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Dell Networker

Dell Networker

Overview

What is Dell Networker?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Dell EMC Networker is a versatile backup solution that is widely used across various industries and organizations to protect critical …
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Popular Features

View all 14 features
  • Deduplication and file compression (10)
    6.9
    69%
  • Instant recovery (11)
    6.0
    60%
  • Incremental backup identification (11)
    4.8
    48%
  • Multiple backup destinations (10)
    3.0
    30%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Dell Networker?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Veeam’s® premier product, Veeam Backup & Replication™, delivers availability for all cloud, virtual, Kubernetes and physical workloads. Through a management console, the software provides backup, archival, recovery and replication capabilities.

What is Carbonite Server?

Carbonite Server (also replacing the former EVault products acquired from Seagate in 2016) is a full backup and discovery solution. Designed to recover anything from a single file to an entire system with the click of a button, Carbonite Server users can protect virtually any type of file on both…

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Product Demos

Dell EMC Networker: NVP-vProxy Health Check Tool Demo Using Networker Troubleshooting Tool

YouTube
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Features

Data Center Backup

Data center backup tools send data to a secure storage location after encryption and de-duplication

5
Avg 8.1
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Product Details

What is Dell Networker?

Dell EMC 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.

Available Modules

Dell EMC NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications – Protection for business-critical databases and applications including IBM DB2, Informix, Domino (Lotus), MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase

Dell EMC NetWorker Module for MEDITECH – Integration with certified MEDITECH Backup Facility (MBF) disaster recovery capabilities for backup and application-consistent local and remote replication

Dell EMC NetWorker Module for Microsoft – VSS-based online protection for Microsoft applications including Exchange, Hyper-V, SQL Server, and SharePoint

Dell EMC NetWorker Module for SAP – Availability of mission-critical enterprise resource planning (ERP), business warehousing, and high-performance, in-memory analytics by delivering fast, online backup and recovery for SAP and SAP HANA.



Dell Networker Video

This video provides an introduction to NetWorker version changes: https://dell.to/2Q43u4l

Dell Networker Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Encryption highest, with a score of 7.2.

The most common users of Dell Networker are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(54)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Dell EMC Networker is a versatile backup solution that is widely used across various industries and organizations to protect critical data. For example, Provident Funding relies on Networker to back up virtual machine images, physical Windows systems, and Cellera NAS, ensuring the safety of their data. The IT team at Provident Funding uses Networker directly and can easily make recovery requests as needed. By leveraging Networker, Provident Funding reduces the risk of data loss and maintains the integrity of their information.

Additionally, Networker has been chosen by numerous companies to safeguard their data. Although there have been experiences where the product did not meet expectations, such as backups failing regularly and encountering poor support at one undisclosed company over the past three years, for the most part, Networker has proven to be a reliable backup solution. It is utilized by both SMBs and enterprise-level organizations to protect a variety of systems including file servers, application/database servers, VMs, and databases. Moreover, Networker is often paired with Dell DataDomain to create a comprehensive backup infrastructure that handles a large volume of critical backups. This combination offers peace of mind and enhanced data protection for organizations across different sectors.

Overall, Dell EMC Networker provides valuable backup capabilities for protecting crucial data assets in diverse environments. Its versatility makes it suitable for businesses of varying sizes and needs, offering a single application to manage different backup datasets effectively. While there have been instances where users encountered challenges with the product or received subpar support, many organizations rely on Networker to ensure the integrity and availability of their data.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Dell EMC Networker to protect about 90 virtual machines and a handful of physical servers across two AD domains. We had been looking for dedicated backup hardware and settled on Data Domain as the solution. At the time we were using Acronis as the software side of our DR strategy and were aware we needed something more robust, but this was secondary to having dedicated storage appliances. Dell offered to bundle Networker with this hardware and the price/feature set seemed to be a good fit.
  • I don't think this product does anything well. It shines only because of the Data Domain integration.
  • The support teams is excellent, which is good, because you'll need them. Frequently.
  • The project implementation team is also competent and professional but their hands were often tied due to poor direction from the sales team.
  • 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.
Networker is only suited for one thing: being a front end for good hardware. We love our Data Domains, the dedupe is insane and they ingest data rapidly. You'd be better off using Veeam, which can talk to the Data Domains natively (that's what we're doing now).
Data Center Backup (14)
47.857142857142854%
4.8
Universal recovery
N/A
N/A
Instant recovery
80%
8.0
Recovery verification
50%
5.0
Business application protection
30%
3.0
Multiple backup destinations
50%
5.0
Incremental backup identification
30%
3.0
Backup to the cloud
N/A
N/A
Deduplication and file compression
90%
9.0
Snapshots
70%
7.0
Flexible deployment
20%
2.0
Management dashboard
10%
1.0
Platform support
100%
10.0
Retention options
40%
4.0
Encryption
100%
10.0
  • Now that it's been implemented and the many kinks worked out, we have far less exposure to downtime, but that's only because we didn't have an adequate backup solution in the target environment initially. We used native tools to protect SQL data and a few other tricks, but really didn't have anything proper. In other words, the bar was low.
  • We have reduced the load on some of our application servers through the use of Networker's agent for Microsoft. However, compare that with Veeam, which just has a checkbox and no agent required to properly back up a SQL box.
  • Agent-based backups require monitoring and periodic updates. This adds complexity and additional staff time to manage.
I've used many DR platforms over the years: HP Data Protector, Veritas (formerly Symantec) Backup Exec, Acronis Backup Advanced, AppAssure (another Dell product), Commvault, and a few others. We selected Networker based on its integration with the Data Domain hardware we wanted and the agreeable price point. I should have demanded more time to work with the product before buying but there really isn't a demo outside of a tightly controlled sales pitch that hides a lot of warts. We've since partially moved on to Veeam in one of our two AD domains. Veeam talks to the Data Domains natively and is a far better product that doesn't require nearly as much administration. I occasionally have issues with Networker as it relates to stability - and I will never fully trust it as I've been let down in some very creative ways when attempting restores.
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.
Veeam Backup & Replication
Yes
Networker supplanted HP Data Protector. Our licensing for DP had expired and was extremely costly to renew and the product was so far out of date that a new implementation would have been required.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
The promised deduplication features and integration with Data Domain were key points. The promise of leaning out the amount of data transferred over the wire was alluring.
I'd definitely have made sure to get more hands on or multiple visual demos. The UI is just that bad. Now that I'm more familiar with the CLI, it's not as bad but I think its true power lies in its scriptable nature. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or resources to build a custom solution particularly when I'm paying for it. I just need it to be reliable and straightforward to implement.
  • Details on current operations are plentiful and will satisfy the hardcore backup geek
  • The UI is completely incoherent and behaves like an old Java app mimicking modern systems... because it is
  • Backing up and recovering Microsoft Exchange and/or SQL is very messy and is also agent based
  • Managing storage destinations is awful and hard to do from the UI
  • Why do I have to open an application and then open an application again? And why is it Java based?
  • Despite good recovery options they're buried in multiple clicks and windows
  • Customizing the "dashboard" to show information you deem relevant is not always possible and definitely not pretty
No
Use this, and then use Veeam. Or literally just about anything else. It's a powerful engine with a crappy paint job and a rusty frame.
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