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Senior Database Administrator at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Automates backups, provides quick restores, and reduces our backup administration
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the ability it gives me to automate backups well and consistently, and to follow up on them as well. It also provides consistent recovery processes. Whenever we have needed to do a restore, it has worked quickly and efficiently."
  • "There are two ways to use it and I prefer the web-based one over the app. I wish they were a little bit more matched in what they offer because the features aren't as available in the web-based interface as they are in the app."

What is our primary use case?

I use it for backing up the database of our Microsoft People server system.

How has it helped my organization?

Commvault has saved us time in managing our backup and restore processes, as well as backup management. It has definitely made our backup administration more efficient.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ability it gives me to automate backups well and consistently, and to follow up on them as well. It also provides consistent recovery processes. Whenever we have needed to do a restore, it has worked quickly and efficiently.

The completeness of Commvault's coverage for databases is also pretty good. It covers all the bases with the major databases that we utilize within an enterprise.

I also like it because it's pretty easy to use and that it is pretty reliable. The user interface for managing it is good.

In addition, it auto-discovers the databases and that means lower maintenance on my side for individual database configuration.

What needs improvement?

There are two ways to use it and I prefer the web-based one over the app. I wish they were a little bit more matched in what they offer because the features aren't as available in the web-based interface as they are in the app.

Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
September 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the Commvault solution for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It seems to be scalable. I'm not really involved in that side, being a user and not an administrator of it, but I know that they've had to add on and do upgrades to it. It seems to be working well. I haven't seen any disruption from that.

How are customer service and support?

I use my internal company support team and they reach out to Commvault as necessary.

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

We were using Dell EMC NetWorker. We switched due to bad support and because we were having lots of issues. They were also slow in keeping up with the technology.

What other advice do I have?

In general, I would give Commvault a thumbs-up. Make sure your people are involved in the procurement process so that they understand what it offers, and be sure to do PoC testing. But that's generic to any implementation.

Because my work with Commvault isn't necessarily technical in nature, it's more process-oriented, people in a similar situation should work closely with their administrators to make sure the admins understand what they need to do. The problems that we have with it are mostly to do with internal workflow.

The Command Center for getting a view of your data is okay. We have some internal issues with the way that the people who manage the system display things to us and give us access to certain things. But otherwise, it's okay.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1437054 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
With just a few clicks we can immediately get to the data we need to restore
Pros and Cons
  • "It never fails. Sometimes we miss a backup, but there's always a reason for it, and it's not the fault of Commvault. In the last three years, we've never had to open a ticket with Commvault."
  • "Commvault's price is quite high."

What is our primary use case?

We use Commvault to back up our NetApp environments to a file and data server. Commvault backs up everything, including our databases and the log files from these databases. We have a cloud, but we're not managing it with Commvault yet. We are also not using the isolation and segmentation features. We're only using Commvault internally, but it's still important for us to have those features. We've chosen Commvault for its full capabilities.  

How has it helped my organization?

Commvault is faster than NetApp's native Snapshot technology. Management and restoration are easier. We don't need to mount or unmount volumes from NetApp before restoration. With just a few clicks, we can immediately get to the data we need to restore, and the restoration is completed instantly. It's fast, accurate, and up to date.

We save a lot of time doing backups and restoration with Commvault. Our goal is to do everything within eight hours. We have several terabytes of data that need to be backed up daily, and we do it overnight during a period of eight hours maximum. We can usually get that done in three or four hours.

However, it hasn't cut back on our storage or infrastructure costs. Our NetApp environment is already a network cluster, meaning the data is saved in two locations. Then we installed Commvault on a third location, so we can restore from that if the other two fail. We were forced to invest in putting servers into that small data center, so there were no direct cost savings.

What is most valuable?

Backup is the reason why we bought Commvault. We need to ensure that all of our backups are done daily. This is very important because we use it for disaster recovery, and we need this data back. We're a production environment. If we cannot restore in the event of a failure within X number of hours, it has a considerable impact on our company. Five thousand people are working at the factory who depend on this data. If it's not available, they can't work. 

Consistent recovery is also essential. Every day, we have users who delete a file and need to restore it. Our backups must be up to date.

What needs improvement?

Commvault's interface has a lot of sub-menus, and sometimes it's hard to find the information you need. You have to click a few times before finding the right window. The overview could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Commvault for almost three years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Commvault is stable. We've never had problems with it. It's always available, and it's doing the job without any issues. It never fails. Sometimes we miss a backup, but there's always a reason for it, and it's not the fault of Commvault. In the last three years, we've never had to open a ticket with Commvault. That shows how stable and well-performing it is.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are looking into scalability because we're not yet using Commvault for the whole organization. The main limitation is the cost of implementing it at a lot of sites. Every year, we put it on our agenda to adopt it across Europe. We've selected some spots, but sometimes we've had to scrap a few because of the cost. However, soon we'll have the data we need for broader implementation. 

We have around 15 affiliates, including five big ones. Currently, it's running at two of those. Every national affiliate is responsible for its own budget, and it's up to them to decide if they want to spend the money on it. They have the built-in Snapshot technology from NetApp that they can use, with all its limitations, or they have the full-blown Commvault option, which needs investment first. Every year, we evaluate if we replace the NetApp Snapshot technology with Commvault. Quite often, there are other priorities.

But that hasn't stopped us because sometimes we use Turkey's Commvault to take backups from all those countries. So the scalability is excellent. It's easy because you just add the server, and it's up and running.

How was the initial setup?

Installing Commvault is straightforward. It's a "next, next, finish" installer. For deployment, we had help from a third party who had experience with Commvault, so it was pretty easy to configure all those things.

Altogether, it took four or five days. We had to do some fine-tuning. It was a new product for us, so we had to learn how to use it too. The installation itself only took a day and a half. We spent the rest of the time learning tips and tricks and all that stuff. For management, we work with a third-party partner in India called Infosys. We also have a team of three people here in Europe supervising it.

What about the implementation team?

When we installed everything in Turkey, we used a partner over there called Datacore. They were outstanding. We vetted them first using the same process we use for approving projects. I would rate them nine out of 10. 

What was our ROI?

For us, the return is that we can get our data back in the event of a disaster. That's the most important thing. We're not looking at it in terms of a return on investment in hardware. The data is what matters the most. If we lose that, it will cost us a fortune compared to the money we spend on installation. You cannot compare those two things.

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

Commvault's price is quite high. You have to pay for the licenses and the hardware you need for the Commvault environment. If you don't have all the hardware, you have to buy it, which can cost a few million. In the end, it's vital to protect our data, so the price isn't an issue. However, it can be a hard sell to your top management. They say, "Well, you have your NetApp snapshot technology. Why go for something else when that is doing the job? Why should you spend a few million to implement another backup solution?" 

If you can find a decent reason, then it's great. With the pandemic, it's becoming difficult to justify expenses like this. Everybody is afraid about the impact and wants to avoid extra costs as much as possible.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

In the beginning, we were looking at around six or seven products, and then we made a shortlist that included Veeam and Cohesity. We looked at solutions from most of the big, traditional companies. We chose Commvault because it has all the features we want. It's also a good fit for us because it supports a wide range of platforms, including NetApp and Windows, and we use several different platforms. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Commvault nine out of 10. If you want a stable product that you can rely on, you should definitely go for the Commvault environment.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
September 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer866136 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
It helps us get to the point where we have a complete picture of the environment
Pros and Cons
  • "Commvault's Command Center is one of the best solutions out there. You can rely on Commvault solutions for the most complex and most demanding environments."
  • "Commvault is complex even if the product has comprehensive solutions and covers pretty much every technology out there. There's no unified way to manage all of the products on one single console."

What is our primary use case?

Most of our clients have an on-premise environment. They are traditional environments, but they are slowly starting to use the cloud for IT solutions and services. Lately, we've been shifting some workloads to the cloud and using the product there. It's been a slow transition, but we are doing it. We are partners in the Latin American region, so we are trying to find the best fit for every customer and recommend different backup solutions depending on the client. Some are easier to install but lack certain features. 

Commvault has a large customer base in the enterprise segment, so it provides a complete recovery solution for our largest clients. That's the way we use the product. We focus on enterprise solutions in large companies in Columbia and the South American and Latin American region. Commvault has a strong track record protecting the integrity of workloads, and it has many different features needed in the corporate environment. We have various technologies that need to be backed up and protected. In that sense, Commvault is a comprehensive solution.

No other vendor has such a wide range of solutions, including traditional on-premises workloads, cyber cloud members, and cloud links. All of those features are comprehensive enough to be considered for the largest client. 

How has it helped my organization?

The ability to manage and recover data across platforms and deployments is what we look for in a solution. Technologies are getting more complex all the time. We're seeing the emergence of different technology, including support for containers and various cloud services. These new technologies pose challenges for the backup environment. 

In the past, we only needed to back up specific databases and certain network tasks. The data is much more extended, and the interactions among different technologies and services are more complicated, so data protection is more complex. So, in this context, it's vital for a product to offer that kind of experience for us. I think that it's what the customers are looking for in this ever-growing and ever-complex environment.

One of the critical strategies to deal with risk is having an air-gapped copy of the data. In that context, tech solutions and object storage solutions help us to cope with that. So in that sense, Commvault is not different from any other solution that already offers those kinds of air-gapped copies. It helps manage a lot of different storage media and mix up all the storage media that we have so the cost of data matches the cost of the storage solution we are using. It makes no sense to store completely cold data in fast media. That is costly. Commvault has a wide range of support for storage solutions. It comes down to planning. You have to plan where you're going to put every inch of data. Then you're going to put it in the best layer possible depending on whether the information is cold or hot.

What is most valuable?

Commvault's Command Center is one of the best solutions out there. You can rely on Commvault solutions for the most complex and most demanding environments. It can meet the requirements of many Fortune 500 companies. It's great for companies that need a robust solution flexible enough to cope with all kinds of environments and technologies. 

Commvault offers broad coverage by helping us identify unprotected workloads. It helps us get to the point where we have a complete picture of the environment. I think that's a pretty good feature, and it allows us to have a good overview of our protection environment and what workloads are protected and which are not. It's one of the essentials out there for that. 

When it comes to recovery, Commvault is undeniably one of the best technologies out there. It's got all the different granularity levels that a business requires to get your information back to production. For example, we have their commission discovery, individual items recovery, mailbox recovery, databases, and different tables. Some databases can be recovered individually. This level of granularity enables us to get the most value out of the product.

What needs improvement?

Commvault is complex even if the product has comprehensive solutions and covers pretty much every technology out there. There's no unified way to manage all of the products on one single console. There are different things that you need to look for to have comprehensive management of the whole environment. I think that's not one of Commvault's strong suits. 

Also, even though I think the user interface might improve the manageability of the solution, it can be complex in some cases. You need a lot of experience and different touchpoints to get through environmental management, and it's not a comprehensive or unified solution for that. 

Commvault is also a solution that requires a lot of time. It demands a lot of time from administrators and requires an administrator to manage it almost full-time. But in this case, it's not a hindrance. While it isn't the easiest product to use, it's one of the most likable ones. It offers a lot of different options and the breadth of support that it has. I think it's just a compromise that you make. In this case, you get flexibility, great support, and a high-quality product, but you lose some in terms of administration. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Commvault for about five years now. When we started, we were just customers, but now we are Commvault managers and consultants. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a completely stable solution. We haven't had any problems with the software that make implementation a problem or prevent us from using the product effectively.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Commvault's scalability is unmatched. Very few competitors have the scalability that Commvault offers. IBM and Veritas might come close, but there are no other solutions that can grow to accommodate enormous environments. So we have to rethink or mix up different backup solutions and technologies. With Commvault, you can do it for either large environments or medium-sized environments as well.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Commvault support 10 out of 10. The members of the support team are knowledgeable. They know their product well and are eager to help. Overall, it's a great customer experience. It's a deciding factor that makes customers and clients renew their licenses in a few years. You can buy a product, but you're only going to stay with it because of its quality and customer support. The support is outstanding in this case.

We've mainly contacted support to get best practices, implementation recommendations, and suggestions about operating the product. But we haven't faced any challenging problems that we couldn't tackle. The documentation has been pretty solid, too. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Early in the process, it takes a long time to get things right and make things do what they are supposed to do based on best practices. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to do it, but it's ultimately worth it. If you put in a few more weeks to get the product implemented properly, it's going to pay off down the road. You'll see some cost savings and it will save you some effort in the future. So I think it's best to do an excellent job at first.

What was our ROI?

The savings we've realized from deploying Commvault could be around $100,000 to $300,000, including storage space, rack space, and energy charges. That's a total cost of ownership analysis.

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

Sometimes Commvault can be costly. On the other hand, you need to consider other use cases, verticals, and segments in the market, not just the price. But I think that those are the disadvantages of the factory features that have some room for improvement. The product is excellent.

The cost of implementing or supporting Commvault can be high. You need to pay attention to the licensing. It's imperative to do careful planning regarding the workflows you will support, and which kinds of solutions or vehicles you're going to deploy because there could be some surprises down the road. 

I think that's one of the main weaknesses of the product: it might be costlier than the competition. Of course, it's not always the case, but sometimes it could be pricier than the competition. That can sometimes be a barrier to implementing the product in certain regions and specific verticals or certain kinds of customers that are very cost-sensitive. Lowering the price is essential for Commvault to gain traction in other segments, and we have traditional companies reducing their prices. It would be good to see them more in an FNB environment, but the costs are too high for some customers.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We were looking for a solution with a breadth of support for heterogeneous workloads, so we considered solutions from different vendors, like IBM and Veritas. We also have a good relationship with IBM, but we thought their solution was somewhat archaic. It didn't have support for the latest technologies and platforms like Commvault.

Using the traditional client-server, those solutions couldn't match the amount of support Commvault offers. It was the perfect match for what we were looking for. One of the key features that led us to Commvault was its elasticity. It gives us the flexibility to run different workloads on the cloud or on-premise and to have them all protected within one technological stack. We're confident in the product because it's a comprehensive solution covering old-fashioned technologies and the newer ones. Every month there is new support for new features and new workloads. We're consistently surprised at the rate of innovation and the support that Commvault is putting into the product.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Commvault nine out of 10. One recommendation I have for people considering Commvault is to explore all of the features the product offers. It has many features that aren't explored because of a lack of time or knowledge. I would invite all prospective customers to evaluate the whole breadth of functionality and suggest that they seek the assistance of a qualified implementation team. Do careful planning before implementing the product.

Isolating and segmenting storage targets from public networks to mitigate lateral moving threats can be difficult with Commvault. It takes thorough and detailed planning. You need to have careful planning before taking on implementation efforts. It's crucial to carefully consider where you're going to deploy and how you're going to divide the various segments of the product into different solutions so that you can comply with your business requirements.

Commvault might be challenging to deploy sometimes, and you need knowledgeable people to operate it. That doesn't mean it's going to be a failure. When the people are prepared and have skilled implementers, the product is a success from every point of view. So you have to be careful.

On balance, it is the most comprehensive solution in the market, with the ability to handle all kinds of applications, databases, and virtual workloads. Commvault's portfolio has a great breadth and depth in terms of quantity and quality of supported solutions. For example, Commvault is now supported on the cloud. The ability to mail snapshots back is one of Commvault, which has protection for all those workloads. Some of the competitors have just started to gain traction in this area, but Commvault has been doing it for several years.

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 & Reseller
PeerSpot user
Senior System Engineer at V S Information Systems
Reseller
Saves time and has good recovery and protection features and good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The recovery features are useful. It is easy to recover data. If something happens, we can easily recover data. We have faced ransomware issues twice, and we recovered because of Commvault."
  • "They can improve the security level for Windows. When mapping to the Windows, Commvault can take full control over data volumes so that the attacker can't delete the volume data, but the Windows admin can access the volumes. It would be great to block access at that level."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it as a backup and recovery solution. 

We have a server on-premises. Our hardware is running on HP devices. We are only using the on-premises solution. In the future, we will use the hybrid or cloud solution. Our management is trying to go for hybrid solutions.

How has it helped my organization?

As a company, we faced ransomware attacks twice, and both times, we recovered because of Commvault's backup and recovery solution. 

It helps in protecting our customers' data very easily. Compared to other vendors, Commvault has a lot of features. If something happens, we end up spending a lot of money to recover data, but Commvault protects the data. Considering that, its cost is very low. It has reduced the cost of recovering data. 

It is very easy to isolate and segment storage targets from public networks to mitigate lateral moving threats. 

It helps our admins to minimize the time they spend on backup tasks. They can spend time on other projects. Previously, we had to manually check every weekend whether the backup is okay or not. Now, things are running automatically. Commvault has a good notification system. Altogether, these features reduce a lot of manhours. They have saved 48 hours weekly.

What is most valuable?

The recovery features are useful. It is easy to recover data. If something happens, we can easily recover data. We have faced ransomware issues twice, and we recovered because of Commvault. 

It provides consistent recovery processes across platforms. In terms of recovery options for our data and workloads, I would give it a 10 out of 10. We can easily recover files and data in case of any issues.

It is user-friendly and easy to use. If you have a technical background, you can easily identify the features and use them. There is nothing complex. 

What needs improvement?

They can improve the security level for Windows. When mapping to the Windows, Commvault can take full control over data volumes so that the attacker can't delete the volume data, but the Windows admin can access the volumes. It would be great to block access at that level. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the Commvault product for more than three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have been using this solution for more than three years, and there have been no major failures. It has been running day-to-day backups without any issues. We have backup scheduled over the weekends, and we also have daily backups. We are running full backups over the weekends and incremental backups on weekdays. 

How are customer service and support?

Their support team is very friendly, and they can easily understand our situation. They are very fast to respond and knowledgeable. They can understand the issues that we are facing, and it is very easy to work with them. They provide good support. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

We got good training notes from Commvault's side. There are a lot of documents, and if we want to find something, we refer to their documentation, which makes it very easy to use. There are no major issues.

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

We earlier used Veeam as a backup solution. We were using Veeam's Community Edition. We also used HP data protector previously. We finally tried the Commvault solution.

Commvault people came and gave a presentation to us, and as compared to Veeam, Commvault had many features. It was user-friendly and easy to use, and it also had a lot of features. It had ransomware protection and data recovery. Veeam didn't have protection features. Our management agreed to use Commvault, and they gave their permission.

How was the initial setup?

Initially, it was complex for us to understand things. They gave us training, and since then, we have been using it easily. Now, it is very easy to understand.

What about the implementation team?

We work with a reseller in Sri Lanka.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. It is saving a lot of money, but I don't have the number. It is a good solution to recover our data if something happens. We don't need to spend a lot of money. 

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

It is a bit more than other products, but when you consider the time savings, it is saving money.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at a few other solutions such as Veritas.

What other advice do I have?

Commvault is a good solution, and we would recommend it to others. There are no major issues with Commvault. We have full trust in it when it comes to protection. They have built a good customer reputation when it comes to protection. Our management is also very satisfied with it.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10 in terms of protection and features.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
it_user1596921 - PeerSpot reviewer
Computer Specialist at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Real User
VSA backups mean we don't have to have a client on each server, reducing complexity.
Pros and Cons
  • "What is most valuable to me are the search features, where you can search through large backup data sets and find what you're looking for. Our data sets are so big that we're over the petabyte mark. To find a specific file for a specific user out of 10,000 users is a challenge... If we can glean from them a general description of where it might be, the search feature comes in very handy to actually locate it and restore it for them."
  • "The main area for improvement is that we sometimes experience negative effects from their updates. If they had a larger test area for their updates, that would help."

What is our primary use case?

I've been here for 37 years and I've seen all the data challenges there are. The Centers for Disease Control consists of multiple centers that are all under one umbrella of CDC, but each center has its own budget, its own IT, and its own data collection. They were all disparate and they could not be put under one system where we could protect all of them. Everybody had their own protection. Everybody had their own little silos.

Around the time we brought in Commvault, our challenge was to bring those silos together where one larger team could diversify into specific areas. For example, disaster recovery was a whole team of people. That's all they did and they specialized in it. We could develop SMEs in each area of IT, such as disaster recovery, database, and hardware configuration. We had to attempt to bring all these silos together. There's resistance to that to this day, because everybody thinks that they're special and the other people don't matter. Our challenge was centralization at that point. Each area had its own way of backing up and several of them had Commvault already, but it was at that point that we settled on Commvault as our backup solution.

Before Commvault, virus infection was our big problem. If a virus got fished into a system, recovery was disastrous.

Currently, our use case is disaster recovery, pure and simple, including everything from a file restore to a complete system restore.

It is on-premises and also hosted in the cloud. 

How has it helped my organization?

We've had problems in the past where a storage person made an error and actually deleted a large chunk of storage, and we recovered it with Commvault. If we had lost that storage, it would have been a catastrophic loss of scientific data. The value of that is incalculable.

In addition, when we're applying for authority to operate, compliance requires that certain things just have to be backed up. That's a requirement of any system that we allow on our network. It has to be recovery-protected in some way, in the event of an error or a tragedy or an attack.

What is most valuable?

What is most valuable to me are the search features, where you can search through large backup data sets and find what you're looking for. Our data sets are so big that we're over the petabyte mark. To find a specific file for a specific user out of 10,000 users is a challenge. Sometimes the user doesn't know the file path. If we can glean from them a general description of where it might be, the search feature comes in very handy to actually locate it and restore it for them.

If you compare Commvault's user interface for managing on-prem, cloud, or multi-cloud environments in one place with some of the newer stuff that's coming out, it may seem to be a little too complex. But it's so powerful that I don't think the newer stuff competes with it that well.

And Command Center is helpful for reporting to upper management because they want to know the total figures, like how much we are protecting. They want to know the value of what we're doing compared to the cost of it. With Command Center we can tell them, "Look, we're doing this much and we've had this many restores." I have to do monthly reports to upper management on how successful we are at protection.

The solution also supports a broad coverage of workloads, absolutely. We use the VSA backups which means we don't have to have a client on each server. That, in itself, reduces a lot of the complexity. The broad coverage also means that we don't need as many personnel to administer things. It also helps with productivity. We're able to meet our SLAs for restores much better than we would otherwise.

What needs improvement?

The main area for improvement is that we sometimes experience negative effects from their updates. If they had a larger test area for their updates, that would help. I'm sure that they test, but our environment is probably 1,000 times bigger than their test environment. There are way more complexities in our environment, things that their updates overlook, and that causes a ripple effect of errors.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Commvault for about 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As long as everything functions in our environment, Commvault is very stable, but that's not the case. There are always ripples in the environment and sometimes those ripples can cause dramatic effects in Commvault, such as corrupting DDBs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's plenty scalable. That's one of the main reasons that we use Commvault. It gives us scalability and versatility across multiple storage platforms.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is excellent. Any issues that we've had have been resolved.

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

At the time we chose Commvault, it was the best, according to our evaluation. There were three main options: NetApp, Commvault, and one other. There wasn't a lot of competition in that area for enterprise-level organizations.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a long time ago and I don't even know if I was involved in it. My lead engineer was involved in it. I was just an overseer at that point and just moving into that position. 

But I do know there have been a lot of complexities in upgrades from one version to the next. Sometimes we skip a version and go from nine to 11, for example, and there is complexity in that, or there has been in the past.

What about the implementation team?

We had direct support from Commvault.

What was our ROI?

When it comes to ROI, Commvault is like the return on investment with insurance. When you need it, you see it. But if things are going smoothly you don't see it. However, it has to be there. My favorite saying is, "People really don't care about backups. They only care about restores."

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

One of the most interesting aspects is that the licensing model can be modified. We're paying for our licensing by the client, as opposed to the size of the footprint of the backup, which decreased our cost by about 20 percent.

There are multiple costs involved. We have the hardware, the tape drives, and the storage that our backup targets use. We use non-recommended storage, which is not as robust as what Commvault recommends, but we're able to make it work. That saves a lot of money on storage and its maintenance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've looked at other solutions but to scale them requires multiple devices, dedicated appliances. In our environment, everything has to be security-scanned and remediated on a monthly basis. The more devices we have, the more complex it gets to do that.

What other advice do I have?

If you're a smaller-sized entity, Commvault may be a little bit more than what you need. You get what you pay for. Commvault's scalability and granularity are excellent for a large enterprise, but for a smaller one, some of the alternatives are probably more cost-effective. In this context, a large enterprise is one with storage in the petabyte range. That's where Commvault shines.

Our Commvault partner is KELYN Technologies. They're a very professional support service, as an intermediary between us and Commvault, so that we get really professional and timely support. We even bring them in on our proofs of concept. As new technologies develop, we have to prove that we can back them up or support and protect them. Having their engineers available to help us work through those issues is very valuable. Anything that they can't solve, they escalate directly to Commvault for us. That way, we don't have to be in that exchange with Commvault. If we're doing a proof of concept and get to an area where we just don't know how to deal with it, they go off, find out, and come back and say, "Okay, now we know how to deal with it."

And while my staff was mostly pre-trained on Commvault, as new developments and new enhancements come out, KELYN is right on top of them.

The value, for us, of KELYN comes from the following:

  1. We have a reduced licensing cost.
  2. We have more granular access to engineers to assist with new technology, new concepts. 
  3. And sometimes we'll change our methods due to a new enhancement and they're invaluable in getting those things set up and working correctly.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Kevin Cronin - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at Kelyn Technologies Inc.
MSP
Can easily restore data in a disaster recovery scenario
Pros and Cons
  • "The backup and restore capabilities are key. The most useful things to us about Commvault, in general, is the breadth of the applications that it can protect as well as the features inside of it, like deduplication and encryption. When people get their data encrypted, Commvault has a way to tell if somebody is being attacked through a cybersecurity threat because their data changes. So, Commvault has what they call honeypot files out there to look to see if anybody is changing these files. Only Commvault knows which files those are, so nobody should be messing with those files. If it changes, then it will alert you to say, "Oh, I potentially have somebody messing with my files." It will alert you to something going on in your environment that probably shouldn't be happening. We deploy that with all our customers so they have this capability as well."
  • "The most common feedback I get in terms of Commvault is that it can be complex. I always refer my customers back to their own environment. Almost everything that goes into Commvault is a request by a customer. While it can be complex, it can also be very simple. You just need to understand your environment in order to make sure that you really need to turn on that extra feature or thing inside of Commvault. Maybe you don't need those things. It really depends on how simple or complex your environment is, whether you need all of Commvault's features."

What is our primary use case?

We are a managed service provider, so we offer backup as a service to our customers.

We do a combination of on-prem, cloud, and hybrid Commvault, so we have a little bit of everything. We do a lot with on-prem, but we have a lot of customers that have been moving to the cloud. We also have a number of customers who are exclusively in the cloud and customers who are talking about exclusively going to the cloud. There has been a definite shift to the cloud and using Commvault in the cloud.

We deploy private clouds. We have also done AWS hybrid cloud and Microsoft Azure.

How has it helped my organization?

Commvault gives us the ability to manage multiple customers with the same interface. It also gives us the ability to offer enterprise class backup and recovery capabilities as well as DR capabilities to customers who might not otherwise have that accessible to them because maybe they are a small customer or don't have the expertise. What Commvault has allowed us to do is reach a broader audience with the breadth of their product offering.

Commvault absolutely provides a single platform for data management and protection, data security, data compliance, data transformation, and data insights. Customers are moving to the cloud. One feature in particular that we use: When you are using Commvault to backup a virtual environment, then we will use the VMware environment. For example, Commvault allows us to actually migrate on-premise data (backed up using Commvault) and restore a virtual machine into an Amazon or Microsoft Azure environment without doing any kind of conversion ourselves. That is all taken care of behind the scenes by Commvault. That is really a unique feature that allows customers to do their data transformation, their migration from on-premise to the cloud, or a combination of both. That ability is something that Commvault offers that we use quite a bit for this purpose.

One of the things that has become abundantly clear in the cybersecurity threat posture that we have now - you need to really do a good job of backing up your log files. That is something else that Commvault has brought into the world. Additionally, being able to do everything through the Metallic capability has helped us win a few customers. That is a pretty cool feature set that Commvault's brought to bear.

We have a number of co-branded marketing activities going on right now. Recently, we did an executive forum round table. We had our CTO, Ryan Lake, as a part of that. This was in conjunction with Trezza Media. It was about an hour-long conversation, including different CIOs and CTOs from government-level positions. That was really insightful and a good program.

Commvault’s partner program provides deal registration which provides us with support and protection throughout the selling cycle. This is vitally important. The sales cycle on backup and disaster recovery solutions is sometimes a fairly long one, particularly if you are displacing a competitive solution. So, it is critical to know that the registration within Commvault will remain because the sales cycle does take some time to get through.

What is most valuable?

The backup and restore capabilities are key. The most useful things to us about Commvault, in general, is the breadth of the applications that it can protect as well as the features inside of it, like deduplication and encryption. When people get their data encrypted, Commvault has a way to tell if somebody is being attacked through a cybersecurity threat because their data changes. So, Commvault has what they call honeypot files out there to look to see if anybody is changing these files. Only Commvault knows which files those are, so nobody should be messing with those files. If it changes, then it will alert you to say, "Oh, I potentially have somebody messing with my files." It will alert you to something going on in your environment that probably shouldn't be happening. We deploy that with all our customers so they have this capability as well.

A key aspect of Commvault is having all of these different Cloud Connectors, where you can connect to all these different clouds and applications, managing everything through one pane of glass. We have a number of customers whom we manage through one pane of glass, but then we also have on-prem customers whom we manage that have their installation. We manage that independently because a lot of customers don't yet want all their data 100% through the cloud or managed by a cloud provider. That is why we do a lot of on-prem stuff. Even there, you get a single pane of glass for the entire environment.

Command Center is a great tool because it allows for viewing all of your data in one place. Plus, with the plans, it allows for simple deployments and customers to pick which feature set and capabilities they want. When you have your plans in the Command Center, it really opens up lots of options for customers while keeping everything simplified for us.

One of the biggest things that Commvault does is have the ability to easily restore data. In a disaster recovery scenario, the first thing you have to do is bring up the command and control center of whatever product that you are going to recover with. The initial recovery of Commvault command and control, which they call the CommCell, i.e., CommServe server, is by far the best in the industry. That is where it starts. So if you lose everything, you can start with CommCell. That is the way that they have designed the split indexes of MediaAgent and those types of things. This really sets them apart from any other product out there. 

What needs improvement?

The most common feedback I get in terms of Commvault is that it can be complex. I always refer my customers back to their own environment. Almost everything that goes into Commvault is a request by a customer. While it can be complex, it can also be very simple. You just need to understand your environment in order to make sure that you really need to turn on that extra feature or thing inside of Commvault. Maybe you don't need those things. It really depends on how simple or complex your environment is, whether you need all of Commvault's features. Though, you have them if you do need them.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been supporting and using Commvault for about 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Commvault is extremely stable. There are really not too many things that knock it down.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have customers with multiple petabytes of data. There is no issue with the scalability at all.

Commvault is the thought-leader in numerous trade organization reviews. They get top awards all the time based on the completeness of the solution and the ability to execute. For our customers, having that weight behind them and knowing that this isn't a company who was just thought up overnight or solving a single issue. They are looking at large enterprise-level issues with the ability to scale to the largest of enterprises as well as the smallest company. We have customers with one or two computers that they need to protect, and we're protecting them with Commvault. We're bringing that entire Commvault platform with the entire weight of Commvault behind it. Being able to offer that to a customer with one or two computers allows us to really use the entire suite of Commvault to help protect all our customers. That is one of the biggest benefits for us, having the entire weight of Commvault behind us as a service offering.

How are customer service and support?

We have a great relationship with support. In addition to interacting with Commvault support, we also have purchased the enterprise support that Commvault offers. That gives us a greater level of insight into what is going on, not only in our environment, but within Commvault's itself. We have a dedicated Technical Account Manager as well as a dedicated Support Account Manager. Those two folks have been instrumental in helping us achieve greater efficiencies within our Commvault environments.

Commvault is fantastic. We have a bi-weekly call with our partner manager where we discuss what is coming up and where Commvault can help, e.g., how can we execute our marketing strategy? It has all kinds of different things that we just don't get from other vendors. The partnership has been great.

How was the initial setup?

With a very large enterprise (hundreds of terabytes of data), you will need to take a little bit more time and make sure that you have the configuration correct, then go from there. 

For small organizations, the initial setup is very simple. Out-of-the-box, you can set it up in 30 minutes or less.

What about the implementation team?

We start with the requirements for the customer, but then we really hone things down for the deployment. We put things in the right places. We will work with customers to understand what their requirements are, then put together a strategy for deployment that we believe is both the simplest and most effective.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI with Commvault.

Our customers' cost of operations is greatly reduced. The more you simplify, the less manpower things take. The less manpower things take obviously translates immediately to the bottom line. In addition, it gives you a much greater chance of success when you go to do your disaster recovery testing or disaster recovery function in the event something bad does happen.

The solution’s broad coverage of workloads certainly affects IT productivity. When you have a simplified infrastructure, there are a lot less moving parts. Things tend to stay operational longer, reducing downtime types of things. Those are all part of the simplification process.

They have profitability guarantees on registered opportunities. They are not necessarily as high as some of the other partner programs out there, but we stick with Commvault because we believe that they are the best product out there on the market.

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

The pricing has improved. It is simplified compared to the way that it was a few years ago. It is fairly straightforward and pretty easy to articulate to customers, which is handy. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Commvault’s key differentiators for its partners is the ability to offer the breadth and depth of its tools. There are other vendors out there who have solutions, and a lot of them do good with certain little aspects of one particular problem in the backup and disaster recovery world. Commvault just doesn't have any weaknesses in their product lineup. So, it is the ability to do everything that really sets Commvault apart.

The amount of labor that it takes to operate a Commvault environment is dramatically lower than their competitors.

What other advice do I have?

You need to understand your entire environment and make sure that you are looking at the entire thing so you can understand the value that Commvault brings. Understand where some of the other products might fall down, in terms of being able to manage your entire environment, and the capabilities that you require.

Take the time to document your requirements and make sure that you get all that information upfront so you know what your goal is in the end. That is where you can go a little haywire with any product, e.g., if you don't really understand what it is that you are trying to accomplish first, then you can get into trouble real quick.

Complexity is one of the things that everybody has in their environment and every production environment has some level of complexity. One of the things that I like to talk about when I talk to our customers about Commvault is that your backup and disaster recovery solution is basically a mirror image of your operating environment. So, if you want to reduce the complexity of your disaster recovery environment, then what you really need to do is think about how to reduce the complexity in your production environment. When you utilize a product like Commvault, you can make Commvault do all kinds of things that will help you backup your existing environment. However, when you translate that into a disaster recovery scenario, you need to basically reverse engineer and put everything back the way that it was. Therefore, complexity is a mirror of your production environment. We try to simplify all of our customer's environments as much as we possibly can, including their production environment, in order to make them more sustainable in a disaster recovery scenario.

Commvault is a thought-leader in intelligent data management. For example: 

  1. The breadth of the Commvault suite, where it is backing up and restoring containers. 
  2. A lot of people are moving to containerization as a way of doing DevOps, and having a faster time to market for their products. Commvault is able to back VMs up and transition those VMs. 
  3. This is along with Cloud Connectors adopting the capability of doing backup and disaster recovery in the cloud. Commvault was at the forefront of that entire movement. 

Those are all unique capabilities that Commvault really spearheaded. I don't think there is any slowing that down. They can really crank out some really cool solutions in a pretty quick timeframe.

I have taken a number of management courses with Commvault University, including the Foundations course and some of the advanced courses. It is very good training. The instructors are very helpful. When we were going through training, one of the things that they suggested was, "Work with the product a little bit before you go to the training course so you know which questions to ask." This is really important because then you can ask the instructor specific questions that directly impact your environment, which are the most useful questions that you can ask.

I would rate Commvault as 10 out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1544721 - PeerSpot reviewer
Support Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Easy to manage with a simple user interface but needs better local support
Pros and Cons
  • "The user interface is very easy to navigate."
  • "The local support could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We do a lot of backups daily, and mainly we just keep the operating system images. We do take database and active directory backups as well. We handle all types of backups using this product.

What is most valuable?

The user interface is very easy to navigate. The interface itself is very simple.

Overall, it is doing the job we need it to do. 

It supports whatever line types and support types and systems we have. It supports all types of backup systems quite easily.

The stability has been very good so far. We haven't had any problems with it.

The product is easy to manage.

What needs improvement?

The local support could be improved. Right now, it's something about the solution that is lacking.

They should offer better partners that can help us implement the solution in a better way.

It would be ideal if they offered editing or activating options. 

I don't know how good it is with the virtual environment. I have not tried the product with VMware, for example.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about six years at this point. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've never had any issues with stability. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. It's pretty reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are still running with a single server, and it's a per server per instance-based license model. If we need to add our first storage-based model or another division, we cannot support both. It's a licensing model issue. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The local support is lacking overall. It's something they need to really work on improving.

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

We have worked with Veritas and IBM in the past, however, that was a very long time ago. I wouldn't be able to compare them to this solution as too much time has passed and much has changed. We used those solutions maybe ten or so years ago now.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not easy or difficult. It's moderate, or somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't describe the implementation as complex, however. 

The deployment too more than expected, as the vendor involved was having some staffing issues. The engineers were changing and we had some technical requirements which we realized at a later stage.

Maintenance isn't required very often, however, we have to ensure it is up-to-date. We also have to ensure whenever anything changes, we have to properly add them to the Commvault - whether they are new servers or new clients. Whenever we change our backup library or the memory storage, we have to reconfigure things. In that regard, there is occasional maintenance, depending on our background changes.

We only need one person to manage the solution. It doesn't take a lot of staff. Typically, they are an administrator and they handle everything that needs to be done as it's required.

What about the implementation team?

We are integrators and therefore we are able to implement the solution ourselves.

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

The pricing falls somewhere in the middle of what the market offers. It's not overly expensive. The licensing model is quite good. Everything is included under it.

What other advice do I have?

We are just a customer and an end-user.

We're using the latest version of the solution. We always use the latest version.

I'd recommend the solution.

I'd rate it at a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Vladan_Kojanic - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Project Manager at IIJ
Consultant
Top 20
Quick support, highly reliable, and beneficial automatic operations
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Commvault HyperScale X is the automatic nature of its operation. We don't need to worry about sets of documents. It worked automatically, we don't need to think about it. When you set the solution up in a good way, you don't need to worry."
  • "The price of Commvault HyperScale X could improve."

What is our primary use case?

We used Commvault HyperScale X to increase the security of datasets, to be sure that all data and all backups that we have are secure, and that we have them in another place, such as disaster recovery. The idea is to always have a third copy somewhere else. The initial idea was to have a third copy of that backup sets to be in the state government data center. However, before they finish, I left Ministry, and they have not finished that job.

Generally, the idea is to have a possibility, for all backup data, after some time, to be saved in another place. For now, everything is still inside the Ministry. 

How has it helped my organization?

Commvault HyperScale X has increased the way our organization functions by adding more security to the backup sets. In case the primary location is disabled, or there is some problem with the primary location, the second one will continue to work. The idea is to always have a working backup.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Commvault HyperScale X is the automatic nature of its operation. We don't need to worry about sets of documents. It worked automatically, we don't need to think about it. When you set the solution up in a good way, you don't need to worry.

What needs improvement?

The price of Commvault HyperScale X could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault HyperScale X for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Commvault HyperScale X is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Commvault HyperScale X is good. It is simple to add more systems or server storage.

We have approximately 400 endpoint users and 40 terabytes of data being used. 

How are customer service and support?

We had to use the support and they were responsive and quick. They fixed the problem, not immediately, but the timeframe was dependent on the ticket type. They were always there to help. They did regular call checks until everything was resolved. 

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

We used many different solutions previously. When we had some large issues in 2015, I decided to buy a professional corporate solution for all the systems. We did test some other solutions, but with Commvault HyperScale X, we received what we needed and much more. Additionally, Commvault HyperScale X was easy to maintain and use.

How was the initial setup?

The solution was easy for us to implement because we have been working with Commvault for many years, and we know what to do. The initial setup alone will that approximately two weeks. The longer portion is buying the hardware and setting it up.

I rate the initial setup of Commvault HyperScale X a three out of five.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation of Commvault HyperScale X with a local partner. They installed it and did the setup. For us, it was easy to add new features to the Commvault HyperScale X backup.

The company that has the solution is managing the solution.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a large return on investment by using Commvault HyperScale X.

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

The price of Commvault HyperScale X is a lot higher than competitors. As a government institution, we have annual costs. We made a budget for one year in advance. It was difficult to calculate the other solution's costs because each solution has another way of licensing. The solution is expensive but it is very good and we know the good quality we will be receiving.

There were not any additional costs. The new storage, software, and support were inside the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other solutions before choosing Commvault HyperScale X.

What other advice do I have?

The solution has changed since I have used it but what I know is the solution offers companies the possibility to have their own backup storage.

I rate Commvault HyperScale X a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: September 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.