Zimbra is an email and collaboration platform and productivity suite that includes contacts, calendar, tasks, chat and file sharing, plus videoconferencing, document editing, and file storage.
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Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 is a BaaS (Backup as a Service) solution used to back up and restore Microsoft 365 data, including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams data.
Zimbra is great for an email system for a medium or large organization with appropriate IT staffing. The system is easy to use for end-users, and has a fantastic web interface. Unfortunately, it is overly complex, when considering staffing requirements and price, when compared with Office 365 or Google Apps for smaller organizations. For other education customers, it is hard to compete with Microsoft and Google providing their services for "Free" now though
The implementation of their services is fairly simple and their engineers will assist in any issues that arise when you attempt to get the solutions implemented. One scenario we experienced in implementation is a server was not able to be backed up. The engineer logged onto our system on a remote support session and helped to diagnose why we were experiencing the issue. They ensured we were up and running again in a timely manner to remain covered on our backed up services.
My CFO seemed to have lost a whole year of important emails. I simply restored them to his mailbox in a matter of minutes.
An employee left the company but an issue came up with a quote this person sent out. I could search his mailbox and got the quote as well as all communications from that customer.
It is nice to be able to search emails in various mailboxes without disturbing the user.
It is also nice to go back in time. Say they deleted those emails last month I can go back years if needed.
Zimbra's mobile application leaves much to be desired; it is its weakest point.
This forces the use of third-party applications on smartphones, which only offer a more or less complete integration with the ActiveSync protocol.
Zimbra allows for an on-premise scenario, which is not for everyone, especially considering that the trend nowadays is to outsource email; in any case, it also offers this alternative.
The cost of Zimbra as a SaaS solution comes too close to that of more widely adopted competing options.
Zimbra lacks a robust integrated chat system, which its competitors offer.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 isn't 'multi geo' aware - this means we have to manually select resources to back up depending on their geo-location.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 doesn't backup Private Channels users create in a Team - there are workarounds for this but it would be nice if this just worked.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 just works so well and is so easy to use. I researched multiple options for Office 365 backup and none seemed to be as easy to setup and use as Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and the pricing was very comfortable to us. I can't imagine any reason why we would change away from Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365.
The web usability of the solution is adequate, with all functions integrated into a single interface. However, it is important to note that in the desktop environment, it lacks its own application and relies on ActiveSync synchronization with reference solutions like Outlook or Thunderbird. Some features, such as the briefcase, will be excluded. The same happens on smartphones.It is also common for competing solutions to include integrated chat or video call tools, which Zimbra lacks. These shortcomings are among the most frequently requested by users.
While the product is rock-solid and only has errors when Microsoft changes things on their API side, the solution is at times too simplistic. The need to analyze and report on the data being stored is lackluster. The functionality and use of the product is a 10, but the niceties and features you would want in a product of this caliber are lacking.
We have a lot of data, and pulling backups out of the store sometimes takes a bit of time - but this is within acceptable tolerances. I don't expect restores to be instantaneous, and I can't quantify if the speed is software or data repository.
Veeam Data Cloud support for Microsoft 365 is excellent (just like for Veeam Backup & Replication). It's easy to create a ticket in the support portal, and the support engineers respond quickly and accurately, usually within a few hours! Issues are resolved and/or investigated quickly.
Overall, we were satisfied with the implementation. We perhaps should have spent more time consulting with Zimbra or others regarding best practices but as we got to know the system better we were able to make changes relatively easily after the fact.
Zimbra is a significantly cheaper option than one of the Microsoft solutions, such as Exchange. It is able to run in a free environment, as it is in the case of Linux. It offers the advantages of a powerful mail manager, such as indexed searches and the integration of contacts and notes, all in one platform. It is constantly updated and the operation of its connection in mobile equipment is remarkable and very efficient. Additionally, it is able to easily integrate with Outlook solutions with its connector, which brings all the benefits of Zimbra to the user under the interface known as "mail manager." So far, I have been using Zimbra for several years and I have not missed my previous work platforms.
Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 offered a straightforward, upfront billing model with no hidden storage fees.In contrast, Rubrik’s proposal emphasized enterprise-grade features like air-gapped backups, sensitive data monitoring, and zero-trust architecture—but came with a higher initial investment as well as higher recurring costs. Simplicity and Microsoft 365 Focus Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365’s solution was purpose-built for Microsoft 365, offering granular recovery, seamless integration, and a user-friendly interface
Zimbra is a cheaper email service than other similar platforms and in my point of view offers better features, that's why the company migrated services to this platform several years ago and without a doubt, it has been the best investment.
Zimbra has a more user-friendly interface for employees, this has improved response times to external customers of the company.
The implementation of Zimbra in the company motivated the IT engineering department to make improvements in open source to adapt it to the needs of the company.
The only real impact is from a compliance standpoint. Our company is expected at a regulatory level to be protecting our data and even though the tenant has little traffic there could still be some regulated data in there. We have to be able to tell an auditor that it's being backed up by an enterprise grade solution, and that's what VDC was intended for.
