NetApp ONTAP System Manager vs PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain)

Likelihood to Recommend

ONTAP System Manager is feature rich and all inclusive. It can work with multiple storage protocols and for various functionalities. It will replace your File Servers and your SAN and put them into one storage appliance. NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, NVMe are all options. Snapshots and Offsite replication (Snapmirror) are all great. I can't think of a scenario where a NetApp wouldn't be a good fit.

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Steve Davis

Solutions Architect

Virgin OrbitInformation Technology and Services, 501-1000 employees

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When used as a backup target PowerProtect DD models offer incredible density and can efficiently replicate to another cloud-based or offsite unit. Most complaints about these have been addressed in software over the years and they are now a intuitive and easily managed backup system. You are not buying a Swiss army knife, you are getting a machine designed for a purpose, use it for that and you will not be disappointed. While they have the ability to serve as a CIFS server, they are not a filer and lack many of the features inherent to filers and are a poor substitute.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

NetApp ONTAP System Manager

PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain)

Universal recovery

Live recovery

Recovery verification

Business application protection

Multiple backup destinations

Incremental backup identification

Backup to the cloud

Deduplication and file compression

Snapshots

Flexible deployment

Management dashboard

Platform support

Retention options

Encryption

Pros

System Manager is extremely good at resizing volumes, changing snapshot policies and making day-to-day changes.
The Dashboard and the Hardware and Diagnostics tabs are a great window into the health of your filer and Cluster. You can immediately see any issues like volumes that are nearly full or errors in the event logs.

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Brandon Burch

Coordinator of Network and Technical Services

Hudson Falls Central School DistrictEducation Management, 201-500 employees

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It writes backups quickly. DDBoost add-on is very useful as well for improving backup speeds.
DD is very efficient in its use of capacity. It dedupes and compresses very well.
It spans to large capacity amounts.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Insurance Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Cons

Not necessarily a dislike of OnCommand per se but I do dislike that you have to still use different flavors of this tool to get a holistic view of every aspect of your NetApp - System Manager, Performance Manager, Unified Manager etc
The initial process to connect to a filer probably could do with a little more friendly documentation as the format for filer name (or IP) and whether and SNMP string is required etc is not clear.
The ability for more complete search capability within the logs (so therefore not having to extract them to work with them) would be an advantage for the timely resolution of faults.

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Joe Cairns

Lead Database Administrator

FraedomInformation Technology and Services, 201-500 employees

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It can be expensive to implement, especially when used in conjunction with other applications/hardware such as Avamar.
The TCO can be high, especially when it needs its storage expanded.
Recovery speeds can be slow (compared to other solutions) for when recovery is time sensitive.

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Sam Majam

Systems Administrator

TBC CorporationAutomotive, 10,001+ employees

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain) 10.0

Based on 1 answer

DD has performed flawlessly for almost 10 years as our backup/recovery storage with offsite replication. Given its track record and great support from EMC, we're unlikely to look elsewhere any time soon.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 201-500 employees

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Support Rating

NetApp ONTAP System Manager 10.0

Based on 3 answers

Support is great. Our account managers and system engineers regularly contact us and check in on us. Provide free training on various topics. Our team is readily available to answer any questions. Support tickets are generated automatically if anything goes wrong such as a disk going bad and a new one is sent out immediately. Very happy with support.

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Steve Davis

Solutions Architect

Virgin OrbitInformation Technology and Services, 501-1000 employees

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PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain) 6.9

Based on 4 answers

Customer support has had some ups and downs here. We've had several issues with EMC support before and during the acquisition by Dell, but in the last 18 months support has been top notch. Quick and knowledgeable help is but a chat away, or they will call you back so you don't have to wait on hold. The team supporting us is responsive and is quick to assist with any request or issue.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

I've used NetApp systems for the last 12 years. The only alternative I have used is the old OnCommand system. This is a drastic improvement over what was available in the past. The ability to use this software from anywhere inside your network is huge. If you were to combine this with VPN access you could easily monitor and configure your NetApp from anywhere in the world

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Brandon Burch

Coordinator of Network and Technical Services

Hudson Falls Central School DistrictEducation Management, 201-500 employees

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We selected Data Domain due to its integration with our backup software. The Data Domain works well for what we need it to do.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Previously were were running with just locally attached storage across all of our estate. With this tool we are not able to simplify the management of storage saving on resource usage across our Ops teams allowing us to focus on "more important" tasks.

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Joe Cairns

Lead Database Administrator

FraedomInformation Technology and Services, 201-500 employees

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We were able to immediately discontinue our remote tape storage and TBU maintenance.
Reduced backup footprint in the data center.
It is costly to expand so buy it with a purpose.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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Rating Summary

NetApp ONTAP System Manager

PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain)

NetApp ONTAP System Manager

PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain)

NetApp ONTAP System Manager

PowerProtect DD (formerly Dell EMC Data Domain)