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Veeam Backup & Replication

Enterprise backup and replication across virtual, physical and cloud workloads.

Freemium Desktop download

Reviewed by Paul Jens Handschuh, Network administrator Updated 2026-11-05

Official site www.veeam.com
Platforms
Windows console; protects VMware/Hyper-V/Nutanix/Proxmox, physical servers, cloud, M365
Licence
Freemium — free Community edition (up to 10 instances)
Price
Free Community edition; paid Data Platform
Category
Backup & disaster recovery
Updated
2026-11-05

What it is

Veeam Backup & Replication is an enterprise platform for backing up and replicating virtual, physical and cloud workloads. It offers centralised backup, instant recovery, replication for DR and immutable copies against ransomware, and is an industry standard. A free Community edition covers up to 10 instances.

Problems it removes

  • Virtual machines must be backed up without taking them offline or hammering production storage.
  • After a failure you need a whole VM, or a single file inside it, back in minutes rather than hours.
  • Backups themselves could be reached by ransomware, so copies must be immutable and offline.

How administrators use it

  • Add vCenter/Hyper-V hosts and back up at the hypervisor level with changed-block tracking.
  • Use Instant Recovery to boot a VM straight from the backup while it restores in the background.
  • Send a copy to immutable object storage or tape to satisfy the 3-2-1 rule.
Veeam Backup & Replication instant VM recovery
Screenshot: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • Industry standard with broad platform coverage.
  • Fast, granular recovery — whole VM or a single item.
  • Free Community edition up to 10 instances.

Trade-offs

  • The full feature set is a paid, per-workload licence.
  • The management console runs on Windows.
  • At scale it becomes real infrastructure to plan and size.

Common questions

Is the Community edition actually free?

Yes — it covers up to 10 instances with no time limit. Paid editions add capacity and advanced features.

Does it protect physical servers too?

Yes, through agents, in addition to virtual machines, cloud workloads and Microsoft 365.

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Backup plus cyber protection — anti-malware, EDR and patching — in one console.

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Open-source, client-server enterprise backup to disk, tape or cloud.

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