IDC: Business-Oriented Development Drives Steady Growth in China's DR&P Market
China's DR&P Market
Beijing, April 27, 2025
International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released the "China Data Backup and Recovery Systems Market (DR&P) Quarterly Tracking Report, 2024". The report shows that in 2024, China's DR&P market revenue reached 760 million USD, driven by the demand for market data protection and stable business continuity, maintaining a stable market share. Backup and protection pure software revenue accounts for about 32% of the overall DR&P market, with a market value of 240 million USD.
Policies and market demand will continue to boost shipments in the Data Backup and Recovery (DR&P) market.
During the 2025 National Two Sessions, the formal implementation of the "Regulations on Network Data Security Management" (《网络数据安全管理条例》) and the release of the "Implementation Plan for Improving Data Circulation Security Governance to Better Promote the Marketization and Valorization of Data Elements" (《关于完善数据流通安全治理 更好促进数据要素市场化价值化的实施方案》) mark the entry of data security and business continuity management into the national strategic level. For example, in the financial industry, policies explicitly require "establishing financial data disaster recovery centers to achieve core system RPO ≤ 15 minutes and RTO ≤ 1 hour," promoting banks, securities, and other institutions to accelerate the replacement of traditional backup solutions; in the manufacturing sector, policies encourage "innovation in industrial internet platform data backup and recovery strategies," requiring industries such as automotive and electronics to build a full backup system covering production data and equipment logs.
The implementation of emerging applications and hybrid architectures has also generated new scenarios. AI training and edge computing produce large amounts of TB-level data; for example, in gene sequencing scenarios, high-frequency backups are needed to ensure experiment reproducibility; in hybrid cloud architectures, enterprises need to back up data across cloud platforms; in remote work scenarios in manufacturing, file sharing and version management need to be realized.
All of the above demands have led technology buyers to upgrade basic backup requirements to intelligent data governance, driving technology suppliers to continuously invest in R&D from multiple dimensions based on specific user work scenarios, focusing on backup architecture-based technologies such as storage-level backup, and backup object-based technologies such as file-level backup and application-level backup.
File-level backup has advantages in enterprise NAS file sharing and end-user data backup scenarios. It can ensure file system consistency, support incremental or full backups; offers flexible granularity, suitable for unstructured data; simple deployment without the need for deep understanding of application logic; compatible with Windows/Linux file systems, etc. Aisino AnyBackup NAS meets compliance requirements for industries such as finance and healthcare in terms of domestic hardware adaptation.
The advantage of storage-level backup lies in utilising the storage device's functions (such as snapshots and replication) for backup. Data does not pass through the host but is processed directly within the storage layer; zero host resource consumption, and the backup process does not affect business operations; extremely fast backup speed, suitable for high-frequency backups. Huawei HyperSnap can deeply integrate with enterprise-level storage products, providing customers with hardware-accelerated deduplication/compression.
Application-level backup targets specific applications (such as databases, ERP, email systems, etc.) for backup. Its advantage is supporting application transaction consistency by integrating with application APIs or agents to perceive the application data state, ensuring application consistency of backup data upon recovery. Acronis application-level backup solutions combine full machine backup and fine-grained recovery, supporting microsecond-level CDP protection.
Market landscape
In 2024, China's DR&P market grew by 1.5% year-on-year, with local technology suppliers particularly driving the market's steady growth.
From the perspective of sub-markets, backup appliances are more favoured in industries such as government and telecommunications due to their high integration and convenient deployment advantages. They provide unified and simplified management, which is a key driver for end-customer purchases. Currently, the backup appliance market has grown by 10.2% year-on-year, exceeding the average market growth rate.
Due to the increasingly diverse work scenarios of customers, pure software-based data replication and protection solutions are favoured by clients in industries such as finance for their high flexibility and customizability. Especially in cloud environments, software deployment can be integrated with cloud platforms to achieve data replication and protection in hybrid cloud environments, while also being cost-effective, allowing the pure software submarket to maintain a relatively stable market share in 2024.
Combining the development and demands of end-user industries, especially in manufacturing, finance, and other sectors, the implementation of emerging technologies and the upgrade of data security and compliance requirements will drive the continuous and stable growth of the DR&P market. IDC predicts that over the next five years, China's DR&P market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 7%, with the market size approaching 1.1 billion USD by 2029.
Analyst Views
IDC China Research Manager Yang Yunxu stated that the "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly sets a total storage target of 1800EB by 2025; the "Third Plenary Session" requires achieving full data resource circulation by 2026. These policies will directly drive market demand for DR&P solutions. Technology providers should focus on the cross-platform compatibility and automation capabilities of DR&P solutions, such as AI-driven backup strategy optimisation, to help end customers ensure data security and business continuity in the era of accelerated new application deployment.
