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    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Veeam Backup and Replication, Veeam Availability Suite
    VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
    Learn More
    Overview

    Veeam Backup & Replication is a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery solution designed primarily for virtual environments. Veeam Backup & Replication offers a blend of simplicity and efficiency, making it a go-to solution for businesses seeking to protect their data. It supports a wide range of virtual platforms, including VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. According to the reviews, what sets Veeam apart is its ability to provide high-speed recovery, data loss avoidance, verified recoverability, leveraged data, and complete visibility. 

    Veeam Backup & Replication delivers availability for cloud, virtual, Kubernetes and physical workloads. Through a simple-by-design management console, users are offered what is presented as fast, flexible, reliable backup, archival, recovery and replication functionality.

    Backup capabilities

    • Continuous Data Protection
    • Fast, reliable application-aware, image-based backups
    • Unlimited capacity and cost savings for long-term data retention on object storage with new Veeam Cloud Tier
    • Enterprise application support for Veeam Plug-ins for SAP HANA and Oracle RMAN

    Replication capabilities

    • Instant recovery for NAS, Microsoft SQL and Oracle
    • Recover individual files easily with Instant VM and File-level Recovery
    • Easy portability and recovery to AWS, Azure and Azure Stack with NEW Veeam Cloud Mobility

    Recovery capabilities

    • Recover individual files with Instant VM and File-level Recovery
    • Portability and recovery to AWS, Azure and Azure Stack with NEW Veeam Cloud Mobility
    • Fast, item-level and application recovery for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, and SQL Server and Oracle

    Reviews from Real Users

    Veeam Backup & Replication is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are its ease of set up, the fact that it is agentless, and that it has an intuitive dashboard. 

    A Network Operations Manager at an educational organization says, "Integration with VMware is excellent with very granular recovery."

    An Inside Solutions Architect at a tech services company mentions, “I like that it's agent-less, easy to set up, and hardware-agnostic.”

    An Account Manager at a tech services company states, “The dashboard is very, very easy to understand. We do demonstrations all the time with customers just to show them. If they've lost particular files because of a server going down, we can retrieve those files for them and quickly bring those files back up.”

    Kerem C., Director of Professional Services/Senior Solution Architect/Trainer at a tech services company, explains, “It's good for backup performance management and backup window management.”

    VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager) is a business continuity and disaster recovery solution that is part of the vSphere virtualization suite. It helps you plan, test, and run the recovery of virtual machines between a protected vCenter Server site and a recovery vCenter Server site. VMware SRM aims to minimize data loss and system downtime by letting you automate backups and orchestrate the recovery of entire VMware storage systems. VMware SRM is offered on-premises and on the AWS cloud.

    VMware SRM is most commonly used for:

    • Disaster recovery
    • Disaster avoidance
    • Data center migrations
    • Site-level load balancing
    • Maintenance testing for enterprise applications

    As a disaster recovery tool, VMware SRM:

    • Provides replication technology.
    • Supports policy-based management of backup programs.
    • Lets you run non-disruptive testing of disaster recovery plans.

    VMware SRM Key Features

    Some of VMware SRM’s key features include:
    Good scalability and stability, fast and reliable recovery, automated orchestration workflows, automated recovery of network and security settings, non-disruptive recovery testing, orchestrated cross-vCenter vMotion, stretched storage support, and self-service provisioning.

    VMware SRM Benefits

    The main benefits of using VMware SRM include:

    • Integration: VMware SRM integrates with other VMware technologies and architectures.

    • Non-disruptive testing: VMware SRM allows you to conduct tests during business hours without disruptions.

    • Reduced recovery time: By using automated orchestration workflows, VMware SRM helps to decrease recovery time to just minutes.

    • Automated failback: With automated failback, you can resume business operations as normal very quickly.

    • Extensibility for custom automation: With VMware SRM, you can use the Orchestrator plug-in to build custom automation workflows.

    • Automated network mappings: You can automatically map network settings across the two sites when creating a recovery plan.

    • Eliminate the need to re-configure IP addresses: With VMware SRM’s automated recovery of network and security settings, it is not necessary to e-configure IP addresses on recovered VMs via integration with NSX. Configurations are also reduced post-recovery by implementing security policies.

    • Centralized recovery plans: VMware SRM’s centralized recovery plans help you protect thousands of VM’s and also make it possible to eliminate manual runbooks.

    • Protect investments: With supported replication, VMware SRM helps protect investments and tailor RPOs.

    • Lower TCO: By using VMware SRM, you can lower your TCO and incur lower expenses for disaster recovery.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are reviews from PeerSpot users who are currently using the solution:

    PeerSpot user Eslam E., Senior Solution Architect at ICT Misr, explains his experience using the solution and says that "VMware SRM is very effective between two sites with identical twin storage, you can have synchronization between the two sites."

    A founder at a comms service provider commented on the solution's efficiency, noting, "If you want to do failover, it works without any problem."

    Reviewer Rakesh-P., who is a consultant at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd., mentions why he finds VMware SRM to be a good product, commenting that “The most valuable feature is disaster recovery testing. The reports are very good.”

    Ahmed F., a consultant at Daniyals Inc, says that the solution doesn’t require a lot of resources and that "The UI is very user-friendly and testing is easy."

    Sample Customers
    Vodafone, American Standard Brands, Welch’s, University of Florida, Tata Global Beverages Limited, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Hirslanden Private Hospital Group, MacLean-Fogg Company
    Acorda Therapeutics, Columbia Sportswear, Mainfreight, Nippon Express, Sin Chew Media, Fisher & Paykel, Siam City Bank
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government7%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business45%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise61%
    Buyer's Guide
    VMware SRM vs. Veeam Backup & Replication
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about VMware SRM vs. Veeam Backup & Replication and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Veeam Backup & Replication is ranked 1st in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software with 328 reviews while VMware SRM is ranked 6th in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software with 69 reviews. Veeam Backup & Replication is rated 8.6, while VMware SRM is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Veeam Backup & Replication writes "Beneficial pricing model, user friendly interface, and many free features". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware SRM writes "A scalable solution that integrates well with the VMware platform, but its platform agnostics do not support on-cloud usage". Veeam Backup & Replication is most compared with Acronis Cyber Protect, Azure Backup, Rubrik, Veritas NetBackup and Cohesity DataProtect, whereas VMware SRM is most compared with Zerto, Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, Azure Site Recovery, VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and Nutanix Disaster Recovery as a Service . See our VMware SRM vs. Veeam Backup & Replication report.

    See our list of best Disaster Recovery (DR) Software vendors.

    We monitor all Disaster Recovery (DR) Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.