We are looking for a powerful option for server backup, onsite and hosted virtualization. Our company runs roughly 66 VMs between 3 locations. Our current VM systems are getting a bit antiquated and we will eventually be replacing the 8 servers we are using for the VMs but want a more robust backup system that allows us to run the VMs from the provided appliances as well as allows for hosting of the VMs in case the whole office is shut down due to earthquakes or snow storms (which has happened in the past). Both Datto and Unitrends state they offer similar capabilities. Unitrends tends to be much more for the storage capacity but Datto is limited to servers located in proximity to the appliance to physically connect to the appliance in order to do baremetal restores.
Does anyone have experience with either of these services either good or bad? We are looking at implementing something for 2013 but both require us to pay for the devices up front to test them out so before we invest too much up front I'd like to find out others opinions.
We looked at in total
1. Datto- Lacks the ability to do imaging and baremetal restores of workstations
2. Unitrends- More expensive per GB of storage than Datto but can do bare metal restores on workstations via the network.
3. StorageCraft - Must pay for each Server individually plus a server to run the software on
4. Dell AppAssure- By far the highest up front cost as they offer it in a 3yr contract plus the cost of a dedicated server to run and store the data. Lacks the cloud virtualization.