Dell Avamar is a hardware and software data backup and deduplication product. It provides protection and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution when paired with Dell Data Domain for virtual environments, remote offices, enterprise apps, NAS servers, and desktops/laptops.
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Quest QoreStor
Score 8.0 out of 10
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QoreStor facilitates the adoption of most storage types, uniquely including cloud object storage like native object storage. QoreStor’s advanced compression and deduplication algorithms aim to slash storage requirements and costs anywhere QoreStor is deployed, even in the cloud. QoreStor includes ransomware protection capabilities to protect backup data.
QoreStor replaces the Quest DR Series the former Dell / Quest backup and recovery solution, featuring data deduplication.
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.
The product can be run on-premises or in the cloud. It is a fantastic option to reduce the size and storage requirements of backup jobs. If your backup system can already produce a reliable reduction in storage up to 75% then I would say the QoreStor appliance would be irrelevant in your case. It does not perform backups itself. It is simply an extra step to reduce size, encrypt and offload backups to the cloud. this reduces the load on a backup system to handle other tasks while the QoreStor takes over.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
The support team is the main reason I am sticking to Quest/KACE products. They are stellar to work with and always responsive when I need help. The team listens to the user's recommendations for added features and tends to add the ones that really have merit. Support is everything when it comes to working with such a company
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.
When I evaluated the Dell system it was an entirely new server on-site, with licensed levels of inlocking the storage it had on board. For a smaller organization, the Dell system was not cost-effective with a large upfront payment, and additional hardware to manage on-site. The QoreStor system was a virtual machine that could pop into my current system and just use allocated storage already in place. In addition, the upfront cost was dramatically less than the Dell option and no additional hardware
