Arctera Backup Exec is a backup and disaster recovery solution. It works in virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments and integrates with several third-party software releases and applications.
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NetBackup from Cohesity
Score 7.2 out of 10
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NetBackup, currently in version 11, is a data protection and recovery platform that provides security, automation, and management tools for cloud and on-premises workloads.
We moved from NetBackup to Veeam in mid-2017 largely because of a significant data center migration. Veeam was very quick to configure, compressed the data streams to move entire servers and storage arrays quickly and without disrupting business network use, and costs …
We selected NBU based solely on cost. When comparing NBU and Commvault, NBU was 10k cheaper in the end and contained roughly the same features as Commvault.
Backup Exec works well generally in most environments or situations. The licensing can potentially be a nightmare, but manageable if you have a decent reseller. Backing up and restoring from physical tapes which is not all that common is not as reliable as when backing up and restoring from datastores that reside on hard drives or digital media. It does a good job with large or small backup jobs. Backing up and managing SQL backups requires additional licenses and be a bit clunky. If you are very careful (which you should be anyway) and document as you build these backups you will get better at managing them. Regarding a virtual environment, I have limited experience in that arena, but have done it. Backup Exec can backup VMware environments, but honestly we moved to Unitrends to backup our VM's and are much happier with the backup process. However, restoring a VM in Unitrends can be tedious compared to Backup Exec.
Veritas NetBackup is well suited for most backups within an organisation. This is from standard filesystem backups to full integrated SQL, Oracle and SAP HANA databases and their associated applications. Where it lacks is point in time recovery, i.e., backups are taken at a specific time and then backed up to either disk or tape, but other backup products allow incremental forever backups that, from the golden copy, allow point in time recovery down to an hour or even a minute. So if that level of granularity is required, then Veritas NetBackup may not be the best product to use.
Manage agent based backups - It is easy to schedule and monitor backups. Verifying backups is done for all jobs. Backup performance is excellent.
Provide a wide ranging contingent of backup options - Despite providing a dizzying array of backup options, it is easy to schedule individual or recurring jobs.
Integrates well with our Active Directory - Restoring even individual Active Directory objects is possible.
Could provide better license management from an inventory perspective. How many licenses do I have?.. etc.
When Backup Exec backs up itself it should not select iSCSI backup targets by default. The result is recursive data backup ending in the loss of storage capacity.
This software is a mess in my brutally honest opinion. I've spent more time babysitting this software while backing up 20 servers than I did with Veeam backing up 600+. I've had multiple jobs run fine for weeks at a time that just randomly fail out of the blue for seemingly no reason whatsoever. There's no intuitive way to chain jobs, so automation becomes somewhat more problematic if certain jobs depend on other jobs. The forever incremental feature feels tacked on since the merge operation merges all your incremental jobs into the most recent backup and doesn't have the option set a limit on how long to keep your point in time restores.
Veritas continues to keep up with the backup game. There virtual machine backup capabilities are now top notch, and I believe they will prove valuable when our cloud presence demands a backup solution.
It can do a lot of things on paper and sounds terrific, but in practice it doesn't do any of them well. It can easily be sold to non-technical minds and C-levels, but of all the backup solutions I've used in the last 15 years of my career, Backup Exec is easily the least fault tolerant. Unless this software is a sunk cost and you're on a shoestring budget, I recommend almost anything else. Jobs fail often with obscure error codes and the KB articles in the Veritas support portal are a mess. Within 30 days of a fresh deployment I've logged more tickets with their support than I did in 3 years with Veeam.
There is a slight learning curve depending on what you wish to back up. However, as a whole it is fairly easy to use. The reporting of backups gives peace of mind to ensure data is protected. The GUI is intuitive and easy to find the correct areas you need to perform various functions. Recovery is also done via a GUI that is extremely easy to use and select the backup you wish to recover.
In the few instances of having to contact support, our overall outcome was always good. They would have received a better score if the wait time was less, but I attribute this to the timing of support calls - it was during the previous owner's time. We have not had to open a support ticket since Veritas Backup Exec took the product back over.
Support is pretty good but it is split between America and outsourced companies so it is hit or miss sometimes. I have actually had to argue with the outsourced support as they sometimes have no practical experience using the software which makes troubleshooting difficult when they have no practical experience using the system.
If your company is looking at changing solutions or currently does not have any, Veritas Backup Exec is the way to go. Do yourself a favor and try the 60 day trial, you won't be disappointed! Very simple to use and has a great GUI, much better than what the competition has to offer.
CrashPlan has the capability to sync data with a cloud storage source. This is great for a workstation where data is typically only for one user. However, Netbackup does a much better job for maintaining multiple levels of file restores for Enterprise Servers. Netbackup has a superior management console that does not rely on Cloud services in the event of an internet outage.
Veritas NetBackup is very expensive, and I think price is the main reason which some customers don't want to use this solution. The price is fair. Most people have felt this solution was somewhat expensive. licensing model is based on the number of NetBackup clients, agents, servers, and options that NetBackup will be protecting or run on. A customer purchases the same number of licenses as the count of clients, agents, servers, and options.
Education, Consulting and Managed services to keep our business running smooth.They provide the expertise needed to help you bridge the gap between excellent information management solutions and the information essential to help you reach maximum business value. They Meet information management goals with agility and flexibility.
Backups by their very nature are difficult to quantify when it comes to ROI. Any monies spent should be seen more as insurance . If you never have to claim on it then that is the best outcome. Backup Exec gives you comfort that you can meet any downtime recovery targets set by your business and this is how to benchmark your solution.
Conduct regular DR tests and your this will be your ROI.
We never experienced a significant system or data loss during the time we used NetBackup. We restored individuals files and small databases based upon user mistakes, but we never had to implement a DR plan. From that aspect, it is difficult to evaluate the ROI. Backups are a commodity service. Features are very similar across multiple tools. Once you decide to stay on-prem or move to the cloud, the list of options are narrowed. Then it becomes a matter of price.
From an administration and support perspective, the ROI is low. Vendor technical support is not always responsive. The first two tiers of support are not knowledgeable and their typical recommendation is to read the white paper. My small team spent a lot of time troubleshooting NetBackup, often without much vendor help.
