OpenText Data Protector Reviews

It provides us with reliable backups and restores.

The reliability of HP Data Protector is the most valuable feature for us.

The graphical interface needs to be improved.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Customer Service:

It's great.

Technical Support:

It's great.

We used Arcserve 2000, and switched because Data Protector is more reliable and the licensing options are better.

It was mostly straightforward.

The implementation was done by a technical team from HP who had a great level of expertise.

We also looked at Symantec Backup Exec.

It is fast, reliable, and its licensing policy is great.

The most valuable feature for us is the central, single pane of glass that allows us to manage our clients without having to log into their systems. It's a really good feature for us.

It reduced the backup times so that the database admins use the backup door to perform restores. Previously, to perform a database refresh, we'd have to wait hours for the restore to complete. Data Protector has reduced that time down to an hour-and-a-half. That's good.

It integrates with the 3PAR product well and with other major vendors such as EMC and NetApp. We use 3PAR, but we haven't fully integrated it with Data Protector yet. Data Protector itself is pretty complete. I'm on version 9.05, the latest version, and I haven't really encountered any deficiencies.

While technically it's a good product, the technical support is an area that could use a lot of improvement. We've had communication issues with support staff being unable to speak English, though I understand that HP's been working on this.

We haven't had any issues with deployment.

We can have everything up at night so that the database admins can kick off backup jobs automatically, whereas previously the jobs were stuck in the process. The database is backed up every 15 minutes and there are roughly 1,600 backup jobs per day that go through the system. It's quite reliable, more so than other solutions we've used.

We've had no issues scaling it.

Although we're lucky in that we haven't really had to contact technical support, it's quite variable when we've called in. Many of them don't speak English very well, so communication is a definite issue. I know they're trying to improve in this area because they've asked me.

Once you understand how the pieces fit together, it makes sense. When we purchased Data Protector, we also purchased installation assistance. I'd certainly recommend that to get the setup right. Information transfer is very important.

We implemented with a vendor team, which I'd recommend because they'll train you or install it for you themselves.

They have a small charge for client licenses, which is good. It depends on what licensing model you have, whether you have a capacity-based licensing or have to pay for each separate component.

It works best if you've also combined it with StoreOnce. You could use it with Data Domain, too. A lot of customers still have Cape by Verizon, and we wanted to get away from that and go to a digital solution. If you're going through a digital solution, I would recommend you include StoreOnce at the time of purchase. We didn't do that. StoreOnce actually does come with the product, so you can do a software StoreOnce. That works okay. You get better performance if you have a physical device than going through a software StoreOnce.

Obviously, it depends on your budget, too, and that's really the reason why we didn't purchase the physical StoreOnce when we got the Data Protector. It would be better if you can get it all together.

Originally, the benefit from Data Protector was that it fitted in because we buy HPE storage. So as an ecosystem, it was quite easy and smooth.

Although the ecosystem is good, development of Data Protector isn’t as fast as other products.

Actually, we're moving away from Data Protector due to lack of support on newer operating systems and latest products. For example, it takes time to support new products such as Windows 2016. Since we want to move faster, we're moving towards Tivoli Storage Manager. The reason being our infrastructure partner is IBM.

Improvements should be brought about in regards to the support for VMware. There is limited support for VMware, but it's not as good as other products.

We're running quite old versions. We're now running unsupported versions.

However, when it was relevant for this kind of work, the product was fairly stable.

The technical support was pretty good from HPE; better than usual. They're not bad.

It was more on the development side and that is why we are moving away.

We have not used any other solution and started off with Data Protector. Our company started using Data Protector from day one, as it was a free solution.

It was very much cross-platform. We run H-DOX, Solaris, Windows and Linux and it fit in.

Originally, we did have a vendor shortlist. We were looking at NetBackup, Veritas and similar products. We also looked at IBM and since we use them a lot we decided to go with their solution. That was very easy.

Globally, TSM is a well-known product. It is another old legacy product that has been used for decades.

You need to look at the applications that you're backing up. For integration, it's case by case. The integration piece is the key. As a piece of technology, it's good.

We are using this solution to back up our data from SAP HANA and Microsoft applications. We also use it to back up our domain and file servers.

The most valuable feature is the capability to back up our SQL server.

We also use this product to back up our Linux file system.

The interface has been the same for many years and needs to be updated. The dashboard has changed, but that only deals with part of the backup process.

We have been using Micro Focus Data Protector for 15 years.

We haven't had any issues with respect to stability.

The scalability is very nice.

Overall, this is a good product and it hasn't given us any problems.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

The most valuable feature is the integration with the infrastructure layer, for example, to storage systems like 3PAR. That is really valuable because you can use functions in the hardware platform to integrate with the functionalities in the Data Protector.

It provides secure and high availability platforms.

The organizations I work with that use the product are actually managing to get a higher availability figure. They can design their infrastructure to manage it in an easier way, so they need to spend less hours of management.

I would like to see more integrations with virtual environments and more integrations with platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and SAP.

The stability is excellent, actually. It more or less depends on how often they release new versions, but the stability is extremely good.

The scalability could be a bit better, actually, because that connects to the stability question. You don't enforce new functionalities in a stable product unless you're willing to accept some disturbances or destabilization of the product.

The technical support is very good. They have both local and central skilled technical resources, so it's very valuable.

We needed to move towards a new system because of the complexity in the environment. We were looking for ease of use.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

We also considered Veeam and NetBackup. We chose HPE Data Protector because it is easy to use.

When you evaluate products, take one important aspect, for example, ease of use; and then try to focus on that aspect when you compare it to different vendors.

It's very easy to use. Really, the simplicity of it is something we find very useful. Otherwise, it might not be a solution that's beneficial for us.

Our central system must be powered at all times. Data Protector is always available for powering our central system. It does exactly what we need it to do.

It works with virtual machines, but it's way too complex right now. Also, the licensing structure is not very good.

We've used it for 15 years.

It deploys without any issues.

It's quite stable.

We use the 300 series servers. We've determined that it won't scale any more for us while we researched an alternative backup solution. Have have 90% virtualization now that we're suing VMware and CommVault.

Technical support is quite good.

The initial setup was complex.

It's not an expensive solution.

• Integration with a lot of OS and applications, e.g. SAP, Oracle, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, VMware, Unix, Linux etc.
• Very reliable SAP and Oracle integration.
• Licensing is based on a backup library/drive instead of a licensing model based on the involved servers. This library centric model allow you to add some new backup procedures very quickly.
• Intuitive user interface
• Easy and reliable client agents installation
• Backup log files accurate and clear
• A lot of customization is possible through the configuration files and script integration
• Preview for backup and restore
• A powerful CLI interface is also available

• Fantastic SAP backup resilience and reliability
• Offline and on-line consistent backup possibilities
• Oracle log treatments for archive log mode databases
• Affordable restores with preview possibilities

• Reports
• Possibilities to personalize the GUI adding desired columns
• Windows image backup (similar to Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery that allows you to restore an entire Windows system through the network without the need to create DVD or boot devices)

We've used it for 10 years, starting with v5.1.

No, but it depends on the application platform you want to work on.

No. Recently I accidentally destroyed my backup server and the HP technicians restored my backup server in the entirety in a few hours using Data Protector's own backup. We often use Data Protector for disaster recovery tests, and the results were always successful.

No issues encountered.

They're honest and helpful.

Until last year it was very good, but in 2015 we felt a drop in service because some technical resources disappeared.

In the past we used the different manual operating system approach. We also used Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery to backup Windows images and files. Our schema is a specific tool for OS system images (Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery for Windows OS, to do net recovery for HP Unix OS) and Data Protector for the data.

It's a very simple deployment on file systems, Exchange, SQL server, and VMware, and more difficult on SharePoint, SAP and Oracle, and even these difficulties are derived from the Applications architecture itself. It depends on how large is your backup scope; the wider it is, the more time you need to dedicate to the implementation of the product. However, the Initial set-up itself is not complex.

We implemented the initial version of the product through a vendor team. They were experts, and helpful, and we have done some upgrade projects within the team.

We implement the initial version of the product through a vendor team, the team was expert and helpful, we also have some upgrade projects with the team.

The licensing approach is very convenient and useful because if you purchase the license based on physical drives, you can backup everything on them. If a new server application is deployed, you can start backup to it immediately. Other license, possibilities are available, for example if you have some D2D appliance you can acquire licenses based on the per-terabyte approach. The maintenance contract grows every year by 5%.

No, but we know different customers that use more popular backup product like Legato, Tivoli, and Netbackup. Often, they tell us that these products are good but very expensive or complex to use. Often when competitors suppliers visit us for marketing, they always says that Data Protector is not an enterprise backup solution. This is a typical vendor approach and I really think that this is not true because in our experience, Data Protector does its work well, and this is what a customer need.

Trust in Data Protector. It's probable that HP doesn't push it enough in marketing but the product works well.

Backup View by Type

Client View

Restore View

Sessions View

Tape Slots View

It has the ability to backup both DB2 (IBM's RDBMS) and HP-UX (HP's Unix OS).

The ability to schedule and to select backup options on a per-server basis.

By comparison, Backup Exec has a nice way to select what to backup and where to backup.

I've used it for three years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

5/10.

5/10.

We switched because we needed to backup DB2 and HP-UX.

It's very difficult to understand the interface initially. Without support, it is difficult to configure and understand the solution.

We implement in-house.

I didn’t calculate it.

For us, it's a very expensive product.

Netbackup

I recommend not to implement Data Protector, as it is not friendly and you need to have a dedicated person to administer it.