HPE Zerto In-Cloud Software for AWS

My major use case for HPE Zerto Software  is for DR automation. I use HPE Zerto Software  instead of SRM.

I implemented HPE Zerto Software to solve cost issues with SRM, and I managed to leverage DR automation through HPE Zerto Software with better clarity. More stable and comprehensive audit reports are available. I prefer such scenarios instead of SRM because SRM is costly, especially nowadays when VMware costs are very high. To address cost issues, I brought in HPE Zerto Software and I am satisfied right now. In my current implementation, we do not have Hyper-V , which presents a challenge, especially since they removed the support metrics for the newer version of Hyper-V  from their website.

Mainly, HPE Zerto Software's best feature is its analytical and reporting monitoring capabilities, which is excellent. It has a ransomware protection feature, and security-related steps are in place. Orchestration was one of the best features previously, but now they've reduced services particularly for Hyper-V to promote HPE VME. I purchased it for complete solutions, but today it is inclining in market value as they are currently focusing on HPE VME.

HPE Zerto Software has a positive impact on my IT resiliency strategy with real-time ransomware detection, which is a great feature, and it can be air-gapped. I can utilize the immutable recovery environments, and it also offers vault options for those air-gapped environments.

HPE Zerto Software provides disaster recovery in the cloud, but it does not mean it is completely cloud-based without control. Most of my clients are air-gapped solution clients and utilize external analytics since the analytics engine is cloud-based. Everything else, including automation, is part of the on-premises scenario with HPE Zerto Software.

Regarding the near-synchronous replication feature in HPE Zerto Software, it is important for my replication cases. I usually implement SAN-based replication, and in addition to that, I enable HPE Zerto Software replication. Although it is mainly asynchronous, I typically will not lose much; it is at most ten to fifteen seconds, which I find quite good.

HPE Zerto Software helps me protect virtual machines within my environment since I require replicating everything outside my DR data centers. It allows for deployment and test sandbox boxes. I can take snapshots at any time without affecting production, which is a great feature.

HPE Zerto Software improves the RPO.

The orchestration tool in HPE Zerto Software automates processes, including organizing scripts and managing command line switchovers, even for tasks such as IP address changes. Without Zerto, manual intervention can introduce human errors and is less efficient. However, since Zerto allows me to push changes in parallel, I can save about forty percent time during orchestration.

One decisive feature that made me switch to HPE Zerto Software is its real-time encryption and threat detection, which offers continuous monitoring and anomaly detection. It is capable of analyzing live data and identifying unusual encryption patterns that may indicate ransomware attacks.

Orchestration was one of the best features previously, but now they have reduced services particularly for Hyper-V to promote HPE VME.

In my current implementation, we do not have Hyper-V, which presents a challenge, especially since they removed the support metrics for the newer version of Hyper-V from their website.

While HPE Zerto Software is not the only product in the market, there are others such as Atomic, which I consider superior to Zerto for orchestration features, providing more customer confidence.

I identify a drawback related to HPE Zerto Software in that they currently focus on HPE VM Essentials, as it is an alternative to VMware. HPE is promoting this aspect and has not updated support for Hyper-V, which has created challenges for enterprise customers transitioning to Hyper-V for cost-saving reasons.

I have been using HPE Zerto Software for around one year to one and a half years.

Regarding technical support from HPE, I find it satisfactory. I rarely encounter issues, and whenever I open a case, they are very helpful.

I would rate technical support at seven out of ten.

The initial setup of HPE Zerto Software is straightforward. I create some CPGs and groups for application configuration, but it is quite easy. There are not many complexities involved, and their technical staff are very knowledgeable and supportive.

In terms of return on investment, working with HPE Zerto Software should yield savings, especially when comparing it to SRM, which is not as cost-effective. Therefore, HPE Zerto Software is the lower-cost option.

From a pricing standpoint, HPE Zerto Software was reasonably priced initially compared to SRM, but now it is almost on par, if not better.

While HPE Zerto Software is not the only product in the market, there are others such as Atomic, which I consider superior to Zerto for orchestration features, providing more customer confidence.

On the technical side, comparing HPE Zerto Software with other products such as Perpetuity, Zerto has strong orchestration capabilities, whereas others focus more on specific aspects such as backup. Therefore, I compare it with Veeam and Commvault, which are often more costly.

I work with HPE Zerto Software as a consultant and I work as a customer, both.

I do not sell HPE Zerto Software.

Fortunately, I have not encountered any disasters so far. Living in Dubai, my electricity and infrastructure are stable. However, one of my clients in a non-GCC country faced multiple downtimes due to power failures, and they were very focused on maintaining RPO within limits. When I implemented HPE Zerto Software, they could switch over to DR before UPS shutdown, which is a great feature.

I see measurable differences with HPE Zerto Software. It can significantly reduce data loss. For instance, if I operate on a one-hour RPO-based system, it can be reduced to thirty seconds. For other scenarios, I can achieve near-zero RPO.

With HPE Zerto Software, the recovery time for data due to ransomware or other causes is significantly reduced. The near-to-zero data loss option indicates no need for backup restore or rehydration. I can directly power on replicas at another site, and they come up within seconds, contributing to a very low RTO.

HPE Zerto Software significantly helps to reduce my company's DR testing needs.

For example, I have a client with an eight-hour RPO, which I reduced to twenty minutes with HPE Zerto Software.

In terms of ease of use, I find HPE Zerto Software easy to operate compared to other products. A one-time training session suffices for technical personnel like me.

HPE Zerto Software has comparable ease of use to other products. All have a normal GUI design. However, when comparing to solutions such as Veeam, Rubrik , Cohesity , or Commvault, the main advantage lies in replication methods. HPE Zerto Software utilizes continuous disk parity protection, leading to RPOs typically measured in seconds, contrasting with others that span hours.

I find HPE Zerto Software easily scalable.

I have around fifteen years of experience in this domain, which includes working with backup solutions beyond just HPE Zerto Software.

My overall review rating for HPE Zerto Software is seven out of ten.

HPE Zerto Software 's main use cases include graphics, restore RPO, and RTO. I have used HPE Zerto Software  to help protect VMs in my environment. For VM restore only, it takes about 10 minutes or less for RPOs.

HPE Zerto Software's best features for me are the instant restore and the marking of suspicious malicious activities on the backup job.

When I implemented HPE Zerto Software, my impression of near-synchronous replication is that it works well and achieves very low latency, with only a few seconds delay—seven or eight seconds only. Overall, I see a very good impact from near-synchronous replication and consider it a very good feature.

HPE Zerto Software is more speedy when comparing recovery speed to other disaster recovery products. With Arcserve, I took a few hours to restore the VM and the service, but with HPE Zerto Software, it's just a few minutes only, which is very good.

HPE Zerto Software helps to reduce downtime in various situations. Although I haven't used it in production yet, during drills and theoretical scenarios, it proves effective in saving a significant amount of time.

So far, I do not see any areas for improvement in HPE Zerto Software. Currently, there are no minor improvements I can think of, and I have no concerns so far.

I have been using HPE Zerto Software for just a few months after changing from Arcserve.

During the POC with old hardware, I encountered some performance issues, but that is a hardware problem and not due to HPE Zerto Software.

HPE Zerto Software is flexible to scale. I can buy just a few or more as needed, and it offers great flexibility.

I believe HP support is very good. They follow the SLA and the local engineer is well-informed about HPE Zerto Software. The technical support is excellent. There are instances where I need to follow up and self-investigate, but overall, everything is fine with the support.

I compare HPE Zerto Software to Arcserve backup. I think HPE Zerto Software is easier and more simple than Arcserve, the previous product.

Deployment of HPE Zerto Software was easy for me. I accomplished the deployment in-house.

I purchased HPE Zerto Software from a local distributor.

I have not seen any return on investment from HPE Zerto Software yet.

I think HPE Zerto Software is expensive. If I had to rate its expense from zero to ten, I would give it about 1.5 compared to other products.

I currently work with HPE Zerto Software as my backup solution, previously utilizing HP as part of my infrastructure. Even though I have been using HPE Zerto Software for just a few months, I find it incredible because it's much better than the CA backup I used previously.

HPE Zerto Software has helped to reduce my company's DR testing. With its drill and test functionality in a separate environment, I think it could save three or four hours during testing.

My company decided to switch to HPE Zerto Software for the enhanced protection and benefits of ransomware prevention for backup data, as well as effective RPO and RTO functionality. Every function is working very well.

Although I haven't used HPE Zerto Software on the production environment, only in drills or POCs, I think it could save a few hours similar to those tests. Regarding time savings in data recovery due to ransomware or other causes, there is potential for improvement.

I observed savings because I combine HPE Zerto Software with hardware for multiple backups. It wouldn't be a comprehensive solution without another safe place to store backup data, so I believe it needs to be combined effectively.

I am not sure about data recovery in the cloud since I have only implemented HPE Zerto Software on-premises. My overall rating for this product is 10 out of 10.

HPE Zerto Software ’s near-real-time replication capability is a critical part of how we deliver disaster recovery to our clients. Operating in The Bahamas, we are in a hurricane-prone region, so geographic resilience is a major concern. Many of our clients value the assurance that, in the event of a natural disaster, loss of power, or even the complete destruction of a local data center, their environments can be brought online in a different jurisdiction and continue operating exactly as they would on-premises. This level of protection and peace of mind is one of the primary reasons we deploy Zerto for our customers.

In addition to disaster recovery, some clients use HPE Zerto Software  for testing and validation purposes. The platform allows us to run disaster recovery tests in an isolated environment that mirrors production, enabling clients to validate real-world failure scenarios during business hours without disrupting live systems. This has been especially valuable for organizations that want confidence in their recovery plans but cannot afford downtime.

HPE Zerto Software also enables us to deliver disaster recovery in the cloud rather than relying solely on physical data centers. We typically provide clients with a virtual data center where their replicated environments reside, allowing for faster deployment and greater flexibility. One of Zerto’s strongest advantages is that it is hypervisor-agnostic, supporting platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V , and public cloud environments. While some customers still prefer dedicated physical infrastructure for private deployments, the majority of our clients are comfortable with a cloud-based approach. For them, Zerto has proven to be an efficient, reliable, and scalable solution that accelerates recovery readiness while simplifying overall operations.

One of HPE Zerto Software’s best features for us is its built-in ransomware resilience. Zerto continuously journals data changes and uses anomaly detection to identify unusual write behavior that may indicate a ransomware or cyberattack. This gives us early visibility into potential threats and allows us to respond quickly.

A key strength of the platform is its immutable journaling and recovery checkpoints. Zerto maintains frequent, immutable restore points that cannot be altered or encrypted by ransomware. This allows customers to roll environments back to a point just before an incident occurred, with confidence that the data has not been compromised. From a customer perspective, this provides a high level of assurance that their data remains protected and recoverable even in the event of a successful attack

While Zerto is hypervisor-agnostic and reliably replicates data, newer VM hardware versions, particularly in VMware environments, may not be immediately supported when customers update aggressively. This can create challenges in shared or cloud-based Zerto platforms, where upgrading the Zerto infrastructure to support a single customer’s newer version may impact other tenants.

It would be beneficial to see more flexibility around supporting older and newer platform versions simultaneously, or enhanced tooling to better manage version mismatches in multi-tenant environments. This would help service providers accommodate customers who move quickly with upgrades without forcing platform-wide changes that affect other clients.

I have been working with HPE Zerto Software for about the last eight years.

Zerto scales really well as environments grow. We’ve used it in smaller deployments and in larger, more complex environments, and the overall management doesn’t change much as you add more workloads. Once the core setup and networking are in place, protecting additional VMs or expanding to another site is fairly straightforward.

One of the things that helps with scalability is that Zerto is consistent across different platforms. Whether workloads are on-prem, in a secondary data center, or in the cloud, the replication process works the same way. That makes it easier to scale without having to learn or manage different tools for different environments.

We have been exposed to other solutions in the market, such as Veeam and some of VMware’s native replication options, but we did not extensively deploy them for disaster recovery. While Veeam does offer replication capabilities, our organization standardized early on HPE Zerto Software, and it has remained our primary disaster recovery platform.

We chose to stay with HPE Zerto Software because it consistently met our recovery objectives and aligned well with our operational model. As a result, we have continued to build our disaster recovery services around Zerto rather than switching between multiple tools. This focus has allowed us to develop deep expertise with the platform and deliver a consistent, reliable disaster recovery experience for our customers.

The initial setup with HPE Zerto Software is very straightforward. Deploying the platform itself is a breeze, and getting replication up and running does not take much effort. The only part that can become more complex is configuring the environment to match the customer’s specific needs, which can vary depending on networking, security requirements, and how the target environment is designed.

Overall, the core setup is simple, and any added complexity usually comes from tailoring the solution to fit the customer’s environment rather than from the product itself.

From a pricing perspective, HPE Zerto Software is more expensive than many competing solutions on the market. However, in our experience, the value becomes clear very quickly once customers see the product in action. Zerto is relatively easy to set up, and its ability to demonstrate near real-time replication and recovery in a live demo makes it much easier to justify the cost.

While pricing can initially be a concern, running a proof of concept typically shifts the conversation. Once customers understand the benefits, particularly around recovery speed, minimal data loss, and operational simplicity, they tend to focus less on price and more on how to adopt the solution within their environment. From that point, licensing discussions become more straightforward, as the product effectively sells itself based on performance and reliability.

I have seen and been around certain applications such as Veeam. Veeam has a replication option, but I have never fully explored it. We bought into HPE Zerto Software, and it has always been HPE Zerto Software as our number one go-to for disaster recovery. I know that VMware has some built-in replication options as well, but we have really and truly stayed in the same lane of disaster recovery with HPE Zerto Software.

HPE Zerto Software is what we often describe as the Ferrari of disaster recovery. It is a very refined platform with strong built-in safeguards, near-real-time replication, and a clean, intuitive management interface through Zerto Virtual Manager. The ability to manage access through Active Directory or independent logins, combined with immutable journaling and ransomware anomaly detection, gives us a high level of confidence in both security and recoverability.

Zerto excels in fast recovery and low disruption. We can restore workloads to just before an incident occurs, significantly reducing downtime and data loss. We have successfully used it to recover from a real ransomware incident, restoring clean environments quickly and keeping business impact to a minimum. Its migration capabilities are equally strong, allowing us to move workloads with minimal interruption while continuously capturing incremental changes until cutover.

Disaster recovery testing is another major strength. Zerto allows us to perform full DR tests during business hours in an isolated environment without impacting production, which has led to more frequent and more effective testing for our clients. The platform is also easy to operate, reducing the number of staff required during recovery scenarios and simplifying ongoing management.

My advice to organizations considering HPE Zerto Software is to clearly understand their recovery objectives. If you require very low RPOs, fast recovery times, and confidence against ransomware or major outages, Zerto is an excellent choice. While it may be more expensive than some alternatives, its performance, reliability, and ease of use justify the cost—particularly for medium to large enterprises.

The purpose was for cloud migration, as it's for cloud DR as a service. It's for DR purposes on the cloud and also on-prem to different sites. The main challenge is that I'm not working with one customer but I'm working with multiple customers. My role is I'm an architect that provides DR solutions and cloud solutions to the customers in Israel, but not only in Israel. Most of the use cases are for DR as a service. The challenge is to provide a disaster recovery solution for big organizations, and they are not limited to their on-prem sites.

The most liked feature in HPE Zerto Software  is that it uses CDP, Continuous Data Protection. It's a protocol that provides a very low RPO, which is Recovery Point Objective . This means how much data you lose when a disaster occurs. This is the main feature of the product. It's called CDP, and until two years ago, it was the only product able to provide that. Today, there are competitors, but they are not as mature as HPE.

The near-synchronous replication is the CDP I just mentioned. The near-zero replication is possible due to the CDP usage, and this is a game changer. DR in the cloud is much cheaper, and the ROI is absolutely in favor of cloud DR because we do not need to purchase any hardware. As a customer, I do not need to purchase hardware, rent a physical data center, or bring all my equipment to locate in the DR site.

It's not only in the cloud; it's DR as a service, which means that the recovery operations are performed by a dedicated team specializing in this area. Organizations don't need to have the expertise to manage and know HPE Zerto Software  platform because a dedicated team of the cloud provider is actually operating all the necessary steps to recover the systems. Comparing to a regular backup solution, it reduces downtime by 95%. The recovery time objective reduction comes from the fact that it's CDP. Additionally, HPE Zerto Software comes out of the box with an orchestration tool, which means you can automate the recovery process and don't need to perform tasks manually for the recovery operations. The recovery process with HPE Zerto Software is better compared to other DR solutions. However, it's equivalent for some products or methods.

There are few areas for improvement that are mostly technical. It has limited support mostly for VMware environments; they are trying to reduce support for Hyper-V  and now bring it back, but it's not working as easy with VMWARE. There is a problem where you need to perform a full sweep to back up and sync a VM from the beginning, which occurs in some scenrios. There are times you need to restart synchronization from the start, which is a heavy operation without clear reasoning, consuming a lot of resources.

I have been architecting soluitions with this product for four years.

I rate the stability of HPE Zerto Software at nine.

Scalability is rated at 10, but it is limited mostly to VMware.

The deployment, whether cloud or on-prem, is easy. The deployment process takes about one to four hours, specifically the deployment of the HPE Zerto Software footprint.

in DRaaS , maintenance is easy because it's cloud-based; everything happens behind the scenes for the customers and end users.

DR in the cloud is much cheaper, and the ROI is absolutely in favor of cloud DR because we do not need to purchase any hardware. As a customer, I do not need to purchase hardware, rent a physical data center, or bring all my equipment to locate in the DR site. Having it in the cloud is very beneficial for customers and organizations. It's not only in the cloud; it's DR as a service, which means that the recovery operations are performed by a dedicated team specializing in this area. Organizations don't need to have the expertise to manage and know HPE Zerto Software platform because a dedicated team of the cloud provider is actually operating all the necessary steps to recover the systems.

I would say the pricing is expensive, rated at 10.

For now, HPE Zerto Software is the best with CDP, although other vendors are catching up. In two years, it's not guaranteed they will be the leaders.

HPE Zerto Software is not the only recovery tool needed for ransomware recovery. It provides the ability to deploy systems for review and cleanup, it's beneficial to use it to reduce the time for bringing back the system for ransomware investigation. It reduces time by about 50% in a ransomware case. I absolutely recommend HPE Zerto Software, but my first advice is to ensure proper sizing and validate that applications are supported by a tool that supports CDP. There's a possibility that a VM, which is hosting an application, may not always be considered by HPE Zerto Software when copying VM data, so checking application support with CDP systems is crucial.

I use HPE Zerto Software  for planning disaster recovery and for provisioning the CIs, especially during the exercise phase. We use HPE Zerto Software  to protect VMs in our environment. Regarding HPE Zerto Software for disaster recovery, minor challenges exist, but it meets the requirement at approximately 80%. We do not look into HPE Zerto Software for incident downtimes; we only use it for crisis situations. HPE Zerto Software is saving time, especially with RTOs and RPOs being reduced for business-level applications, which has brought down recovery time. Most often, support issues are handled internally; if we require anything, we raise a case, and the operational team follows up.

One advantage of HPE Zerto Software is that it helps in provisioning, becomes easy, much faster, and it also stores historical information. It's good; I won't say it's excellent, but it's meeting some requirements, though for other requirements, I have to rely on other software as well.

There has been a significant impact from using HPE Zerto Software because our provisioning times have reduced drastically. The time to complete the exercises has come down, and we were able to identify and cross-check the RTO and RPO values as well. Using HPE Zerto Software has helped us in reducing the RTO and RPO values.

Overall, it still requires reliance on other software for manual work such as cross-checking and validations, which takes additional time, but the runbook execution is quicker. The 20% challenges relate to reliance on other software for cross-checking the logs. After implementation, the recovery times have improved by approximately 50% to 60%.

The main improvements needed are related to historical data comparison and analytics, and the challenges involve reliance on other software and cross-checking logs. If we could have an end-to-end DR solution in one environment, it would be much easier without relying on multiple tools. The biggest area for improvement in HPE Zerto Software is probably in historical data comparison and enhanced analytics. Future features should reduce reliance on cross-checking logs and other solutions.

I have been using HPE Zerto Software for three years now.

I find HPE Zerto Software relatively stable.

HPE Zerto Software is also scalable.

I haven't checked the technical support part for HPE Zerto Software; I need to talk to my team about it. Most often, support issues are handled internally; if we require anything, we raise a case, and the operational team follows up.

Regarding ease of use and recovery speed, I recall IBM being used previously, but I wasn't there then, so I didn't get a chance to compare HPE Zerto Software with that. I think HPE Zerto Software was better compared to IBM, as the RTOs and RPOs are improving continuously, with the ability to execute exercises becoming quicker.

I haven't looked into options apart from HPE Zerto Software yet, but before the license renewal, we shall start that activity within six months. We typically refer to Gartner's quadrant to identify market leaders for comparison, focusing on the leaders part. There are no specific security examples that made me decide to switch solutions; my main concerns are around costing and compatibility with different environments.

Currently, our team has implemented another solution because HPE Zerto Software couldn't be expanded to that environment, so capability is a restricting factor. A unified solution would be a good bet for future comparisons.

HPE Zerto Software helps in provisioning, making it easy and faster, and it also stores historical information. It's good but not excellent, as it meets some requirements while requiring other software for additional functionalities. I use a solution for disaster recovery in the cloud, but that's specific to the cloud environment. I don't get into the pricing layer for HPE Zerto Software and haven't gathered much information from the vendor. I would rate HPE Zerto Software as 8 out of 10.