Evaluating a Backup Solution: 11 Common Buyer Objections

Modern cyberthreats are both numerous and increasingly deceptive, making backup a critical part of any organization’s security strategy. Yet some businesses and institutions still hesitate or even abandon the implementation altogether, putting their data, business continuity, and finances at risk.

Below, we break down the most common objections to adopting a data backup solution, explore their sources, and assess whether they are justified.

Economic Objections

Budget-related issues and resource allocation are frequent reasons for blocking the purchase of a data backup solution.

Competition for Capital Priority

We prefer to spend on a CRM.

Backup works like insurance. It protects the organization from major losses, even if it doesn’t directly generate revenue. So, companies prefer to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a CRM module, for instance, which will increase sales by several percent, rather than investing in a backup that protects what already exists.

With backup, it is just like car insurance. An amount of $1,500 for a year of coverage might seem high until you see a repair bill for $15,000. Similarly, when you consider the average cost of downtime at $300,000 (depending on the industry) or financial penalties for non-compliance with GDPR, NIS2, or DORA, the cost of software licenses or even a hardened all-in-one backup appliance turns out laughably low.

In these situations, it helps to point to metrics like downtime cost, TCO, or ROI. They clearly show how avoiding even one incident can save the organization a significant amount of money.

Budgetary Rigidity

We don’t have the budget for a subscription.

This is a common challenge for public institutions that operate on annual budgeting cycles. They often have access to capital funds for one‑time purchases, which makes traditional perpetual licenses easier to approve. Subscription‑based solutions, however, require ongoing operating-budget commitments. And those recurring costs can be much harder to secure year after year.

In such cases, you can:

• Opt for a solution in the traditional, perpetual financing model that will secure the organization for a certain period (e.g., 3-4 years).
• Attempt to secure funds to cover the subscription from external sources, such as funding programs.

Hidden Costs and a Lack of Workforce

The license is just the beginning, and who is going to manage it?

The labor costs required to manage a deployed backup system is a frequent argument from organizations that cannot afford to increase IT headcount.

Meanwhile, modern backup systems are essentially maintenance-free solutions. For example, the Xopero Unified Protection appliance features a simple plug-and-play deployment, which Xopero technicians execute jointly with the client. After configuring backup plans, copies run regularly and automatically based on a schedule, without engaging the company’s IT specialists.

When an incident occurs, every IT resource inevitably shifts toward data recovery and restoring core operations. In those moments, professional, automated backup solutions with well‑structured copies make all the difference, reducing chaos and enabling the shortest possible recovery time objective (RTO). By contrast, ad‑hoc scripts and irregular manual backups are far less reliable and, in many cases, may already be compromised when an incident occurs.

You may also choose to utilize a Managed Service Provider (MSP). This refers to a specialized IT company that manages the backup (or any other IT) service on behalf of the client for a fee.

Technical Obstacles

The second, equally significant area where doubts arise involves purely technical issues.

The Myth of Absolute Cloud Security

The application provider is responsible for data security.

Organizations using cloud applications (e.g., Microsoft 365, Jira) often believe that the mere fact of storing data in the cloud is enough to ensure the security of the organization’s data. But cloud solution providers limit their liability, introducing the so-called Shared Responsibility model. They are solely responsible for what they have control over, which is the availability of the service or application. The organization, in turn, is responsible for its own data and employee actions (such as the intentional deletion of a file). We often discuss this approach on our technical blog—here, for example, for the Microsoft 365 platform. 

In conclusion, to ensure full control over data in the cloud and its security, you need an independent solution for data backup and recovery.

Confusing Simple Data Replication with Backup

We’ve got a second array, so we’re not losing anything.

Many organizations assume that copying data to a USB drive or a second RAID array is enough protection. However, basic replication won’t help if someone intentionally deletes a file or if ransomware encrypts everything.

A professional backup solution allows you to protect against every eventuality:

• Immutable backups prevent attackers from overwriting your backup, enabling a quick restore.
• Regularly created full, differential, and incremental copies allow you to easily return to a point in time before data was deleted.
• For maximum protection, you can:
  • store the copy offsite, keeping it in several locations simultaneously (the 3-2-1 backup rule);
  • separate the copy from the production environment (air-gap backup), for instance, using Xopero Unified Protection.

Technical Debt

Our infrastructure just can’t handle that.

In the public sector or in organizations with older systems, decision‑makers often worry that outdated servers or networks won’t support a modern backup solution.

Modern platforms, such as Xopero ONE, offer features that save resources and adapt the load to the organization’s schedule. They are also typically compatible with systems whose support period ended long ago. For example:

• Granular backup of the most critical assets lets you avoid overloading legacy infrastructure and executes quickly.
• Differential and incremental copies, which run more frequently than full ones (still ensuring full data coverage), save computing power, storage, and network bandwidth.
• The backup window feature allows you to specify what times of day or night the backup should run so as not to negatively impact the infrastructure and the organization’s work.
• Bandwidth throttling or multi-threading are other options worth considering when you work with older infrastructure.
• Xopero solutions allow you to back up even older server and database environments, such as Windows Server 2008.

Procedural Obstacles

Rigid and complex procedures are also frequent reasons for the lack of a positive decision regarding a backup purchase.

The Lowest Price Criterion in Tenders

The procurement regulations tie our hands on this.

Public entities are subject to tendering procedures. The fear of being accused of mismanagement forces the selection of the cheapest offer. Frequently, the cheapest solution can turn out to be ineffective. This poses an enormous risk, considering the goal of protecting critical data effectively.

In situations like this, it helps to walk decision‑makers through the key features of a backup solution and treat it as a long‑term investment. They don’t deal with every corner of IT on a daily basis, so they can’t be expected to stay current on all the options. It’s worth highlighting things like:

• secure end-to-end encryption,
• data immutability (immutable backup),
• the capability to separate the backup from the infrastructure (air-gap backup),
• broad support for protected environments and storages,
• implementation assistance,
• easily accessible and qualified technical support.

This can help them avoid choosing ineffective solutions that look inexpensive upfront but fail to protect the organization, leading to financial and legal trouble later.

Decision Paralysis

We have been discussing this for a year and nothing.

Purchasing a backup solution is rarely simple. It usually touches several areas at once — technology, cybersecurity, legal requirements, and budgeting. A lot of people get involved along the way: IT teams, CISOs, procurement, management, and others. Each group brings its own priorities, which don’t always align, and that can slow the process down or even bring it to a halt.

If the organization is a branch or subsidiary of a larger company, there’s an added layer of approvals from headquarters. It often involves people who aren’t on-site and may not know the local context.

To help every stakeholder understand why backup matters, they need clear, relevant materials that show the value:

• CEO and CFO: For executive leadership, the most effective angle is the financial impact of not having a backup solution. Showing the real costs of downtime, data loss, or incident response usually makes the risk very tangible. And those numbers can be enormous.
• CISO and Management: Here, the focus should be on risk reduction. Translate the technical aspects into what they ultimately prevent: regulatory penalties, compliance failures, and even personal liability for board members or executives.
• CTO: Highlight backup automation, reliability, and the reduction of manual work. A modern backup platform frees up valuable engineering hours. So, you can reallocate them to projects that actually move the business forward.

If headquarters is slowing or blocking the process, make sure their representatives receive the same clear, targeted materials. They often need additional context, especially when they’re not on-site and don’t see the day‑to‑day risks firsthand.

The Smokescreen of Regulations and Compliance

We are waiting for clear guidelines regarding NIS2/DORA.

Decision makers in regulated industries (e.g., finance) or critical infrastructure operators may fear purchasing a system that soon becomes non-compliant with the newest regulations and legal interpretations. This is a kind of paradox where regulations forcing better data protection become an excuse to postpone the decision to secure it.

Regulations set the goals, not the exact technical steps. Backup is not a detail that is supposed to fit into a legal puzzle. It is the foundation of fulfilling regulations. For instance, according to NIS2 or DORA, a backup solution must ensure business continuity and the ability to quickly restore data after an incident. Without this, an organization risks serious compliance violations. In the event of an incident, these can translate into substantial fines.

A solid backup also makes audits far easier and more predictable. Modern solutions offer features that assist audits for certification purposes, such as automated copy tests, test reports, detailed event logs, and more.

In the context of specific regulations coming into force, delaying the decision can lead to problems with the implementation itself. When the market rushes to comply and everyone tries to buy and deploy systems at once, implementation timelines can quickly become unpredictable.

Finally, every reputable backup provider ensures the relevance of its solution against the latest technological and legal changes in the market. By choosing an established vendor, your organization risks practically no sudden and unforeseen problems with compliance.

Psychological Obstacles

Subjective opinions can also affect decision-makers, completely blocking the decision to professionally secure data.

Fear of Change in IT

It has worked for years, why touch it and risk it?

Some of this hesitation simply comes from habit. Administrators know the current setup inside out, they’re comfortable with it, and they don’t want to start over with something new. And when there exist home-grown backup systems built under tight budgets, there’s always a risk of technical issues waiting to surface.

Modern backup vendors understand these concerns. That’s why they offer several ways to ease the transition and verify the solution before committing:

• Proof of Concept (PoC)—a free, no‑obligation test deployment that lets the team check features and performance during the evaluation phase.
• Assisted deployment—after the purchase, vendor technicians can work alongside the customer’s IT staff, on‑site or remotely, to ensure a smooth rollout under a support agreement.
• Plug‑and‑play appliances—modern backup solutions, such as Xopero Unified Protection, are designed for quick setup. Initial configuration often comes down to a few simple steps: connecting the device, activating the license, creating an account, and logging in.
• Extensive automation—features like scheduled backups, automated test restores, and email notifications reduce manual work and free up IT staff, especially compared to semi‑manual, script‑based solutions.

The Illusion of Immortality

We are too small for an attack, it doesn’t concern us.

Small organizations often mistakenly think that attacks only impact larger ones. The belief that small business data is not interesting to cybercriminals results from misunderstanding the modern threat realities.

Attackers don’t target specific companies or sizes. They use automated bots to scan for any vulnerability they can successfully exploit. Every fifth organization surveyed as part of the Xopero’s 2026 Contemporary Cybersecurity Landscape report experienced a security incident in 2025 alone. Among the respondents, representatives of small organizations (up to 50 employees) accounted for 41%.

In other words, organizations should actually ask themselves: “When will we be attacked?” rather than “Will we be attacked?” The risk isn’t small at all. So, everyone should be on guard, even the smallest businesses.

Choose a Secure Partnership with Xopero

Xopero Software S.A. is an experienced backup solution vendor with 17 years of market presence, compliant with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Our solutions protect terabytes of data for organizations from over 50 countries worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies. Among our clients, there are NHS, Diebold Nixdorf, Wharton University of Pennsylvania, Subway, and Zoop.

Xopero’s offering features a backup software platform, including an independent tool for protecting DevOps platforms, an all-in-one backup appliance, and a dedicated hardware solution for safeguarding offline industrial infrastructures (ICS/OT).

If Xopero products aren’t featured in your portfolio yet, we invite you to cooperate with us. You can count on the following benefits:

• A diversified product offering with flexible licensing options
• Attractive margins that grow along with results
• Sales and technical training
• Pre-made sales and marketing materials
• NFR licenses
• Help from Xopero’s internal technical support team.

To get more information, visit our website for Sales Channel Partners.