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PeerSpot user
Architect at a tech services company
Consultant
Reliability of backup process are valuable as this is used as a failover migration tool.

What is most valuable?

Instant recovery of VMs, reliability of backup process are valuable as this is used as a failover migration tool.

How has it helped my organization?

We had a vendor screw up a financial accounting program at tax season, a critical time for one of our customers. We were able to roll the VM back in under five minutes, and users were back on the software in under 10 minutes from restore.

What needs improvement?

The software really needs to expand into physical machines backups. Endpoint Protection is a good start, but physical backups are the missing component to crush the competition.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for three years.

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We have had no issues with the deployment so far as multi-site WAN acceleration works out of the box, and so far we've been very happy with our experience

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no performance issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is all about bandwidth, so the only issue we had was trying to guess how much bandwidth we would need.

How are customer service and support?

It can take a while to get a recovery engineer on the phone, but once you get one the support is excellent. Follow up on issues has been exemplary.

How was the initial setup?

It is simple to setup and the documentation covers just about everything you need to know.

What about the implementation team?

This was all setup in house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is reasonable, but tracking and purchase levels are unnecessarily complicated.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have used and evaluated many backup and recovery solutions. Veeam came out on top for ease of use, reliability of job execution, backup validation, and speed of recovery in virtual environments.

What other advice do I have?

By far it is the best virtualization protection product, but lacking in the physical protection space. It does physical backups, but it fells like an after thought.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user145584 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user145584Architect at a tech services company
Consultant

@Matt, a number of different hardware configurations were used with a variety of storage systems. HP Proliant, Dell Rxxx servers, Dell Compellent storage to name a few.

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PeerSpot user
Senior Systems Engineer with 51-200 employees
MSP
I can quickly restore an entire VM even in a test environment.​

Valuable Features

The Backup Enterprise Manager is great as it allows me to see and manage all backup jobs from multiple Backup servers. The ability to create separate backup and replication jobs and also create failover plans. The Direct NFS Access is also a great feature for backing up VMs on our Tintri storage.

Improvements to My Organization

Previously we had been using a CDP based backup solution where an agent was installed on the guest OS. Besides taking longer to configure backups, performing a BMR was much more complicated and required creating a new VM and using a boot disk. Using Veeam has made the entire process much easier and I can quickly restore an entire VM even in a test environment.

Room for Improvement

By default, I use “Enable parallel processing” which is great to have multiple jobs run at the same time. I would like the option to disable this within the Backup Job so certain jobs run sequentially instead. Reason being, I may have an application that runs on several different VMs that I would like to keep in a single Backup Job, but if they backup at the same time such as the app server and SQL server, it causes spikes in the application. The only way around this is to create separate backup jobs scheduled to run at different times.

Use of Solution

We've been using it for two years.

Deployment Issues

We had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues

With Veeam v7 in conjunction with vSphere 5.5 using vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC), I started seeing issues with Veeam backups either failing or VM Snapshots constantly needing consolidation. This was directly related to vFRC which a stopped using in favor of a better solution.

Scalability Issues

Scaling out is very easy, especially with the newly added feature “Scale-out Backup Repository”.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

Customer service has always been excellent.

Technical Support:

Technically support has always been excellent, although rarely needed.

Initial Setup

Setup was not too complicated, but I do recommend deciding how you are going to use the Backup Proxies and design around that. There are a few options for backups such are Direct Storage Access, Virtual Appliance, and Network. The Network backup is great with a 10Gb network, but I recently switched to take advantage of the Direct NFS Access. I have also used the Direct Storage Access with NetApp when it was added to version 8, but this has since been replaced with Tintri storage. There is also a matter of the Guest interaction proxy that does application-aware processing for Exchange, SQL, Domain Controllers, etc. I tend to set this up with more restrictions so not all proxies can access all subnets. Veeam does automatically select the correct proxy based on subnet which makes it easy once you have completed your initial setup.

Implementation Team

I designed and implemented it myself.

ROI

I am using the Veeam Service Provider solution where you pay per VM that is being backed up. So, the ROI is basically from the day you deploy it.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

If you are an Enterprise and you think the price tag may be high, contact a Veeam Service Provider and see how they can help.

Other Advice

Make sure you do your research before deciding to purchase a different product other than Veeam even if that include reaching out to someone like myself that has used the product. You will see other products that don’t use snapshots and claim to be better, or don’t cause VM stun because their product is different. The fact is a lot of this depends on your underlying infrastructure especially storage. If your infrastructure is old or using slow storage, then any product may not be easy to implement without issues.


Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chris Childerhose - PeerSpot reviewer
Chris ChilderhoseLead Infrastructure Architect at ThinkON
ExpertTop 5Real User

Nice review. I really like that suggestion about Parallel Processing option within a job as you mentioned. It makes sense to have this for jobs that contain multiple servers for an Application. Hopefully Veeam implements this in a future version.

Buyer's Guide
Veeam Data Platform
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Veeam Data Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user326679 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Administrator at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It has provided a higher level of reliability to core company systems. However, it needs better reporting of replication job details to provide troubleshooting insight.

What is most valuable?

Virtual Machine replication between sites.

How has it helped my organization?

It has provided a higher level of reliability to core company systems and services.

What needs improvement?

Better reporting of replication job details in order to provide better insights when troubleshooting.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used Veeam Availability Suite for eight months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Replication delta sizes have been inconsistent with Windows VMs, but we are working with Veeam Support to resolve the issue.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Very good, no particular issues.

Technical Support:

Very good, with fast communication, follow ups from the support team and consistent. Still need to see how long it takes to fix our main issue in order to evaluate how timely the support calls are resolved.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, it is our first implementation of a replication solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward, installation and set-up of VM replication took just two to three hours.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented through a vendor team. They have been very responsive and cooperative, as well as very informed as to how the solution works and the best practices that are to be followed.

What was our ROI?

This product will provide availability of core services in case of a disaster scenario, which will enable our company to continue operating normally. It also provides another recovery point in our backup & recovery strategy. Estimated ROI on this project is calculated at 40% ±5 in case of such scenario.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The original setup cost included purchasing hardware on which to replicate the VMs, as well as the license and support fees for Veeam. On a day-to-day basis, the only additional overhead needed was an increase of our WAN bandwidth in order to accommodate the replication between sites. Overall, we managed to keep the costs at a very reasonable amount.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had considered other solutions, Symantec and VMware, but eventually decided to go with Veeam due to their very good reputation on this segment.

What other advice do I have?

I would highly recommend it, since the solution is very simple to implement, monitor and manage.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user350622 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user350622System Administrator - Backup & Storage Specialist at METRO SYSTEMS Romania
Consultant

The EM isn't exactly made for very large environments. Veeam One is good but it's a bit shame they didn't integrate it in the base B&R products itself. Maybe in the future we'll get an unified solution.

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PeerSpot user
Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It allows VM replication from one data center to another for DR.

What is most valuable?

Instant restore, file level restore, backup, copy/restore to/from cloud, VM replication from one data center to another for DR.

How has it helped my organization?

Fast recovery, backup stored in 3 locations: locally, other location, and in the cloud (iLand).

If our primary data center goes down, our VMs are replicated to another data center so we will be up and running in less than 15 minutes.

Backup stored in multiple locations.

What needs improvement?

The product works perfectly for us. After they added endpoint backup for physical servers the product is 10/10.

For how long have I used the solution?

4 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Not at all, and we have a few Veeam servers in different locations.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, just make sure you not run out of space, that's all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

10, great customer service.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

ArcServe, Symantec. I had always problems with the backup until I switched to Veeam.

First, it's agentless for your VMware or Hyper-V VMs, but you need to install an agent if you want to backup physical servers. Second, the backup just works and I get alerts when a backup fails. But the only time when the backup fails is when I run out of space.

I don't need to worry about testing the backups because with SureBackup, Veeam is restoring the backup automatically and is checking if the restore works.

Brilliant.

How was the initial setup?

Very simple-- just download the product and go through the wizard.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Maybe Veeam is not the cheapest product, but it is the best backup solution I have ever used. If you want to sleep at the night, don't worry about your data , spend a few more $$ on the Veeam solution, and I guarantee you will love it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user249768 - PeerSpot reviewer
Datacenter Core Infrastructure with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Transparent and easy to use, which improves usability and manageability for the daily operations a backup/system administrator performs.

What is most valuable?

It is important that a backup product delivers what it promises. As backup features are important, so are restore features. The ability of Veeam Backup & Replication suite to restore various items in a granular and fast way (RPO & RTO importance) is key for our customers.

How has it helped my organization?

Veeam B&R software is transparent and easy to use, which improves usability and manageability for the daily operations a backup/system administrator performs. Setting up a backup application/infrastructure is one thing, but to keep it operational without having to deal with big issues is another. I barely encounter situations where Veeam B&R setup disappoints our customers.

What needs improvement?

Two months ago, I would have said the integration of Veeam Endpoint Backup with Veeam B&R, but this is covered by now with Veeam 8 U2. The feature that a few customers are waiting is SharePoint item restores via redirected SQL, instead of having to install a staging SQL instance on the Veeam B&R backup server.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been installing and configuring it for three and a half years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Every IT environment has it's specific needs and caveats. Of course I encountered some minor issues when deploying Veeam, but this is mostly related to the IT environment itself. Rare issues are logged with, and solved by Veeam support.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, Veeam B&R provides a flexible way of working and scaling with the breakdown of different functionalities (proxies, repositories etc.).

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

In all the cases where I had to contact Veeam customer service, a solution was delivered within a short timeframe.

Technical Support:

In all the cases where I had to contact Veeam Technical support, a solution was delivered within a short timeframe.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have experience with Backup Exec. The backup/restore capabilities are far away from the Veeam Suite.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We are installing/configuring Veeam in customer environments.

What was our ROI?

As system integrator we offer various backup/replication products. I have no personal hands-on experience with other products except Backup Exec, and Veeam.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to make a correct design which maps on your IT environment needs. A simple Veeam POC can be setup to validate the product.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are Premium Partners
PeerSpot user
it_user368646 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user368646Systems Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User

Your one comment about the SQL staging server has now been resolved with the addition of the guest interaction proxy in Version 9

See all 2 comments
it_user176604 - PeerSpot reviewer
Server Administrator at a religious institution with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Set up is very easy. Pick your proxy server, set up the repositories and off you go. The backup compressions needs work.

What is most valuable?

  • Replication
  • WAN Accelerator
  • Backup
  • Ease of use
  • File Level restoration

How has it helped my organization?

Restores are faster. Moving virtual machines from one location to another is easier and is far less time consuming than Tape backups. Setting up jobs replicas or backup jobs is also quick and easy.

What needs improvement?

Backup compression. It has got better but still could improve somewhat.

For how long have I used the solution?

3+ years (I started with the Veeam Free Edition and have used the Full Product since 6.5)

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

The only issues i've had is with updates. The program will error and then the server needs rebooting or the patch reapplied. I have only noticed that issue with version 7.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Only stability issues are as i stated in the above question.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues. You can make many repositories in all different locations if needed.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

4/5 as the support is very good and responsive. I have always received the correct answer the first time calling.

Technical Support:

Same as Customer Service. Top Notch. Always very responsive and get the answer the first time. Tech's really know their product well.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Nope. I have always used Veeam for virtual machines and Backup Exec for physical boxes.

How was the initial setup?

Set up is very easy. Pick your proxy server, set up the repositories and off you go.

What about the implementation team?

In house with only the documents from Veeam. No problems at all.

What was our ROI?

This is a good question. Veeam is competitively priced. When compared to Tape or other virtual solutions Veeam is by far the most cost effective. I spend 75-80% less time managing backups than i used too. Troubleshooting is easier, and it has less moving parts than traditional backup solutions.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I can't remember. Veeam is licensed by processor and I would say it is much cheaper than it's competitors.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not really Veeam is far and away the market leader for virtual environment. I have looked at vRanger and Appassure.

What other advice do I have?

Don't wait. It is a very simple install and your backup and replication jobs will run better than ever.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chris Childerhose - PeerSpot reviewer
Chris ChilderhoseLead Infrastructure Architect at ThinkON
ExpertTop 5Real User

Veeam is meant for Virtual environment but with the new Endpoint Backup solution you should be able to back up those physical servers.

See all 2 comments
PeerSpot user
IT Infrastructure Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
From a business continuity aspect it has removed the need for arranging warm-start DR arrangements.

What is most valuable?

The ability to restore files in a matter of seconds or minutes depending on file size and number of files to restore. I have also used the Active Directory Explorer add-on tool for recovering AD objects this is now built-in to Veeam B&R v8.

How has it helped my organization?

We are currently using Veeam B&R to replicate our VMware environment to a disaster recovery site, in the event of a major outage we can fail-over to our DR site. From a business continuity aspect it has removed the need for arranging warm-start DR arrangements.

What needs improvement?

The main area for improvement has come in Version 8, that is native support for tape drives and the ability to archive to tape. Although Veeam B&R v7 allows you to back up your virtual servers to disks. You still need to archive those backups to tapes for long-term storage. Veeam did not provide this facility in earlier versions so we currently use Symantec backup for archiving the "restore points" for long -term storage

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Initial teething problems with replication of data between main site and the DR site but this has since been resolved.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability of the product.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Good, you log calls initially using a customer portal site.

Technical Support:

Again good, knowledge base articles are available. For problems requiring a specialist - remote sessions with telephone support is made available.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Commvault which is a good product but this was based on backups of Physical Server using tapes, Veeam B&R was chosen when we made the move towards virtualisation.

How was the initial setup?

We had assistance from Technical Consultants as part of installation/commissioning process.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented Veeam B&R as part of a wider Datacentre modernization project including replacement of the SAN and physical server infrastructure. The Technical Consultants involved were introduced as a result of the tendering process, they were part of the re-seller team and were well versed in the Veeam product at the time.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

At that particular time no as Veeam was and still is the market leaders with backup of virtual servers, other companies are playing catch-up.

What other advice do I have?

I would say you need to think about the long term storage of data and how you intend to archive that data.You need to fully understand the concept of "restore points" and full-incremental vs reverse-incremental backups along with the pro and cons. This information is available on the Veeam website. Finally plan as much as can before installation!

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user159642 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Systems Engineer with 51-200 employees
Real User
I evaluated CommVault. Veeam was much better priced for the features we needed.

What is most valuable?

The ease of use and intuitiveness of the interface are excellent. Ability of the software to work reliably and consistently is very important. The instant restore option to mount backups and read data from them in a matter of seconds/minutes is very helpful. Ability of Veeam to replicate backups cross-site is critical to my DR strategy.

How has it helped my organization?

Veeam allowed me to eliminate the need for tape backups and replace legacy backup software. The reliability of Veeam is amazing compared to the solution(s) I was using. I am now able to spend 2 minutes a day reviewing backup logs instead of hours troubleshooting errors and calling vendor support. The ability to replicate backups off-site disk to disk also saves a ton of time compared to swapping tapes and manually moving them off-site.

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I used a 3rd party consultant to aid in the deployment however after watching it done I was sorry to have paid someone else to do it. The deployment process appeared to be very straightforward.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Excellent customer service. I have mostly dealt with tech support.

Technical Support:

Excellent. Always responsive and quick to resolve issues. Though there are rarely issues to resolve.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes I previously used Symantec BackupExec which had been in place for years. The product was full of bugs, completely unreliable, and required weekly calls to tech support. I switched to Veeam because of these reasons primarily. The cost of Veeam also came in lower than our previous system.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. I was able to follow the implementation guide and get the trial setup very quickly. The GUI is intuitive, I've never had an issue figuring out how to use a feature.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented the production instance through a vendor. The vendor was competent and able to configure Veeam properly. However I do not see the need to use a vendor for future Veeam implementations. The Veeam install and setup process if easy to figure out.

What was our ROI?

Invaluable in time saved managing backups. The time I spent managing backups, failed jobs, software errors etc has been almost eliminated by Veeam. I have recovered at least 5 hours a week by switching to Veeam.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I do not recall the exact setup costs. I believe I paid the vendor ~$1,500 to implement Veeam, plus the cost of the Veeam licenses and support. Ongoing cost is simply the cost of renewing support and about 5 minutes of my day.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, I evaluated CommVault. Veeam was much better priced for the features we needed.

What other advice do I have?

Veeam is an excellent and reliable VM backup tool at a great value compared to other products. I strongly recommend deploying the free trial to get familiar with the product. After using the trial I would be surprised if someone doesn't purchase Veeam.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Veeam Data Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Veeam Data Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.