Which of the following would lead your organization to change its primary backup solution to a new solution or service?

#1 My current backup is not reliable

The most popular reason for changing primary backup solutions is reliability, or lack thereof. This is because they take code from 20 years ago (or even 30 years ago) and try to adapt it to today's computing challenges.

In addition, deduplication databases are often error-prone and can cause total data loss. Many solutions lack data recovery verification, or only provide this availability for limited platforms (e.g., VMware only).
Another problem is simply visibility into what works and what does not. IT administrators only discover there is a problem when it is too late.

Many companies attribute this to a lack of training or knowledge. This is not true.
If a backup solution is stable, reliable and easy to use, you can test your backups on a scheduled basis in an isolated virtual network.

What you should expect from your next backup solution is peace of mind. And the knowledge that you can restore when you need to.

#2 It is expensive

When considering the cost of data protection, it is easy to focus on the traditional expenses: hardware, software and storage. Some hardware costs can become very expensive when the software is not flexible enough to handle alternatives.

Many software solutions include add-ons or ongoing services, so you should make sure nothing is excluded from the calculation. As for storage costs, we all know someone who has been burned by hidden charges and promises of data reduction that never come to fruition. You have to find the right balance between performance and cost-effectiveness, and recovery SLAs that you are comfortable with.

Don't forget the less tangible and often overlooked costs. The cost of downtime and data loss. In addition, the impacts that downtime and data loss can have on your customer relationships or damage to brand integrity. The time, effort and resource costs to not only maintain your security backup infrastructure, but also to tune it up, train it and run at full capacity. Another cost is lost productivity. Few things are more frustrating to an IT professional than wasting time and energy reacting to data protection issues, rather than proactively working on other important projects.

What you should expect from your next backup solution is a simple and flexible cost model, where you can use the hardware and storage you want, that can fit with the software solution you want. is a simple and flexible cost model, where you can use the hardware and storage you want, that can fit with the software solution you want.

#3 ROI is not effective

One ROI consideration for your benefit is data reuse. All data protection solutions encapsulate a large amount of data. In today's ecosystem, data is power, and the correct ROI calculation is not simply time saved versus money spent, but the value that putting data to work brings.

What you should expect from your next backup solution is a demonstration of a solution that allows you to leverage your current environment.

#4 My recovery times are slow and backup windows are long.

Some backup vendors may try to wow you with an example, but when you drill down to product breadth - backup configurations, architectural flexibility, snapshot integrations, replication capabilities - reality sets in.
It takes time, years in fact, to create the necessary breadth.
Another key factor is speed of recovery and flexibility. Often, it's not a story of whether it can be recovered, but how easily and quickly it can be done.
Count the number of clicks it takes to retrieve something simply, you may be surprised. Many solutions lack the granularity for targeted recoveries, or the scalability for mass restores.
But let's think bigger: what if you can't tolerate even a few minutes of data being lost in the shortest of backup windows? You need the big guns Continuous Data Protection (CDP). Many will agree that it's best when it comes built-in with your existing backup solution, operating replicas natively from the same console. However, some vendors still separate CDP as a separately priced product or specialize exclusively in CDP, making you couple it with another product for more regular backup needs.

What you should expect from your next backup solution is a variety of recovery options to meet any SLA, as well as a proven track record of continuous innovation, built on a solid base of satisfied customers.

#5 It takes too much time and resources.

One important factor is that your backup software has to be able to evolve with you If adding a new NAS device or changing
to cloud storage requires you to change your data protection strategy, spend time re-educating IT staff or lose sleep over whether your IT team has the skills to do it successfully, you're doing it wrong.

What you should expect from your next backup solution is the gift of time. Time to work on other priorities, stop working early, or actually use that vacation time that keeps accumulating.

Questions to consider

Stability: how often do you encounter stability issues with your current backup solution (errors, job failures, etc.)?

Flexibility: what is your backup storage plan for the next three to five years, and how will data growth, cloud mobility and security risks alter that strategy?

Data reuse: You have a gold mine of business data in your backups - how are you putting that data to work for you to solve key business problems?

Backup/recovery speeds: as business demands for data access continue to increase, are your RTOs and RPOs improving or have they stagnated? where were they three to five years ago compared to now? where would you like them to be?

Ease of use: How much time do you spend taking care of your backups? If that time were cut in half, what would you do with that extra time?