What is our primary use case?
We use it as a backup for our memory store. It protects virtual and physical environments for us, all on-prem. The applications being protected include VMware VMs, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, SharePoint, our file services, and operating systems.
How has it helped my organization?
The backups are a lot more reliable. That's the core headline. It's taken the onus off making sure that backups run and making sure that we're protected. It gives us time to work on other things proactively. It's a very reliable solution. Our technical team has benefited from it in terms of both time and capacity.
Rubrik has absolutely reduced the time we spend on recovery testing by about 75 percent. It has reduced the time we spend on managing backups by the same amount. The reduction in recovery time is even greater. It's in the Exchange and database stuff that we've really noticed the difference. It's so much easier for the guys in support to recover single files, so the reduction in recovery time is as much as 85 to 90 percent.
And because we've been able to recover more expediently, it has reduced downtime. We don't have a lot of downtime, but we know that there's a safety blanket there if we need it.
When it comes to overall productivity, the team isn't having to manage and check backups on a daily basis, so they're interfacing with our end-users or proactively checking other aspects of the infrastructure and making sure that they're running. That's what the positive effect is. Problems are being headed off before they start causing an impact. From the ITIL problem management perspective, that's fantastic.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the speedy restore. It helps in expediting RPOs and RTOs across our core applications.
I would rate the solution's web interface at eight out of ten. It's just fantastic and intuitive. It's so easy to use. I've never done any formal training on Rubrik, but I was able to quickly come to grips with its capabilities. That's a fantastic thing, especially for somebody who is just looking to adopt it, because they don't have to worry about training for their wider support function.
What needs improvement?
We would like to be able to do granular restores directly from Exchange. Also, more granular management of VM backups would help.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Rubrik for 18 months. We've got four Briks across two data centers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is fantastic. We rarely have to engage with Rubrik support.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is also fantastic.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used many other solutions throughout the years. This one just seemed to be quite refreshing at the time. It seemed to be the most cost-effective with the best support options.
We needed to protect our core applications and virtualized environment, which is what Rubrik did.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward. It was a solution in the box. We didn't have to complete much configuration, other than having the right port open on our destination servers and deploying the various agents. It was very easy to configure the vCenter connections and start backing up our virtualized environment.
The trickiest part was figuring out how crawler sits in there. We set up a standalone server for that and installed crawler there. I can recover an entire database and granular emails within 15 to 20 minutes, now that I've practiced.
We're having another one put in and the implementation strategy will be to upgrade the current Brik, have the new Brik upgraded to that version as well, plug it in and it will configure itself, essentially.
What about the implementation team?
We did it with our team and Rubrik support. The Rubrik team have been fantastic for the lifecycle of the product.
What was our ROI?
We have seen return on investment in Rubrik.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Veeam was also a front-runner in there, but there are a lot of horror stories about Veeam and Exchange backups. That affected the decision. Other differences between Veeam and Rubrik include the level of reliability and support as well as third-party support available from the vendor.
What other advice do I have?
Depending on the size of your environment, I would say go for it. This is a very flexible and reliable product, but I don't know how it would do in a large, enterprise-size infrastructure. I can't comment on that because I've never tested it.
The SLA-based policy automation is just another name for protection group. It hasn't really changed the game. It's just a logical way of grouping the things that you protect and making sure they're all backed up in a similar way. It's good.
I've tried some of the API from Rubrik, to automate the SQL resource, but it took a bit of a backseat. I've toyed with it a little bit, but not to the full extent of its capabilities. So far, the APIs seem fit for purpose. We have also looked into the Polaris SaaS-based framework for extracting metadata, from a risk perspective, but we haven't used it.
There are just 40 of us in IT and about 30 of us have got access to it. I don't think many of them interface with it on a daily basis. The only regular user is probably just one of the infrastructure guys. We use it as a backbone for protecting the data of 900-plus law firm employees.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this product at eleven. It is really good. We are a happy customer.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
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