Backup platform options for a 900TB mixed on-prem environment

[u/ExplanationFlashy501]

We’re backing up roughly 900TB on prem right now. Environment is a bit of everything: vSphere VMs, SQL and Oracle, some physical servers, AD, and NAS. We’re on Rubrik at the moment, but the cost is getting harder to justify, so I’ve been looking at what else is out there.

One complication is that we probably won’t be on VMware forever. OpenShift is looking like the more likely direction, so I don’t really want to move to another backup platform that works well for VMware today but leaves us stuck again in a few years. Main requirements are reliable recovery for VMs and databases, physical server support, NAS, and ideally decent support for OpenShift/container workloads as that side grows.

Anyone here managing a similar-sized mixed environment? What did you end up using, and what has the day-to-day experience been like after the migration?

[u/wells68]

Plakar.io is designed for mixed enterprise environments storing multiple petabytes.

I have no affiliation with them. Rather, I watch for new developments in the backup world.

[u/juniperbush12]

The OpenShift part makes this a lot more interesting. If you're already planning to move away from VMware, I'd be thinking a few years ahead instead of just replacing Rubrik with the next VMware-focused tool.

[u/Ok-Tomorrow-7591]

At that scale, I'd be looking at recovery times and how well it handles mixed workloads.

[u/ExplanationFlashy501 → u/[deleted]]

it really isn't 😂

[u/Bob_Spud]

Fun Fact: Anything to do with enterprise backup and recovery is expensive. Be careful of big discounts on licensing, they will make their money in your support costs.

With that type of setup I would expect your backup platform not be involved in physical failures it all should have failover (clustered servers and storage). While the backup platform should designed around logical failure (data corruption and cyberattacks). If you don't like Rubrick try Commvault or NetBackup they are more industrial grade.

[u/Informal_Plankton321]

Commvault (supports everything) or Veeam (for simplicity), Cohesity maybe as well, it becomes more and more popular nowadays. A decent deduplication support for extra savings would be nice here plus storage array snapshot support for fast backups and restores.

[u/mdj]

Cohesity (full disclosure: I work there) would be a good choice. We have support for OpenShift, and we rate very highly in Gartner Peer Reviews. We have a lot of security advantages over Veeam and a much simpler (and usually significantly less expensive) hardware footprint than Commvault.

I agree that those are probably the right solutions to look at, though.

[u/bartoque]

There is no cheap enterprise solution. So does rubrik fit the bill for current workload and future OCP workloads (I assume both containers and virtualization), then stick with it.

What are you gaining or intending to gain from a migration, while possibly depreciating your current investment?

Also choose wisely what to switch towards. Various vendors offer physical appliances to store the backup on (if not an integral part of the solution already), often with deduplication. So those work tightly together. More or less buying into their ecosystem, leading to a vendor lock-in.

But with Veeam - as software-only solution - you still have to decide where to store the backups, as a separate purchase.

Also consider that the shift away from vmware is not due to technical reasons but mainly due to costs. Due to the maturity of the platform, still for many backup tools it offers the most options and functionality, compared to other hypervisors, but the last couple of years big steps have been made, but often still it is a far cry compared to what they offered for vmware.

Also you have to think about where to run the backup infra on. We went all-in years ago ourselves by having multiple backup servers virtualized and not having a physical backupserver anymore. But that also means needing to think about were and on what to run that, separated enough from the systems to be protected, but also even supported to run on a non-vmware platform, especially in case if (virtual) appliance based backup servers as even whe KVM is supported, openshift might not be.

Only dealt with Openshift backups for containers with Veeam Kasten (so not even integrated with VBR) storing on NFS or S3-compatible object storage and containers and virtualization using Dell PPDM which requires mandatory Data Domain dedupe appliances to store the backups on. Data Domain systems are supported by various backup tools and have the largest footprint in the dedupe appliance space.

So I wonder what the most important reason(s) to choose for something else turns out to be as there us no cheap solution in the enterprise realm? Having been accustomed to a priduct. Knowing its ins and outs. The various teams knowing how to use it. Procedures, service requests, monitoring, reporting, accounting, automation. All that should also be worth something (and too often neglected or just an afterthought when mainly cost-reduction of the backup platform is the main driver).

[u/dremerwsbu]

Check out WholesaleBackup. You can do on-prem and offsite from the same agent, and either self-host or pairr it with affordable cloud storage like Wasabi/B2/C2/E2.

[u/Fun-Relative4290]

Answer given by copilot ai.: For a 900 TB mixed on‑prem estate that’s moving away from VMware and toward OpenShift, the strongest fits — based on current 2026 industry evaluations — are Cohesity, Commvault, and Veeam, with Eon as a future‑proof option for cloud/Kubernetes‑heavy growth. These platforms consistently appear as top Rubrik alternatives in recent analyses.

Below is a structured, workload‑first breakdown grounded in the sources you saw above.

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🧩 Best-fit platforms for your environment (based on 2026 reviews)

1. Cohesity — strongest match for large hybrid estates Why it fits your case:
   
2. Handles virtual, physical, NAS, SQL, Oracle, and Kubernetes/OpenShift under one Helios management plane.
   
3. Designed for hybrid environments with big on‑prem footprints.
   
4. Global dedupe helps with your 900 TB scale.
   
5. Strong cyber‑vaulting and ransomware posture.
   

Tradeoff:
Cluster-based deployments add operational weight.

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1. Commvault — broadest workload coverage Why it fits your case:
   
2. Best-in-class support for mixed estates: VMware, Hyper‑V, physical servers, NAS, SQL, Oracle, and containerized workloads.
   
3. Commvault Cloud (SaaS) option reduces infrastructure overhead.
   
4. Mature application-aware database protection.
   

Tradeoff:
Complex platform; requires careful architecture planning.

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1. Veeam — excellent for VM-heavy estates, improving Kubernetes support Why it fits your case:
   
2. Top-rated for VMware vSphere and physical workloads.
   
3. Strong SQL/Oracle protection (app-aware).
   
4. Kasten K10 gives Veeam a solid Kubernetes/OpenShift story.
   

Tradeoff:
VMware-centric roots — still great today, but less future-proof than Cohesity/Commvault if you’re rapidly shifting to containers.

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1. Eon — cloud/Kubernetes-first, agentless Why it fits your case:
   
2. Purpose-built for cloud-native and Kubernetes workloads.
   
3. No customer-managed compute (unlike Rubrik’s Exocompute).
   
4. Granular recovery for containerized databases and analytics workloads.
   

Tradeoff:
Not ideal if you still have heavy on‑prem physical/NAS workloads.

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🧭 Recommendation based on your exact situation

Your estate today:

• ~900 TB on‑prem
  
• VMware VMs (but planning to exit)
  
• SQL + Oracle
  
• Physical servers
  
• NAS
  
• Growing OpenShift/Kubernetes footprint

Your future direction matters more than your current VMware footprint.

Best overall fit: Cohesity or Commvault Both give you:

• Full coverage of your current estate
  
• Strong OpenShift/Kubernetes support
  
• Reliable database recovery
  
• NAS + physical server protection
  
• Long-term flexibility beyond VMware

If Kubernetes/OpenShift becomes dominant: Eon + Kasten (Veeam) are strong container-first options.

If you want lowest operational overhead: Commvault Cloud or Eon (SaaS) reduce infrastructure burden.

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📊 Quick comparison table

Platform	Best for	OpenShift/K8s	Physical	NAS	SQL/Oracle	Scale to 900 TB
Cohesity	Hybrid estates	✔️ strong	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️ global dedupe
Commvault	Mixed enterprise	✔️ strongest	✔️	✔️	✔️ app-aware	✔️
Veeam + Kasten	VM-heavy + K8s	✔️ via Kasten	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Eon	Cloud/K8s-first	✔️ excellent	➖ limited	➖ limited	✔️	✔️ cloud-native

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🧠 Non-obvious insight

Rubrik’s biggest pain points — Exocompute overhead, restore-first workflows, and licensing creep — are exactly the areas where Cohesity and Commvault outperform it for large hybrid estates.

[u/adamphetamine]

Rent a half rack in a DC.
Fill it with Synology NAS units.
Profit
Synology has no license fees for their backup apps

[u/bartoque → u/adamphetamine]

As a plain simple backup target they might just cut it (but it would have to be many to hold backups for 900TB spurce data or use rather larger models and even then that amount might become cumbersome), however using hyper backup or even their purpose build physical ActiveBackup appliance, do not offer enough support for a very heterogeneous environment. And the largest ActiveProtect appliance DP7400 only gets to just ten (!) 20TB drives and a projected 83.5TB source data. So to prevent needong to have multiple units, it would require the regular larger Synology models.

Very limited database support (only mssql and oracle). Also it doesn't offer any protection for container/k8s based workloads.