Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Veritas Backup Exec vs Veritas NetBackup comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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

Veritas Backup Exec
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Veritas NetBackup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 2.0%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas NetBackup is 4.4%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Q&A Highlights

MP
Jan 23, 2020
 

Featured Reviews

OmobolajiOlaloku - PeerSpot reviewer
Highly stable, intuitive design, and integrates well
The scalability of Veritas Backup Exec is good. Veritas has physical hardware appliances, and hard disks, you can easily upgrade your backup appliances to have more storage if needed. It is easy to scale. We have approximately 200 people who use this solution in my organization. We are happy with the usage at this time. I recommend this solution for large-scale and enterprise companies.
N'GUESSAN E R - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient data recovery and replication features
There is a big change in Veritas. In the past, we could easily change servers or appliances and continue working by restoring the catalog. We could change servers from Linux to Linux or Linux to Solaris and perform catalog restores to continue working. But with the new version, we are forced to engage Veritas' professional services, which is too expensive. Sometimes, we've received quotes exceeding $100,000 for a catalog migration. This expense was unnecessary in the past. For instance, we used to install a new release of Linux and simply restore the catalog, and the system would function well. But with the latest version, it's no longer feasible. For instance, if we want to migrate from appliance 5030 to 5060 or even just 5050, we are compelled to engage Veritas consultants due to the intricate data manipulation involved. This additional expense is quite expensive. In the past, these devices didn't even exist, and we could easily restore the catalog, resulting in a fully functional system. However, the new version demands expensive expertise for such tasks, which I find unacceptable for our clients.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have found the overall features of the solution very good and there is the option to backup to the cloud."
"Once the solution is integrated with the Exchange, you just click Exchange to back up that file."
"The solution was stable and reliable."
"Backup Exec 2012 R2 is a very good product for the Windows file system and SQL backups. It is very user-friendly, but the next version Backup Exec 2014 that is released and the other next versions of Backup Exec product is not so friendly."
"It has good stability. Its interface is very good, responsive, and easy for restoring data. I use it for backup, encryption, and restore operations, and it works. I am using many agents from VM to LMDP. I also use an agent for SQL Server, which has advanced options because it is the Enterprise version."
"This solution has a very good technical support department that is very responsive."
"Setting up Backup Exec is straightforward. It took less than two weeks to get it up and running. You need maybe two people at most if you have a Veritas-certified engineer."
"One of the valuable features is the instant recovery for VMs. It reduces the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) drastically."
"Unauthorized people cannot log in and execute commands."
"Veritas NetBackup provides good backup performance, and I can mount the snapshot without an installer."
"The main features of this solution are deduplication, compression, ease of use, simplistic user interface, and compatibility with all the backup service systems."
"The product is stable and reliable."
"The reporting is very good, with all of the details highlighted and very clear."
"DLO: Client for laptops."
"The solution offers a lot of really great features that organizations can utilize and take advantage of."
"The documentation is good."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve by having better documentation."
"There is no training provided, and their technicians are unaware of the features available."
"This solution does not support image-level backup of a physical server."
"Currently, the solution does not have the capability to restore a single mailbox, so you lose a lot of time having to restore for example ten mailboxes just to recover one."
"The deduplication feature can be improved."
"The integration with SaaS applications like Office 365 needs to be improved."
"I have experienced some errors, such as failures, but there have not been very many."
"Enhanced support for cloud backup needs to be added."
"The solution could improve by having a feature to backup iSeries workloads."
"Support for the solution needs improvement."
"I would advise not to use this tool. I think between the licensing issues and the older solution mentality it is not a great solution."
"System administrators would be more efficient in NetBackup if the number of tools and command lines was reduced."
"The product is not able to keep up with other competitors in the market."
"What needs to be improved in Veritas NetBackup is its interface, e.g. they should make it more user friendly. Scalability for this product could still be improved, particularly its hardware appliance scalability."
"We are looking forward to testing a feature that promises to allow us to host a workload directly from the backup appliance without rehydrating any items."
"The solution's technical support process should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good."
"Veritas licensing is somewhat expensive. They have to decrease the price."
"We are satisfied with the price of this solution."
"Its price is reasonable."
"The product is inexpensive compared to enterprise software."
"I would like to see a better licensing model. They changed it and it's just horrendous."
"I think, at least for the price I've seen, it could be lower compared to other products."
"I rate the price of Veritas Backup Exec a four out of five."
"Licensing fees are charged based on the number of CPU cores."
"Our license is capacity-based."
"The price is okay."
"Veritas NetBackup is considerably cheaper than that of Druva, the former being quite affordable."
"The price of NetBackup is okay. I think it's a little bit expensive but manageable. It has a lot of features, and the backup is better than most applications, so I think the price is competitive."
"The solution is expensive compared to other alternatives."
"It was on a yearly basis. During the annual review, when we asked them about our licensing, they couldn't explain it. For example, we had reduced by a factor of 40%, but our license only dropped by 5%. We would then ask Veritas people if we've reduced this much and shut down these servers, why has our license changed so less? They were never able to give us a straight answer. They weren't able to say, "Well, you're using this, and this is more expensive." In many cases, as we reduced our capacity and what we were using with Veritas NetBackup, our licensing actually went up, and they were often unable to explain why."
"When you compare NetBackup's software licensing system with Veeam's, which is simpler and based on instances (or how many physical machines or virtual machines you want to protect), NetBackup isn't that competitive for smaller scale companies. However, if you're running many large workloads, then NetBackup may be the better option."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

MP
Jan 23, 2020
Jan 23, 2020
Both solutions are perfect and great names in data protection. If you have a small or medium setup then go with Backup Exec and if you have a big setup with the latest workload then go with Net Backup. You can get a TB license for all servers which you want to protect.
2 out of 9 answers
it_user762030 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 20, 2020
We have just recently migrated our backups off of Netbackup due to the cost. I do not remember the licensing, but the whole product was getting too expensive for not only the product but for the management of the product. We had 6 different pieces in the environment due to some configuration designs. So we have moved to a product that we pay so much for the hardware and then a license for the amount of data we ingest through that product. It is one environment management that can handle a large amount of Data Protection.
Bckupdataad67 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 20, 2020
The proper question is not Backupexec or Netbackup but what kind of protection you want to have? We had backup exec for more than 4 years and I can assure you, as a backup administrator, that I had some really hard days related to the proper coverage of servers, applications, and data. Netbackup is the proper choice if you want a serious protection infrastructure but you have to consider the following key facts: -What type of environment do you want to protect? Netbackup works perfectly with VMWare and with mixed environments. I'm not saying that it will not work with other providers but the integration with VMware is one of the greatest pros of this product. -Is the backup time window enough to cover all your resources? With Backupexec I was struggling to have all backup jobs complete in a time frame of 13 hours. With Netbackup and especially in conjunction with their Appliances I was able to add more and more jobs for the very same time frame. -What is your frontend volume? With Netbackup the best solution is to have a Frontend Capacity license. With this license type, there's no need to buy extra licenses for SQL, SharePoint, Exchange, Oracle, etc. It's an all-inclusive license. Furthermore, with the new version 8.2 you don't even have to install agents on servers! The prices may vary but I guess for i.e 20TB capacity the price will be somewhere between 80000 to 100000 euros (1-year maintenance included and assuming a feasible discount). You don't have to pay for an appliance but if you afford it it's highly recommended in order to achieve the best performance and other technologies (i.e AIR, deduplication ratio, etc). I don't really know what is the current status of Backupexec in terms of version, prices, features etc. As a product it's absolutely not comparable to Netbackup On the other hand we have left it behind for good.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How do the backup solutions of Veeam and Veritas compare?
Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too. But Veritas Netbac...
What do you like most about Veritas Backup Exec?
The most important feature is the variety of backup applications it supports, including ERP systems and most other programs, such as Microsoft.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas Backup Exec?
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being very expensive. The pricing is good. We have a yearly license. The total license cost is around 40,000 dollars. That's with add-ons and t...
What is the best next generation backup tool?
Assuming you have an onprem ecosystem which runs the VMware, physical systems on Win, Linux and Unix and run both traditional DB's and nosql DB's like mongo, then Netbackup (NBU) will be the right ...
What do you like most about Veritas NetBackup?
The most valuable feature of cloud integration is the ability to send data outside of your location. This can be achieved by integrating cloud tier options or other object storage solutions.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas NetBackup?
The product is cost-effective, and I would rate its pricing as an eight out of ten. The pricing model is based on the amount of data transferred, making it manageable for us.
 

Also Known As

Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Beta Offshore
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about Veritas Backup Exec vs. Veritas NetBackup and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.