Item: Bacula Enterprise
Rating: 10
Author: André Fernando Pereira

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Bacula Enterprise was a significant evolution for our environment, given that we were already using the Community version. However, we lacked some essential functionalities needed for our use case, such as deduplication and backup of XCP-NG virtual machines, as well as the web interface we were using was not as efficient as the current one provided. The BWEB interface greatly facilitates the configuration of clients, testing, and settings that were previously mostly done on the command line.

Pros and Cons

Backup and Restore VMs XCP-NG
Inteface Web
Deduplication
Compatibility with different systems.

Detailing the configuration of the deduplication system
Mobile application
Ease of updating for clients running older operating systems

Return on Investment

The acquisition cost compared to what the tool delivers.
Utilizing existing hardware.
Institutional requirements

Alternatives Considered

Vinchin Backup & Recovery and Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows

The determining factor was the migration of old backup data from the Community version to a new backup platform. We didn't have the initial resources to restore all the backup data, install the new solution on existing hardware, and then back up again. This would directly impact the environment, and the timeframe for completing this process would be extremely lengthy. Considering the necessary improvement characteristics, there was no reason to opt for a new platform.

Key Insights

Do you think Bacula Enterprise delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Bacula Enterprise's feature set?

Yes

Did Bacula Enterprise live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Bacula Enterprise go as expected?

Would you buy Bacula Enterprise again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series, Hitachi Storage Virtualization Operating System (SVOS), EMC VNX (Discontinued)

Likelihood to Recommend

We had been using Bacula Community for 7 years and needed to improve and simplify the backup/restore operations within our institution because we lacked block-level deduplication and efficient backup of virtual machines in the XCP-NG environment. With the acquisition of Bacula Enterprise, we were able to optimize backups in our XCP-NG environment, which consists of 4 physical hosts and around 30 to 40 virtual machines running various versions and distributions of Windows and Linux. The migration was not traumatic for the environment, but it required adjustments and improvements to the previously used configurations, and the Bacula Enterprise team contributed satisfactorily to achieving the goal, which was backing up VMs and optimizing the use of existing resources

Bacula Evaluation of Bacula Enterprise in a hospital environment.nterprise

Overall Satisfaction with Bacula Enterprise