Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Reviews

Dell PowerProtect DD is mainly being used for the backup repository, such as storing backup data.

The interviewee is "Nilesh Nn" but he passed the phone over to his colleague for the rest of the review at the negative point. I completed it as "Nilesh Nn" but I am not sure if it should qualify.

The most valuable features of Dell PowerProtect DD are reduplication and compression. It provides a lot of data savings for backups. Additionally, the Dell PowerProtect DD solution offers a bundled backup software and storage option. If desired, users can also connect to cloud technology to create an additional copy of their data in the cloud. This solution supports synchronization with various cloud vendors, including Azure and AWS.

Using Dell PowerProtect DD eliminates the need for multiple management consoles and devices to run a backup solution. Traditionally, a backup server is needed to install backup software and connect to a storage unit or tape library to store backup data. However, Dell PowerProtect DD includes the storage option and software, providing a consolidated solution in a single device.

The solution is designed for change. With new updates, it adapts to work with new edge applications, such as Kubernetes containers and can support these applications during the backup process. This means that users do not need to seek out alternative backup solutions for their Kubernetes and container applications in the future.

Dell PowerProtect DD should come out with its own system so we do not have to use Data Domain. For example, something similar to what Symantec has done.

I have been using Dell PowerProtect Data Domain(DD) for approximately three years. 

The initial setup of  Dell PowerProtect DD is easy. It is engineered with consolidated options in the system making it easy to manage it properly.

I rate Dell PowerProtect DD an eight out of ten.

Most cases are related to databases, such as Oracle and MySQL.

Dell PowerProtect DD does not have integration with the cloud and virtualization software.

I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for 10 years. We are using DD6300 of the solution.

I do not remember any outage or software bug. I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

The solution is scalable. About five to ten people are using this solution. 

We are already transitioning to the cloud, and this solution is almost exclusively used for primaries. We do not intend to renew, purchase additional units, or increase capacity.

Customer support is pretty good.

Positive

The initial setup is very simple. I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

We have the installation physically. In our data center, our team and Dell personnel came to us to make the first configuration. Since we already know the solution and have been using it for many years, so it's not very hard or difficult to setup.

Dell PowerProtect is a very efficient and very stable solution. It could have more integration.

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

The main use case is for backup and mobile. My customers usually have a couple of authorizations and server and database. They are mainly using PowerProtect DD for backup purposes.

The most valuable features of PowerProtect DD are the immutable storage and the AI scanning. These features detect differences in backup versions and help in preventing any unauthorized changes, ensuring data protection. The AI scanning is also beneficial for prediction and protection, as it can scan locally without needing to connect to any external templates.

PowerProtect DD should improve the hypervisor support on the DD system. The system needs better integration with VMware to ensure full protection of the backup systems without leaving them vulnerable.

I have been working with PowerProtect DD for three years now.

There have been no issues with the stability of the tool. It has been very stable for use.

I rate the scalability as eight out of ten. It is easy to scale.

The support for PowerProtect DD is satisfactory. I have dedicated support from Dell for Vietnam, and they are responsive.

Neutral

The initial setup is not difficult. On a scale from one to ten, I rate the ease of setup as an eight.

The price for PowerProtect DD is not suitable for my customers. It is very high. However, the actual cost can sometimes depend on the relationship with Dell, where there may be discounts available for certain customers.

My advice for those looking to use Dell PowerProtect DD is that it is a solid product for backup and recovery. However, they should be aware of the high cost.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

We use the solution for backup, data protection, and data encryption.

The most valuable features of the solution are recovery point, compression, and deduplication. Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a reliable solution.

The solution's cost, scalability, and licensing model could be improved. Nowadays, competition models offer higher capacity and scalability. The solution's marketing or awareness should be improved. Users need to buy additional Dell software technologies along with the solution, which is an additional cost.

I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for more than ten years.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

Around 15 to 20 customers use Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain).

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

Around five to seven engineers were involved in the solution's deployment.

The solution’s return on investment is good, and we haven't seen any disaster with the solution.

Users have to pay a capacity-based licensing fee for the solution.

Since the solution's backup text is in encrypted mode, it protects us against ransomware attacks. Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a good solution for enterprise-level customers. However, it is not suitable for small and medium-level business customers. I would recommend the solution to other users because it is stable and reliable.

The solution's performance compared to other data protection products is very good.

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

I'm an architect, so I only use Data Domain to design solutions for clients right now. I'm not using it so much as for management or administration. My clients all like it, and It's an effective storage system.

Data Domain is an excellent repository that's compatible with a lot of different solutions. Even Veeam Backup recommends sending backup to Data Domain. Space optimization is great. Currently, it guarantees 50-to-1 compression of the application in the same device. In all these years, I never had a client who was unsatisfied with Data Domain. It is a solid appliance with VMware integration, instant access to restore and search, and analytics.

Data Domain lacks compatibility with fiber channels and tapes. We can't use it with a tape library. That's an issue in Latin America sometimes because a lot of clients still use tapes for budget reasons. Maybe they have a lot of archives. In North America and Europe, they do a lot of archiving, but they use the cloud more than we do. Sometimes we have to put together a Frankenstein where we connect another server to the tape library and send all the data there. 

I understand why integration with tapes isn't possible because they are designing these applications for the future. In the next decade, all the information will be sent through private and public clouds. It's a great way to send data. It can be software-defined, so you have lots of paths to send information, and it's it's not too slow, so I guess that's why they don't support tapes. When we have challenges with other providers, maybe an internal ID would help.

Also,Dell's backup software comes in a lot of flavors, and there's a bundle that gives you all the functionality. You use this software to do this and another to do that. There isn't a single application that can do everything, and sometimes that makes some struggles.

I got my first Dell certification in Data Domain about six or seven years ago, but I've been working on it for maybe two years. 

We use other products, but it's not a one-to-one comparison with Data Domain because they're software solutions. For example, competitors like Veeam Backup have only one software solution that you can't license to other users. You have to buy the license for Veeam Backup for a socket, but it involves all the the functionalities. Maybe you have to buy a part of the instances for taking the backup for the databases. 

It's a perpetual license, but you pay monthly for support. If you're integrating with the cloud, you have to pay for using the cloud. That's the only recurring cost you have with this tool.

Data Domain is a 10 for me. It's a great storage device.

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. We do pre-sales activity, configuration, migration, integration, and more.

We have a Data Domain on-premises in our business, and we also provide it to our customers. The entire suite contains lots of backup software.

The Data Domain is the only backup appliance that we are proposing to our customers. We sell it in conjunction with the Data Protection Portfolio from Dell EMC.

Data Domain will not work without backup software. It integrates with Veeam and other products from other vendors, but the most beneficial backup process is when it's used with the Dell EMC Data Protection Suite.

The only concern that we have about the Data Protection software from Dell EMC is the interface. There needs to be some sort of enhancement. Veeam has the number one backup GUI in the world and although Dell EMC has a good interface as well, it is not like Veeam. If Dell would further improve the interface then it would be very hard for others to compete.

Dell has their own backup engine, which is remarkable. It is integrated with many enterprise applications, like SAP/HANA, Oracle eBusiness, Oracle Database, Hadoop, and more. However, because of this integration with complex enterprise applications, it comes with a complex interface. If they enhance this interface, it will be great.

This product has a lot of good features.

It has the most powerful deduplication and compression for data backup. Data consumes a lot of storage capacity, but with Data Domain, it splits the data into many chunks. The data is managed with smart architecture and algorithms, saving between 80% and 90% from the target capacity. This means that for every tier of capacity, it may reflect 20 times that, which is remarkable.

Data Domain has good data regulation features to prevent data corruption. Frequently with other products, users face data corruption. Data Domain always generates a hash from the target backup data and compares it with the hash of the data in production. This is done to make sure that the data is identical. If it detects a problem then it will rebuild the data on its own. This is why I recommend people make sure that they have a valid backup. In case of a crisis, it will restore and things will continue to function well.

This solution has a feature called Domain Boost, which allows for source deduplication and compression. Backup data consumes a very heavy amount of traffic because you are transferring almost all of your production data across the network to the backup appliance. By using Domain Boost, it supports source deduplication and compression, so you are only transferring a very slight amount of data across the network. This will assure very rapid data backup, guaranteeing RPO and RTO.

The software from Dell that can be used to operate Data Domain needs to have enhancements made to the user interface. It is too complex.

We began working with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) approximately five years ago.

This is a very stable and durable product.

This product is backed by very powerful support from Dell. If there are any concerns then they become engaged very quickly. The support is very fast and very helpful.

We began working with this solution before the migration between Dell and EMC.

I have some experience with Veritas, and they offer backup appliances as well. However, they have nothing that can be compared to or compete with Data Domain. This solution from Dell EMC is the number one backup appliance.

The initial setup is very straightforward. Even the integration with different backup vendors is a straightforward process.

Although the price of this hardware backup appliance is expensive, it comes with its benefits.

The price of the backup appliance is slightly expensive. Compared to other vendors, the pricing will be slightly higher.

The backup software from Dell that you can use to operate the Data Domain is very cheap, and there are many different plans that can be purchased as a subscription or full license. 

My advice for anybody who is implementing Data Domain is to use the backup software from Dell EMC. Combined, you will get a very powerful package for backup that includes both software and appliance. These together come at a very affordable price against any combination from any other vendor.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The data domain is a backup solution.

The compatibility within the Dell PowerProtect DD portfolio makes data management more seamless. This integrated solution improves efficiency in our data center and simplifies operations by relying on a single company for servers and storage.

Support is essential, for clients using servers and storage. We have a backup solution, so if a company requires data backup, we can help. An improvement would be the ability to back up some of the databases or legacy applications used by IBM. 

I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD for two years.

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.

350 users are using this solution.

Support takes a long time. In Bangladesh, we do not have a dedicated support team available for all products. For situations involving credentials, the first level of support is provided from a database, and additional support comes from either Malaysia or another support hub. This can cause delays.

I rate the product’s pricing an eight out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

The client uses several servers and storage systems, so Dell PowerProtect DD does not add value in terms of efficiency and data protection. However, since it does not function as a primary storage solution, it could enhance the efficiency of solar technology applications.

Having a backup available in a disaster is crucial and makes recovery much more accessible. This is always a situational requirement; the backup is not utilized if my application or data center does not experience any attacks.

I recommend Dell PowerProtect DD. It's a perfect solution with high efficiency and numerous cost-effective security measures.

Maintenance is handled by the sales support team, and our organization has certified engineers. We strive to make as many features available as possible.

One server engineer is sufficient for initial support. Our team has certified engineers who are distinguished based on requirements and the complexity of support needed.

It is an appliance-based solution, so most of the insurance and volume stages are pre-installed from the factory. We need to activate the license and connect it to the environment where it will be used.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I am using Dell PowerProtect DD for data extraction for extract, transform, and load(ETL) processes. This is a tool that receives data from operational platforms, or systems, such as in my factory in insurance, underwriting, claim management or health provisioning, et cetera. It receives the data from the source systems and not from the data warehouse platform by doing transformation or by loading the data or after loading the data. 

The usage of this solution is a bit difficult to develop processes, and it takes a long time to market permits.

I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD for 15 years.

Dell PowerProtect DD is a stable solution.

Dell PowerProtect DD is scalable but there are better tools.

The data engineers are using this platform in my company. There are 15 data engineers, and all of them are using this tool.

We are using technical support from the producers, and it is not good. I'm not happy with the technical support.

I rate the support from Dell PowerProtect DD a two out of five.

The initial setup of Dell PowerProtect DD is complex. Its initial setup is a bit complex because it uses many services on the operating system. Sometimes it is hard to solve the issue while installing the solution on-premises.

I rate the initial setup of Dell PowerProtect DD a three out of five

With the Dell PowerProtect DD, it is not possible to deploy the solution by ourselves. We deployed, and upgraded the solution, it took more than a month because there were problems, and the producer need to solve the issues. This is what took time.

We needed to get help to implement the solution because the producers because it is not easy.

If we do not move to the cloud solution and stay with our on-premise version we will miss some new features.

I rate the price of Dell PowerProtect DD a three out of five.

I rate Dell PowerProtect DD a six out of ten.