| | VR | SRM/VR | SRM/ABR | Veeam B&R | Zerto |
| Replication type | vSphere layer, using virtual appliances | vSphere layer, using virtual appliances | Array based replication (e.g. snapmirror, truecopy) | vSphere layer, using Veeam Backup & Replication application | vSphere layer, using virtual appliances. A VA is deployed on each host |
| Licensing | VR is included in vSphere | VR is included in vSphere, SRM licensed per VM | Replication license required, costs depend on storage vendor. SRM licensed per VM. | Licensed as part of Veeam Backup & Replication, license per socket. | Zerto is licensed per VM. |
| Uniform storage infrastructure required | No, replication is VM based | No, replication is VM based | Yes, same vendor and sometimes same model | No, replication is VM based | No, replication is VM based |
| Replicate local storage | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Replicate physical servers | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Replication Granularity | Per VM | Per VM | Per LUN and/or Consistency Group | Per VM | Per VM and/or per VM group |
| Configure Consistency Group | No | No | Yes (Depending on the storage vendor) | No | Yes (Virtual Protection Groups) |
| Recovery Points | Just one, latest succesful replication date | Just one, latest succesful replication date. (SRM 5.5 allows to revert to 24 points in time) | Just one for SRM, although you can of course create snapshots on the storage level. SRM isn’t snapshot aware. | 28 points in time | Up to 5 days earlier |
| Management (how) | vSphere Web Client plugin | vSphere Web Client plugin | Storage vendor management interface. Sometimes plugins are available. | Veeam B&R management console. V7 introduces a vSphere Web Client plugin. | vSphere Web Client plugin |
| Management (who) | vSphere administrator | vSphere administrator | Storage administrator | Veeam administrator | Zerto administrator |
| RPO | RPO of 15 minutes – 24 hours | RPO of 15 minutes – 24 hours | RPO of 0 minutes with synchronous replication | Based on a replication schedule which can be set to continuously | RPO of seconds |
| Application consistency | Yes, using VSS | Yes, using VSS | No, VMs/data is in crash consistent state | Yes, using VSS | Yes, using VSS |
| Orchestration | No, although vSphere offers various scripting options e.g. through PowerCLI | Yes, SRM is all about DR orchestration | Yes, SRM is all about DR orchestration | No, but with the Veeam B&R Powershell plugin you can write an orchestration script | Yes, you can configure startup order for a Virtual Protection Group. Zerto includes scripting options which will give additional automation options. |
| Raw Device Mappings | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Virtual and physical RDMs are both supported. |
| Fault Tolerance VMs | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Replicate Clusterd VMs | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| VMware vCloud (Director) Integrated | No (you can replicate VMs, but vCD is not aware of any replication options) | No (you can replicate VMs, but vCD is not aware of any replication options) | No (you can replicate LUNs hosting VMs, but vCD is not aware of any replication options) | No, but there are some improvements in Veeam B&R version 7, to be available soon. | Yes, Zerto for Cloud Providers is available. The provider must have Zerto installed. |
