Dell transformed disk-based backups. Basically, we moved from tape to disk-based backups. We moved from IBM PSM on tape, to Dell-based backups using an appliance. These appliances are purpose-built backup appliances. Avamar and DataDomain are both purpose-built and they are extremely popular — soon to be number one in the backup appliance market. Avamar is associated with compliance, and DataDomain is more of our target. They are extremely reliable and scalable — they provide the best de-duplication on the market. They are very easy to use, set up, and manage.
Data Protection Specialist at Tech Mahindra Limited
Integrated de-duplication technology for fast and efficient backup recovery
Pros and Cons
- "They are extremely reliable and scalable — they provide the best de-duplication on the market."
- "There also needs to be single sign-on support."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
They have come up with Data Protection Central. We have multiple different management layers. For each product, we have a different management interface, so if they could merge all of them into one single-pane view of management, that would be extraordinary. Technically, they've done that but it's still not a single-pane view like in Commvault or in Rubrik, or another one of these new-age unit products. With a single pane, you can manage everything.
If you have to manage your network, it's a different console — It's not easy to manage. They've introduced a Data Protection Center to basically make it easier to manage everything from one console, or at least to report everything on one console which is very good. All the statistics appear, the health and the scheduled services, all of that appears on one screen. Still, to manage it, you have to click and invoke each separate console. If they could just integrate all of that into one console, one HTML Sybase console, then our lives would be much easier. There also needs to be single sign-on support.
We need single sign-on support to access all these different tools instead of having to login individually, which is the current problem — it takes too much effort. You have to go into each one and authenticate separately. You need to enable LDAP authentication for each of these and then proceed to what they need. They don't have role-based access, which is another problem. For example, if you want one person to have less access compared to another person, you can't do that easily.
Management and data analytics could be improved. I would like to see a lot more customizable reports, without coaching professional services regarding the Data Protection Advisor — it's not that simple to do. Also, I'm looking for analytics, for instance, something that tells us about the structure of the data.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell EMC Avamar for six years.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Dell is exceptionally great. They offer support for almost all of the products on the market — all of the main operating systems, applications, databases, everything. That's a big plus for them.
Buyer's Guide
Dell Avamar
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Dell Avamar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend this solution. Dell EMC is definitely one of the top three to four solutions. I'd recommend it because I think the cost of ownership and the return on investment are both extremely good — very low.
It's very stable, reliable and very fast. The backup center stores information extremely fast, the de-duplication is great. All of this is available under one hood. The complexity is hidden from you. With Dell, everything has been done for you.
Out of the box, it's ready to go, and it's very, very fast.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.
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
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System and Cloud Deployment Engineer at IE Network solutions
Installed on appliances, and initialized using specific tools with excellent support
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Dell Avamar as a reseller.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Last updated: Aug 19, 2024
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Dell Avamar
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Dell Avamar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Storage specialist at Vodacom Business
Reliable and scalable backup and recovery solution that stands out for its efficient global deduplication, seamless integration with virtualized environments, and robust technical support
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "The challenges we do face typically revolve around aligning specific features with our accustomed tool usage."
What is our primary use case?
It specifically caters to the backup needs of our data, ensuring secure and compliant operations.
What is most valuable?
The scale is small, yet it efficiently handles all tasks in a unified manner. 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.
What needs improvement?
The challenges we do face typically revolve around aligning specific features with our accustomed tool usage.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate its stability capabilities eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Since it's limited to the PCI pages, it might not necessarily be scalable to serve as our enterprise-wide tool, especially when considering larger-scale environments. Focusing on the requirements outlined in the RFP and the demonstrations conducted as part of the RFP process, I find it satisfactory and that it meets our needs.
How are customer service and support?
Its technical support is excellent. It stands out as a primary factor in our decision to choose Dell. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We transitioned from using Veritas appliances to the Dell solution in the same environment.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The installation process was smooth as we transitioned from using Veritas appliances to the Dell solution in the same environment. A third-party company, Plus House, subcontracted by Dell, handled the installation remotely, working closely with our junior team members. The initial setup was completed within a day for each site, and an additional day was required to configure the clustering of backups, including SQL backups. This extra day was dedicated to finalizing the clustering and ensuring that all configurations were in place. Maintenance is handled by a team of approximately seven individuals who undergo training and manage regular tasks.
What was our ROI?
They deliver substantial value in return.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am highly satisfied with the pricing structure provided and the discounts we get. The overall cooperation with Dell has been exceptional; they consistently go above and beyond to align with our budgets. The global transition and the impact of exchange rates, particularly the fluctuation between the South African Rand and the U.S. Dollar, have introduced some complexities, but nothing major. The current pricing is generally satisfactory. I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Despite falling under Vodafone globally and dealing with VBC, the procurement company, there were instances where Dell offered superior deals in South Africa compared to what VBC could secure with other vendors. This was a key factor in our decision to stick with Dell rather than exploring alternatives like Huawei or HP.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Supervisor de servicio técnico at Hyh solutions
Direct activity feature is very helpful; good tech support
Pros and Cons
- "Dell Avamar has helped our organization by allowing us to do backups."
- "This solution could improve by introducing daily verifications and another repository."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for Dell Avamar is backup and verification.
How has it helped my organization?
Dell Avamar has helped our organization by allowing us to do backups. We can tell machines to do backups in the application.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature for me is direct activity.
What needs improvement?
This solution could improve by introducing daily verifications and another repository.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of this solution a five, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
How are customer service and support?
My impression is that their technical support is quite good.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the initial setup process a five, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My impression – and that of some other people – is that this solution is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to other people.
I would rate this solution as a whole an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
MIS Manager at Misr Glass Manufacturing
We don't face any daily issues, and it sends clear notifications directly to your account if anything happens
Pros and Cons
- "So far, Avamar covers everything we want. We are replicating to other sites for disaster recovery, so it's working well for us."
- "Setting up Avamar wasn't so easy, and we had a partner doing the installation for us. Though it was hard at first, it's getting better. The main difficulty was finding plugins for Oracle Database. It took some time to open a ticket with Dell, but everything was fine after that."
What is our primary use case?
We have three sites. We deployed Avamar on one site three years ago then added the same setup for the other sites. Following best practices, we're using Avamar with Dell Data Domain for data compression and deduplication.
What is most valuable?
Avamar is mainly for backing up the machines.
What needs improvement?
Avamar's user interface could use some work. When we open a ticket, they are working with Linux commands. It's not easy to manage everything through the web interface. I would like to do everything through the interface that you can do with Linux commands.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Avamar for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Avamar is stable. We don't face any daily issues, and it sends clear notifications directly to your account if anything happens.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
So far, Avamar covers everything we want. We are replicating to other sites for disaster recovery, so it's working well for us.
How are customer service and support?
We have an annual subscription for support, so we contact them for upgrades and stuff like that. There is some inconsistency. Some of the support engineers are experienced, but others are new. It sometimes takes time at the first level of support, but all our issues get solved in the end.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Avamar wasn't so easy, and we had a partner doing the installation for us. Though it was hard at first, it's getting better. The main difficulty was finding plugins for Oracle Database. It took some time to open a ticket with Dell, but everything was fine after that. I would rate the overall deployment experience eight out of 10. We have two system engineers for deployment and maintenance as needed. They're not managing the solution full time, but they handle new bundles, fixes, etc.
What about the implementation team?
We had a partner, but they weren't so experienced. It seemed like we were the first customer that had implemented Avamar.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It was a package, so I don't know Avamar's exact price. However, it was nearly $200,000 for the VxRail nodes, Data Domain, and Avamar. That includes everything for three years. Then we have to pay annually for support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were looking for Veeam at the same time. It's good and has the same features, but we were buying all our solutions from Dell, like VxRail servers, Data Domain, etc. I think it's more complicated but otherwise fine.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Dell EMC Avamar nine out of 10. If you don't have Avamar experience, you need to work with a partner. It's not straightforward, but it's effective. However, Avamar only takes what has been written in a day. It takes a backup of a short time and doesn't do any duplications.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Storage Management Specialist at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Integrates well with different platforms and includes a comprehensive search option
Pros and Cons
- "The solution integrates well with Unix, Windows, Hyper-V and VM."
- "A benefit would be support for either Azure Cool Storage or AWS Glacier."
What is our primary use case?
We deal with data that has compliance requirements for long-term retention, which is like 10 years plus the life of the client. As long as they're in our program, we have to keep anything related to them for that time period, which can run up to 30 years. We deal with all things related to that. I'm a storage management specialist and we are customers of Dell.
What is most valuable?
I like that the solution integrates well with the different platforms that we have. Unix, Windows, Hyper-V and VM. Not all the solutions do that.
What needs improvement?
My biggest thing for improvement would be support for either Azure Cool Storage or AWS Glacier. Right now they don't do that. They don't have official works for those peer solutions. It should go hand-in-hand with the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for eight years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've used up the space quicker than intended. We do have some growth available in the existing appliance. We're still in the process of migrating some of that data into the cloud. The big benefit of the cloud is that you can have it stored in disparate data centers that are in different regions of the country and it meets compliance requirements because it's in two physical locations that are apart. So it allows us then to totally remove it from our local copy. I do the deployment and maintenance.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support has been good, occasionally there are issues with the accents so a lot of times it's better with a chat session or typing messages versus a call. It's a very formalized process. It's virtualized now. So it's a little different than the old two physical boxes.
How was the initial setup?
Moving from old to new was not as smooth as I would have expected, simply because we had to upgrade our local storage. Going forward we won't have those issues. We had just the formats and Avamar supports their own format and stores it locally. They also have the data domain which doesn't really migrate from app bar to data domain so you have to basically hydrate it and then we re-back it up to go on the data bank, which was our issue. They use their ADME product do that migration. Basically, they get their technicians involved and it took several months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The system was sold on the premise that it was going to reduce man-hours and not require having to work with tape. I don't think it was a cost saving. Now with the cloud tier implemented, there are some long-term benefits, but I don't know if there was ever a cost benefit associated with it. It's just anytime you're having to have a dedicated internet connection or net for just simple tap operations, that's something that adds costs.
What other advice do I have?
The old version didn't have a comprehensive search. It was one of my pain points with the product when it came to restores. That has now been included so I'd recommend this solution with the all-in-one solutions that they have with their data protection units - that's how I'd recommend it be deployed.
With the DP 4,400 which includes Avamar, data domain search, and backup management, I'd rate this solution a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Backup Systems Engineer at Nordstrom, Inc.
Access to logs for each backup enables easy troubleshooting
What is our primary use case?
This product is very easy to use. The interface is easier to use than other backup solutions. The product is mature and can handle all of our data protection.
How has it helped my organization?
The simplicity of use and the ease of updating physical client software is one of the best features.
What is most valuable?
- Image level backups
- Replication for DR
- Almost instant access restores
- The access to the logs for each backup allows for easy troubleshooting.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice to have a truly native SQL backup solution. All of our DBAs are looking for a truly native solution. They are satisfied with the current solution but would really like a truly native solution like the Oracle RMAN solution. What we mean by true Native solution, is that no Data Protection product has a true MS Native solution to protecting data. What we have been doing for years is have the DBA script in the Native MS to do a dump of the DB to a file. Then the backup solution would come behind and pick up those dumps. Then the DBA would have to request a restore of the dump files, and then use a script to pull that information. Where with RMAN, the DBA can write a script to backup and restore directly to the Avamar. It is a much cleaner and less costly solution. With the SQL dump and scape, we need so much MORE storage space to help them keep all of their data protected.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This product is very stable. We have never had any outages and the support for this product is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product can grow with your company. We selected this solution as it allows us to keep the existing data domains that we used for our previous solution. We have the ability to add more storage to the existing DDs or to add another as needed.
How are customer service and technical support?
Like any other company, many of the support calls go to places on the other side of the world. It is sometimes difficult to understand them. I found that the support that was given was very good. I usually choose to receive support via Webex and email due to the communication challenges you get with offshore support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to have Veeam and NetBackup. We moved to Avamar as it had more features; it helped reduce the number of environments we had to support. It also reduced the amount of time we spend on upgrades. It simplified our total data protection and reduced the number of clients that were required to be installed.
How was the initial setup?
The initial set up was very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We used a combination as we have some people who are new to the Avamar product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The set up is really easy. They have a virtual edition for smaller environments, and the documentation for doing the install is really good. For larger environments, the PS group works directly with you on the install and setup for new customers. The cost was actually cheaper than any of the other solutions we looked at.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at a variety of other products. One of the main reasons we selected Avamar was the fact that they have support for physical servers running Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, and AIX. We have a large enough physical environment that we needed the ability to protect them.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
A highly stable solution that can be used for backup and recovery of a virtual environment
Pros and Cons
- "We used Dell Avamar for backup and recovery of a virtual environment."
- "The solution used to freeze sometimes while taking a snapshot backup."
What is most valuable?
We used Dell Avamar for backup and recovery of a virtual environment.
What needs improvement?
The solution used to freeze sometimes while taking a snapshot backup. The team had to do some back-end work to fix those issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell Avamar for a long time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Dell Avamar an eight out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The solution’s technical support is excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup was easy.
What about the implementation team?
The solution’s deployment took around two to three weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Dell Avamar is a moderately priced solution.
What other advice do I have?
We were using Dell Avamar for banking services and different banking applications. Dell Avamar's user interface impacted our backup operation quite well. I rate Dell Avamar an eight out of ten for its performance for our business size.
Dell Avamar is a good product to use. Since there is competition with other products doing a similar or better job, users should evaluate and compare different solutions.
Overall, I rate Dell Avamar an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Dell Avamar Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
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