Carbonite EVault - a good product
May 19, 2017
Carbonite EVault - a good product
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Carbonite EVault
We use Evault to backup our critical computer systems by taking nightly, weekly and monthly backups which are stored on disk, as well as replicating those same backups to an offsite datacenter for disaster recovery if needed.
- Managing EVault backups with the director console as well as the software central console is pretty easy. Selecting servers to backup, editing the selections for each server and reviewing the detailed logs should any errors pop up is pretty straight forward.
- Customer support via phone to EVault is pretty fast. Since the transition to Carbonite, wait time for support has dropped to a point where there is seldom any wait time.
- Learning of a problem is typically done with email alerts, which I find very helpful. I don't have to look at logs every day searching for errors or failures. The emails notify me.
- EVault has a process for restoring backed up servers to a different location than the original backup. This is really helpful in a DR situation where the original location may not be accessible.
- The granular restore tool for exchange, which is needed to restore a specific email rather than an entire mailbox, is a bit combersome. I wish the tool was incorporated into the 'normal' restore features.
- The inline replication process is very sensitive to available bandwidth. And if bandwidth between source and replication site becomes overused, inline replication fails and 'regular' replication takes its place. I wish inline replication was a bit less 'touchy' and would have a built in 'pause' to allow for the clearing of bandwidth before it fails over to 'regular' replication.
- With the reliable backups, replication to our off site data center and replication of key, critical servers to the EVault cloud, we have been able to maintain a viable business presence in all working conditions and disasters.
- The single area where we have had some issues that cause concern is the ability of the evault cloud restore team to fulfill it's contractual obligations to restore the machines replicated to the evault cloud in a manner that allows for connectivity to those machines in a timely manner. This issue has a definite affect on our ROI and our ability to be 'open for business' in a regional disaster.
We have looked at Symantec Backup Exec and actually use it for some of our less important systems. We are currently taking a look at Veeam as an alternative to EVault because of the real-time replication to live machines that Veeam may be able to provide. But so far, EVault has served our needs and will continue to do so.