Believe it or not, there actually are backup solutions other than Bacula out there! This page is intended to help give you an idea of how Bacula stacks up against these other packages.
Feel free to add features or other backup solution you're familiar with. If an entry is blank, that means the answer wasn't known, so please go ahead and fill it in if you know. This page is intended to be an honest comparison, not just Bacula advertisement, so don't worry about including areas where Bacula comes up short. If nothing else, it will help with coming up with new ideas for the feature request list!
| Bacula | Amanda | Tivoli (TSM) | Veritas | Legato Networker | CA ARCserve | Arkeia Network Backup | Quest NetVault:Backup | LBackup | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backup Levels | Full, Differential, Incremental,Consolidation | Full, Incremental(1-9)1 | Full2, Incremental | Full, Differential, Incremental | Full, Differential, Incremental, Consolidation | Full3, Synthetic Full, Differential, Incremental, Infinite Block-Level Incremental24 | Full, Differential, Incremental | Full, Differential, Incremental | Full, Incremental |
| Data Format | Custom, fully open | open, recoverable without Amanda | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom, Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) | Custom, open-source restore | Custom | Custom, fully open |
| Autochangers | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported | optional | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported | Unsupported | |
| Deduplication | File-Level23 | Target-side | Either-side | Global Variable Block Lenght Deduplication, Target-side | Either-side18 | Target-side | |||
| NDMP | Yes16 | Yes11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Backup to Tape | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Backup to Disk | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | optional | Yes | Yes | optional20 | Yes |
| Backup to DVD | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ||
| Staging | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | |
| SQL Catalog | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Can handle 1 billion objects | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | FileSystem Depended | |||
| OpenSource | Yes | Yes14 | No | No | No | No | Only restore | No | Yes |
| Commercial Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GUI | Yes - bat | Yes - ZMC11 | Client&admin client | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Multi Platform | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | *NIX |
| Virus Scanning | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ||
| Tripwire like functions | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Backup span multiple volumes | Yes | Yes13 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| Microsoft Exchange Support | Yes | Yes | Yes15 | Yes7 | Yes7 | Yes4 | Yes7 9 | Yes | No |
| Backup Reports | Yes (Via breport) | Yes | Yes | Yes5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Backup Alerts (notify) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Incremental handles deleted files | Yes | Yes | Yes, with full incremental6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Encryption Datastream | Yes (TLS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| MSSQL-Support | Yes17 | Yes11 | Yes15 | Yes7 | Yes7 | Yes | Yes7 | Yes | No |
| Oracle-Support | Yes16 | Yes11 | Yes15 | Yes7 | Yes7 | Yes | Yes7 | Yes | No |
| PostgreSQL-Support21 | Yes16,22 | No | |||||||
| VMWare vStorage Support19 | Yes16 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Security Certified12 | Yes | No |
1 Incremental level 1 is the same as differential.
2 Full level is only at the verfy first backup, the rest are only Incremental backups.
TSM manages the data other than usual backup programs.
3 Full, “Keep Archive Bit” or “Clear Archive Bit”
4 Database and Document Level (restore of individual messages, folders or mailboxes).
5 Pre-created reports as well as a 'report writer' for custom reports. Also includes a Dashboard with drill down capable SRM graphical reports.
6 TSM has multiple ways of doing an incremental backup. In an “incremental by date” (which is about the way Bacula does incrementals: backup everything that's modified since the last backup), no information about deleted files is stored. In an “full incremental”, the file system is compared with the last backup and file deletions are also saved. See http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/hfs/backup/index.xml.ID=body.1_div.2 and also http://www.unix.ualberta.ca/TSM/tsmunix/ans50008.htm#HDRPITREST
7 These features are supported with additionally purchased licenses.
8 Bacula community provides scripts to support database online backup. No build-in support!
9 Exchange integration supported via VSS… http://www.arkeia.com/en/company/press-releases/415-arkeia-updates-backup-agents-for-microsoft-vss
11 Currently available in Amanda Enterprise Edition, not OpenSource - http://www.zmanda.com.
12 Scanning of open source projects by Coverity under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/608/569
13 Since version 3.2 Amanda can now span tapes without wasting any space
14 New Zmanda tools like ZMC gui aren't opensource
15 Tivoli Data Protection for …, need to purchase aditional licenses
16 Actually present only on Enterprise version
17 Bacula community provides scripts to support database online backup. Plugin support on Enterprise version
18 Deduplication can be selected to be on source-side, on target-side, or disabled
19 vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP)http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021175
20 Needs an additional component wich can be integrated into Netvault:Backup http://www.quest.com/netvault-smartdisk
21 PostgreSQL PITR and Dump Plugin to automatically backup a local cluster
22 PostgreSQL PITR Plugin available for both Community and Enerprise versions from Inteos Sp. z o.o. http://bacula.com.pl/bacula/postgresql-plugin
23 Global Block Level Deduplication Target and Source will be available in Enterprise in 2013
24 With CA ARCserve D2D (additional module), full level backup is done only at the verfy first backup, the rest are only Block-Level Incremental backups.