Dell Avamar vs Microsoft DPM comparison

Dell Technologies and Microsoft are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.8, while Microsoft is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8. Dell Technologies holds a 3.6% mindshare in BRS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Dell Avamar

Read 88 Dell Avamar reviews

8,250 Views
5,969 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Microsoft DPM

Read 19 Microsoft DPM reviews

3,448 Views
2,074 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

Dell Avamar

Microsoft DPM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Dell Avamar and Microsoft DPM are popular competitors in the backup solutions category. Dell Avamar holds the upper hand with its advanced deduplication and compression techniques, while Microsoft DPM excels in environments using Microsoft software by offering great integration.

Features: Dell Avamar offers high compression and source-side deduplication that optimize storage by minimizing bandwidth usage. It supports background snapshots and tight integration with VMware, making it suitable for extensive backups, including SQL Server and NDMP. Microsoft DPM provides seamless protection for Microsoft environments, efficient item-level recovery options, and integration with System Center, enabling smooth backups for SQL Server and Exchange.

Room for Improvement: Dell Avamar needs enhancements in troubleshooting ease and large database integration. It could benefit from competitive pricing and expanded cloud options. Microsoft DPM requires improvement in ease of use and compatibility with diverse software solutions, alongside better reporting to simplify administration tasks.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Avamar provides straightforward on-premises deployments but lacks consistent technical support. Despite simple deployment processes, users often express varied experiences with support responsiveness. Microsoft DPM is easy to integrate within Microsoft-centric environments, with sufficiently adequate customer service, although some users seek enhancements.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Avamar is generally considered expensive, as it couples its pricing to integrated hardware. Nevertheless, its ROI is justified by reduced storage needs from efficient data compression. Microsoft DPM is cost-effective when tied within Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, though potentially costly for smaller organizations, yet offers significant ROI in Microsoft exclusive setups.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Avamar vs. Microsoft DPM Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. Microsoft DPM

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Dell Avamar

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

12th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Deduplication Software (3rd)

Microsoft DPM

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

22nd

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Avamar is 3.6%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft DPM is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Rahul Sarangdhar

Senior Specialist at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

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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RifkanHasan

Group Assistant, General Manager of IT at CIC

Backup and recovery that is stable but support is no longer in existence

The DPM is pretty good, but when it comes to external devices, you can't back up to the external device. It's a huge drawback because once everything goes down, it goes down fully. We can't take a snapshot and take it outside, which is a problem. Also, when it comes to recovery, the recovery process doesn't work properly. It doesn't recover. One of our drives failed and when we wanted to recover it from the other drive, it never worked. So, we couldn't recover the data. Recovery of data if the server goes down, is not very good. The DPM is good apart from the support services. We were told that the support was no longer in existence, which is why we are looking for another provider. In the next release, I would like to see backup to external devices, so it can always restore the backup and we can take it externally and store it somewhere that it is off-site and archived. Currently, it does not allow us to do that because it is required to be in one location.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The entire system operates seamlessly, with minimal hands-on involvement, allowing us to focus on monitoring rather than constant adjustments or deployments, as seen in larger, more dynamic environments."

"We love the instant recovery functionality. It's very useful."

"Stable and scalable backup and recovery software, with good technical support."

"Graphically, it's very user interactive. It's got a very nice interface."

"The solution is very stable."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

"The function I find most valuable in Dell Avamar is its ability to take differential backups for users. This feature is very effective for both backup and restore operations. We've had multiple cases where we needed to restore files directly from Avamar, and it worked perfectly. The Delta feature, which captures changes in user files, is particularly useful."

"What I found valuable in Dell Avamar is the deduplication feature. I also like that the solution can be integrated with Data Domain."

More Dell Avamar pros

"The most valuable feature is that DPM has an index so individual files can be searched."

"The automated procedure is quite good for us, as it is able to capture all of the information that we require."

"It is almost perfect for Microsoft products. It is not a very powerful tool, but it is okay for small sites and small businesses with Microsoft products. It is easy to use for backup and restore. It is good for backing up Microsoft servers such as Exchange and SharePoint servers."

"This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations."

"The initial setup is quite straightforward."

"The most important feature is that it's easy to use."

"Its capability to give a BMR for all the workstations that I want to connect to."

"I could back up all the stuff we had, even the VMs we have for Hyper V."

More Microsoft DPM pros

Cons

"The UI is quite old. We've been using this UI since last year, and they haven't changed it. It would be better to update the UI periodically and create attractive dashboards from an administrative point of view."

"The initial setup is a bit complex and could be simpler."

"Some integrations are not in place, such as the email alerts, which are not compatible with Office 365 SMTP gateway."

"Reporting in Dell Avamar needs improvement. The current reporting tool is very basic, and you have to dig deep into each function to get the information you need. For example, getting the status of failed and succeeded backups is very difficult in Avamar compared to Veeam. As for additional functionality, I would suggest improving WAN optimization. It's very important for getting offline or off-site backups. It should also include a tool to check for ransomware which would be beneficial. If a backup is vulnerable to ransomware, there should be a way to detect it, like using ARR rules to ensure your backup is ransomware-free. I haven't had any experience integrating Dell Avamar with AI solutions. It’s also a good point that Avamar doesn't offer such integrations, which is an area where Dell could improve."

"Technical support should be more knowledgeable."

"The configuration and expansion aspects of the solution need improvement. They're complicated and don't really integrate well."

"The management of this solution is a little bit difficult for IT administrators. They have to be trained before going through the system."

"In my opinion, the user interface and the user friendliness could be improved. The specific thing I have in mind are the graphics, which are not quite user-friendly."

More Dell Avamar cons

"The user friendliness could be improved."

"It needs portability for other vendors. It is good for backing up Microsoft servers, but it doesn't support third-party solutions such as Oracle Database. It depends on Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy, especially for Hyper-V, which has a lot of problems. They should enhance the Volume Shadow Copy functionality. Its reporting should also be better. Reporting is too weak in DPM."

"Compatibility and integration with other products needs improvement."

"Additional Hyper-V knowledge would be great."

"You have only a few settings and if you change them for some special configurations, it's very difficult."

"The data tagging feature needs improvement. The solution could be a bit more intuitive in certain aspects."

"Microsoft DPM could improve if it was available in a public or private cloud."

"It would be better if it integrated seamlessly with open source and competitor products. In the next release, I would like to see some data governance frameworks. It should have support features for data integration and data replication like Veeam. Right now, we are also using Veeam for certain scenarios."

More Microsoft DPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It might not be beneficial to smaller businesses due to its high cost."

"The price is fair."

"Licensing fees are paid annually."

"It's an expensive tool"

"The cost of the solution is very expensive."

"Licensing was generally on a per VM or terabyte basis. They changed their licensing model a couple of times and turned it into socket-based licensing, which is an improvement in their licensing model."

"It's a very high-end solution and comparable to Rubrik and Cohesity."

"On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing policy of Dell Avamar as five. The solution has a very good price, and a lot of improvements were done to it."

More Dell Avamar pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft DPM is a free solution. However, we pay approximately $3,000 annually for support."

"Microsoft DPM can be considered as an expensive solution for smaller or medium enterprises, but we have been satisfied with the price structure as it is fixed and it offers a variety of useful features"

"I think Microsoft DPM pricing is reasonable. The additional costs are related to storage and technical support."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell Avamar?

Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft DPM?

This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft DPM?

Microsoft licensing is complex, especially for enterprise or data center solutions. However, it's not more complicated compared to other competitors and the market is well balanced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft DPM?

I am not sure if I am competent enough to address areas for improvement in Microsoft DPM.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell Avamar

Compared 32% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell Avamar

Compared 16% of the time

Dell NetWorker vs Dell Avamar

Compared 12% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell Avamar

Compared 6% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Dell Avamar

Compared 6% of the time

More Dell Avamar Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 62% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 8% of the time

Azure Backup vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 7% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 6% of the time

Rubrik vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft DPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar

January 2025

Download Dell Avamar product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft DPM

January 2025

Download Microsoft DPM product report

Also Known As

Avamar

DPM, Data Protection Manager, MS DPM

Overview

Dell Avamar data protection software delivers flexible and efficient backup and recovery operations that can scale from daily backup protection for endpoints to high-performance protection for large enterprises with diverse applications and workloads. With application consistent recovery, automation and fast backup and restores, Avamar can help you meet your SLAs and optimize your backup and recovery processes

If you are deploying all or part of your backup environment to the cloud, Avamar enables you to make the most of your cloud investment, enabling replication, disaster recovery and long-term retention for customers using AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.

Avamar is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite, which offers comprehensive data protection software applications and tools. Avamar is delivered as software and as a virtual edition.

Dell Technologies

Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM) is an enterprise backup system that can be used to back up data from a source location to a target secondary location. Microsoft DPM allows you to back up application data from Microsoft servers and workloads, and file data from servers and client computers. You can create full backups, incremental backups, differential backups, and bare-metal backups to completely restore a system. Microsoft DPM can store backup data to disks for short-term storage, to Azure Cloud for both for short-term and long-term storage off-premises, and to tapes for long-term storage, which can then be stored offsite. Backed up files are indexed, which allows you to easily search your recovered data.

Microsoft DPM contributes to your business continuity and disaster recovery strategy by facilitating the backup and recovery of enterprise data, ensuring resources are available and recoverable during planned and unplanned outages. When outages occur and source data is unavailable, you can use DPM to easily restore data to the original source or to an alternate location.

Key Features of Microsoft DPM:

Application-aware backup: Application-aware backup of Microsoft workloads, including SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint.
File backup: Back up files and folders on computers running Windows Server and Windows operating systems.
System backup: Back up the entire system state or run complete backups of physical computers running Windows Server or Windows client operating systems.
Hyper-V backup: Back up Hyper-V virtual machines running either Windows or Linux. You can choose to back up an entire virtual machine or specific applications on the virtual machine.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft DPM stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust and flexible backup capabilities and its being easy to manage with one central dashboard.

William M., the head of ICT infrastructure & security at a tech services company, notes, "The automated procedure is quite good for us, as it is able to capture all of the information that we require. The compatibility is very good. We have an IBM AS/400 machine in our office that we're using, and we're able to back it up fine. This is the same for other systems, as well. I think that overall, it is really adaptable, compatible, and scalable."

Mohammed I., a managing director at Adalites, notes, "I would definitely recommend data protection DPM. It has an application backup, a file backup, a system backup and a hypervisor. It works flawlessly, never a problem."

Rodney C. a system analyst at a financial services firm, writes, "The most valuable feature is that DPM has an index so individual files can be searched. This is our primary tool for recovering deleted files or folders. Once we implement a System Center Operations Manager, all of our DPM servers can then be seen on one dashboard."

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions

Medical Park, Centropol Energy, a.s., NCFE, D & H Distributing, Metalor, Colosseum, a.s., Sanitas S.A., Icebreaker

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. Microsoft DPM

January 2025

Free Report: Dell Avamar vs. Microsoft DPM

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