Azure Backup Reviews

Azure Backup is very simple to use and user-friendly. From the technical side, features like the tenant and the restoration part are much better. It's a Microsoft tool, and all the info we have based on the VMs will be built on the Azure platform. It's easy for us to do the backup in its OEM tool.

Azure Backup has some drawbacks. We can't have the granular level restoration, particularly for the Azure files. Sometimes, indexing doesn't happen in the Azure files. That's why we are keen to have a solution that can consider all the applications, all the OS, and the legacy applications.

One of the disadvantages of Azure Backup is that it doesn't have a MAC backup. In Azure, we cannot take the MAC backup for Mac devices.

Azure Backup's licensing model is very challenging because it doesn't give a clear picture. Whenever we go to the vendor or the OEM to buy some of the workloads, we have to take everything. We have to pay for the VMs and the storage in the Azure platform. Hence, the licensing model should be very simple for the end user to get things easily.

I have been working with Azure Backup for three years.

I rate Azure Backup a nine out of ten for stability.

I rate Azure Backup an eight and a half out of ten for scalability. Two thousand five hundred users use the solution in my company.

We have partner support from Azure Backup. Usually, we can see support in the stipulated time. We get the support based on the SLA timeline.

Positive

Since Azure Backup is a very user-friendly solution, its initial setup is very simple and shouldn't be a challenge for anyone.

We implemented the solution through our technical team.

We do not have any additional costs for Azure Backup.

Sometimes the solution has a huge bandwidth. However, it lags and does not completely perform when it has low bandwidth.

We have around 11 people involved in the maintenance of Azure Backup. Out of these 11 people, five people are from the solution architecture, and the rest are tech support partners.

Overall, I rate Azure Backup an eight out of ten.

We have implemented a secondary contingency plan for most clients, where the primary infrastructure is on-premise, and the containers are hosted in the cloud. Some clients are currently migrating their primary solutions to the cloud. In these cases, the servers run on Azure, and Azure Backup provides backup server services. Additionally, we have implemented Azure SQL and Azure Intune for these clients.

The daily backups have become easier since we no longer need to handle large backups. The use of Azure Backup as a service has proven reliable and simplified our daily operations. Previously, we relied on LTO backups for data retention, but after migrating to the cloud and adopting Azure Backup, the delivery process has become smoother.

The simplicity of the whole operation is the most valuable feature of the solution.

I believe more options could be available to understand better what's happening in the system. Additionally, automating the client updates and connector updates would be beneficial. Updating the connector from time to time can be challenging, and it could be made more transparent and straightforward for users. Moreover, another drawback lies in the time it takes to test full data backup recovery. Deploying a full recovery takes longer. We need to allocate a longer period for complete data recovery to establish the environment again.

I have been using the solution for the past four years.

I rate the stability of the solution as a nine out of ten.

In a fully cloud-based solution, scalability is good, and I rate it a ten out of ten. On the other hand, for an on-premise setup, there may be challenges related to recovery and the potential impact on the Internet link's bandwidth. Therefore, I rate it an eight out of ten.

I believe Microsoft could improve its backup support.

Neutral

The initial setup was easy.

The pricing of the solution does not depend on the service itself but rather on the minimum data volume encountered. This pricing approach seems reasonable and is on par with other competitors in the market. It is a good solution for on-premise needs because it is more cost-effective. When evaluating the overall financial expenditure, including operational costs and the impact on the IT team, Azure Backup is a favorable choice.

I recommend it; however, I want to emphasize the importance of thoroughly checking if the cloud backup solution aligns with the required time frame for recovery. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I use Azure Backup VM backups.

The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is the native backup capabilities.

Azure Backup could improve the backup data copies because they are not immutable.

I have been using Azure Backup for approximately two years.

I rate the stability of Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

We have two engineers that are using the solution in my organization.

Azure Backup has a medium scalability level.

I rate the scalability of Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

I have not needed to use the support from the vendor.

We previously used Dell Avamar prior to Azure Backup. We switched to Azure Backup because we were having to pull data back down to an on-premise hardware infrastructure and Azure Backup meant we didn't have to pull the data down through our express route.

The initial setup of Azure Backup took a couple of hours to complete. It was quick and straightforward.

We completed the implementation of the solution in-house.

There is a cost per terabyte for using this solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

My rating was because the absence of immutability, a critical feature in our current backup system, is a limitation of its monitoring and reporting capabilities.

We use Azure Backup to backup and restore virtual machines as well as SQL Databases.

The only issue we have right now is the amount of time it takes to restore. When we attempt to restore a virtual machine, it can take hours. This is an area that could be improved.

The length of time it takes to restore is our main source of frustration. It would be beneficial to shorten the time it takes.

We had issues with shared storage in the past where it couldn't be included in the backup. Shared storage, or shared disc, wasn't available. I believe Microsoft promised to put it in their pipeline for improvement in order to add this, but I haven't double-checked. This was the issue with shared managed discs, and not being included in this backup scope.

If the shared managed disc could be included with the backup, it would be better.

I have been using Azure Backup for three years.

Azure Backup is very stable.

Azure Backup is a scalable solution.

We work with it all of the time.

Technical support is very helpful. I would rate them a four out of five.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. It was something that was easy for us.

It was completed within a few minutes. It can depend on the environment, but usually, it is fast.

The number of staff required for maintenance depends on the automation. We require more staff now, but we are working on the automation. Generally, it is relatively low. For the most part, it works by itself.

We operate in our own environment.

Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis.

It's not an expensive solution. I am more than happy with the price.

We are working in our own environment, assisting KPMG users and firm members. We also have internal companies.

I am an Azure Architect.

It's useful, it works, and it's fairly reliable. The only issue right now isn't a big one, but our users sometimes need faster recovery, faster restoring of services, and faster restoring of data.

I would rate Azure Backup a nine out of ten.

The main use case is to back up the virtual machines.

It's part of the Azure cloud service. The solution is included in the overall price. 

The solution is stable.

The scalability has been good.

Technical support is okay. They do help you when you need them.

As I don't work directly with the solution (my team does), I don't have any notes for improvement.

Technical support can be slow to respond at times.

I've only been using the solution for two years. 

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The solution is scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it's possible to do so.

Only the IT backups use the solution. That's just two people. No one else does. 

Technical support is okay. They are helpful, however, they are not always fast.

Previously, we only used Micro Focus Data Protector. We were on our data center on-premise. After the migration, to save, the machines to the Azure cloud, we switched from the VM backups to Azure Backup. The other backups are still running on Micro Focus Data Protector.

The initial setup is done by our cloud solution provider. While I'm not aware of the details. my understanding is that the deployment was quick and did not take long.

The solution is part of the greater Microsoft service. I am not sure if there is a separate license just for this. It's not an additional price. There may be more costs according to how much storage is needed. You have to do the backup to a storage account and the storage account costs a price per terabytes.

We are a customer with an enterprise agreement.

I do not backups myself. I don't know the versions we are using.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case of Azure Backup is for data on our application servers. We host our ERP systems with SQL for backend software. 

We've been in partnership with Microsoft for more than 15 years. I'm the CEO and the CIO. 

Before we started using Azure we spent a lot of money at our various sites, setting one up as the main physical site and a second for disaster recovery. We had to invest a lot of money to buy hardware that needed replacing every two or three years. Switching to Azure has saved us thousands. The hardware is always updated and we're now able to invest more in our staff which is highly beneficial because it translates to satisfied clients.  

As a security setting, Azure is very detailed. We can add features on retentions and retain the backup for several days. The retention policies are very good. I like the notifications and multiple layers of security that the solution offers. It enables us and our clients to feel secure and you can install and connect your systems wherever you are. 

We're hoping the price of the solution won't increase in the coming months when Azure is due to review all its products. I think that what the product lacks now is an AI system; if we had that, we'd be able to more easily upgrade the hardware system.  

We've been using this solution for about seven years. 

We haven't had any stability issues. If the initial setup is done properly there won't be any issues with stability. 

The scalability is good. We have around 12 users in the department. Some of them provide techno support and others do testing on the system to check its abilities because sometimes it has too much load. 

Customer support is very good. 

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment time depends on the size of the data.

We pay over $8 million per year in licensing fees for 365 and Azure usage. There is no additional cost for hardware but we train our employees and that is an added cost for us. 

We had a look at Amazon before going with Azure but we decided to go the whole way with Microsoft. These days, I'm not sure there's much difference between the two.   

It's important to know what you'll be getting from whoever provides you with the solution because it's important that support is included. This product has really helped me in scaling up my company. We love this solution and think everyone should have it. 

As a provider and a user, I rate this solution 10 out of 10. 

Currently, I have Many Azure VMs for clients, and We are  doing the backup, disaster recovery, and tactical replication for all of them.

We install the backup stack for our clients. We explain the situation and have our technical team complete the installation for the clients.

With set up managed retention using the backup policy. We do retention, and we do security. 

The level of security is high on it.

Most of our clients used to have Mac storage in all of their offices, such as NAS (network-attached storage) by 20, or 30 terabytes. We have informed our clients, rather than keep their storage on-premises and risking it getting damaged with no disaster recovery, it would be better to synchronize it and move it to the cloud. Some of the clients will keep it on the cloud while some others have to keep it on-premises and on the cloud at the same time for direct synchronization.

The backup is configured as replication or synchronized between both of them.

When we install for the client, they have a full solution. All of their computers are connected to a single sign-on with Office 365. They all have a domain on the Microsoft cloud. Included with this we add Azure, all of their HR software, ERP, and accounting on the cloud. The add-on backup to the environment will be with Microsoft.

One of the most valuable features is security and connectivity to the data.

The hardware is nice. We configure the hardware and can choose anywhere from two cores to 56 cores. 

We configure the machines the way we want.

We are using two different types of technology. Side to side and tier to side. Recently, we sent an email regarding this issue. Maybe they could improve the fees. The cost is a bit high.

If we had 100 users, and we are using the backup on servers, it would be helpful if the user could know the level of synchronization that he has done. It can only be done by administrative forces. As an example, if I am the administrator and I have users getting data online, I can see what is happening. However, for the user, if they are experiencing some kind of failure with their data, they do not receive any notification and do not know. It will work, but it will need a lot of customization.

We would like to see some kind of notification given to the user that a file was not synchronized properly or what may have happened. What we are doing now is through a third party system where they will notify us if a file is not synchronized properly inside of his computer.

We have been using this solution since 2016, so it's been almost four years.

We are now using the latest version.

The solution is stable.

With our clients, there is a 95% success rate, for the remaining 5%, sometimes it's a problem with the network or a problem with the files.

If we give them a server and storage they need to choose a security method if they want to protect their data. They need to add more to be available inside their servers. If a client hasn't chosen protection for his data and his data has malware or any virus, it is not under our umbrella, they must choose their security methods. For most of our clients, we provide security for them.

This solution is scalable and it's easy. It's like you are using your computer folder. We will be mapping. We would map the file to the server. It's like a new folder, a C, D, E, or F. New storage inside the servers will be created.

One of the clients that we have now has 50 terabytes of storage. We have created another server on a cloud backup for these 50 terabytes. They have 100 users that are using this backup through file sharing.

We always get direct support. I am supported well.

We use to have SAN storage , attached to our physical server 

But after being shifted to azure , we felt the performance and security more 

You need someone with experience to complete the initial setup. If you bring in an engineer or a computer science person who doesn't have experience in Microsoft then he cannot do it. They might be able to install the Windows Operating Systems and Active Directory but they won't be able to connect to the VM online on the cloud. They need some experience. If someone trains them, they can get it in one day or maybe two.

In my experience, each installation with us can take 18 days if the client requests an on-premises deployment. If they need just a server to create a backup, we will create a virtual machine online, which will take one or two days.

It will take time for an on-premises installation because we will install the server locally. This includes the operating system, the links, and connecting them to the server and then to the cloud. It will work online or offline. This will take 15 to 18 days.

Again, to backup online, for the server and Active Directory, it will be one day to complete.

We are using a file-shared backup; one for on-premise and one on the private cloud.

Our clients are seeing that it is cost-effective.

The fees are a bit expensive. When clients see improvements and see a product out of the box, clients will not look at the price, but the price could be lower. 

Support payment works by the level of partnership and the number of shares.

As a gold partner, we have more than 50 hours of support per year and this is more than enough. With the 50 hours, I get a one hour call. If I have a problem and I call, they have one hour to call me, and I have unlimited calls if I need them to call me after 24 hours or the next day. 

As gold partners, we generate the licenses for our clients and we pay monthly. Our clients pay annually or make two payments per year.

Sure , like any solution we just make evaluation and testing 

That’s what we have done before starting with azure backup 

Before doing a backup or getting any cloud solutions, you must first check the environment and the systems. Most companies will have computers in a workgroup. Each must have its own domain and Active Directory. 

You will have to do the know-how technologies inside the company for the basic configuration. Then they can choose and start. You know longer have to use storage that will stay inside the office because anyone can unplug it and take it with them.

With a cloud solution, you can specify which MAC address, user, environment, or region can get the data from the server.

I have been using Microsoft for 16 years. I am very familiar with all of the Microsoft technology.

Now they have the cloud, Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, so we transfer and we have been awarded the digital technology transformation three times.

We are a cybersecurity company that cares about security for our clients.

As a gold partner and CSP partner, we have our portal. If a client needs 100 Azure servers then I can create them directly for him, without having to contact Microsoft or anyone. I can create them and the charges will come to me monthly. Also, I can choose the mode of payment, be it monthly or annually. There is also the rebate and the cashback that will come with yearly or monthly billing.

I don't see any problems with Azure. It gives our clients peace of mind. Data is important.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We use Azure Backup as part of our disaster recovery solution. If there is a problem in the entire building then we can restore our data from over the cloud.

Azure Backup is very good for our clients that need to back up data securely and reliably.

Azure Backup is good because it is entirely cloud-based, which means that you can be 99.9% sure that your backup is safe. This is the reason that I suggest its use for companies that need to back up critical data.

The compression ratio of the backup data should be improved. Compared to our on-premises solution, the compression of Azure Backup is not as good. For example, if I am backing up up 100 GB of data then it should be compressed by at least 70%. Instead, it is being compressed by 30% to 35%. Because of this, the utilization of resources in terms of cloud storage is increasing. Given that the cost of cloud-based storage is not cheap, this is an area that is in need of improvement.

The interface should be more user-friendly.

The Azure team in Microsoft technical support needs to improve.

More guidelines and information about use-cases should be available for reference online.

We have been using Azure Backup for almost two years.

The day-to-day usage of this solution is quite normal.

This is a scalable solution.

I am generally satisfied with the technical support, although I would only rate them a six and a half out of ten. From what I have seen, the engineers are not well versed in all of the possible backup scenarios. The knowledge that they have is limited.

For example, in my two years of experience, I think that I was able to better troubleshoot some of the issues better than they were. My intention is not to berate them but I think that they should be more knowledgable about the product.

Level two and three seem to have enough knowledge, although it still takes a significant amount of time.

We use Azure Backup in conjunction with Veeam. Veeam is responsible for our on-premises backup that includes data and file systems. It also put a copy of our data onto the cloud.

We have a hybrid solution because the bandwidth in my country is quite expensive and if we have to do a restore, it is better to have an on-premises capability for that.

The initial setup was not as straightforward as I expected. I was facing certain challenges and I was deeply in contact with the Azure team from Microsoft technical support. It took quite some time for them to resolve my issues. My case was escalated to level three support and to reach that level, it took 10 to 14 working days.

It takes very serious research or good troubleshooting skills to eliminate some of the complex problems that can occur.

In total, it took us about a month to deploy.

This is an expensive solution because of the requirements for cloud-based storage. We are paying about $100,000 USD per year, just for a couple of servers.

My advice to anybody who is considering this solution is that if you can afford it, then I would highly recommend it because the service provides very good value.

The software is very capable but the information available for support is limited.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.