Item: Veritas Backup Exec
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Originally we used Veritas Backup Exec for all servers in our district. We have since moved away from it and currently it is being used only on a remote backup server. The product does function well and it performed fine for the purpose of providing full and partial backups. We were predominantly a Netware shop with approximately 32 Netware servers, with 14 stand alone Windows based servers. With our move to a virtual environment our backup solution needs changed.

Pros and Cons

Backup Exec does do an excellent job of backing up all data on both Netware (which is no longer a pressing issue) and Windows based machines.
As long as you are licensed correctly Backup Exec does a good job of backing up SQL instances, but the key is you must be properly licensed.
Restoring files back to the original server and format is done fairly easy with Backup Exec. It is actually easier than Unitrends which requires a slightly different and less logical method.

Backup Exec is painful regarding licensing their products and solutions especially if you are in a scattered environment with many physical servers to protect. Then through in SQL backup solutions and depending on who your sales rep is you may have a nightmare to manage. We actually purchased the product through Dell when we bought the servers, then upon renewal we used a different vendor. Backup Exec does not track these keys well when different vendors are in the mix. We lost our licenses on several servers for weeks until the issue was finally resolved. I do believe if you buy and manage your Backup Exec licenses from one vendor you will not have these types of issues. You just need to be aware that there is potential for confusion.
Backup Exec does have some issues when servers go offline and you no longer want to have a backup instance for that server. You need to be very thorough and follow the procedures exactly or you will have backups that simply don't go away. You can remove them but it is not logical or intuitive. Simply removing the backup process and the host being backed up does not remove the stored backups.
This should no longer be a major issue for people archiving and using tapes, but, tape backups have a nasty habit of not being consistent or reliable unless you manually do a verify of the tape after each and every backup. We have experienced several archival restores fail when attempting to do a restore. Restores from digital hard drive format does have far fewer issues.

Return on Investment

Veritas Backup Exec is an expensive alternative depending on the number of servers and services you require backups to be run on.
Veritas Backup Exec does perform it's duties very well and in disaster recovery situations it does very well. Regardless of it's cost, when the data MUST be restored it does that job well. It is just a touch expensive.
The required hardware can be expensive but it is not out of line with it's competitors. To achieve a high level of protection and dependability that is required regardless of which solution or vendor you use, it will not be cheap. If you require only a simple level the costs will reflect that.

Alternatives Considered

Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery

Veritas Backup Exec is very comparable to Unitrends and in some areas is easier to use. The license side of Veritas Backup Exec is much more difficult to manage compared to Unitrends. Unitrends seems to be a much smoother solutions to protect virtual environments. Restoring data with Veritas Backup Exec is logical and easier to achieve, Unitrends is a bit less logical or intuitive.

Key Insights

Do you think Veritas Backup Exec delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Veritas Backup Exec's feature set?

Yes

Did Veritas Backup Exec live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Veritas Backup Exec go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Veritas Backup Exec again?

Other Software Used

Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery, Arcserve Backup, Barracuda Message Archiver

Likelihood to Recommend

Backup Exec works well generally in most environments or situations. The licensing can potentially be a nightmare, but manageable if you have a decent reseller. Backing up and restoring from physical tapes which is not all that common is not as reliable as when backing up and restoring from datastores that reside on hard drives or digital media. It does a good job with large or small backup jobs. Backing up and managing SQL backups requires additional licenses and be a bit clunky. If you are very careful (which you should be anyway) and document as you build these backups you will get better at managing them. Regarding a virtual environment, I have limited experience in that arena, but have done it. Backup Exec can backup VMware environments, but honestly we moved to Unitrends to backup our VM's and are much happier with the backup process. However, restoring a VM in Unitrends can be tedious compared to Backup Exec.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Product Reputation

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I should have looked closer to the process for backing up and restoring data especially to virtual environments.

Veritas Backup Exec solutions versus cost and ease of use.

Overall Satisfaction with Veritas Backup Exec