# Backup and disaster recovery: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "backup and disaster recovery solution" and as "data backup and recovery service", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/cloud/backup-and-disaster-recovery/

**Standing:** Veeam leads with 18% of first choices; verdict contested. 40 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veeam | 18% | 9% | 23 |
| 2 | Veeam Data Platform | 15% | 0% | 13 |
| 3 | Acronis Cyber Protect | 12% | 8% | 24 |
| 4 | IDrive Business | 12% | 21% | 14 |
| 5 | Datto SIRIS | 10% | 10% | 10 |
| 6 | Druva | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 7 | Acronis | 2% | 15% | 13 |
| 8 | Datto | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 9 | Rubrik | 0% | 5% | 21 |
| 10 | Commvault | 0% | 9% | 23 |
| 11 | Cohesity | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 12 | Zerto | 0% | 9% | 11 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Veeam; alternatives Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Cohesity, Rubrik
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Veeam Data Platform; alternatives Acronis Cyber Protect, Axcient, Druva Data Security Cloud, Rubrik Security Cloud
- Perplexity Sonar: Acronis, Veeam; alternatives Datto SIRIS/ALTO, Druva
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Arcserve Unified Data Protection, Veeam Data Platform
- Mistral Small: Acronis Cyber Protect, Datto SIRIS; alternatives Arcserve UDP
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Datto SIRIS, Veeam; alternatives Acronis Cyber Protect
- Llama 4 Maverick: Acronis Cyber Protect, Arcserve UDP, Veeam
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Veeam Backup & Replication; alternatives Arcserve UDP, Datto, Unitrends
- Kimi K2: Datto SIRIS; alternatives Acronis Cyber Protect, Rubrik, Veeam Data Platform
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Veeam Backup & Replication; alternatives Acronis Advanced Disaster Recovery, Arcserve Unified Data Protection, Datto
- MiniMax M2.5: Veeam; alternatives Arcserve Unified Data Protection, Cohesity

## Sources the answers cite

61 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- solutionsreview.com: 36 answers, 73 citations
- expertinsights.com: 35 answers, 48 citations
- eon.io: 19 answers, 27 citations
- axcient.com: 19 answers, 20 citations
- ninjaone.com: 16 answers, 18 citations
- veeam.com: 15 answers, 21 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 14 answers, 20 citations
- hyperconvergence.com: 13 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/backup-and-recovery/top-disaster-recovery-dr-software-solutions (23 answers)
- https://axcient.com/blog/backup-and-disaster-recovery-solutions (18 answers)
- https://solutionsreview.com/backup-disaster-recovery/whats-changed-2024-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-enterprise-backup-and-recovery-software-solutions (18 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/backup-and-recovery/the-top-business-continuity-and-disaster-recovery-solutions (15 answers)
- https://ninjaone.com/blog/best-data-backup-and-recovery-software (14 answers)
- https://hyperconvergence.com/best-backup-and-disaster-recovery-solutions-for-smbs (13 answers)
- https://solutionsreview.com/backup-disaster-recovery/the-best-it-resilience-platforms (12 answers)
- https://cygnet.one/feeds/blog/disaster-recovery-plan-software (11 answers)
- https://solutionsreview.com/backup-disaster-recovery/the-best-backup-and-disaster-recovery-companies (11 answers)
- https://eon.io/blog/best-cloud-disaster-recovery-solutions (10 answers)

## Warned against

- IDrive Business: 3 of 14 labels negative. "consumer-grade like IDrive (lacks B2B depth)" (Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt)
- Dropbox: 2 of 2 labels negative. "You should avoid using pure cloud sync (like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud) as your *sole* disaster recovery solution." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Google Drive: 2 of 3 labels negative. "avoid using pure cloud sync (like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud) as your *sole* disaster recovery solution" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Spanning: 2 of 3 labels negative. "Multiple Reddit sysadmin reports advise steering clear of these for M365 backup specifically" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.