Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Reviews

We primarily use the solution for large backups. This is a piece of hardware that we can place software on. 

It's used widely in some of the largest banks in our country - including foreign banks. They use Data Domain in petabytes. 

The specific algorithms of backups of the data deduplication are very good. For example, some of our competitors need much more space. When we have to use one additional enclosure, they have to use two times more. Data Domain has a lot of space. 

The technology has been very useful. There are lots of features on offer.

It's very competitive. We get discounts on pricing and find the cost to be quite good. 

The solution is stable and reliable.

It is scalable. 

We'd always prefer if there was even more competitive pricing since they are very close in price to Quantum. However, the pricing isn't too bad.

The initial setup is complex. The installation process should be easier so you can install the solution without having specialized techs. 

I've used the solution for several years. It's likely been more than six years. 

The solution seems to be quite stable. We haven't had issues with bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. 

It's a scalable product.

Technical support is helpful. The Dell rep office in the country has many experienced techs. 

We also have a lot of knowledge in our own right.

From time to time, when we do need help, it's nice to have experienced techs we can reach out to. 

The issue we have right now is spare parts. We're in Ukraine, and the war made it difficult at the outset. It has gotten better. It's okay at the moment. 

We've used a variety of different products. We use different brands simultaneously. It depends on the customer's needs. Some offer more competitive tenders, and some are used based on the government structure.

The implementation can be complex. It's not very simple to set up.

The deployment took a couple of days. 

We typically have one or two engineers working with the solution. That's enough personnel to deploy and design the setup, et cetera. One person is quite enough to maintain the product.

Our team handled the deployment of the product. We didn't need outside assistance. 

The solution is reasonably priced. We get discounts as well. They remain competitive.

It's a hardware solution. We don't have to worry about software licensing. We can use any software on it that the client likes.

Data Protect, DP 400, and higher models include EMC software and a set of various different software.

If you buy the unit, you pay for it for three or five years. They also offer support with a warranty that you can extend.

When we help our customers or some governmental structures to prepare the documents for bidding for some tenders, we investigate the details and competitive features of our solutions. That includes Dell EMC, HPE, and Quantum Alliance. They are all very close in functionality.

HP tends to have higher pricing; however, Quantum is quite close in terms of cost.

We're a platinum partner.

I'm using the latest version of the solution.

We have certified engineers for Data Domain.

I am the general manager of the company. I'm not an engineer.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I would rate the solution 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.

We use the solution for documented backup.

We use it to back up the whole database through the EMC network.

We are unsatisfied with the EMC network because Data Domain only works for backups. The system is connected through backup software, which operates over the Internet. This setup limits Data Domain's functionality in terms of backups.

It is designed primarily for archiving and backup purposes. You can utilize it, but it depends on the EMC network. The software configured with Data Domain system may concern you. Data Domain is configured with the EMC network, but the EMC network is not easy to use and is not a very good product.

I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD for over five years. We are using DD890 of the solution.

Our management is not very happy with the EMC network. It is not easy to take or edit backups, and even small errors can cause the entire backup process to stop. Only one senior system administrator is using the solution.

Support is good.

Neutral

We are switching to Veritas Backup.

Lenovo is cheaper than Dell.

They will offer Lenovo products and servers as well as storage and archiving solutions. They plan to begin this initiative immediately, but the paperwork is still ongoing. Once we receive the RFP, we will start proceeding.

The advantage of the Dell PowerProtect DD is that we only use it for our archiving servers.

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

We use this solution to store and replicate data for back-up purposes.

Our clients like the wide range of features that are available within this single solution.

We would like to see the price of this solution brought down to be comparable with similar products currently on the market.

We have found this to be a stable solution in our experience.

This is an easily scalable solution.

The initial setup for this solution is very easy.

Our in-house team carry out all of the installations, deployments and implementations of this solution for our clients.

The licensing for this solution has a higher price point than comparable products on the market, and the licenses are payable monthly.

We would rate this solution a 10 out of 10.

We use Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for deduplication, data protection, and data recovery. We use many different versions, including the newest versions.

The most valuable feature is the inline data deduplication.

I have been using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for approximately 13 years.

I have used the solution all the way from when it was called Data Domain to when EMC bought it, to when Dell bought EMC, and now it is called Power Protect. 

Dell EMC PowerProtect DD is highly stable and reliable. I have not had a time when the system did not work and in an emergency this is critical.

The solution is simple to scale.

We have at least a dozen clients that use Dell EMC PowerProtect DD, and they like how it works

The Dell support is excellent, they have a lot of knowledge and can work us through our issues quickly.

The initial setup is straightforward and is very easy to migrate to the next generation of solutions.

The solution requires one or two supporting staff and is low maintenance.

I would rate the ROI a five out of five.

The solution is expensive. However, if you pay less you receive less, it is cost-effective.

I would recommend this solution to others and it is a good choice.

I rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD a ten out of ten.

We primarily used this product as a solution for backups.

This product improved our system of backup by reducing the time and effort required to manage the system.

The reliability of Data Domain was the most useful feature to me. Every piece of data is recorded multiple times in several devices in a cluster. If any hardware failure occurs, it does not impact the data and does not result in any data loss. Resilience and reliability under any circumstances are important to data security.

Spanning the time I worked with EMC Data Domain, I had no issues that suggested to me that it needed improvement. It was working fine, and anything I wanted to do with Data Domain, I could do it. So I had no idea that it might have needed improvement. That is just thinking from a technical perspective as a user. It did what it needed to do for backup.

In hindsight, I am aware that there is a feature that does not exist in Data Domain related to the security of the product and the data. A friend who works in another organization had a problem when his organization was infected with ransomware. The ransomware locked up the data in the Data Domain and disrupted the data system asking for something in return or it would delete all the data. The ransom was not submitted and the hack successfully deleted all the data. This is a big concern and no small issue where data is critical.

So I believe security measures are not strict enough in Data Domain. I would like to see something in place for better security.

In addition to this — which is related to security as well — there are regulations from the central bank that mandates that we need to keep backup copies that are not connected to the network. They must be completely isolated from the network. Data Domain does not have any arrangements to satisfy this requirement. For compliance, we need to use a secondary solution.

The only other issue is that the prices seem high in comparison to other products and they should consider restructuring their pricing plans.

It's very stable and reliable. I have never had an issue with stability.

This is a very scalable solution. Whenever we needed to we could add new nodes with minimal effort and keep the same data structure.

Defining the number of users for the system is a little tricky because only the backup administrators actually use the Data Domain solution to do the backup procedures for the whole bank as a company. So the actual number of users of the product — hands-on — is around three people. But these three people are doing backups for many systems that are centrally connected to Data Domain. These many systems have around 300 total servers which go through the backup process. Each one of those 300 servers contains data from many users and transactions. In a way, our implementation of this product is serving many thousands of customers, and it can serve many thousands more.

So, yes, I think it is very scalable.

Our experience with customer and technical support has been very good. For example, in one instance we had a problem with the hardware and technical support guy came and replaced the failed component. This was seamless from our operations because the system is highly available and redundant. So everything continued working even with some part failing. But the technical support people were knowledgeable, quick and on-premises.

Before using Data Domain, I was using a tape library. It was IBM Tape Library with LTO (Linear Tape-Open). We switched to EMC Data Domain because of the speed. Backing up data to a tape library is much, much slower than backup to Data Domain, which is based on hard disks. it's much faster in backup.

The system we switched to is actually EMC Data Domain as the hardware device for backup, while Veritas is the software backup. Veritas has its own hardware device. However, EMC Data Domain hardware is much better than Veritas. The golden combination as I see it is EMC Data Domain hardware with Veritas software. Going that way, I get the best of each in our backup solution.

The initial setup is straightforward. For the deployment, it took one day for the hardware implementation and a couple of days for integration with the software. For several days, I worked with IBM TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) or Veritas. All of the parts came together well and I had no real issues.

The implementation was carried out by my team and myself with some input from EMC as well. That was a team was a total of two persons from EMC, one person from my team and myself. I just managed the team and oversaw the process. I think normally that a technical team of about three people can handle the deployment.

As far as having a return on investment, I see investing in Data Domain as having a positive return. It is reliable and it does a very good job when it comes to data compression and deduplication. It makes the backup size much smaller, which saves the company a lot of money because you are not buying tape cartridges for the tape library or even hard discs for temporary backup to store redundant information.

Another ROI which is less tangible is the time for recovery. If I have a problem and I would like to recover something, it is a much faster procedure working with hardware than with tape.

One thing that anyone considering this solution has to realize is that it is expensive. It is expensive for a reason, but it is expensive.

Anyone considering using this solution will first need to make a proper assessment of their need for the data storage because this is misleading. Sometimes managers just make a simple assumption that an organization has about 50 terabytes of data and that they don't need more than this for backup. This is not correct.

If you look into the whole backup strategy, you will see how frequently you will do backups, how many copies we will need to retain, and the period of days that the data is retained — It will be a specific period of days and the backups will rotate. There should be a retention strategy and a rate of change of the data backups. All of these are parameters that affect the sizing of the data domain device. It could be many times the initial size depending on the strategy and how critical the data is. So assessing the proper sizing is very important and key for the success of the backup strategy.

It is important, as well, to assure that the software and the hardware work seamlessly together because you can mix and match software and hardware solutions to come to the ultimate package. Making sure that every feature in the software would work with the hardware is really imperative before making any decision.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate EMC Data Domain as 7.5. The reason why it is not higher than 7.5 is mostly because of the cost. It is a very expensive solution. The lack of better security features to protect the data is really another big issue.

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.

The primary use case for Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is for deduplication and archiving, including achieving efficient archiving. We sometimes use Veeam backup with Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and other times with Dell PowerProtect to extend retention periods of our backup jobs.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is its deduplication capability. This feature is crucial for our customers as it allows them to have more storage space for backup jobs. 

Additionally, the integration with Dell EMC arrays and storage snapshot backup functionalities are key elements, enabling efficient daily and nightly backups of sensitive ERP or applications.

Improvement is needed in terms of telemetry and high availability as the high availability feature is only present in the higher models of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain). The entry-level and medium-level models, such as the 6000 and 4400, lack this feature. 

Moreover, integration with cybersecurity measures can be enhanced, particularly with ransomware protection.

I have been working with Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for about ten years.

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is stable in terms of software performance. However, problems arise during the software upgrade process from version to version.

Scalability is mainly constrained by hardware limitations. The software has good scalability, however, there is an issue with high availability in entry and medium-level models.

Customer service from Dell is good. We buy the product with a 24-hour onsite response support in Tunisia, and we face no issues with the support quality.

Positive

The initial setup of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is not easy compared to other solutions like Veeam or Commvault. It is moderately difficult and sometimes complicated due to the large number of products involved in the DPA suite.

An experienced engineer is essential to handle the complicated implementation process of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain).

The pricing has become higher since July, and the license costs are more expensive compared to the past. It now uses a different licensing model, which is calculated based on the number of virtual machines instead of storage or processors.

I recommend Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for its integration with Dell EMC solutions and its superior compression and application ratios. This makes it more interesting compared to other products. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.