Dell SC Series / Compellent (discontinued) vs. Veeam Data Platform

All in all this series great in addressing issues applications that need flash storage as a backend storage supply. It addresses the need for fast, responsive servers that need to boot quickly. It is easy to use and for the most part there are few issues and none that can't be addressed/fixed quickly.

Incentivized

We have a small deployment with a handful of physical hosts and two dozen or so virtual servers. It's been a perfect fit for us to manage all those backups and to restore entire systems from or even pull specific files/folders from a backup as needed if just a few things need changed/rolled back.

Incentivized

• Dell Compellent support (Co-Pilot) and the add-on service (Optimize) are critical services that Dell Compellent does very well. Alerts from the array are sent to Co-Pilot where tickets are automatically generated and customers are notified of events. Of greater importance at times is the proactive support Co-Pilot and Optimize provide by contacting us of inefficiencies in the array and consulting on resolutions.
• Enterprise Manager (Dell's "single pane of glass" management framework) is a useful tool for configuration/evaluation of the array and other Compellent products.
• Ease of management. From firmware upgrades to managing server volumes the process is much simpler than with other arrays.

Incentivized

• File-level restore is quick, reliable, and much simpler than other platforms I've used
• Replication is extremely simple to configure and test
• Agent setup for user endpoints and subsequent backup storage is incredibly simple
• Cloud repository configuration is extremely straightforward and well-documented

Incentivized

• The GUI could be a little more updated with a lot more information regarding usage.
• There could be some assistance with high I/O times where snapshots go to consolidate. There seems to be issues when that attempts to occur, and there will times where the virtual machine stuns due to the I/O intensity.
• Modification of multiple volumes or the creation of multiple volumes is a pain in the DSM management console.

Incentivized

• Support could stand to improve by a bit. The level of support has seemingly lessened over the years I've been using it.
• It needs to be able to report backup repository statistics better when XFS and ReFS are in use.
• It could be a little better about cleaning up after itself (old logs, etc.).

Incentivized

I have used many other data backup products that are on the market. I trust the configuration options within Veeam to do as they are labeled, without any specific back end software changes that may cause backups to fail if you don't use a systems integrator.

I trust the product for my own home environment as well due to relationship I have with the product at work.

Incentivized

Veeam is fairly simple in terms of how it is set up; its not an overly-complicated dashboard that can be intimidating to less technically-inclined users. Veeam also offers good instructional videos to help users work through how to do specific functions. I appreciate that they have specific video tutorials rather than having users scroll through a cumbersome manual.

Incentivized

The Veeam Backup & Replication solution is up and running every time you need it as it was planned. In more than 3 years that we have been using the product every night, it might have failed or presented an error once or twice, so the availability percentage is almost at 100%.

Incentivized

Veeam does a good job with backing up our servers in a timely manner. We are still at the beginning of our Veeam use and are pleased with the speed at which we can access the system as well as the backups and restore points. Veeam is definitely superior to our previous backup system in terms of speed and accessibility

Incentivized

This is not solely based on the support engineers themselves but more so that the logging and gotcha's that their array has. There have been multiple times where logs are pulled, but the folder is not large enough, and it crashes the array. Other times there are certain aspects that support either does not know of or isn't knowledgable about how to look at particular issues that could be causing problems.

Incentivized

The support team has never asked me to jump through silly hoops or waste time on pointless exercises. They seem to truly have a handle on what may be wrong. In fact, when we were having trouble getting our license renewal setup (because of yet another license migration at Veeam) a support incident got us connected to the right people to get our renewal done in time.

Incentivized

(I assume this question should say "Veeam" and not "Crownpeak Universal Consent Platform") Planning is key. Planning your backup schedule, size, data restore points, replication if you're doing that, &c. Testing is also important; make sure you back something up and then do a test restore. Set up alerts so you know if things aren't working (or even if they are, always good to know that too).

Incentivized

We selected Compellent solely based on price. Honestly I would rate it only slightly better than a QNAP we used (which was even cheaper). If performance and reliability are factors in your decision (and they should be) I would recommend looking at something like a VNXe.

Incentivized

We used Zerto and CA Arcserve to address these needs without migrating to Veeam Backup & Replication. Zerto is a very successful instant backup and we are still using it now. It does what Veeam application cannot do in instant replication. CA Arcserve, on the other hand, is clearly lagging behind the Veeam Backup & Replication product and does not meet today's requirements.

Incentivized

In terms of scalability for our company, Veeam was able to cover our backup needs with ease. They have options for even more individualized backup if we were to need them; i.e. if a specific workstation needs its own independent backup. We have not used these resources yet, but I am confident they will be beneficial to our company in the near future.

Incentivized

• The SC9000 has been able to serve our current and futures needs well enough to not need to upgrade anytime soon.

Incentivized

• Confidence before starting riskier maintenance windows is a large component of what veeam is able to offer for us
• Some of the segmentation between different backup servers across our data enters causes unnecessary delays or backups that are duplicated unnecessarily
• Lack of certain storage vendors being natively supported requires hacky workarounds not fit for a production environment

Incentivized