Dell Avamar Reviews

Our company is Dell EMCs largest partner in Egypt and the Middle East. We have a titanium partnership with them and I'm the senior infrastructure solutions specialist.

Avamar is a very effective product when it comes to protecting the virtualization system and end points. Data Protection Suite has three recovery and backup protection solutions and Avamar is one of them. It's a very effective product and can be used for replication and high-end enterprise applications. The solution doesn't require a specific backup admin in the environment, every application admin will perform their own backup and data protection process. It's very easy to use. 

I believe they need to improve the interfaces. Without official training it's harder to deliver the marketing and the reviews over shared media.

This is a very stable and easy to use program. 

Dell offers us good technical support. 

Data Protection Suite has Avamar as one of its components and comes with a license that covers a limited number of virtual machines, capacity, and end points. It's not sold as a separate product. I believe $1000 may cover a single socket and covers the whole data center including the endpoint, the replication, the CD and data protection. It's very cost effective and affordable when compared to other solutions. 

I need to rate the Data Protection Suite as a whole, given that Avamar is no longer sold as a separate product. 

I rate the whole solution a nine out of 10. 

The most valuable feature of Avamar would have to be the way it works over needing very little bandwidth to move data across a WAN or LAN.

The interface has room for improvement. It's not ideal right now.

The product needs to have compatibility with more advanced systems such as Oracle ASM files.

The automation and orchestration features need work. Other products like Vain, for example, lend themselves to better automation and orchestration. 

If you want to set up integration with a cloud environment, for example, it's very difficult to do that. Avamar doesn't work very well in the cloud environment.

The solution requires better ease of use and compatibility. It would be ideal if it could work with Oracle on an ISM environment.

There needs to be better iintegration into the public cloud environments. 

It would be better if the cost of the product was less.

I've been using the solution for about ten years now. It's been at least a decade at this point. I've worked with it in various companies as well.

Technical support, from my experience with the vendor, has been good. We're satisfied with the level of service Dell offers. They seem to be knowledgeable and responsive.

I personally have a lot of experience in the space. For example, I've worked with Looker, NetWorker, Commvault, and other competitive technologies, including Dell's own NetWorker.

The initial setup is okay. It's a little complex, however, overall, it's not too bad to implement.

The price of the product could be lower. It's actually probably one of the more expensive products, at least in the enterprise-class. Other technologies are cheaper, and other vendors are adding more features. Therefore, it's falling behind a bit in what other vendors are doing. They need to catch up.

I'm just a customer and don't have a professional relationship with Dell.

Whether or not, I'd advise a new user to implement this product depends on their environment. It's very good. It's a very well distributed environment and it's probably the best product on the market. However, most companies today are engaging in leveraging the cloud, and in that case, my advice to them is to look at other technologies.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate it a seven. If it offered better orchestration and cloud capabilities, for example, it would push it up to a nine. A cost reduction in their pricing model would push it up there as well.

We're using it in our company. We primarily use the solution as a backup.

The backup functionality with Data Domain is good.

Overall, it works quite well.

It's very easy to install the solution.

The product is scalable.

It's stable and offers good performance.

It cannot replicate the backup, it can only do the backup. If you want to replicate you need RecoveryPoint.

Avamar cannot back up Nutanix as a virtual solution.

I've been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable. The performance is good. It's good for vSAN. We haven't dealt with bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze.

We have found the solution can scale well. If you need to expand it, it's not a problem.

All of our production is backed up with Avamar.

After we buy Nutanix and an Azure Stack, since we are a service provider and in the future, we will make our service catalog on the Azure Stack and Nutanix Cloud.

Technical support is pretty good. We are pleased with their level of support.

I also work with Veeam and NetBackup.

With Veeam, the advantage is you can back up and replicate with the same product, and it is compatible with all virtual solutions.

The initial setup is simple. We buy the service from Dell. 

I was not a part of the deployment as I am a pre-sale manager. I do not handle the setup process directly and cannot speak to how long it takes. 

The cost is lower than Veeam, however, how much it actually costs depends on the customer and the use case.

I'm not sure of the exact licensing costs.

We were a partner and resellers. In my last job, I was a preferred partner.

I'm not sure which version we're using. I'm not the backup administrator.

We will stay with Avamar for this platform, however, maybe we will look into Nutanix, and that's why we are searching for another solution. Avamar cannot back up Nutanix as a virtual solution.

I'd warn potential users that it's not the best solution if you have other products other than VMware in your production. If you are just using VMware, it's a very good option.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten as it doesn't work well with every solution, only VMware.

In Avamar, we work within the IT environment, integrating state-of-the-art solutions. Avamar is installed on appliances, and we initialize it using specific tools. If you're starting with the basic setup, you can install the OVA file within Dell's management center. For this solution, we utilize E-Lab Navigator.

In our system, clients often request image-level backup capabilities. These are highly valued, and it's recommended to use data packages for image-level backups. At the GaN Summit, it was also suggested that GANFAST services recommend high-level backups because they have a MELT library for our storage systems. So, based on the client's needs.

Without the proper setup, we cannot perform immediate or virtual machine backups; only high-level backups are possible. If Avamar could be upgraded to support immediate backups, it would be a significant improvement. Compared to other solutions, like Teams, which enables virtual machine-level backups, Avamar handles these tasks with more limitations.

I have been working with Dell Avamar as a reseller.

If you've obtained the necessary authority, such as from the Ethiopian government, Avamar can be integrated with other solutions like Datadog and Deepgram. Deepgram has also purchased additional protection tools for its certificate service. In this solution, Avamar is utilized within its data center, including integration with other systems. Additionally, Avamar is integrated as part of a broader strategy for the Ministry of Agriculture and the African Union, working with other solutions for redundancy in the virtualized environment.

Avamar is a very good solution. It stands out compared to other options, especially when we expand storage with Data Domain or other accessible storage systems. Even with ML Creative Labels, we can enhance tagging and improve storage management. I have worked with Avamar on four or five implementations, and I can confidently say it performs well.

The technical support provided is excellent. I'm currently dealing with some issues after finishing the network server integration. I'm also working on a network attack server. Additionally, I'm coordinating with the KBC team remotely.

Positive

We are working on projects related to shipping and logistics, specifically on the backup end. We also use Networker, which is very fast. I work closely with the sales team because we have a premium-level partnership. When we submit projects, we are often deeply engaged with the product.

We use the data domain most of the time. In that environment, it integrates well. Compared to other solutions, we work closely with the team to manage case-based solutions more effectively.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The solution's performance is between satisfactory and good.

It's a stable product.

The solution scales well. 

The performance takes up a lot of resources, unfortunately. We'd like it to be less heavy.

I've been using the solution for four years. 

The performance has been okay. It's pretty stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The solution scales well. That's not an issue for us.

We have five to seven users on the solution currently.

We do not have plans to increase usage.

We haven't contacted technical support recently. We want it decommissioned right now. 

We are using Microsoft Escort Server for the applications we try to develop. For the active directories and for SharePoint, for those solutions, we are using Microsoft Escort Server.

We are planning to bring on a new solution to replace Avamar.

Before, Dell Avamar, we did not use anything.

Compared to the solution we are looking at now, it seems pretty straightforward to implement. 

It doesn't take such a long time. Within an average amount of time, after you have the product, you can finalize everything within five working days.

Since we are a government institution, commonly, the setup process is actually done by the supplier.

You can get a three-year license if you like. You can subscribe for three years, and if you want a 30-month subscription for the support and service, you can also do that.

It can be expensive. 

We are not using the latest version of the solution right now. 

I would not advise people to use this product. 

Maybe it depends on the case of the organization. The performance is a big issue for us and maybe the support service. If the supplier is enough to provide support to the end user, I might maybe recommend to others, however, it needs a capacity built internally and maybe in the market. That's the big issue with it. Otherwise, if any users have skills to manipulate using it, utilize the resource, I would recommend it. 

I'd rate the solution five out of ten.

When Avamar started out, it used to be for a small to medium environment, but now it's done a lot of changes and it's a good backup solution, especially within your VMware environment.

The most valuable feature is the integration with Data Domain and your VM stacks. One of the good new features is that it integrates with Azure and AWS, and it has the potential to scale out into multiple cloud platforms.

If you don't have DPA, the reporting features are not as user-friendly, so reporting is something that they can improve on.

I've been working with Avamar for close to ten years. 

The solution is very stable. 

If you have Data Domain integrated, the solution is scalable. 

I would rate the tech support for Avamar as a nine out of ten. 

The initial setup is a bit complex, especially if it's a new installation, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty smooth. 

The length of the deployment depends on your plan, what you need to back up, and if you order Oracle and whatever else you need beforehand. Worst case scenario, it would probably take a week to set up, but if you have all your ducks in a row, it'll be maybe two days, max.

It is not difficult at all to maintain. 

I have previously worked with Networker and Data Domain. I also worked with PPDM. When I logged calls with PPDM, there was always an issue and it would take a day or two for support to come. I don't know if it was a skill issue, but the guy would usually take the information and go and discuss it with guys at a higher level and then come back to me a day or two later.

This is a great product and the integration is easy with other solutions, like the cloud or Data Domain, and it's scalable. I think to some extent Networker used to be the big brother, but now Avamar is taking over that space.

I would rate this solution as a nine out of ten. 

We use this solution for tape backup and data domain. It is an on-premises deployment.

We have a lot of backups, and this tool helps us with the RMAN Backup.

The most valuable feature is D2 and conversion with the Data Domain because other solutions are not able to use the Data Domain.

Integration with VMware is great.

There are limitations when trying to use this solution with Hyper-V. The limitations exist when trying to restore a backup from Hyper-V.

This solution needs to have full integration with Hyper-V, like the way Veeam has. In the hub, the DBA cannot restore the backup directory directly on the host. They have to restore the data disks and then deploy to the VM after this is done.

I would like to see an open-source learning platform for this solution.

This is a very stable solution. We use this product on a daily basis.

I like the scalability this solution has. We have more than fifty severs and more than four hundred VMs. We do not plan to increase usage at this time.

Technical support for this solution was great. They are very quick to respond.

Prior to this solution, we worked with Commvault, Veritas, and Veeam. We still work with multiple vendors for our backup and recovery solution.

The initial setup of this solution is simple. The deployment took a couple of days for the components. There are some steps to perform on the network before everything can be installed.

There are three members that make up our administrative team.

During the implementation, we worked with a partner and it was a good experience.

This solution is less expensive than Veeam for us, although it depends on the customer because we get a great discount.

This is a solution that I recommend, although if you have Hyper-V then I would suggest you use Veeam. Veeam is fully integrated with Hyper-V, and there are more features in Veeam.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

There are two main use case for Dell Avamar in our organization. Firstly, it was used for virtual machines in our virtualization environment, but we replaced it with Veeam as it wasn't working well for us. Secondly, we use Dell Avamar as a backup solution for our clients and employees, and it performs very well in this role.

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.

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.

I have been using Dell Avamar for the past three years.

Regarding stability, I would rate Dell Avamar eight out of ten. It is very stable, depending on your infrastructure.

I have had experience with technical support from Dell for Avamar. It's not very good, as it takes a very long time to get what you need. The main issues are with response time and quality. It seems there are no mature or scalable people working in this area. They need to build their own consultants or have better first-line support.

Neutral

We also use Veeam backup along with Avamar. Veeam is used for virtual machines and covers usability, reporting, deduplication, and notifications, which Avamar does not. However, Veeam is not working well for end users, which is why we use both environments. If we had all functionalities in one solution, it would be easier for us, as it currently requires two teams to manage both solutions.

Regarding pricing, I would say Avamar is slightly expensive compared to its functionalities. It's not high-priced or low-priced but somewhere in between.

I would recommend Dell Avamar for small and medium enterprises. I don't think it would be suitable for large companies.

Overall, I would rate Dell Avamar a seven out of ten. It's not a bad product, but it needs some improvements in functionalities, support services, and overall maturity. If these improvements are made, it could be one of the best backup solutions in the world.

As a user, I would recommend Dell Avamar for backup solutions for end users, but not for VMs, SQL, Oracle, or any application running at the application level. For end users, I would recommend it 100%, but not for backend infrastructure at this time.