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reviewer1096965 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator Team Leader at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Excellent technical support, good visualization, and a pretty straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is a reliable solution."
  • "We've faced problems backing up our virtual machines."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for all infrastructure. We're using it for the five pillars and for database backups and management.

What is most valuable?

The visualization backup is the most important aspect for us. It provides snapshot protection. 

The digital application and the compression of the disc at the storage site are great. That's one of the best features of this solution.

Technical support is very helpful.

What needs improvement?

We've faced problems backing up our virtual machines. A few of them, at least. However, we opened a ticket, and then we found out how to troubleshoot this issue and how to do a snapshot backup. We were able to understand exactly what was the root cause of the issue and a solution was provided to us.

We have already submitted a feature enhancement request to Commvault. They are working on it. That's in relation to the Commvault Metallic and is related to the workflow approval. We requested they implement workflow approval, just in case you want to allow, for example, general users to access the Commvault Metallic and browse what mailboxes they need to check if it is approved by the legal department. We can run them independently, this access without even referring back again to the IT division, however, we requested the workflow has to be based on approved access.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for a year and a half at this point.

Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is a reliable solution. We have experienced only one case where there was a total shutdown and a total disruption of service. This was a weird case. We were able to sort it out and submitted the case for investigation to understand what the root cause might have been. Later on, we had to upgrade a few things. However, since then, we haven't had any issues whatsoever. I'd describe the solution as quite stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, it is a skill level solution. You can scale up at any time by adding additional nodes.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is always good. Most of the time the call comes from the U.S. They don't have local support. They are always providing remote support in the U.S. and India. Most of the calls come from those two countries, however, we find that we get help mainly from the U.S.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was straightforward. We had a proper prerequisites exit sheet. We filled it out properly at the outset and the architecture was very clear. We started with the architecture. We were able to understand all of the components in this hyper-scale design, and we submitted a change request to our infrastructure. We were able to meet all of the requirements on time. We started up the implementation shortly after that.

In the end, it was a straightforward design. There was nothing too complex.

In terms of maintenance, we usually do a health check which is basically a checklist we run through in the morning. The system will still struggle from time to time if there are any recent updates that need to be done. It is a system that does the update by itself, and it shares with you all types of events that need to be taken care of. Therefore, it's pretty automated.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We bought the solution and the agreement was for three years. We simply pay in installments for three years. We'll do the payment at the beginning of every year. 

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer.

We do recommend the solution. However, a company needs to look again into why they need it. With Commvault, you can deploy on-premise or on the cloud. It is compatible with several cloud vendors. However, the deployment depends on what you need it for. For example, if you need to back up Office 365, then there are two solutions from the providers, from Commvault. Recently they have started talking about Commvault Metallic. They started trying to promote it in other regions. We've done a profound study in the Commvault Metallic for our Office 365 in the past. We compared it with two more products. We compared it to a Barracuda email protection and we compared it also with Veeam.

Any company should do the same and run comparisons. They need to know exactly for what purpose do they need to acquire the solution. If it is for Office 365 then there are two solutions for that. One of them is the Commvault Metallic, and it is a SaaS model. The SaaS model is fully manageable. The user will not even look into infrastructure. It will be fully managed by the Commvault team in the background. There is no need to worry about the storage consumption on Azure if you also choose to go with Microsoft Azure cloud. When you need infrastructural backup, then there is the Commvault hyper-scale solution. That's the only available option and is very powerful.

Overall, I would rate the solution ten out of ten. We've been very happy with it so far.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior System Administrator at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Leaderboard
The most valuable feature is the ability to backup over the dedicated Fiber Channel directly from SAN. There's no impact to the network or users.
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the ability to backup over the dedicated Fiber Channel directly from SAN."
  • "Bare-metal restore needs some work. It's not intuitive and seems to have been an afterthought."

How has it helped my organization?

Backups happen over night instead of 3 days. Storage for backups has been reduced by 60%.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ability to backup over the dedicated Fiber Channel directly from SAN. There's no impact to the network or users.

What needs improvement?

Bare-metal restore needs some work. It's not intuitive and seems to have been an afterthought.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've had no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As we have used and scaled out the product SQL integration with the companies automated scripts proved to be a challenge. The Work Flow feature is your only solution and therefor you end up with a mix of scripts then relying on the products work flow to run and return expected results allowing your scripts to then continue. Not a very clean solution yet.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service is very good. They called back within 10 minutes of a request. They understood the issue and resolved it.

Technical Support:

Technical support is also very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Veritas

How was the initial setup?

Complex with several separate hardware pieces and software modules. Media Servers, SAN, Fileserver, Comm Servers, Fiber Setup etc. Not extremely hard but lots of parts.

What about the implementation team?

Vendor, I was not impressed with performance of vendor.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If budget allows using the per socket license and not the agent based with per GB counter for Dedup is the way to go.

What other advice do I have?

The amount of hardware required to run the software and do the heavy lifting is this solutions biggest downside. In a time of reducing hardware being required to then add a media server a comm server a SAN and storage server and another media server. Well it's a bit overwhelming. Package it and create an appliance already.

If SQL heavy plan to use the work flow for your automated processes that involve Commvault.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Dan Gillman - PeerSpot reviewer
Dan GillmanSenior System Administrator at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
LeaderboardReal User

We created a workflow using the Commvault Workflow and was able to automate a number of daily processes. It's a great tool and works as expected.

See all 5 comments
Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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Giuseppe Sgroi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Manager at CAP Holding S.p.A.
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
We are now able to recover virtual machines without relying on the NFS system
Pros and Cons
  • "We now have the capability to recover a virtual machine without relying on the NFS system, but instead are able to use certain features provided by Commvault."
  • "They could work on the implementation of the features."

What is our primary use case?

We now have the capability to recover a virtual machine without relying on the NFS system, but instead are able to use certain features provided by Commvault. This is why we've opted for Commvault over other technologies.

What needs improvement?

They could work on the implementation of the features.

For how long have I used the solution?

We will be using Commvault Backup & Recovery for the next 3 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Every three years, we require server updates to either embrace new technologies or enhance our existing technology stack. Therefore, our approach involves reevaluating and refreshing our infrastructure every three years, so we can’t comment on this solution as we have started fresh.

How are customer service and support?

We usually interact with integrators, however if the issue is complex, we refer to technicians for further support and guidance

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are consistently exploring new solutions for our systems, and each solution must align with our server requirements and other objectives. Our timing is also a key consideration, as we operate on a three-year cycle. We have worked with SAP, Oracle, and Cisco.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is complex.

What other advice do I have?

I can’t fully endorse it, because it depends on the final use of the customer. I would conservatively, rate it an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer856101 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Deployment Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Reseller
Easy to architect
Pros and Cons
  • "We can go from one page to another page, from office backups to VM backups, or applications like secret backups. So everything can be configured or restored from a single pin."

    How has it helped my organization?

    We can go from one page to another page, from office backups to VM backups, or applications like secret backups. So everything can be configured or restored from a single pin.

    What is most valuable?

    Commvault is easy to deploy and easy to understand for any end-user or any new system. If it's just a basic VM, or like any Hyper-V backup, it's good to understand and then implement. 

    Commvault is easy to architect compared to other products.

    We can manage everything from a finger pin instead of going into everything else. Commvault has everything in a finger pin. It's a single console. That's really good.

    What needs improvement?

    Commvault tries to integrate with every new product that's coming out on the market. Sometimes it makes everyone's life easier if it works well. If not, we don't know where the error is coming from, and it has a lot of bugs.

    Another issue is with the eDiscovery platform, Activate, where they profile data. It has a lot of issues with the indexing.

    Commvault also has something called a file-level on detection. On the production server, if it finds any anomalies on the files, it sends an alert. It runs every five minutes, so admins can get an email alert. That's very good, but it's a reactive alert, we only get it when there's a backup happening. If they can improve that and make it a proactive alert, to identify and send anomalies to admins, that would really help any companies out there go against malware.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Commvault for the last five years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I give it a seven on a scale of one to ten, because many times, whenever there is some issue, they provide a hotfix. In large enterprises, we won't be able to update the hotfixes because there is a change in management. There are also hotfixes once every two weeks.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scalability is really good. We can scale out as much as we want.

    How are customer service and support?

    Commvault support is great in most of aspects. We support Commvault customers for most of the part. Whenever we open support cases, most of the cases ends up with Commvault dev team. On most of the clients, or on most of the servers, we don't see any network issues, but they say that it's a network issue, even though there is no network issues. So that's one issue. We always have issues because we don't see any network issues in the environment, but the support says that it's a network issue.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We do provide services for Veeam and Rubrik. When comparing Commvault and Veeam, Commvault has a single pin, but Veeam does not. Also, Commvault is great for any type of workload, but Veeam is great with workload platforms.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It does reduce storage costs in the cloud. At the same time, if you're trying to back up a Cloud application, it adds more cost. If we run data verification drops like an extra or Cloud data, the data that's available in three containers, it adds a lot of cost. However, when we just do a backup to the Cloud, it sells a lot, but it doesn't run a verification.

    At the same time, Commvault came out with MTSS Cloud that they partner with Azure, and that really saves money for any customers. Like a 20 to 30% savings when they use MTSS. Commvault licensing changed a lot in the last five years. I saw four times they change their licensing model.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    If the customer is completely virtualized and if they don't have any workloads apart from the virtual environment, then they should go with Veeam. But if the customer wants to protect the application level, let's say maybe Mongo DB within those virtual environments, then Commvault is better compared to other products.

    What other advice do I have?

    They are up to mark whatever we see an enterprise from hypervisors, that is virtual involvement. They cover everything and they also cover most of the databases that come out. They're up to date on all the workloads. They can protect most of the workloads out there. It's very important for any organization to protect all its data sets.

    If anyone wants to protect multiple workloads, different kinds of workloads, Commvault is best for that.

    I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner Reseller
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Pre-Sales at Arrow ECS Portugal
    Real User
    Protects all main applications, integrates well with NetApp
    Pros and Cons
    • "It's a complete software that can protect all the main applications. Perhaps that's the feature I like most. The integration with the NetApp and other apps is also very nice."
    • "I think the one thing that could be improved is the customer experience. The interface should be more user friendly."

    What is our primary use case?

    This solution is mainly used for virtualization and Oracle data protection. The customers I work with use it to protect their machines and active databases.

    What is most valuable?

    It's a complete software that can protect all the main applications. Perhaps that's the feature I like most. The integration with the NetApp and other apps is also very nice.

    What needs improvement?

    I think the one thing that could be improved is the customer experience. The interface should be more user friendly.

    The price could perhaps be lower as well.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I believe it's very stable. That's why the customers who buy Commvault stay with Commvault.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution is scalable, because you can add app features. It's very possible to scale.

    We have four or five customers, so that's probably around 20 users. We are in a small country.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The technical support is very good. It was not very difficult. I had a bug and the Commvault supporter helped perfectly.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward. We need one or two integrators to deploy and maintain this solution.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We evaluated other options, but Commvault is a very complete solution. In the end, it's a very useful tool. Our customers will already know Commvault. Their software always compares well with other vendors.

    What other advice do I have?

    Perhaps, my best advice is to look for an integrator with expertise in Commvault to help deploy this solution. It's not that easy to install. It's not even possible after they all installed it. Customers should have someone with good expertise with Commvault to supply it.

    I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
    PeerSpot user
    Aldo Centino - PeerSpot reviewer
    System Administrator at Waternet
    Real User
    Almost completely automates our backup processes, saving us time
    Pros and Cons
    • "What I find valuable is restoring the complete server. Restoring files is also valuable, but I like restoring the server because you don't have to rebuild a new one."
    • "We get an alarm if a lot of files are deleted, for example. That could look like ransomware, even if it is not."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it to back up some servers and to restore things.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Commvault helps our administrators to minimize the time they spend on the backup tasks and that gives them time for other projects. I don't know how much time it saves them because our Commvault environment was already in place. We don't have very many restore problems and, for backup, it's almost automated, so we don't spend any time at the console.

    What is most valuable?

    For me, it just restores and backs up applications, nothing more. But what I find valuable is restoring the complete server. Restoring files is also valuable, but I like restoring the server because you don't have to rebuild a new one.

    Also, we are able to manage our on-prem environment from one server, the whole environment from one place, which is great. There is only one place to search.

    What needs improvement?

    We get an alarm if a lot of files are deleted, for example. That could look like ransomware, even if it is not.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Commvault for one-and-a-half years, which is the time I have been working in this company.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is fairly stable. We have never had trouble with Commvault itself. And if we do have trouble, we can call our Commvault partner and they will solve it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is good, although we don't have plans to increase our usage of it.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Commvault's technical support is very good.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I used Avamar a long time ago. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I don't know much about the pricing and licensing, but I do know it is very expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend Commvault. We have not had many difficulties with it and I think it is a good product.

    We don't use Command Center, only the CommCell Console. In our department, only five people are doing the backups and the restores. We are all system specialists, and we work together to maintain Commvault.

    I would rate it at eight out of 10. A 10 is too high and would mean it is super-good. For me, an eight is very high.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer1055571 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Head of the Company at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Integrates with many cloud providers and with any technology we bring on, and can be implemented on any hardware
    Pros and Cons
    • "All workloads can be integrated with Commvault. If we use a new technology, Commvault integrates with it. Commvault is a data management solution with support for building the DR side of things. With Commvault we can rapidly back up and restore any application we add to our environment."
    • "One issue we face is the complexity of the console. That could be improved on. It takes users time to get familiar with Commvault. On average, it takes our customers between one and three months to learn it. The console and the way you configure Commvault have very advanced settings. It takes time to understand how it works."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are a partner for Commvault and our role is to implement the solution for our customers. Our customers in Egypt are in the banking and financial sector. They use Commvault to back up their data. We help in sizing the workload of the customer, designing the solution and implementing it. We also support the customer if they face any issues.

    We have a hybrid implementation. The first target for the backup is on-premises and the offsite backup is on Azure cloud.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The solution provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover our data across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud locations. We completely depend on Commvault for managing our data, from backup to restore to replication.

    Commvault saves significant time for administrators. It also saves on infrastructure costs by being able to manage what were disparate data management solutions in one place. It saves us on a monthly basis. It also has embedded deduplication which works well. It saves about 90 percent of the front-end data.

    In terms of recovery, it depends on the teams that we restore for. Sometimes we restore for the database team, and other times for the application team when they add a new feature or change something and they need to roll back. Also, sometimes our users are attacked by ransomware or by a virus or trojan, and their data is encrypted or deleted. Commvault has helped us in these scenarios. It has always been successful in restoring the backup. 

    What is most valuable?

    Commvault's compatibility matrix is tops. It supports almost any workload and technology our customers have.

    It provides fast backup and fast restore. The amount of time it takes depends on the size of the restored data, but Commvault has a good feature through which you can add many streams when restoring. That helps us in restoring rapidly. In my opinion, Commvault is one of the fastest solutions when it comes to restoring. I use competitive solutions, such as Veeam and Rubrik, and Commvault is the fastest among them, in both backup and restore.

    It integrates with many cloud providers, like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform. Also, all workloads can be integrated with Commvault. If we use a new technology, Commvault integrates with it. Commvault is a data management solution with support for building the DR side of things. With Commvault we can rapidly back up and restore any application we add to our environment.

    Commvault software can be implemented on any hardware. This helps when we are competing against another backup solution. It helps win customers.

    The Command Center is good. It has a good dashboard and it's very easy to use. It gives us a view of about 85 percent of the environment, because something like tape configuration and monitoring are needed. In the new version they have added good features and they have worked on improving the documentation.

    The dashboard provides a good view into any issues so that users can address them. It provides understandable messages when there are errors, telling you where the issue is, and you can research the error code or send it to Commvault for help.

    What needs improvement?

    One issue we face is the complexity of the console. That could be improved on. It takes users time to get familiar with Commvault. On average, it takes our customers between one and three months to learn it. The console and the way you configure Commvault have very advanced settings. It takes time to understand how it works. 

    After a customer understands it, he can improve and add to the configuration.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Commvault for around three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's a very stable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is also scalable.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The efficiency of Commvault's support is something that, it seems, the vendor needs to pay attention to. At times, when we open a support case, it can take two to four days to find a solution and close the case. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup process is complex. The person who implements it has to pay close attention to certain things. The index cache must be in SSD storage, and the same is true for the deduplication database. The sizing of the CommServe must be done well. In terms of agents, and other features, everything must be calculated very well. All these things will affect the performance in the future.

    It can take hours or days to implement, depending on the project. The administrative part of the deployment takes about a day, but the integration part can take from three days to a couple of months, depending on the size of the project.

    After we do the first implementation, the customer can do future implementations. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Commvault has advanced its licensing in the last year with its complete licensing solution. The complete license gives us options for all the features. Commvault does not license based on storage or the management components. It can integrate with any storage vendor. That means that when we are out of storage and need more, we can integrate without additional licensing.

    In my opinion, Commvault needs to reduce the licensing cost by 20 to 40 percent to make it cost-efficient.

    What other advice do I have?

    You need to size the CommServe and the agents very well because it will help the performance.

    Overall, Commvault is a good solution for midsize and enterprise companies.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
    PeerSpot user
    Solution Architect at IT Solution
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    A stable solution for Red Hat Linux
    Pros and Cons
    • "Commvault is a stable solution for Red Hat Linux."
    • "It takes a lot of steps to implement backups. We have to do a lot of planning to make the solution work properly. It takes some time to create every policy. It's an easy task, but there are many steps. It's not as easy as using Veeam."

    What is our primary use case?

    Commvault is an enterprise-level backup solution that can use multiple agents at various sites. We have many customers, including banks and hospitals.

    What is most valuable?

    Commvault is a stable solution for Red Hat Linux. 

    What needs improvement?

    It takes a lot of steps to implement backups. We have to do a lot of planning to make the solution work properly. It takes some time to create every policy. It's an easy task, but there are many steps. It's not as easy as using Veeam. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have used Commvault for nine months as a supporting engineer.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I rate Commvault eight out of 10 for stability. 

    How was the initial setup?

    Setting up Commvault is complex and it involves many steps. After you configure the storage, you need to set your client's policies and add a proxy server if necessary. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I prefer selling Commvault to enterprises. It's appropriate for a company that has a headquarters plus four or five offices. It isn't ideal for a small business. The price is okay if you have the budget of a large enterprise. Aside from the license, the only additional cost is cloud fees if you are using cloud infrastructure. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate Commvault Backup and Recovery 10 out of 10. I would recommend Commvault if a company has huge backup needs and a sufficient budget. If the price isn't an issue, you shouldn't compromise. 

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: February 2025
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.