Dell Avamar vs. OpenText Data Protector

This software is well suited for companies that want to be very in control of their backups but need a simple tool. It could be convenient for them to just buy their own node, locate it in a different location, and set up the jobs for their machines to backup to the cloud with the specific plugins. However, it would not be convenient for companies looking to have a tool that needs to be secure and compliant, and that need to have different other options for business continuity.

Incentivized

Well suited: scenarios with very specific backups schedules; backups saved in tape libraries. Less appropriate: environments with older Operational Systems and older hardware, such as tape libraries.

Incentivized

• Avamar performs data deduplication on the remote host. This greatly reduces the amount of traffic that each backup requires. This even applies to the virtual environment through change block tracking. Backup times are reduced from hours to minutes.
• The management interface makes it easy to configure and maintain data retention periods. Many times certain data must be kept for an extended period of time. There is a specific menu for managing retention periods.
• The system is able to recover itself from a hard failure with virtually no loss of backups. There is a checkpoint taken each day that provides a recovery point in the event of a catastrophic failure. Since this is a node based system, the loss of more than one node could require a recovery be performed.
• While another grid must be purchased, the replication utility allows all backups to be replicated to another grid at a remote location. This ensures the resilience of the backups in the event there is the loss of the primary data center.
• Also works on HCI devices performing image-level backups as in our primary data center environment
• There is also now an All-in-One appliance for smaller locations

Incentivized

• It is very reliable on the server side to provide a trustworthy back end.
• The install was simple and provided an easy way to install and backup Unix servers.
• The support was always helpful and responded quickly.

Incentivized

• The client interface has constant JAVA issues and can be slow and chunky. We have often had issues with current versions of JAVA breaking it so it will not even run.
• The backup clients are split out for function. Although this makes them light, it also makes it cumbersome to upgrade clients. The naming scheme can also be confusing for the clients.

Incentivized

• Increase the range of support for new platforms.
• Improve the attention of support cases in terms of speed of attention.
• Keep me better informed of the latest solution updates.

Incentivized

I have been using the product for over five years. This has performed so well that with the current system reaching its End-of-Life with EMC next year, I have proposed replacing it with the latest version of the product. Now that it integrates with Data Domain, the cost has been greatly reduced. Instead of the need to purchase many nodes, one Data Domain can replace them creating a significant cost savings.

Incentivized

It was just not a good fit for our organization. We have an EMC SAN, Data Domain backup storage, and VMWare. Without any other HP software or hardware in our environment I do not see the need to continue using a product that is not well integrated with our other brands

Incentivized

The system overall is easy to monitor and see your backup/restore status. The user interface could use updating as it relies on Java and any updates to Java cause the interface to stop working need to be reinstalled

Incentivized

Very easy to use. What needs to improve is to make it easier to configure some integrations and features, such as office 365 integration, acropolis integration, block change-based backup, etc. Despite we have documentation, even following all the steps, the integration is hard to implement or doesn't work in the end.

Incentivized

The Reporting-Server and the Reports depend on the settings.

Incentivized

Support is very convincing, always eager to solve issues from the root rather than workaround, don't hesitate to take webex, describe the issues to the core and recommend configuration to avoid further issues. We can ask few questions other than the main issue. They don't hesitate to answer.

Incentivized

It is the weak point of this software, although it is improving little by a little. The first level of support does not solve almost anything until you move on to a higher level that is more involved.

Incentivized

Pick one person to help you through the process.

Incentivized

Avamar has simplied the back up approach in their VE edition and is much easier to use than Data Protector. Backing up multiple VMs takes minutes instead of hours now. Creating policies, retentions, and schedules, is vastly improved and much easier.

Incentivized

When selecting a backup solution for our virtual environment we chose HP Data Protector for its cost savings in licensing, our familiarity with the software and the ability to backup to disk, tape or both with the standard installation.

Incentivized

Here the license model from the Micro Focus Data Protector and DP4CW should merge. It causes argumentation problems if you license two products here.

Incentivized

We use the tool in different installations and combinations of functions and hardware.

Incentivized

The professional services had some details of low promptness in the attention of cases.

Incentivized

• Absolute Zero ROI
• This appliance does not work in its current state and to update we need to wait 2-3 months
• Can't wait to get rid of it and replace it with something else. (not even sure if we will be able to get it running before that)
• [I think] this is one of the worst mistakes we made

Incentivized

• Positive impact. I have not worked with HP Data Protector enough to provide the ROI. It simply worked when we needed it to.

Incentivized