Storware Backup and Recovery: Enterprise Backup Ledger 2026

Part of the Enterprise Backup Ledger (edition 2026-10-03). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Tier: Open-virtualization specialist
Owner: Storware; no controlling-owner transaction established in accepted history.
Licence model: Host/socket/VM/front-end TB/OS-agent/integration options; subscription introduced 6.1 in 2023, current universal-license claim separate.
Products scored: Storware Backup and Recovery 8.0 available 2026-10-01; supported source methods and destination integrations kept separate.
Latest release: 8.0 available 2026-10-01 per vendor announcement; 7.5 changelog 2026-03-31 conflicts with release blog 2026-07-22
Next signal: No dated next milestone established in the accepted research.
Archetype: Alternative hypervisor specialist
Evidence grade: C. Overall grade uses all scored history/AI steps and lens criteria: 38 A, 0 B, 21 C of 59; the lowest grade covering more than 25% wins. Judgement itself does not demote a sourced fact; unresolved eligibility, baseline or contract estimates do.

Scope of the scores: Product capability cutoff 2026-10-01; scoring edition 2026-10-03. Combined portfolio scores do not imply one SKU or uniform feature parity. History is evidence-bounded; freezes and first-feature GA dates can be incomplete. AI services named in the AI section do not broaden the ten core domains.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	63.8 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+8.8 points	higher is better
Credibility	15.5 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	9.5 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	10.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	14.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	1.5 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	56.9 / 100	balanced weights

Capability by domain

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2016	2019	2022	Today
Virtual and physical servers (12)	1.5	2.5	2.5	3.5
Databases and applications (12)	0.5	1.5	1.5	2
Recovery (14)	1	2.5	3.5	3.5
Cyber resilience (14)	0.5	0.5	2.5	3
Storage efficiency and targets (10)	2	3	3.5	4
Long-term retention and tape (6)	0.5	1.5	2.5	3
Replication and DR (10)	0.5	2	2	2
Security and compliance (8)	1	2	2	3
New-platform support (VMware exit) (8)	2.5	4	4.5	4.5
Management at scale and automation (6)	1.5	3	3.5	4
Total / 100	22.0	43.0	55.0	63.8

Year by year: 2016: 22.0 · 2017: 27.0 · 2018: 27.0 · 2019: 43.0 · 2020: 43.0 · 2021: 43.0 · 2022: 55.0 · 2023: 59.8 · 2024: 61.0 · 2025: 61.0 · 2026: 63.8

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2017	Long-term retention and tape	0.5 → 1.5	+1.2	Storware/vProtect 2.4 (2017-01-11): Filesystem destinations; DD Boost/OpenDedup targets; retention by copies/days; capacity-based balancing. Evidence A. changelog
2017	Recovery	1 → 2	+2.8	Storware/vProtect 2.6 (2017-05-31): RHV/oVirt and Oracle VM file recovery; tag-based selection; NetWorker destination; Cleversafe S3. Evidence A. changelog
2017	Storage efficiency and targets	2 → 2.5	+1.0	Storware/vProtect 2.5 (2017-03-16): XenServer incremental backup/direct recovery; Amazon S3 destination; product-controlled retention. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Databases and applications	0.5 → 1.5	+2.4	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.7 application command hooks; native database/API matrix remains pending. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Management at scale and automation	1.5 → 3	+1.8	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.1 central multiple nodes/REST; 3.1.4 tag/regex auto-assignment; 3.9 Ansible installer. Evidence A. changelog
2019	New-platform support (VMware exit)	2.5 → 4	+2.4	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.1 Proxmox; 3.3 AHV; 3.8U1 OpenStack/OLVM; 3.9 Hyper-V. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Recovery	2 → 2.5	+1.4	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.9 file restore, recovery plans and batch recovery; 3.8 EC2 snapshot/FLR. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Replication and DR	0.5 → 2	+3.0	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.9 recovery plans and DR tests; destination-specific replication still pending. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Security and compliance	1 → 2	+1.6	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.6 LDAP; full historical security matrix pending. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Storage efficiency and targets	2.5 → 3	+1.0	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.6 VDO dedupe/encryption; 3.8 GCP target; 3.9 Glacier/Swift/Avamar destinations. Evidence A. changelog
2019	Virtual and physical servers	1.5 → 2.5	+2.4	End-2019 checkpoint: 3.9 VMware/Hyper-V full and incremental protection; 3.3 AHV. Physical agents not inferred. Evidence A. changelog
2022	Cyber resilience	0.5 → 2.5	+5.6	End-2022 checkpoint: 5.0 immutable destination; 5.2 WORM lock. Exact target enforcement matrix pending. Evidence A. changelog
2022	Long-term retention and tape	1.5 → 2.5	+1.2	End-2022 checkpoint: 5.2 GFS/WORM retention; tape technical preview is 6.0 after checkpoint. Evidence A. changelog
2022	Management at scale and automation	3 → 3.5	+0.6	End-2022 checkpoint: 4.0 Prism Central policy rules; 4.2 RBAC; 5.0 unified product/tag/category policies. Evidence A. changelog
2022	New-platform support (VMware exit)	4 → 4.5	+0.8	End-2022 checkpoint: 4.0 Proxmox incremental; 4.3 FusionCompute technical preview; 5.0 Scale HC3; 5.2 Azure Stack HCI. Evidence A. changelog
2022	Recovery	2.5 → 3.5	+2.8	End-2022 checkpoint: 5.1 RHV instant recovery; 5.2 VMware instant recovery/live storage migration. Evidence A. changelog
2022	Storage efficiency and targets	3 → 3.5	+1.0	End-2022 checkpoint: 4.2 synthetic incremental-forever XFS; 4.3 synthetic Data Domain; 5.2 cloud destinations. Evidence A. changelog
2023	Cyber resilience	2.5 → 3	+1.4	Observed by 2026-10-01: FAQ advertises Object/Retention Lock; exact first supported target/version and privileged deletion rules not found Object/retention lock documented; exact first target/GA boundary incomplete. Evidence C. faq
2023	Long-term retention and tape	2.5 → 3	+0.6	6.1 (2023-10-25): Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA Evidence A. r61
2023	Security and compliance	2 → 3	+1.6	6.1 (2023-10-25): Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA Evidence A. r61
2023	Virtual and physical servers	2.5 → 3	+1.2	6.1 (2023-10-25): Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA Evidence A. r61
2024	Virtual and physical servers	3 → 3.5	+1.2	7.0 Windows OS-agent VSS and encryption: announcement 2024-09-30 press PDF; shipped, availability 7.0changelog2024-09-25; press 2024-09-30. Release-date and later publication clocks separate; earlier original promise unresolved. Application-consistent VSS with checksum/permission tracking; network-share support tied to front-endTB licensing. Not all applications have native database PIT. Evidence A. press70; changelog
2026	Databases and applications	1.5 → 2	+1.2	Observed by 2026-10-01: Database brief covers DB-native workflows on VMs or physical servers; full current engine/version/PIT matrix not reconstructed DB-native workflows brief; no complete certified engine/PIT matrix. Evidence C. db
2026	Management at scale and automation	3.5 → 4	+0.6	Observed by 2026-10-01: Central 6.1 notifications/job history and agent reports; current IaC/API download counts unverified API/automation carried from 3.1/3.9; current tenant scale unverified. Evidence C. r61
2026	Storage efficiency and targets	3.5 → 4	+1.0	Observed by 2026-10-01: 8.0 9lives filesystem target with dedupe/synthetic backups; native Everpure CBT for OpenStack volumes. Tape and other targets require corresponding versioned guides. Evidence A. r80; r61

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-07	Storware/vProtect 6.0: Linux/Windows filesystem agents; OpenNebula incremental backup; tape technical preview. (clock: 2023-07-04)	D8 Retention and tape	C
2023-10	6.1: Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA (clock: 2023-10-25)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2023-10	Storware/vProtect 6.1: OpenStack instant recovery; multiple Ceph/tape devices; Keycloak MFA. (clock: 2023-10-25)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2024-09	7.0 OpenStack/Virtuozzo volume-group consistency: shipped; 7.0changelog2024-09-25; press 2024-09-30. Release-date and later publication clocks separate; earlier original promise unresolved. Consistent multi-diskVM backup; this does not itself establish cross-hypervisor restore, separately 7.1.	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2024-09	7.0 Proxmox Ceph and new source integrations: shipped; 7.0changelog2024-09-25; press 2024-09-30. Release-date and later publication clocks separate; earlier original promise unresolved. VergeIO/Canonical OpenStack/KVM plus ProxmoxCeph; exact supported versions require matrix.	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2024-09	7.0 Windows OS-agent VSS and encryption: shipped; 7.0changelog2024-09-25; press 2024-09-30. Release-date and later publication clocks separate; earlier original promise unresolved. Application-consistent VSS with checksum/permission tracking; network-share support tied to front-endTB licensing. Not all applications have native database PIT.	D10 Scale and automation	C
2025-01	Storware/vProtect 7.1: VMware-to-OpenStack/Virtuozzo recovery; GFS retention improvements (method-specific). (clock: 2025-01-01)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2025-03	Storware/vProtect 7.2: Zadara technical preview; secondary backup-destination changes. (clock: 2025-03-18)	D10 Scale and automation	C
2025-05	Storware/vProtect 7.3: Verge backup copies; choose OpenStack recovery security group. (clock: 2025-05-27)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2026-06	AHV API integration in 7.5: shipped; Date conflict: changelog 2026-03-31 vs release blog 2026-07-22. 7.5 announcement lists AHVv4 integration; exact lag not computed without promise day. No single first-GA day selected.	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2026-06	OpenStack replication in 8.0: partial; 8.0 available 2026-10-01. Release is one calendar day after Q3; 8.0 describes efficient backup/merge/replication operations, but precise promised replication feature parity requires documentation. Do not mark full promise shipped solely from version label.	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2026-07	7.5: Released: Platform9; Citrix/XCP-ng V2V paths; AHV v4 API; Proxmox Ceph19 synthetic backups (clock: 2026-07-22 blog; changelog 2026-03-31 conflict)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2026-10	8.0 AHV/Everpure/OpenStack support: shipped; 2026-10-01 release-blog availability assertion. Same-day availability assertion; platform requirements and operations specified in release blog.7.5 March/July date conflict does not apply to 8.0.	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M
2026-10	8.0 lifecycle changes: RHV deprecated (existing upgraded platforms continue); no new Zadara configs; Quarkus3/MariaDB 11.8LTS; native installer replaces Ansible. (clock: 2026-10-01)	D11 Ecosystem openness	V
2026-10	8.0: OpenStack 2026.1/unified Ceph+Cinder attachment/Everpure native CBT; AHV PrismCentral 7.5+ APIv4; Harvester VMs; 9lives dedupe/synthetic filesystem target. (clock: 2026-10-01 available now)	D1 Virtual and physical servers	M

Centre of gravity: Virtual and physical servers (11), Scale and automation (2), Retention and tape (1)
Driver mix: Vision 7%, Customer need 20%, Market window 73%, Upstream 0%, Portfolio 0%

Credibility: 15.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4	50 recorded release rows, including maintenance and component overlaps; rows are not distinct GA counts. Regularity judged from the dated tables, not an asserted promised cadence. 6.1 (2023-10-25): Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA Evidence A. r61
Roadmap transparency	3	Public documentation access and versioned release evidence determine this score. Accepted roadmap finding: 8.0 now available at cutoff; earlier Q3 replication promise needs exact feature comparison rather than assumed completion. No open-roadmap-tracker reference score is awarded. 6.1 (2023-10-25): Released: OpenStack Instant Restore; multi-Ceph; multiple tape drives; Keycloak MFA Evidence A. r61
Say-do	2.5	Recorded ledger: 6 items; 5 shipped, 1 partial, 0 slipped, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Mature dated prospective cohort: 0; 0 documented within 12 calendar months, 0 later than 12 months, 0 unresolved. Month-only/ambiguous clocks, same-day release notices and post-release blogs are excluded from that cohort. Pending is unverified, not failure; the ledger is a bounded sample. Evidence C for the rubric estimate: calibrated to the delivery record below, not a measured census percentage. See the vendor research section F.
Velocity	3.5	Substantive capabilities in the release tables determine velocity; maintenance-only rows do not become new features. Storware/vProtect 7.5 (2026-03-31 changelog; July 22 release blog conflicts): Platform9; Citrix/XCP-ng to OpenStack; AHV APIv4; Proxmox Ceph19 and synthetic SSH strategy. Conflicting dates remain unresolved. Evidence A. changelog
Lifecycle stability	2.5	Accepted lifecycle finding: Primary search snippet: development focused on latest major/minor; current lifecycle body and exact 7.x EOS not retrieved.. Grade C where current contract/EOS boundaries remain unresolved. 2022-09-27 to 28 announced training session: Free technician certification is explicitly linked to higher partner status and additional discounts. Exact first programme launch and historical discount schedule are not supplied by this event notice. Evidence C. certSession22

Say-do record, 2023 to 2026: Recorded ledger: 6 items; 5 shipped, 1 partial, 0 slipped, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Mature dated prospective cohort: 0; 0 documented within 12 calendar months, 0 later than 12 months, 0 unresolved. Month-only/ambiguous clocks, same-day release notices and post-release blogs are excluded from that cohort. Pending is unverified, not failure; the ledger is a bounded sample.

Commercial risk: 9.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Price and licence volatility	2.5	Subscription added 6.1 while host/VM/TB metrics persist; no unsupported numeric price jump. 2023-10-25: 6.1 adds subscription licence model; exact contract transition terms not found 7.0 versioned licensing: Per-front-end TB; per-host (two sockets); per-VM; server OS Agent and integration-module licence options Evidence A. r61; lic
Purchase constraints	1.5	Multiple metrics and universal-license claim; contract equivalence and exact minimums unverified. 7.0 versioned licensing: Per-front-end TB; per-host (two sockets); per-VM; server OS Agent and integration-module licence options Current marketing: Universal licence/no feature tiers claimed in FAQ; do not assume identical to historical 7.0 licence contract Evidence A. lic; faq
Channel and access	1.5	Partner entry and public documentation access are both considered. Research documentation finding: lic. Certification structure; launch year unverified: Level I Storware Technical Presales:4-hour course and 1-hour exam, 75% pass. Level II Storware Technical Expert:one-week course/labs, Level I/Linux prerequisites. Free, valid 2 years; certification required for higher partner levels. Evidence A. certDetail
Owner stability	1	2026-10-01 evidence boundary: Storware; no controlling-owner transaction established in accepted history. Ownership-risk judgement comes from the recorded corporate/financing events; no unrecorded transaction is assumed. Provisional rubric estimate; unknown terms are not evidence of either zero risk or the worst terms. Evidence C.
Cost of staying supported	3	Legacy source/config retirements and active-support upgrade condition; archive rights not said to end. 2026-10-01: 8.0 RHV deprecation: existing upgraded environments continue, Zadara new configurations no longer allowed. 7.0 changelog 2024-09-25 /press2024-09-30: Deprecates Keep-last-backup flag, CentOS7, RHVSSHtransfer, Xen, OracleVirtualizationManager and old node CLI. Network-share OS-agent protection requires front-endTB licence. These are versioned lifecycle/entitlement facts, not proof archive-restoration rights cease. Evidence A. r80; press70; changelog

Security record of the product itself: No in-scope match located in the accepted security-record.md manual product-name filter of the CISA 2026-09-30 catalogue; no deduction. This is not an exhaustive advisory audit or a claim of no exploitation. Arcserve CVE-2015-4068 was added to KEV in 2022, outside the adjustment window. Adjacent array/infrastructure/hosting-plugin CVEs are excluded. Security record: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue and vendor advisories.

Technical lock-in: 10.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	3	2026-10-01 evidence boundary: Independent backup-format specification/readability is not established in the accepted research. Provisional format-dependency estimate, not proof that only a running licensed instance can read it. Provisional rubric estimate; unknown terms are not evidence of either zero risk or the worst terms. Evidence C.
Export path	2.5	2026-10-01 evidence boundary: Independent data extraction and post-licence restoration terms are incomplete. Provisional export estimate, not proof of no export or licence-required restore. Provisional rubric estimate; unknown terms are not evidence of either zero risk or the worst terms. Evidence C.
Stack coupling	1.5	Supported third-party backup destinations/hypervisors; licensed integration constraints remain. Destination integration: Licensed integration module can use supported third-party backup system as destination; independent extraction conditions not found Observed by 2026-10-01: 8.0 OpenStack 2026.1, Everpure CBT under disk attachment; AHVAPIv4 with PrismCentral 7.5+; HarvesterVM workflow. RHV deprecated with existing upgrades retained; new Zadara configs disallowed. Evidence A. lic; r80
Hardware / cloud coupling	0.5	Software targets and integrations, no own-appliance requirement evidenced. Observed by 2026-10-01: 8.0 9lives filesystem target with dedupe/synthetic backups; native Everpure CBT for OpenStack volumes. Tape and other targets require corresponding versioned guides. Evidence A. r80; r61
Skills and tooling coupling	2.5	Named training and product-specific administration imply some skills coupling; no unsourced scarcity/headcount claim. Certification structure; launch year unverified: Level I Storware Technical Presales:4-hour course and 1-hour exam, 75% pass. Level II Storware Technical Expert:one-week course/labs, Level I/Linux prerequisites. Free, valid 2 years; certification required for higher partner levels. Evidence A. certDetail

Integrator fit: 14.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	4	Silver/Gold/Platinum engineering/deal requirements and deal discounts documented. Partner tiers / September2024 brochure path; launch date unresolved: Silver/Gold/Platinum; Gold requires one certified engineer/one deal per 12months; Platinum two engineers/two deals. Deal-registration additional discounts 15/20/25%; training free and NFR conditions vary. Evidence A. partnerBrochure24
Multi-tenancy and self-service	2.5	Documented tenant/provider isolation and self-service earn credit; reporting or multi-site visibility alone does not prove billing/tenant self-service. Observed by 2026-10-01: Central 6.1 notifications/job history and agent reports; current IaC/API download counts unverified Evidence C. r61
API and infrastructure-as-code	3.5	Documented APIs and official IaC earn credit. Community examples and publisher-owned repositories do not automatically imply vendor support. Observed by 2026-10-01: Central 6.1 notifications/job history and agent reports; current IaC/API download counts unverified Evidence C. r61
Skills and certification	4	Free LevelI/II curricula and exams; existence by 2022, not a proven first-launch year. Certification structure; launch year unverified: Level I Storware Technical Presales:4-hour course and 1-hour exam, 75% pass. Level II Storware Technical Expert:one-week course/labs, Level I/Linux prerequisites. Free, valid 2 years; certification required for higher partner levels. Certification existed by September 2022: Vendor advertises a free technical certification session for September 27 to 28, 2022: two four-hour sessions with theory, installation/administration workshops and an exam. Certification enables higher partner levels and discounts. This proves a dated session, not the first-ever launch year or today’s Level I/II exam structure. Evidence A. certDetail; certSession22

AI leverage: 1.5 / 20

Strand	Today	Latest step
AI for protection / protecting AI	0	2016: 2016 initial scoring observation: no affirmative released in-scope AI evidence is credited in this strand. Zero is an evidence-bounded score, not a claim that the capability was absent. Evidence C.
AI platform stack	0	2016: 2016 initial scoring observation: no affirmative released in-scope AI evidence is credited in this strand. Zero is an evidence-bounded score, not a claim that the capability was absent. Evidence C.
AI-assisted operations	0	2016: 2016 initial scoring observation: no affirmative released in-scope AI evidence is credited in this strand. Zero is an evidence-bounded score, not a claim that the capability was absent. Evidence C.
Agent openness	1.5	2019: End-2019 checkpoint: 3.1 central multiple nodes/REST; 3.1.4 tag/regex auto-assignment; 3.9 Ansible installer. REST 3.1 and Ansible installer 3.9; no official MCP. Evidence A. changelog

AI say-do sample: 0 recorded announcement rows; 0 GA/shipped matches, 0 preview/early/limited at announcement, 0 partial, 0 pending, 0 slipped, 0 dropped. Preview-at-announcement overlaps outcome counts. These are promise-row counts, not unique announcements or counts of released AI features; omissions/overlaps in the AI research ledger are preserved. "Shipped" may be a vendor availability assertion rather than an independently verified first-GA day.

Reading

Storware is expanding alternative-hypervisor coverage and restore paths with a channel-led delivery model. Release evidence shows early KVM and Proxmox coverage, later physical agents and an 8.0 release at the cutoff. Database depth, current tape limits and lifecycle changes constrain confidence outside virtualization.

Open questions and evidence caveats

Unchanged annual values carry the last scored release; they do not certify a frozen compatibility matrix or exact first-feature GA. Some checkpoint-derived jumps may lag the true first shipment.
Unverified AI strands receive zero credited evidence; this is a conservative estimate rather than a vendor-wide absence claim. Preview/limited capabilities add at most half a point beyond the preceding established score.
Say-do counts are a bounded research sample. Same-day/release-note announcements and post-release blogs are not promises delivered instantly. Missing outcome dates do not prove non-delivery.
Commercial/exit terms not reconstructed use explicit provisional midpoint estimates; executed regional contracts may differ.
apps: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
recovery: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
cyber: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
retention: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
dr: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
security: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
platforms: 2016 baseline is provisional; no frozen checkpoint fact.
7.5 changelog 2026-03-31 conflicts with July 22 release blog; same scored year, no guessed promise lag. 8.0 available Oct 1; OpenStack replication promise is still partial rather than assumed shipped. Database and MSP self-service scores remain provisional.