Item: Rubrik
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Rubrik as our primary enterprise backup solution for the entire university. We are currently using a an on-premises cluster, a cloud cluster in Azure (for DR replication and for agent-based backups from Azure VMs running MSSQL and Oracle) and Polaris to manage Azure-based snapshot backups. On-prem we backup virtual machines in VMware using both snapshots (for the majority of the workload) as well as agent-based backups for MSSQL and Oracle databases, as well as SMB shares on an EMC Unity array utilizing virtual NAS servers.

Pros and Cons

Extremely fast restores of both file data and entire VMs via snapshots.
Incredible user-friendly interface that has what I found to be a low learning curve.
Easy to set up replication between sites for DR purposes.
Fantastic support when I have issues - time to initial contact is very low and resolution is almost always very quick.
Global search feature makes finding things very quick.

Would like to see file-level restores added for Polaris Azure VM snapshots (I believe this already exists in AWS).
Would love to have an NDMP option for interfacing with EMC Unity array NAS backups.

Return on Investment

This solution was comparable in price to other solutions we examined and offered features not available from some other leading backup providers.
This has increased the speed with which I can restore files and especially entire virtual machines (literally seconds to spin up a restore instead of often over an hour with Avamar) so less downtime for customers who need help.
While (thankfully) we haven't had to use it, this also offers ransomware detection and protection.
Single Sign-On integration allows us to use our existing 2FA to increase security.

Alternatives Considered

Dell EMC Avamar and Veeam Backup & Replication

We evaluated Veeam Backup & Replication and Dell EMC Avamar for our refresh, and we were using Dell EMC Avamar beforehand for 5 years. There were certain components (such as lack of hardware) with Veeam Backup & Replication (we would have had to purchase a separate storage solution) that led us away from that option. I had a lot of experience with Dell EMC Avamar beforehand and Rubrik won out easily for me.

There were a few things that set Rubrik apart - Ransomware detection, SSO integration, global search functionality, operation and GUI, etc. - but personally, the one thing that led me to want to change is the support offered by Rubrik. Having spent years fighting with Dell EMC Avamar support (long times between inputting a service call to getting an engineer, almost always getting an engineer that works hours that were the polar opposite of mine, etc.) I was ready to try a solution that would work for me not only when everything was going well, but also when things are going badly. I've put in several support tickets to Rubrik and their response is always fast and they always get me going again. Additionally, it was always nearly a month-long ordeal to get software upgrades installed for the Dell EMC Avamar, going through multiple teams and departments. With Rubrik, it's as simple as putting in an incident and an engineer performing the update.

Key Insights

Do you think Rubrik delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Rubrik's feature set?

Yes

Did Rubrik live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Rubrik go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Rubrik again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Cisco UCS Manager

Likelihood to Recommend

So far, this has been a wonderful solution for our organization. I would say anyone who is looking for something that is relatively easy to use would find this solution at the top of their list. After an initial learning curve (coming from Avamar) I have found it very easy to get around and find what I'm looking for. There is a bit of a paradigm shift when utilizing Rubrik's SLAs but now that I understand how it all works, it's actually a much simpler way of handling backups than something like Avamar.

I feel like this would be great for any organization no matter the size (and I understand they have plenty of implementations that are much larger than ours).

If you're looking for point-in-time restores of your databases (MSSQL and Oracle) this does a great job of integrating transaction logs - not something I was ever able to get in our previous solution. It also offers the ability to back up your databases using a direct mount point instead of the CDM software (so if you're currently dumping Oracle databases to an NFS mount point in a Data Domain, for instance, you can do the same thing with Rubrik).

I'm not sure where it would be less appropriate - from what I can tell, this is as fully featured as any other enterprise-class backup solution and meets all of our needs perfectly.

Simplify your work life with Rubrik

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Rubrik