Acronis Cyber Disaster Recovery Cloud

Acronis Cyber Disaster Recovery Cloud is a disaster recovery service that launches recovery servers at a secondary site after a natural or man-made disaster. Recovery infrastructure can be managed in Acronis Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or a hybrid setup. The service supports production failover and automated test failover, including scheduled monthly server tests. Runbooks define the steps for starting a client’s production environment in the cloud. It can extend up to 23 local networks through a secure VPN tunnel, or connect in cloud-only mode without a VPN appliance. Listed workloads include Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Active Directory, major Linux distributions, and virtualization platforms such as VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, and Proxmox. Acronis says its cloud data centers meet ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, and other requirements, and describes clean recovery points as a way to help prevent ransomware reinfection. Cloud servers use compute points based on configured flavor even when powered off; recovery servers in Standby do not. If the compute-points quota overage is reached, primary and recovery servers shut down. Pricing depends on usage and licensing, with no listed dollar price and a 30-day trial.

The service combines failover, test runs, and runbooks for cloud-based recovery, with several infrastructure options. Providers should account for usage-based pricing and the stated shutdown behavior if compute-point quota overage is reached.

Acronis presents this service for service providers, including MSPs seeking continuity options for clients facing ransomware, hardware failure, natural disasters, or other outages. It may suit environments that need cloud or hybrid recovery infrastructure and automated failover tests.

Overview

Acronis Cyber Disaster Recovery Cloud is a disaster recovery service that brings recovery servers online at a secondary site after an outage. It is aimed chiefly at service providers and MSPs responsible for client continuity. Its combination of failover, rehearsals and runbooks is compelling, but compute-point charges and a quota-triggered shutdown demand close capacity management.

Key features

Recovery infrastructure can run in Acronis Cloud, Microsoft Azure or a hybrid arrangement, giving providers flexibility over recovery location. Production failover addresses actual outages, while automated test failover—including scheduled monthly server tests—lets teams rehearse before a crisis. Runbooks encode the steps for starting a client’s production environment in the cloud, helping make recovery repeatable rather than reliant on improvisation.

For connectivity, the service can extend up to 23 local networks over a secure VPN tunnel, or operate in cloud-only mode without a VPN appliance. That accommodates different network designs, though the one Disaster Recovery site location per customer tenant limit may constrain providers that need geographically separate recovery locations for a client.

Workload coverage includes Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Active Directory, major Linux distributions, and platforms such as VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Linux KVM, Red Hat Virtualization, Proxmox, Nutanix and Scale Computing. The broad mix is useful for providers managing varied client estates, but Windows workloads on ARM64 processors are unsupported. The plan also includes failover and failback orchestration, dependency mapping, immutable recovery points, bare-metal deployment and restore, application-aware backup, and a 15-minute minimum RPO. Acronis says its data centers meet ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA and other requirements, and describes clean recovery points as a way to help avoid ransomware reinfection.

Pricing

Acronis Disaster Recovery to Cyber Protect Cloud uses pay-as-you-go billing for DR cloud storage and compute used during recovery or tests; pricing is custom, and some features may require additional licensing. The model avoids a fixed published subscription price, but usage depends on configuration and licensing, so providers should confirm expected costs with Acronis or its pricing tools before committing.

Cloud servers consume compute points according to their configured flavor even while powered off; recovery servers in Standby do not. If the compute-points quota overage is reached, all primary and recovery servers will be shut down. That is a consequential limit: quota monitoring and headroom are essential, since exceeding the allowance can interrupt production as well as recovery. A 30-day trial is available, but there is no free plan.

Platforms

The listed platforms are Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web and Windows. Supported workloads and recovery infrastructure options are more useful indicators of fit for this service than the breadth of its platform labels; Windows-on-ARM64 remains an explicit exception.

Who it's for

This is a strong fit for MSPs and other service providers that need to recover client environments after ransomware, hardware failure, natural disaster or another outage, especially when they value rehearsed failover and documented recovery procedures. Organizations seeking a fixed, predictable price, multiple DR sites within a single tenant, or support for Windows on ARM64 should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Production failover, scheduled monthly test failover and runbooks cover both execution and rehearsal of recovery.
• Pro: Acronis Cloud, Azure and hybrid recovery options, plus VPN and cloud-only connectivity, suit varied infrastructure designs.
• Pro: Broad server, application and virtualization workload support helps providers cover mixed client environments.
• Con: Compute charges accrue for configured cloud servers even when powered off, making capacity choices affect ongoing usage.
• Con: Quota overage shuts down primary and recovery servers, turning billing control into an operational risk.
• Con: One DR site per tenant and no Windows-on-ARM64 support limit deployment choices.

Alternatives

For a different approach or a narrower deployment task, consider AOMEI Backupper, which has a perpetually free Windows PC backup plan and a $39.95 a year Professional Yearly plan; Canonical MAAS, whose free Self-support tier covers all machines but omits HA support, RBAC, its Knowledge Base, Sev 1 response SLA and phone or ticket support; Foreman, a free, open-source self-managed option; Clonezilla, free and open-source; FAI, free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later; iVentoy, whose free edition has no usage-time limit but bars commercial use and caps clients at 20; OPSI, with a free Community plan for unlimited devices and one worker process; or OSDCloud, a free Windows 11 deployment tool that requires WinPE and internet access. These alternatives are useful to compare for backup, deployment or device-management needs, but their stated plans do not establish equivalent managed disaster recovery.

Browse Disaster Recovery Software, Cloud Disaster Recovery Software and Backup and Disaster Recovery Software for related categories; OS Deployment Software, Virtual Machine Backup Software and Bare Metal Provisioning Software focus on adjacent needs.

Verdict

Service providers that need orchestrated client recovery across varied workloads should put Acronis Cyber Disaster Recovery Cloud on their shortlist: failover rehearsals, runbooks and flexible recovery infrastructure form a coherent continuity offering. Look elsewhere if predictable fixed costs or multiple recovery sites per tenant are central requirements, and treat quota monitoring as a core operational responsibility.