OpenText Data Protector Reviews

This product needs a lot of improvement both on the technical side and in its pricing and compatibility.

This solution is not scalable.

I don't think this product has a good support center.

The initial setup was relatively easy.

I would rate this solution as five out of ten.

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.

We use it for all our

1. Oracle Database and applications
2. File servers
3. VMWare environment [SQL Servers, business & Intranet applications etc]

We had an issue during implementation of off-host LAN free backup of vSphere virtual machines using HP Data Protector. However that was mainly due to limited knowledge of the consulting company implementing the solution. After the implementation we didn’t face any issues.

I would rate them a 3/5, for the following reasons:

• It took a long time to resolve some of the implementation issues.
• They didn’t recommend the best practices for managing backups in a VMware environment

• Low-bandwidth backups
• Deduplicated backup storage with StoreOnce.

Many of my clients have been able to remove tape drives from remote sites.

It has a reputation for bugginess.

I've used it for approximately 20 years, since v2.1.

It's very easy to deploy.

The deduplication stores on Windows are a bit flakey.

There were problems in v7 and earlier, but they have been addressed now.

Customer service is mostly through partner companies, so it depends on which partner you are dealing with.

If you can get to the right support technician, it's good, but it can take a long time to escalate issues high enough in the organisation for them to be addressed.

It's pretty straightforward. It's never more than a few days, even in large environments.

I implement Data Protector for most of my customers myself.

As it is a backup solution, ROI is very hard to measure. How much money did we not lose because we had backups in place?

HP will try to sell you on capacity-based licensing first; make sure that they also quote on "classic" licensing as this can come in much cheaper for large-but-simple environments.

Get an expert to set it up, and it will be good.

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.

Cell manager and single drive for Windows/Linux.

It helps us with ISO 9001 statement norms.

The GUI needs to be easier to administrate.

Also, it should have better access to more materials to help understanding the product (like the different between INCR, & INCR1, etc. and how it works).

Around one year.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

It's excellent.

It's excellent, but doesn't have my native language (Portuguese).

No previous solution was used.

It was a little complex for everything, because it's the data-protector concept.

I implemented it myself.

High! For our data there is no price.

It's a very good choice, but requires a specialized professional.

Yes. A free one, Cobian and Symantec Backup Exec.

The most valuable feature is the ability to back up to tape. We can quickly restore files that have been deleted or are missing from the system.

It allows us to be more flexible with how we do our system backups.

We would like to have a direct plugin to VMware.

It could also be simplified, made more usable and manageable.

In the current version, it is very stable. We are currently a couple of versions behind. At this stage, it's very stable.

It's designed for enterprise businesses. We're a small to medium business. It's more than perfect for us.

I haven’t used technical support in the last couple of years.

We have always been using Data Protector.

Because of the version we were on, it was quite complex at the beginning.

I would advise colleagues to try it. If it fits their system, then go for it.

Our most important criteria when selecting a vendor was cost.

People who work with it know it. We cover a lot of solutions with this backup solution.

The benefit is integration with HPE 3PAR storage and with other HPE equipment.

We didn't know exactly where this solution would go a few years ago. It was in a storage department and then later in a software department. There was some kind of confusion about that, but now it is better. I would like to see integration with hypervisors.

It is very stable; no problem with that.

It is quite scalable.

I have used technical support and I would give them an 8/10 rating. It's normally not direct support, but rather via emails and telephone calls.

If others have a similar environment like we do, then I would suggest this solution for them.

When selecting a vendor, I look for local presence and good partner support.