Item: Druva Phoenix (UNPUBLISHED)
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

During a proof of concept (POC) evaluation, we found Druva Phoenix to possibly be a usable candidate for backing up the guests in our VMware infrastructure that uses a stretched vSAN cluster as storage over 2+1 data centers and segregate multiple departments by VM folders (multi-tenancy with daily automatic detection of new guests).

Pros and Cons

Cloud-based solution for off-site storage with possible local (cloud) cache to increase performance.
Easy to use interface, Active Directory Single Sign-On (AD SSO) for authentication and relatively simple deployment of virtual proxy servers.
Good support structure. We had an issue where our third data center with just vSAN witness hosts that have no storage attached prevented automatic discovery. After increasing the logging level with support, engineering was quick to find the problem and provide a patch that could be installed on the proxy servers.

The reports and analytics are rather primitive and bare, and cannot sort columns. New data/duration (throughput) would be nice for instance. CSV exports combine date and time (harder to use in a spreadsheet).
Cannot create an API token within just the Druva Phoenix (as Phoenix Cloud Administrator, let alone multi-tenancy scope).

Return on Investment

N/A, just did POC.

Usability

Easy to use interface but the reporting and analytics have room for improvement.

Support Rating

The people assisting us with the Druva Phoenix PoC (pre-sales) and the issues we were having (support and engineering) were very professional, responsive, knowledgeable and pleasant to work with. After increasing the logging level, the cause of the issue was found and a patch was created and installed in a short amount of time.

Alternatives Considered

IBM Spectrum Protect, Dell EMC Avamar, Rubrik, Cohesity, Unitrends Recovery Series Backup Appliance, StorageCraft OneXafe, Netvault Backup and Veeam Backup & Replication

We are still evaluating products and Druva Phoenix has many features that fit our expectations, but for our specific need and already existing backup infrastructure, other solutions may possibly be a better fit.

Likelihood to Recommend

Possibly good for a relatively small environment with a large backup window. More is needed in a larger environment. Especially the reporting is very basic, and better insight is needed in performance metrics and potential bottlenecks. Multi-tenancy can probably be improved (though we did not explore this completely during the POC).

Druva Phoenix POC

Overall Satisfaction with Druva Phoenix