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DD Boost vs Dell Avamar comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.3
Organizations find DD Boost financially beneficial, achieving 15-20% cost savings with efficient daily backups and reduced tape reliance.
Sentiment score
7.0
Dell Avamar offers cost-effective data reduction and deduplication, improving ROI and data security during disruptions, saving storage costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
DD Boost's customer service receives mixed reviews, with praise for knowledgeable teams but concerns about delays and post-acquisition issues.
Sentiment score
6.9
Dell Avamar support is mixed; praised for helpfulness but criticized for response times, offshore issues, and complex query handling.
Technically, they are good.
They efficiently resolve issues raised under the service arrangement.
When I had an issue, I just called and they connected and fixed it if something was wrong.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
DD Boost offers strong scalability, though costs and complexity arise from licensing, hardware constraints, and workload size transitions.
Sentiment score
6.8
Dell Avamar is lauded for scalability, but experiences vary due to node complexity, compatibility issues, and cost concerns.
You need to be clear about your backup requirements to ensure it meets your needs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
Users praise DD Boost for its high stability, reporting no significant issues and recommending it for reliable performance.
Sentiment score
8.5
Dell Avamar is stable and reliable, effectively handling backups, with minor support and integration issues on older systems.
I never had problems with the stability of DD Boost.
In the two years I’ve worked with it, we only encountered one hard drive failure, which was easy to replace.
Apart from one incident where the appliance failed to start due to a hardware issue, we have not had stability problems.
 

Room For Improvement

DD Boost needs better GUI, platform coverage, performance, integration, support, pricing transparency, and ransomware protection for improved usability.
Dell Avamar needs interface, cloud integration, speed, scalability, cost-effectiveness improvements, and stronger security and technical support.
Cleanup processes can slow down backup and restoration speeds during that period.
The cost of support has become high, especially with the split between Dell and VMware, now charged per core.
Dell Technologies are struggling to back up Office 365 and some open-source hypervisors like Proxmox.
There are instances where backups fail on certain applications, which is an area that could be improved.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers view DD Boost pricing as high, but value its deduplication capabilities despite varying licensing and support costs.
Dell Avamar is expensive, but offers flexible, cost-effective options for medium-to-large enterprises with capacity and CPU-based pricing.
However, the recurring support costs are significant, and the price has risen after the Dell and VMware split.
Pricing is competitive.
I don't currently have detailed knowledge about the pricing, however, it is geared towards enterprise businesses and might be on the higher side.
 

Valuable Features

DD Boost enhances backups with deduplication, data transfer speed, encryption, and replication, optimizing storage, efficiency, and security across locations.
Dell Avamar offers efficient, reliable backups and recovery with deduplication, VMware integration, scalability, and user-friendly features.
The most valuable features of DD Boost include its speed, deduplication, and space savings.
DD Boost serves as a backup appliance providing data deduplication and synchronization, which accelerates processes.
I believe the most valuable aspect is the speed of the technology.
The most valuable feature for me is the backup functionality.
 

Categories and Ranking

DD Boost
Ranking in Deduplication Software
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell Avamar
Ranking in Deduplication Software
3rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Deduplication Software category, the mindshare of DD Boost is 4.7%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell Avamar is 8.9%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Deduplication Software
 

Featured Reviews

Daniel Dumitru - PeerSpot reviewer
Speedy data backup with significant space savings and efficient deduplication
DD Boost has been very beneficial in enhancing our data backup processes. We perform backups with less time, and it allows for efficient on-premises recovery and restoration. We use it in conjunction with the Veeam suite. Overall, it has helped us make a big impact by allowing us to have more restore points and optimizing our storage efficiency with faster backups compared to tape backups.
Rahul Sarangdhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Works excellently for on-prem backup but not the best for Azure backups
Avamar is not the best tool when it comes to taking Azure backups. Like Commvault, if Avamar can support VM-level backups for the cloud, that would make it a bit better. There is another Dell EMC tool called NetWorker, which is a bit centralized tool. If you deploy a storage node locally, you can use the same UI tool for central management, but in the case of Avamar, it needs to be deployed individually on a site, irrespective of whether it's small or big. So, if I have 10 sites, I have to manage 10 Avamar. That's a bit of a headache. The Dell EMC solution professionals who connect with the clients should suggest NetWorker to clients with multiple sites rather than Avamar. That's because NetWorker gives more centralized control, but they keep recommending Avamar, which isn't the best practice. There are no free or cheaper training plans. Unless your company is a partner with Dell, you don't get the student guide training, etc. Their administrator guide does not have all the information required for a new person. It doesn't cover the basics. The student guide is good, but it's not free. If you are a partner, only then it's free. Otherwise, there is a cost of $2,000 to $3,000. For people who are new to Avamar, there should be some resources to enable them to study on their own at least 50% of the basics. If I want to study Commvault, I get so many documents and resources to study, but in the case of Dell EMC products, there aren't any free resources. Only if you're a partner, the resources are available for you to learn. The user manuals and administrator guides are just for deployment. They aren't good for learning the basics for a fresher.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DD Boost?
The time taken for backup is very fast.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DD Boost?
It's complicated for me because when we buy, we buy a package, so I don't have the DD price. Every Data Domain we buy comes with Boost technology, with the DDoS feature. I don't know the price of D...
What needs improvement with DD Boost?
The setup and handover process was not effective, preventing us from leveraging the software's available benefits. The cost of support has become high, especially with the split between Dell and VM...
What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?
From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC Avamar?
I don't currently have detailed knowledge about the pricing, however, it is geared towards enterprise businesses and might be on the higher side.
What do you like most about Dell Avamar?
Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Avamar
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about DD Boost vs. Dell Avamar and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.