Veeam for the win
December 10, 2019
Veeam for the win
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Veeam Backup & Replication
Overall Satisfaction with Veeam Backup & Replication
We acquired Veeam Backup & Replication as part of a turnkey solution from another vendor. However, we had been strongly considering it as a replacement for EMC Networker and even submitted a capital budget request for the cost of licensing, so no matter how it landed in our shop we wanted it for its feature set and reputation. We had demo'd the product a few years ago but held off on the purchase. I wish we hadn't waited.
- Setup is a breeze.
- Migrating configuration to another server is also a breeze.
- Reporting is a bit wanting in our edition. Not configurable and no daily summary of jobs.
- Odd error messages that aren't very helpful, but there are often KB articles.
- The amount of time administering backups has dropped significantly.
- Support, when it is required, is very good.
We currently have 40+ virtual servers on Veeam Backup & Replication, and hope to bring another 40-50 into the platform within the next calendar year. Veeam is part of an overall solution for us, we drop a set of backups for the past thirty (30) days to an Exagrid array and from there a clone is run to a Data Domain pair for long-term retention. Deduplication is seamless and native, making the cost almost as cheap as LTO tape.
We have seen extremely quick backups and recoveries, and self-service restoration for users is a nice feature. We're not ready to turn that loose yet, but it has the potential to reduce impact to support staff and seems fairly intuitive. The Enterprise web console is easy to use if a bit lacking in features, but I expect this will change going forward as the product has already matured quite a bit. The basics are there: reliable, efficient backups and restores. Everything else is added value.
It's nice to have a means to test a theory - that is, to find out what new software or configuration changes might do to a production system. Veeam Backup & Replication makes that not only possible, it makes it a realistic option that we previously could only hope for. I've used other solutions that offer this capability, but Veeam makes everything dead simple.
Number one reason we chose Veeam Backup & Replication: simple to implement and use. With a workload that is almost entirely virtualized, deployment was forgettably simple. Early on I worried quite a bit as we onboarded new systems and reconfigured management server options, but I've had zero major issues in any area. Providing role-based access for staff was straightforward and did not require a lot of work with Active Directory. It seems that reporting is an undervalued feature in nearly every platform, but some of these shortcomings are simply the edition that we use. Veeam does have more robust reporting but you have to pay to get it. If a basic daily summary listing success/fail for each job were a basic offering, I wouldn't even mention this, but it seems like purposeful limitation to get additional revenue, although it isn't just Veeam playing this game. Hardware integration is among the best in the game.