Veeam crowned 'clear market leader' for data availability and protection in cloud era

Veeam is celebrating after being named 'the clear market leader' in Ovum's new Decision Matrix for data availability and protection for the cloud era.

The Ovum report says Veeam has improved its position from the 2014-15 Decision Matrix, demonstrating 'a consistent above average performance with five sub-category leading scores as well as being the leader in the market impact category and features categories'.

Commvault retained its position as second overall. Actifio, Dell and IBM also make it into the market leaders category.

The Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a data availability and protection solution for the cloud era, 2016-17 report says while organisations are demanding higher levels of system and network availability, and cost effective business continuity, that has to be managed and maintained by a single department with one budget.

"This often leads to the creation of tensions between the conflicting demands and priorities of production requirements where access and speed are desired qualities but must also provide resiliency and recovery.

"The main area of contention is the distinction between business continuity, disaster recovery, backup and recovery, and the role of cloud-based solutions.

"The question for many is how these different approaches share the budget to deliver what the end user wants, and how to minimise the impact of any loss of data or service.

The report provides a 'side-by-side' comparision of data protection and availability solutions looking at the ability to deliver a holistic backup and recovery strategy.

Nearly 50% of the vendors covered are new entrants to the ODM, something Ovum says highlights how the market is changing and moving 'a long way' from the traditional backup and recovery approaches used in the past.

"Today, the cloud has introduced a new layer of capability when it comes to data protection and availability.

"The ODM has evolved over the years and now focuses on how the data assets of an organisation can be protected while still providing availability for scenarios such as disaster recovery or accidental data loss," the report says.

Roy Illsley, Ovum principal analyst, says one of the most significant developments made by Veeam is how it is suporting organisations with their digital transformation.

"In expanding its portfolio to include agent-based technologies for Windows and Linux server instances, either in the cloud or on-premises, Veeam perfectly rounds out their solution to cover virtual, physical and cloud-based workloads," Illsley says.

Peter McKay, Veeam president and COO, says knowing company can be accessed from anywhere at anytime, and that it is protected and recoverable even during a potential failure is expected these days.

"Going forward, we see a new, more complex layer of capability the cloud era brings to the data equation. That is what we are innovating on.