State of the Art Technology
Updated February 25, 2015

State of the Art Technology

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review

Software Version

12.2.1

Modules Used

  • DS Client
  • DS NOC
  • Replication
  • BLM

Overall Satisfaction with Asigra

We are Service Providers reselling Asigra for Private Cloud deployments and running our own Public Cloud vault that runs backups for various organizations ranging from small environments comprising of desktop/laptops to enterprises with MS Exchange, databases and file servers.

For our customers, it works as an ideal data protection solution for its capabilities of supporting multiple environments, features and public cloud allows remote data protection also.

  • Provides capability of local backups while maintaining remote copies on cloud to ensure faster recoveries of recent data and remote protection of all data.
  • Helps reduce cost of long term retention by leveraging the BLM functionality.
  • It does not need specialized hardware for it to work. Customers and Service Providers can choose their own infrastructure and do not need to rely on any OS or storage based replication even for deploying replication of backups.
  • Supports wide range of environments including virtual environments with remarkable features like remote VDR with incremental restores.
  • Image level VM backups need to quickly help doing file level restores.
  • Need support for larger environments like Sybase etc. as these databases are catching the market along with SAP.
  • Better deduplication on Oracle databases.
  • Better Customer pre-sales engagement through Asigra tools like LAN discovery & Statistical backups.
  • Better Customer Service.
  • Better reputation in market.
  • Faster lead conversion.
  • emc,Symantec

To be precise, you don't get one single product that has all the features that you have in Asigra.

To begin with is being hardware independent not binding you with a particular hardware. You don't need to worry about licensing based on no. or type of devices, databases & processors OR even features. All of them get licensed the single way.

Features like Agentless architecture (quicker deployment & support), BLM (low cost of retention), inbuilt replication (No hardware or OS dependent DR) & Remote VDR (Automatic incremental recovery of a VM), support for various devices & databases are exceptionally well and I don't see any other product having all these in one.

I have been working with backup solutions for around 14 years now. Asigra is one solution that has a wide range of features and functionalities while retaining the simplicity of usage and making it a very simple product to learn and start using.

What is also important is the post sales support wherein the product code is done so well that you rarely need to engage Asigra's support team for escalations and support calls. On top of it, Asigra technical support works very well to ensure you are taken care of well & quickly. This is one of the most important things that you look for while evaluating any product as you need to have the right people around you when you are in trouble.

Using Asigra

25 - The entire organization is mandated to use the product for their financial, sales and support data. These include business functions: Customer Support, Corporate Finance, Sales & Marketing AND Operations.
5 - 

They just need to be Engineers that have the desire to work with a good technology. They should be having some basic knowledge about storage & backup functionality. They don't need any special skills to support Asigra.

It is an added advantage to have worked with a couple of other products as that helps understand what is better in Asigra and appreciate it more.

  • VM protection for a News Channel.
  • Protecting PACS image data for a large hospital.
  • Protecting designs & data for a large real estate company.
  • Backing up PACS image data
  • Local and remote protection for small nursing homes of a large hospital.
  • Oracle database backups for a construction company.

From a business prospective, I am a service provider so I would always renew.

From a technical prospective, there has been enough written about it in earlier questions and this could go endless.

Overall, Asigra is a good organization to work with. They are concerned about what the partner and the customer needs and are always a phone call away to help in any situation. Therefore, apart from technology, you work with people always available to support their claims.

Evaluating Asigra and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
  • Analyst Reports
Analysts Report Which helped analyse the product, get more details on the product's acceptance in the market and get feedback on the organization functionality helped us the most.

I would like to first layout my requirement and ask the vendor to confirm if they can be addressed. Then I would like the vendor to specify what can he additionally do for us using his product.

This would be followed by a detailed Proof Of Concept to have a real life experience of the product.

Asigra Implementation

Quick to install, easy to create jobs, schedules and retention policies. No large cycles of setting up backup volumes or trash volumes. Retention job itself configures the BLM functionality so you don't need an expertise to handle the BLM module separately.
  • Network connectivity.
  • VSS Services.

Asigra Support

They respond quickly on your request.

They ask for details at the time of logging the support request itself ensuring the first response is not for collecting the basic details only.

They refund you the support request if they find it as a functionality issue.

They follow up on you to ensure you are satisfied and happy with the response and resolution that they have provided.

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - Generally not reqd. for Asigra product.

Well they generally do it every time.

Once such situation occurred when we had trouble backing up Oracle backups for a customer and their team helped us understand the functionality better and work with the customer DBA team to set it right in a few hours.

Using Asigra

As I have described in various earlier questions, Asigra provides a simple GUI, easy to configure and manage backup jobs, simple recovery interface and you don't need learning cycles to understand the product and its functionalities.

It is more of an on-the-fly easy to use product.

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Configuring backup volumes i.e. extensible storage.
  • Configuring backup jobs.
  • Implementing the basic product itself.
  • Oracle DB backup configurations are sometimes difficult to handle.