Acronis Backup 12 vs.

Veritas Backup Exec 15

1 7

Home

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html

About Network Testing Labs Contact Network Testing Labs

Independent Reviews of Network Hardware and Software

NETWORK TESTING LABS REVIEW

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

Acronis Backup 12 backs up and restores data far more quickly. It costs less, is simpler to license
and Is easier to use. Moreover, we feel Veritas is financially a risky choice.
by Barry Nance

Executive Summary

Acronis Backup is:

Much faster
More feature-rich
Easier to use
More affordable
Developed by a successful, stable vendor

Acronis Backup is clearly more reliable, more scalable, simpler to license and it supports more platforms.
Acronis easily wins the Network Testing Labs World Class Award for best backup and restore product.
.

Success and Failure in Business

A vendors financial health is a factor in choosing a

product. Although rarely mentioned in a review, its as
important as performance, features, ease of use and
price. Consider the following facts regarding Veritas:

In 2005, Symantec bought Veritas for $13.5 billion

In 2015, Symantec agreed to sell Veritas to the
Carlyle Group for just $8 billion
Following Symantecs disappointing data backup
product financial results, the Carlyle Group
renegotiated the acquisition price down to only $7
billion

Click here for a Reuters business story on the sale of the

Veritas company.

A cautionary note: Business analysts forecast that Veritas

will have to fire many of its employees and stop the
development of some of its products (perhaps Backup
Exec?) in order to be profitable again.

A number of vendors offer data backup and data

recovery products that, along with a disaster recovery
plan, shield you from the risk of data loss and business
interruption. Which one is best suited for your IT
operations?
We evaluated two market-leading data backup/recovery
products in our U.S. Alabama network laboratory to
discovery which we could recommend to you. The two
products were Acronis Backup 12 and Veritas Backup
Exec 15.
Our testing revealed that Acronis Backup 12 is faster,
offers more features, uses fewer computing resources, is
easier to administer and is less expensive than Veritas
Backup Exec 15. Acronis Backup easily won the
head-to-head competition, earning itself the Network
Testing Labs World Class Award for best data
backup/recovery product.

Acronis Backup easily proved in this review to be the

better product for backing up and restoring data. Because
Acronis Backup needed less time to perform backup as
well as restore operations, our simulated data center was
more productive. Acronis Backup gave us several other
reasons for making it this reviews winner:
Acronis Backup is intuitive and easy to use
It has more features

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

2 7

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html

It costs less and licensing is simpler

It works with more operating systems and
applications

The ideal data backup/recovery tool stores up-to-date

copies of your data in one or more safe locations. Its
easy to use, produces useful reports, gives you finelygranular recovery of important data and works with the
computing platforms you have in your organization. The
best data backup/recovery tool does it job quickly,
consumes few computing resources and is affordable.

Performance

We benchmarked Acronis Backup and Veritas Backup

Exec in three different computing environments and
situations:
Small Data a group of servers or a small
data center with 20 GB of data
Medium Data a data center hosting and
processing 185 GB of data
Big Data 4.2 TB, with most of the data in a
large database
RTO/RPO system recovery time (i.e., disaster
recovery)
In the first test environment (Small Data), we
measured the elapsed time to back up and restore 20
GB of server data stored on a variety of computers
file servers, email servers, Web servers and database
servers. Figure 1 shows the averaged results.
Acronis Backup was significantly faster than Veritas
Backup Exec in all our Small Data tests 45 percent
faster for backups and 30 percent faster for restores.

Figure 1. Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec

15 average backup and restore elapsed times for 20
GB of data.

In the second (Medium Data) environment, Acronis

Backups performance again greatly exceeded that of
Veritas Backup Exec.
Acronis Backup completed backup operations 46
percent quicker than Veritas Backup Exec and data
recovery operations 31 percent faster on average.

Figure 2 graphically depicts each products Medium

Data results.

Figure 2. Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec

15 average backup and restore elapsed times for 185
GB of data.

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

3 7

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html

Our Big Data tests used a multi-Terabyte database

that we sliced horizontally into 6 shards, with each
shard containing data for a particular global region.
Acronis Backup finished backup operations 33
percent faster than Veritas Backup Exec and recovery
operations 30 percent faster. Figure 3 shows the
averaged results.

For all three environments, Acronis Backup needed,

on average, 12 percent less backup server disk space
than Veritas Backup Exec for disk-to-disk backup
operations.

Figure 3. Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec

15 average backup and restore elapsed times for 4.2 TB
of data.

To measure Acronis Backups and Veritas Backup

Execs Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery
Point Objective (RPO) performance, we simulated the
destruction of four Windows Server computers
containing a total of 50 GB in a single data center. One
of these computers ran SQL Server 2008, one ran
Internet Information Server (IIS), one ran an OLTP
business application and the fourth was the backup
server. In our tests, both Acronis Backup and Veritas
Backup Exec copied data from primary servers to
backup servers at a second data center at a remote
location. Four computers at the remote location stood
by, waiting to go to work in case of a disaster. We
measured the minutes needed to recover data and
resume operations.

In the Acronis Backup tests, the administrator needed just

15.8 minutes to restore data to the servers and resume the
OLTP application. In contrast, the Veritas Backup Exec
administrator took 20.4 minutes, making Acronis Backup
29% faster. Figure 4 illustrates these results.
Acronis Backup was the clear winner in our disaster
recovery testing.

Using Acronis Backup in one series of tests and Veritas

Backup Exec in another series of tests, the
administrator at the remote location restored the
transferred data onto the waiting secondary servers.
The test concluded when the administrator had restored
all servers and had brought the OLTP application back
online.

Figure 4. Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec

15 average elapsed RTO/RPO recovery times.

Usability and Features

The easy-to-use, data-centric Acronis Backup interface

presents an administrator with clear, uncomplicated task
choices (i.e., back up now, recover, create a backup plan
and manage my account), a list of recent alerts and a list
of recent activities.
Acronis Backup is image-based, which means it
intercepts and copies individual operating system
disk-write operations. Veritas Backup Exec 15 is
file-based. However, Veritas does offer image-based
backups in Veritas System Recovery Server Edition (and
Virtual Edition), both of which unfortunately lack file-level
integration with Backup Exec 15.
Backup Exec 15 essentially consists of its predecessor
version, Backup Exec 2014, with the addition of fairly
minor enhancements to support some later versions or
extra capabilities of VMware (such as vSphere 6.0),
Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle 12c,

Backup Exec 15 retains the confusing and counterproductive new user interface that Symantec had added
to Backup Exec 2012. Unfortunately, it makes Backup
Exec server-centric rather than data-centric. For
example, with Backup Exec 15s user interface, an
administrator must manipulate one or several server
backup jobs to add data to a backup set. Strangely, many
(but not all) of Backup Execs screens still have
Symantec in their titles, not Veritas.
If you have multiple site backups, both Acronis Backup
and Backup Exec 15 consolidate and centralize backup
status information from all sites.
Acronis Backup disaster recovery (Bare Metal Restore, or
BMR) is easier to use than Backup Execs disaster
recover (SDR). Acronis Backup supports bare metal
recovery of Linux systems as well as Windows on the
same or dissimilar hardware, but Backup Exec 15

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

4 7

Linux and Windows Server.

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html
supports only Windows. Acronis even supports BMR for
VMware ESXi.

Acronis Backup and Veritas Backup Exec screens:

Restoring data with Acronis Backup

Restoring data with Veritas

Cloud Backup and Recovery

Veritas Backup Exec can access Amazon, Google,

Microsoft or Quantum Q-Cloud Protect clouds. However,

Acronis Backups cloud support is built-in, and the cloud

is a data target or source just like any other. You dont

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

5 7

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html

you must create a unique backup job for each cloud

access and then manually edit the jobs configurations for
cloud access. Thereafter, you must manually edit and
administer those backup jobs. Theyre outside Backup
Exec 15s purview.

need to perform extra configuration steps or use an

external tool to access the cloud. With Acronis Backup,
backing up to or recovering from the cloud is perfectly
seamless and transparent. Depending on bandwidth, of
course, its also quick and responsive.

In contrast, Acronis maintains a set of SSAE-16-certified

data centers through which the company offers cloud
backup for Acronis Backup customers. Acronis cloud
backup can be used as a backup and staging destination
or a disaster recovery option.

With Acronis, you can also use Microsoft Azure Storage

as a backup destination.

Ease of Licensing

The feature-inclusive nature of Acronis licensing makes

Acronis Backup 12 far easier to buy than Veritas
Backup Exec 15.
Veritas charges additional license fees for Backup Exec
15 features and options such as deduplication,
image-based backup, synthetic (incremental) backups,
etc. Making sure you specify exactly the right Veritas
components not too many, and certainly not too few
can be a nightmare. To understand the Veritas license
fee for a particular component, you must know the
band or tier assigned you by Veritas. You must also
discover whether your Veritas license is a competitive
upgrade, cross-grade, expired maintenance or regular
purchase. Veritas licensing is a confusing threedimensional maze.

Acronis licensing is simple and straightforward in

comparison.
Also be aware that Symantec started a practice of
intrusive license compliance audits in 2015, and Veritas
has continued the effort. These compliance audits have
caused some customers to seek replacements for their
Veritas products.

The following two tables provide detail on Acronis and

Veritas licensing.

Table 1. Acronis Backup License Fees

License
Server (physical/cloud,
Windows/Linux)

MSRP
$999

Virtual Host
(VMware/Hyper-V)

$1,199

Client Workstation
(PC/Macintosh)

$89

Acronis Cloud

Table 2. Veritas Backup Exec License Fees

$ 499 per year for

500 GB

Acronis license fees are feature-inclusive. They

include universal restore, support for Microsoft
applications, host and VM backup, image and
file-based backup, any type of storage, Acronis
Instant Restore, on-premise and cloud web-based
console.

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

6 7

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html

License

Backup Exec Capacity Edition

Backup Exec Server

(file-based)

Agent for Windows

Agent for Applications and

Databases
Agent for VMware and Hyper-V

Agent for Linux

Deduplication Option

Enterprise Server Option

(contains ADBO)
Desktop and Laptop

MSRP

$3,690.00

per TB

$959.40

per server

$571.95

per agent
$959.40

per agent
$1,537.50

per server

$485.85

per agent
$1,414.50

per server

$2,890.50

per server

$528.90

for 10 users

V-Ray Edition

$1,461.85

NDMP Option

$1,906.50

System Recovery Server

per CPU

per server

$867.15

(image-based)

per server

System Recovery Virtual

$2,398.50

(image-based)

per server

Virtual Tape Library Option

$2,890.50

Agent for Mac

per device
$381.30

per agent

These are per feature, per machine, per agent license fees.
Note that deduplication, synthetic (incremental) backups,
agents, etc. are a la carte.
You can see that Acronis Backup is far less expensive than
Veritas Backup Exec 15. A Veritas customer who wants to
make incremental backups will pay $2,890.50 per server for
the Enterprise Server Option, which includes Veritass
Disk-based Option (ADBO). Veritas customers with virtual

17.11.2016 . 18:30

Acronis Backup 12 vs. Veritas Backup Exec 15

7 7

http://www.networktestinglabs.com/Acronis-Backup-vs-Veritas.html
tape libraries pay an extra $2,890.50 per VTL device. And,
ironically, the extra cost of Veritass deduplication option
($1,414.50 per server) means that customers who use
deduplication to reduce disk storage costs will not save as
much money as they had hoped.

Conclusion

Acronis Backup 12 emerged the winner in all our tests. It

clearly offers better performance, better features and
lower costs than Veritas Backup Exec 15. Acronis is also
the less risky choice.

Vendor Info

Acronis Backup 12

Veritas Backup Exec 15

Acronis International GmbH

Veritas Technologies, LLC

781-782-9000

866-837-4827

www.Acronis.com

www.Veritas.com

Testbed and Methodology

The testbed network consisted of six Gigabit Ethernet

subnet domains connected by Cisco routers. Our lab's
150 clients consisted of computing platforms that
included Windows 2000/2003/2012 and Windows
Vista/7/8, Macintosh 10.x and Red Hat Linux (both server
and workstation editions). Our remote testing took place
across T3 and OC-9 WAN links.

The relational databases on the network were Oracle and

both Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2012.
The network also contained two Web servers (Microsoft
IIS and Apache), three e-mail servers (Exchange, Notes
and iMail) and several file servers (Windows 2003,
Windows 2008 and Windows 2012 servers).

Our virtual computing environments consisted of

VMware, XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.

A group of four PowerEdge R720 servers with Dual

Xeon E5-26xx processors, 384 GB RAM and 32 TB disk
storage and running Windows 2003Server, Windows
2008 Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, was our test
platform for all the products server components. A
second group of four computers simulated our backup
site for disaster recovery.

Copyright 2016 Network Testing Labs

Home

About Network Testing Labs

Contact Network Testing Labs

17.11.2016 . 18:30