Arctera Backup Exec vs. Cove Data Protection

One of the differentials is that of all the backup tools I used, Veritas Backup Exec has the best management and control interface. It is very easy to use and configure the rules. There are several options that we can optimize our work for our specific needs, from scheduling a backup, restoring data, directories, alerts system, error reports, backups, inconsistencies and other very interesting things. It has integration with SQL, vmware, hyper v. Backup and restore speeds are fast and secure.

Incentivized

Solarwinds Backup is ideal for individuals looking to keep a consistent backup of devices in their environment. We used it primarily for networking equipment. It is easy to set up, as it is one of the steps available when adding a new device to solarwinds. It is probably not an ideal product to use for long-term (1 month+) backups.

Incentivized

• The license/agent deployment feature in Backup Exec facilitates effective and speedy population within your data center.
• Veritas Backup Exec's feature rich job creation is intuitive and simplifies backup strategies.
• Customizable views in the Administrator console allow you to view your backup environment to maximize visibility.

Incentivized

• Daily backups are easy to create and activate and run on schedule as desired by the client.
• Easy SQL backups no matter your SQL favor, it's just a few clicks to back them up.
• Very good system state backups that several of our older clients have used (out of necessity) to recover systems and data from dead machines.

Incentivized

• The user interface can sometimes be sluggish and hang between options.The minimum spec is 2Gb but if running on a dedicated server I think 4Gb is recommended
• As more companies seem to be entering the backup software market, Acronis is very aggressive on pricing and even offer discounts if you are replacing other backup solutions, the Backup Exec pricing plans have become a more expensive
• Our version is an older 2014 version and has inadequate support for VM backs

Incentivized

• To perform restores on a different location, there's a need to install a standalone application call the Recovery Console, which makes it too much trouble. Instead, this should have been performed over the same backup management portal, where you should have been able to select in which location you want to restore.
• The business continuity features, available for the system state backups, like restoring a backup as a virtual machine or performing a bare-metal restore, also require to install different standalone applications for each. And in disaster scenarios, both tasks take too much time to get everything running.
• The retention of the backups (the archiving feature) needs to be set up individually for each server at a time, when this is something that should be more easily managed by the service provider (not expecting to be set up by the customer in each device) as a general setting within the Backups Profiles or Product Management.
• There should be a better reporting tool, that would allow to export backup and restore events, as well as user activities.
• The configurations for Backup Profiles and Product Management could be redundant and confusing.

Incentivized

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.

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.

Cove Data Protection is very usable as it's easy to tell that it is made to not only do backup very well, but it's also easy to deploy. The agent-based deployment allows for flexible deployment options while ensuring a minimal amount of manual work is needed on the dashboard end. Recovery is also very easy, especially as it relates to one-off file recovery

The weekly error on save needs a manual reload from me. The SDR can't restore the virtual machine of hyperV during a test.

Incentivized

No problem for this point it is in the average.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

We have an Italian support partner, they are been very good b7y the first moment.

All the partners are followed with a lot of attention, even the little ones.

there is a site where you can learn everything, the single parts of the product are described perfectly.

Every it specialist should evaluate it.

Incentivized

It was pretty straightforward.

Veritas Backup Exec is very comparable to Unitrends and in some areas is easier to use. The license side of Veritas Backup Exec is much more difficult to manage compared to Unitrends. Unitrends seems to be a much smoother solutions to protect virtual environments. Restoring data with Veritas Backup Exec is logical and easier to achieve, Unitrends is a bit less logical or intuitive.

Incentivized

Solarwinds Backup provides the most comprehensive backup system. After testing all other systems the weaknesses of Solarwinds Backup are much less severe or risky compared to others. As well the overall cost of Solarwinds Backup's value is the main reason for choosing Solarwinds Backup as the primary backup/DR provider.

Incentivized

We only use it on the on-premise version on a single site.

Incentivized

• As the person tasked with the job of protecting the company's data, I am glad that Backup Exec performs that job well. I am able to often set-it-and-forget-it and go about the rest of my duties. I have never had a situation where Backup Exec was called upon to restore data and it was unable to do so. This reflects well on both me and my department and provides a sense of security to the rest of the company.
• I am not making full use of the product and have not licensed a number of its features, but even the base feature set is impressive. To be clear, Backup Exec is no longer the only product we reply upon for data protection, but it is still a large part of that program. If an SMB can find the budget to afford to license the set of features meet its particular demands, Backup Exec will do what you need.
• As an industry leader, Backup Exec is well positioned to stay at the head of the pack (as they have done for many years) and provide their customers with a comprehensive set of capabilities that will always remain in the forefront of technology.

Incentivized

• I can't speak to every dollar and cent involved, but I can tell you that the daily task of checking backup status has changed from at least an hour just to check VEEAM and Windows Backup statuses for multiple clients, to checking two pages and then digging into any problems. So as far as productivity goes, it's been wonderful!

Incentivized