Item: Veeam Data Platform
Rating: 10
Author: Matthew Davis

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

How is Veeam Availability Suite, a backup product being used in my organization? Well, let's count the ways. It backs up. It does this very well, it doesn't require my poking, and it backs up my entire VMware platform to my backup storage device. It forms my DR plan between my two on-premises DC's with its Replication service, keeping VM files on the DR side in-sync with the prod side on an hourly basis. It lets me get the data back without fighting for hours with a painful interface.

Pros and Cons

Backups
Replications between my 2 DCs

It requires a Windows VM to run it, and the proxies (the machines that access the storage at the end), and it would be awesome for these to be OVA / Linux Distros / Apps of some kind rather than full Windows instances. But this is certainly not the end of the world.

Return on Investment

We haven't needed to do a full site-wide restore yet, so the ROI is yet to be achieved, but the ability to sleep at night is well worth the cost!

Alternatives Considered

I am resultant to comment on other vendor solutions given it has been 4+ years since I have used them.

Support Rating

All of my experiences with Veeam staff have been exceptional.

Key Insights

Do you think Veeam Data Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Veeam Data Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did Veeam Data Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Veeam Data Platform go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Veeam Data Platform again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Veeam Availability Suite is the best backup product I have ever used. I've been through a few now, from NTBackup built into Windows Servers (back in the dark ages) through some other small business and enterprise-level platforms (names withheld to protect the guilty). Veeam Availability Suite is the only product I have trusted to work with my backups. A backup product shouldn't consume your day fighting with randomly left-open files, it should simply take the production dataset and stick it on your backup media of choice, and Veeam Availability Suite does that admirably. Restoring is simple. It works with your hypervisor of choice, and backups are taken, and, well, it just works.

Veeam Availability Suite is the answer, no really, and I don't work for them either.

Overall Satisfaction with Veeam Availability Suite