BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY

Backup & Recovery Calculator & Vendor Comparison 2025

Calculate backup and disaster recovery costs. Compare 10 leading backup solutions with Q3 2025 pricing based on data volume, workload type, and recovery SLA.

10
Vendors
RTO
SLA Options
Q3
2025 Pricing

What is Backup & Recovery and Why Sizing Matters

Backup & Disaster Recovery protects business-critical data from loss, corruption, ransomware, and disasters by creating regular copies stored on separate infrastructure. Modern backup solutions provide automated backup schedules, deduplication, encryption, immutable storage for ransomware protection, and rapid recovery with RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) SLAs.

💾 Why Backup Sizing is Critical

Under-licensing leaves data unprotected—ransomware attacks cost $1.85M average recovery. Over-licensing wastes $50K-200K annually on unused storage. Our calculator helps you size based on data volume, change rate, retention policies, and recovery SLAs.

💰 Pricing Models Explained

Backup vendors charge per TB protected ($50-200/TB/month) or per workload (VMs, databases) or socket/core licensing. We normalize to TB pricing. Pricing varies by workload type: VMs ($50-80/TB/month), Databases ($80-120/TB/month), SaaS apps ($100-150/TB/month).

📊 Real Production Data

Our sizing comes from 200+ enterprise backup programs. We account for data growth (20-40% annually), change rates (10-30% daily for VMs), retention policies (7-365 days), and deduplication ratios (5:1 to 20:1 typical).

Key Factors in Backup Sizing

  • Data Volume: Total data to protect (TB). Include VMs, databases, file servers, SaaS apps (M365, Salesforce), endpoints. Don't forget: VMs grow 20-40% annually, databases 30-50%, file shares 40-60%. Budget for 2-year growth minimum.
  • Workload Types: VMs ($50-80/TB/month), Databases ($80-120/TB/month), File servers ($40-60/TB/month), SaaS apps ($100-150/TB/month), Endpoints ($20-40/TB/month). Different workloads need different backup approaches and cost differently.
  • Recovery SLA (RTO/RPO): Standard RTO 24h/RPO 24h ($50-70/TB/month) vs. Fast RTO 4h/RPO 4h ($80-100/TB/month) vs. Instant RTO <1h/RPO <1h ($120-150/TB/month) vs. Continuous replication ($150-200/TB/month). Mission-critical systems need fast recovery.
  • Retention and Compliance: Short retention 7-30 days (included) vs. Long retention 90-365 days ($+30-50%) vs. Multi-year archival for compliance ($+50-100%). Financial services (SEC 17a-4) need 7-year retention. Healthcare (HIPAA) needs 6-year retention.
  • Ransomware Protection: Standard backups (deletable) vs. Immutable backups air-gapped ($+40-60%) vs. Immutable + zero-trust architecture ($+60-100%). Ransomware attacks targeting backups are common—immutability is essential.

Common Backup Sizing Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Mistake #1: Sizing for current data volume only. Data grows 20-40% annually. Size for 2-3 year growth to avoid mid-contract expansion costs. A 100TB deployment needs 150-200TB capacity planning.

❌ Mistake #2: Not accounting for retention storage multiplication. 7-day retention with daily backups = 7x storage. 365-day retention = 365x (with deduplication, typically 15-30x). Budget for retention multiplier.

❌ Mistake #3: Assuming all workloads have same RTO/RPO. Email and file servers can tolerate 24h RTO. ERP and databases need <4h RTO. Tier your workloads by criticality to optimize costs 40-60%.

❌ Mistake #4: Forgetting SaaS backup. M365 and Salesforce native backup is 30-90 days only. Compliance and ransomware protection require third-party backup. Budget $3-8/user/month for SaaS backup (separate from infrastructure backup).

Calculate Your Backup & Recovery Requirements

Adjust parameters to see personalized pricing

Backup Protection Scope

50 TB
🔄

Ready to Calculate

Configure your backup and recovery requirements to see pricing.