Dell Networker vs. PowerProtect DD Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dell Networker
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Dell NetWorker is an enterprise-level data protection software product that unifies and automates backup to tape, disk-based, and flash-based storage media across physical and virtual environments for granular and disaster recovery.N/A
PowerProtect DD Series
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
PowerProtect DD (a next-generation appliance replacing Dell EMC Data Domain) is a suite of hardware appliances used for data protection, backup, storage and deduplication. PowerProtect appliance offerings are cloud-enabled and vary by organization size, capable of supporting small business and enterprises. PowerProtect appliances are separated into two categories: entry-level to midrange, and enterprise. Entry-Level to Midrange Backup Appliances PowerProtect…N/A
Pricing
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Considered Both Products
Dell Networker
Chose Dell Networker
NetWorker and CommVault are both rated in the top quadrant of Gartner's assessment of backup/recovery applications. We have used both for a number of years, and CommVault was the winner without any significant opposition technically from NetWorker. We moved from CommVault to …
Chose Dell Networker
Previously I have used MS DPM and Symantec Backup Exec. I think they all have similar strengths and drawbacks actually. In general, BE/DPN have slightly better interfaces and terminology but slightly worse backup and recovery reliability. I would recommend Networker over them …
Chose Dell Networker
Avamar is better but expensive
Veeam, most suited for VM backup, doesn't work too well with the rest of backups\applications
PowerProtect DD Series

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Dell Networker
5.0
11 Ratings
48% below category average
PowerProtect DD Series
8.6
11 Ratings
5% above category average
Universal recovery5.29 Ratings8.310 Ratings
Instant recovery6.011 Ratings8.79 Ratings
Recovery verification6.09 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Business application protection4.59 Ratings8.311 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations3.010 Ratings9.311 Ratings
Incremental backup identification4.811 Ratings8.710 Ratings
Backup to the cloud5.26 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression6.910 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Snapshots6.09 Ratings8.710 Ratings
Flexible deployment2.79 Ratings8.39 Ratings
Management dashboard4.59 Ratings8.79 Ratings
Platform support3.99 Ratings8.39 Ratings
Retention options4.79 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Encryption7.27 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Small Businesses
BDRSuite
BDRSuite
Score 9.0 out of 10
BDRSuite
BDRSuite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Likelihood to Recommend
7.1
(11 ratings)
8.3
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
3.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(3 ratings)
5.0
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell NetworkerPowerProtect DD Series
Likelihood to Recommend
Dell Technologies
For users with a basic backup system that does not provide advanced data protection this is a life saver in the age we live in where hackers are looking to encrypt and ruin your important backups. I would recommend [Dell EMC Networker] based on its features, price, and ease of use. If you have a similar product already it does not offer many unique features however.
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Dell Technologies
We have huge data coming in from different sources and also from multiple organizations in our Data centres. This data had multiple copies of the same data and was huge in size therefore, we wanted to have a solution in place which can help us with a good amount of deduplication at the deepest possible level to make sure that our ecosystem does not have multiple copies of the same data and is also efficient at the same time. Having said this, we wanted this solution to be secure and reliable since it had to be exposed to a huge critical set of data in the market. To add, backup and restoration was something that we were also keen on evaluating so that once we have efficient data within our system, the time it takes to backup and restoration also reduces. And all this was justified by this solution when we signed up with them. From the pricing perspective and the implementation side, the solution needs improvement to make it more efficient and user-friendly.
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Pros
Dell Technologies
  • Seamlessly integrates with DataDomain
  • Seamlessly integrates with vmWare for extremely fast VM backups
  • Provides agent-based integration for a very wide array of applications-aware backups, including but not limited to: Microsoft SQL/Exchange/Sharepoint, Meditech, Oracle, DB2, Informix, SAP
  • Integrates with a wide family of NAS solutions for NDMP backups
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Dell Technologies
  • The deduplication is fantastic. We are currently seeing total compression factors in the mid to upper 50s.
  • The platform is very reliable and stable.
  • It backs up a wide variety of enterprise apps (e.g. legacy applications, UNIX, iSeries, open systems etc) or your primary storage.
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Cons
Dell Technologies
  • The GUI is horrible. Giant windows that don't size properly, confusing terminology, multiple clicks to get things done, it's just a disorganized mess. I can't put this in front of my junior techs because it requires some background in DR software to fully comprehend, and even then it's not easy. It feels very much like this was tacked on to a command-line based product as an afterthought.
  • Better management features. It's difficult to integrate with Active Directory, for one. You'll need a Dell EMC tech to help you. Items can't be renamed and have to be recreated. Options are buried in multiple GUI tabs and often are just command line strings in a free-text field. Diagnosing failed jobs and workflows is cumbersome and the errors are often cryptic without some experience. Design it well and pray for uptime, because you need this to work when disaster requires it to.
  • Poor reporting features for an enterprise class product. You can't schedule any type of simple summary (an audit requirement for us) in the base product. To do this requires the additional cost of Data Protection Advisor, which is also horribly designed and impossible to get working quickly.
  • Post-sales contact is non-existent. We've been through a few reps and the project team dropped us at one point with a half-finished implementation when the original sales guy moved on. We only got the the promised product implementation by telling Dell that we weren't paying the bill until they delivered what they promised and were contractually obligated to.
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Dell Technologies
  • It is very slow to restore from. Backup times are great, restores can be terribly slow.
  • It doesn't offload to cloud storage natively. You need to purchase an expensive license to enable this feature.
  • The management interface is very basic, but it works fine.
  • The new air gap solution seems to be just replication an on/off switch. I'd prefer to see them leverage AI on the existing device instead of requiring
  • A second device is purchased and securing by toggling the connectivity off.
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Likelihood to Renew
Dell Technologies
There are three reasons for not renewing our use of NetWorker: 1) the rising and extremely high cost of support and proprietary hardware needed for deduplication, 2) the complete unreliability of the product (we couldn't recover from a true disaster if we wanted to), and 3) the horrible support from EMC for the product
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Dell Technologies
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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Usability
Dell Technologies
NetWorker has the clunkiest interface and unfriendliest CLI with which I have ever had to work. I spent three years hating this application because it took ALL of my time just to keep it running. Even then, I had no confidence in our ability to recover from a disaster because of its unreliability.
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Dell Technologies
I have found PowerProtect DD to be very easy to use. The instructions are clear and the user interface is straightforward. I haven't needed to do any serious data recovery yet, however I found the process of backing up my data through PowerProtect DD to be relatively easy
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Support Rating
Dell Technologies
The support team has always been good, and there is never an issue that can't be resolved. The techs are competent and know the product. The slightly less than perfect rating I'm giving is because Support shouldn't carry the burden themselves. We hear from Dell sales people all the time, but they never call and ask about this product, nor do they offer to upsell it or make it better. That lack of sales support and coherence hurts the overall rating a bit. When I spend my company's money on your product, I expect you to at least ACT like you care, if not actually care for real. It influences my opinion and future purchasing habits.
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Dell Technologies
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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Implementation Rating
Dell Technologies
How can anyone build a house without a blueprint? NetWorker was ramrodded into place here without a design or implementation plan. The result was a setup that was doomed from the start and never worked reliable over the full three years of our contract obligation.
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Dell Technologies
As far as I know, everything with the implementation went very smoothly
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Alternatives Considered
Dell Technologies
EMC and Unitrends are equal at the file level and SQL backups. What makes Unitrends the better product is the ability to backup VMs as a whole. They both have the ability to email reports about failures and hardware issues. Unitrends has superior support and knowledge base and support is available 24/7.
Read full review
Dell Technologies
I have used NetBackup, CommVault, Tivoli, and Actifio in my previous environments. With Data Domain I am not constantly babysitting my backup to make sure it is not choking and dying and we are not bound by the same channel lane path constraints most backup software and hardware works on. By far the initial cost has been more than made up for with the time not being dedicated to backup.
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Return on Investment
Dell Technologies
  • When you get into the deep dive of features there is quite a learning curve for those options so it's a lot to learn.
  • Restores and restore verification is very fast so you save some time there.
  • Costs are fairly high so an ROI may take some time vs a standard backup software.
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Dell Technologies
  • Data Domain says 20+ hours per week when compared to using a tape library. Once the unit is configured it basically takes care of itself.
  • With MTree replication we no longer need to send tapes to an offsite storage facility.
  • Having a second data domain at our DR site allows us to perform recoveries from any of our replicated backups. We do not have to order and wait for tapes to arrive.
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ScreenShots