afi.ai vs. BDRShield

1. Data backup for Exchange Online, SharePoint and Teams works very well and reliable. 2. MS Teams support is good, which includes Private channels. 3. Excellent security options ( ransomware detection, encryption keys hosted by us) 4. Self service for end users is a huge time saver for our helpdesk team 5. We kill two birds with one stone with user archiving, compliance and cost savings on MS licenses.

It provides reliable daily backup tasks and it is important for us to have no worries of system crush. BDRSuite is full featured, I had been using BDRSuite to replicate servers from Hyper-v to ESXi, it's quite useful and easily to process than other VM migration tools between different platform. BDRSuite costs less than other backup product because I can decrease/increase/allocate license between VMs easily. The license charge two ways, server or VM. We choose VM license.

Incentivized

• Archiving of deleted Microsoft 365 users.
• Backup of SharePoint lists and OneNote books.
• Fast offline export of a mailbox and SharePoint items.

• Seed an offsite backup. A simple checkbox to seed a large backup prior to backing it up to our datacenter. Previously with another well knows backup provider this was convoluted and time-consuming.
• Backup Speed. Vembu BDR is fast and allows me to schedule multiple jobs within time constraints that prohibit some backup products from working.
• DR - Vembu BDR provides an option to mirror your backups to an offsite datacenter without taxing production servers with a secondary backup job.
• Bare Metal Recovery: the ability to create a custom bootable ISO that you can quickly recover a failed physical server or workstation.
• Ease of use: The console is consistent and very easy to use. From initial install to being fully configured takes just a few minutes.

• Reporting API could be improved
• Data center in the UK to be post-Brexit proof would be good (which, as I understand, is planned)

• User interface on the servers do not have enough tools to better monitor the systems and finding information is difficult.
• User interface at portal is difficult to navigate and confusing
• Support documentation is too generic and rarely answers my questions.
• Licensing and acquisition. As a reseller and partner the licensing model is confusing and the portal interface to manage licensing should be scrapped and rebuilt. It is difficult to navigate and the available information is too vague.
• Recently, communication with new channel contact. My previous contact was articulate and answered my questions.
• Did I mention licensing? This is the most confusing and difficult process I've dealt with in 25 years. Makes Microsoft look simple.

Incentivized

We will continue to renew the service for as long as we continue to use MS 365, unless Microsoft will release native Office 365 backup that provides all necessary features, including multi-geo admin roles, long-term affordable archiving storage tier, auto-conversion of email formats (MBOX, EML etc), point-in-time preview of previous file versions.

Because of the product functions and possibilities: - it's easy to use through WEB browser - installation process is not complicated - Vembu BDR solution is reliable, and works properly. It does the job. This product could get extra points for the appliance that could be imported to virtual environment (no need for windows server license or some linux knowledge).

Incentivized

The UI is very intuitive and requires almost zero training to use. Our end users were able to use it with after just reading a simple one-pager.

Friendly web interface very clear, nicely and professionally designed. Usability, setup and forget. It has all features you need for hybrid environments even if you don't use it. You know the features are there when you needed. Email report is so informative. You get all the details about completed backup without logging in the system

Incentivized

Support is very technical and always eager to help us. The support team's responses are mostly relevant, with no generic/automated answers that would waste our time. The company's online product documentation is very clear and to the point; it answers most of the user questions in a detailed and clear manner.

It often takes a very long time to get an issue fixed. the support folks seem committed to getting it fixed but they often seem to be trying different things and hoping something works. I did not get the sense that they had a clear idea what was wrong.

Incentivized

It wasn't difficult at all, it fact, it was mostly simple, implementation doesn't require much skills and knowledge, but the configuration part does require some skills to create the jobs and configure certain settings, overall, its an easy implementation, especially for experienced IT People

Incentivized

We used Backupify before, and decided to move as the system overall became very unreliable (lost data, inaccessible UI, sluggish, etc.).

I tested Vembu against Veeam and for the price, Vembu was the better option. I also had a great support experience as I had to contact Vembu twice after mistakes I made. While using Veeam the software was not as intuitive and support responses were not as swift and accurate.

Incentivized

• We have used afi.ai to recover data 3 times since we signed up. The cost of potentially lost data was $1k+.

• For organizations that use different tools for Backup and recovery, this could be the single tool for Storage and Backup Administrators to automate and work effectively.
• Software cost is lesser thus the money can be invested for other tools/software procurement
• I don't think there is any negative impact as of now

Incentivized