Unitrends

Score8.4 out of 10

633 Reviews and Ratings

What is Unitrends?

The Unitrends Recovery Series Backup Appliances are hardware developed for data backup and management. They cover enterprise backup, ransomware detection, recovery assurance, proactive monitoring, and cloud continuity into a single platform for organizations of all sizes.

Categories & Use Cases

Platform support
Product supports multiple operating systems and applications
Category average: 8.7
Instant recovery
Instant recovery is the ability to restore operations very rapidly
Category average: 8.7
Incremental backup identification
Incremental backup identification is the ability to identify incremental changes since last backup
Category average: 8.8

Business application protection
Protection of all applications running in the data center
Category average: 8
Backup to the cloud
Ability to store and back up data to the cloud
Category average: 8.3
Management dashboard
Web-based dashboard allowing configuration and monitoring of all backups
Category average: 8.6

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

Unitrends makes backing up VM's extremely easy, configuration is simple. In fact it will allow you to set up a policy that automatically backs up existing and any new VM's. The feature that allows it to backup any new VM's being created is fantastic since you don't even have to think about setting up a backup routine on the new server!
Unitrends does allow for entire server drives down to file level restores.
Unitrends has the ability to create Archive back ups that you are allowed to remove the physical drive and insert a second set of drives and run the archive routine again. Very clean and easy to use and setup. In our configuration we had to buy the second Archive appliance, but it works flawlessly with the primary Unitrends. Very much worth the investment.

Cons

When attempting to do a restore, it is a bit clunky on the process. While when it is completed it does work, but kind of confusing, especially on your first attempt.
We had to back up not only AD servers, mixed environment of stand-alone and VM's we also still had Netware servers that required a backup. It was a bit more tedious setting the Novell servers up for backup. A cleaner install for Netware would be nice, but not sure how big of an issue that will be since it is less used (Netware).
Unitrends and VMware work well with snapshots, but it needs to be emphasized that in some instances you need to REMOVE any existing snapshots of a server before you do different tasks, or it will not work at all.

Return on Investment

Unitrends has had a very positive ROI for us. It backs up our critical servers flawlessly, and does have the ability to restore data very well on both full drive/server instances and even granular file level restores.
The support for Unitrends is very good! Anytime I've had to call and request assistance they have responded quickly and the support engineer has been knowledgably. We've had each instance resolved by calling support.
Unitrends services are easy to teach others, meaning it does not require a Network Admin to schedule backups and verify they've been completed. After some basic training a person designated as a backup operator can run backups and do restores on their own.
They offer a "replacement" schedule of the hardware that essentially keeps your gear up to date and current. We have had our gear rotated out once because of this feature and it went flawlessly.

Alternatives Considered

Veritas Backup Exec

Other Software Used

Microsoft System Center, Applied Vision, vSphere

Dan Reynolds View profile

Senior System Administrator in Information Technology at BLDD Architects (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am using Unitrends [Data Center Backup and Recovery] for my VDI infrastructure. I back up servers and all the desktops. It is an ideal solution for backing up VM's, and it has also allowed me to use some older storage I had lying around. It performs well, reports its doing well, [and] I like how easy it is to upgrade. I also like that it comes as an appliance - that was a major selling factor for me. The interface is not bad, but it's not intuitive either. Some concepts are hard to understand and implement.

Pros

It backs up VM's pretty quickly.
I like that it is appliance-based as it is much easier and cheaper to deploy that way.
It is very simple to upgrade.
It runs well with older storage hardware. I was able to put some older NAS devices to use.

Cons

Some of the concepts, like replication, are very confusing.
What I think are simple setup things can end up being a tech call.

Return on Investment

Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery is not overly expensive. Again, my reasoning was to restore a lot of VMs at one time.
Comparing the recovery time to lost work time to cost is a no-brainer.
The ability to reuse old storage was a real benefit.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Veeam Backup & Replication

Micheal Safford View profile

IT Manager in Information Technology at Northeastern Counseling Center (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Using two of the appliance local backup devices with 3 Tb capacity. these two devices have worked well for a few years. the biggest issue I am having now is that the ability to increase storage in basically non-existent. In my experience, you either pay a rather large fee for new device or pay for a rental unit hardware rental is not my desired format. i have never had enough capacity to make full image backups so I have had to look for another format. I will still continue to use these as a instant short term storage of user data that may need to be restored from a few weeks or months past. i have only had to contact support 4-5 times over the years but the cost of support is rather high from my experience. the push to purchase new SASS or hardware is at even higher premium for a small company.

Pros

calling you many time to sell
Support was quick and effective

Cons

less push for sales with small companies changes will not be made quarterly.
need to have the ability to increase storage size relative to hard drive/ storage medium comparable to prices in the markets. your stuck purchasing additional appliances

Return on Investment

minimal down time
high price
Simple to use

Usability

Alternatives Considered

OneDrive, 11:11 Hosted Private Cloud and CentOS Linux

Benjamin Duran View profile

IT Helpdesk Technician in Information Technology at Bank of the Plains (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I was using Unitrends as a BCDR solution. It was our backup solution. It allowed me to do backups and then virtualize them, incase I had a server go down. Unitrends did a good job of supporting my companies needs. I was able to sleep better knowing I had an easy to use solution.

Pros

It was easy to use
Had the features I wanted
It was powerful
didnt take long to learn

Cons

I would say better documentation
Support could be a little better
Phone support could be a little quicker.

Return on Investment

The ROI was failrly quick
It does exactly what I wanted it to do
It has good support
Replication between sites could have a little better encryption and compression

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Veeam ONE

Other Software Used

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, TeamViewer

Gürcan ALTAN

Information Technology Manager in Information Technology at Ajan Elektronik Servis San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery in our organization by applying 5 different backup policies.Its ease of use and flexibility are pleasing. In terms of usage example, it can be explained in 3 steps as 1- Local backup policies 2- Disaster recovery policies 3 Cloud site to site backup policies.

Pros

UDCB&R can protect a wide variety of systems, including physical servers, virtual machines, cloud-based environments, and even mobile devices. Supports multiple operating systems including Windows, Linux and Unix, as well as a range of hypervisors such as VMware, Hyper-V
UDCB&R can scale to protect large, complex environments with thousands of virtual machines and hundreds of physical servers. Optimizes for high-performance backup and recovery operations, leveraging techniques such as parallel backups, deduplication, and WAN optimization to maximize throughput and minimize backup windows
UDCB&R includes disaster recovery capabilities such as failover/failback, auto-recovery, and advanced replication. It also includes cloud-based disaster recovery support, allowing users to replicate data to public or private clouds for offsite backup and disaster recovery.
UDCB&R provides real-time monitoring of backup and recovery operations with customizable dashboards and reports that provide visibility into backup status, capacity usage and more. Supports integration with monitoring tools such as Microsoft System Center
UDCB&R includes a number of security features to protect data both in transit and at rest. Supports encryption of data in motion and at rest, including AES-256 encryption of backup data stored on disk or in the cloud. It also includes features such as two-factor authentication and role-based access control to ensure that only authorized personnel can access backup data.