vSphere Data Protection
Server backup software
Backup software
Data recovery software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if vSphere Data Protection and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Free Trial unavailableFree version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
- Healthcare and life sciences
- Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
- Construction
What is vSphere Data Protection
vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is a virtual appliance for backup and recovery of VMware vSphere virtual machines, integrated into the vSphere environment. It targets IT teams running on-premises vSphere that need image-level VM backups, restores, and basic retention management from within VMware tooling. The product is based on EMC Avamar technology and is designed around VMware-specific workflows rather than heterogeneous physical and cloud workloads. VMware has discontinued VDP, so it is primarily relevant for legacy environments and migration planning.
Tight vSphere integration
VDP integrates with vCenter and is operated as a vSphere-deployed appliance, which aligns with VM-centric administration. It supports common VM recovery workflows such as full VM restore and file-level recovery for supported guest OS configurations. This reduces the need for separate backup agents on each VM in many scenarios. It fits environments where vSphere is the dominant platform and operational simplicity inside vCenter is a priority.
VM image-level backups
VDP is designed for image-level protection of vSphere virtual machines, using VMware snapshot-based mechanisms. This approach supports consistent backups for many VM workloads without per-application scripting in the simplest cases. It is well-suited to protecting a set of vSphere VMs with standardized policies. For legacy deployments, it can provide a baseline backup capability without introducing a separate backup server footprint.
Avamar-based deduplication
VDP uses EMC Avamar technology, which is known for deduplication-oriented backup storage efficiency. Deduplication can reduce backup storage consumption compared with keeping full copies of each backup. This can be beneficial in VM environments with many similar operating system images. The appliance model also packages the backup components into a single deployable unit.
Discontinued legacy product
VMware has discontinued vSphere Data Protection, which limits long-term supportability and access to current updates. This creates risk for security patching, compatibility with newer vSphere releases, and vendor support coverage. Organizations typically need a migration plan to a supported backup platform. New deployments are generally not advisable due to lifecycle status.
VMware-centric scope
VDP focuses on vSphere VM protection and is not designed as a broad, heterogeneous backup platform. It is less suitable for mixed environments that require unified protection for physical servers, multiple hypervisors, SaaS, or cloud-native workloads. This can lead to tool sprawl if the organization must protect non-vSphere systems. It also limits flexibility for hybrid and multi-platform recovery strategies.
Limited modern capabilities
Compared with current backup platforms, VDP lacks many newer capabilities such as advanced ransomware resilience features, immutable storage integrations, and modern cloud backup targets as first-class options. Reporting, automation, and policy management are oriented to older vSphere-era workflows. Scaling and feature depth can be constrained by the appliance design and product maturity. These gaps become more visible as environments adopt newer infrastructure and compliance requirements.
Seller details
Broadcom Inc.
Palo Alto, California, USA
1961
Public
https://www.broadcom.com/
https://x.com/Broadcom
https://www.linkedin.com/company/broadcom/
