Veeam Data Platform Reviews

I used to work for a company that provided Backup/DR as a service to its clients we had to look at various backup and recovery tools to quickly and easily bring back customers data. Before Veeam introduced the backup to tape and WAN acceleration features we were using 3 different products across a number of our clients to provide the required services. After those feature releases, we just used one tool through a single console (the infamous single-pane-of-glass) which reduced the complexity and management overheads within our solutions but also provided our customers with a far greater level of service and reliability.

This is actually quite a hard choice to make when dealing with Veeam Backup & Replication. There are a number of great features such as WAN acceleration, deduplication & compression, replication and the grandfather-father-son backup tree. Not to mention backup to tape which has been a key reason to migrate to Veeam. The primary feature of most value to me is the SureBackup and SureReplica featureset. Having the ability to verify backups and replicas of critical servers in a sandboxed environment means that I can sleep comfortably at night knowing that the data is valid and I can confidently restore data and services if required by the business. Snapshot capabilities within NetApp would also be high on that list.

Backup of physical servers. I know Veeam has vehemently said they will never go down that route but it's a feature I need, and badly. Having the ability to use Veeam within all our virtual environments is fantastic, but it also means we still have a requirement to use TSM to back up our physical servers via an agent. With endpoint protection features being announced recently, I can only hope that this develops into the backup of all physical devices and allows it to be managed through the Veeam console.

Recently I've been discussing the capabilities of endpoint protection with a Veeam Rep. around the area of enterprise applications. In this instance I'm focused on SQL and Exchange. Despite my protestations we are still using physical exchange servers (and I doubt we're the only enterprise) so being able to get a good backup of those servers is critical to allow replacement of current backup solutions. Right now Veeam are not confident with Exchange backups and would recommend one of the DAGs to be virtual to ensure the backup consistency. For SQL however they are happy with their testing and while not being a released feature it is something that can be backed up via endpoint protection. This area of development for Veeam is going to be a critical one for them to truly enter the enterprise backup arena.

99% of the time there are no issues with Veeam. It does exactly what it says on the tin and it really is just as easy as they make it look in their demos and videos. On a few occasions I had issues with VSS failing on a server which came down to being an operating system issue. Another time there was a problem where the backup was not truncating exchange logs. Veeam Support provided a patch within 24 hours which immediately fixed the issue permanently.

In early versions of Veeam, before version 6.5, there were issues but since Veeam has utilised backup Proxy servers there's no issue with scalability. You can leverage servers in your environment that have low workloads to be Veeam proxies as well so you get more value from your environment.

Customer Service:

Veeam customer service is top notch. Previously I have worked closely with them to request licensing and further information on their products and they have always answered quickly and politely or returned my call quickly. If it was on a scale of 1-5 I'd give it 5.

Technical Support:

Technical support is exceptional at Veeam. Any issue I have opened with them has been dealt with quickly and within an hour I've had a support technician contact me. On a handful of occasions where I've had severity 1 calls open with support they have passed off support to their colleagues in Europe and later America to work on the issue with me further out of hours with a smooth handover. Normally with support teams this happens but you have repeat everything all over again but I've not had such an experience with Veeam.

Yes. I used to use products such as Symantec Backup Exec and Falconstor but switched to Veeam as it's designed for virtual environments, it's easy to use and lowers the management overhead, it scales easily and provides a stable backup environment. Right now I'm considering using Veeam to replace NetApp SnapProtect within our environment.

The initial setup is really straightforward. It really is a next, next, next install and can be done by anyone. Some of the feature selection during the installation should be thought about in advance but it's possible to easily enable these later if you don't enable the up-front. Once the installation is complete you then need to add servers as proxies and point Veeam at a backup repository, add vCenter and create the backup pools and that's it. Ready, set, go!

I've only ever done in-house implementations of Veeam. I have had discussions on occasions with Veeams technical team before installation of some more complex environments and they have always been insightful and knowledgeable and understood the capabilities of their products at an in-depth level. But normally the implementation was straightforward and didn't require any assistance.

We were able to recover our investment on Veeam within about 8 months. This was due largely to reduced licensing costs initially but the majority of the savings came from a reduction in the management overheads and the previous baby-sitting we had to do of our backup solution.

The original setup costs were in the region of $45k for a 24 host VMware environment. That was for the full Veeam Availability Suite which Backup and Replication is a part of. The day-to-day (Opex) costs we reduced from one staff member spending 5 hours massaging backups and replications to less that 1 hour a day.

Before using Veeam I reviewed a number of backup solutions. These included Symantec Backup Exec, NetBackup, Falconstor, Acronis, Commvault and ArcServe.

I would recommend getting your hands on trial version or even just use the free editions from Veeam to become comfortable with the console and see for yourself just how easy it is to manage backups. If you use the free edition you'll quickly want to use a full version so you can schedule backups and take advantage of some of enterprise features. Run a POC on some VMs and verify it's the right tool for you and see that the reviews don't lie.

I would also recommend reaching out to a Veeam Gold or Platinum Partner if you have a more complex environment and get your design put up on a whiteboard. While getting Veeam into your environment is the end goal a real focus needs to be placed on data migration and integrity. Your previous backup data needs to be accessible and recoverable and this is where the partners should be able to help. This isn't a recommendation just for implementing Veeam but for all backup solution migration. With Veeam however I'm sure it'll be as easy as everything else.

I use the solution to manage virtual machines.

The backup features are valuable. Veeam is a good application. It is easy to use and intuitive. I do not have any complaints. I prefer using Veeam because it can back up virtual machines.

The product must be able to perform different types of backups.

I have been using the solution for a year.

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

The tool is easy to scale. It is very straightforward. The solution is required for all tiers of businesses. It can be used for the critical machines in our environment. However, small and medium businesses may not be able to afford it.

The support team must improve the response time.

Positive

The price is a bit high. The tool could be cheaper.

I will recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We use Veeam ONE for backup and replication, and disaster recovery purposes.

I like the backup and backup copy features.

Agent backups could be better. I have many problems with agent backups, particularly on Linux and MySQL databases. MySQL works well with Microsoft products but not with other products. The database backups are not working correctly, and we are losing business. I am not getting any support; administration is also a significant problem.

I have been using Veeam ONE for over four years.

Veeam ONE is stable for small uncomplicated projects.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give stability an eight.

Veeam ONE is scalable.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give scalability an eight.

Support could be better. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Based on the project size, implementing this solution can take 24 hours, 72 hours, or even a week. A team of four can quickly deploy and manage this solution. They can handle configurations and backup failures daily. I can maintain 12 projects by myself.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give the initial setup a nine.

We implemented this solution.

We pay every month for Enterprise Plus. There are no additional costs.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Veeam ONE a three.

The solution is so good to use. It allows for proof of concept. One can run a test on the database, move backups from one server to another, do file restoration or make use of portal storage features. 

Backup and storage is very fast, reducing what would otherwise take hours to minutes. Veeam was designed for virtual environments. The first year it was involved in supporting VMware virtual environments. 

While I do not recall whether the latest version is 10.0 or 11.0 I do know that it allows one to make a back up repository that is very scalable and simple. This can be added from multiple different levels, in respect of a single disc, through employment of cluster servers, data domain storage, or even tape library. This means the repository is very scalable, as the growth of data in the past years has presented a big problem. Cloud services can be employed as a back up repository. 

While I may not be the user testing each new market product, I am very happy with the solution's scalability. It boasts a support team that is good and fast and can conduct its affairs in a host of languages. When it comes to instances involving support, I can discern the differences over the past two months. Technical support is fast, helpful and provides good advice. 

While we do not consider it to be a big deal, I know there are other users who consider the running of the latest version of VMware vCenter while making use of the virtual environment to be an issue. One must update VMware or Veeam with care because of the compatibility issue involved. Installation and support must be taken into account. 

While strength, complexity and compatibility of the solution may pose issues for others, they do not for me. 

I feel the solution to be user-friendly. 

The monitoring, reporting and dashboard features are also fine. 

I am not aware of implementation issues and I have no concerns about the solution's security or stability. I have even tested the setup and it can be automated. At present, I see no need for an increase as I am not making 100 percent use of the product. 

This said, the limits of Windows integration on servers should be addressed. Many shops use only Linux and do not wish to run the Windows Server policy. As they have people with an understanding of Linux, they do not see the need to employ another person merely for backing up the server. 

Nowadays one can run Microsoft SQL Server on Linux without any problem, perhaps with this same ability being afforded to Windows Server. 

Occasionally, in the course of upgrading one's virtualization platform, the backup can be ruined. I know of people who do downgrade virtualization out of concerns for the success of a data center backup run. For me, personally, this does not present an issue as I am more conservative in how I conduct my administrative functions. 

We have been using Veeam Backup & Replication for three or four years. 

The solution is absolutely stable. 

The solution is absolutely scalable. 

I am absolutely satisfied with technical support. We benefit from it completely. Its multi-lingual character is definitely important. 

We were using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for 15 years before making use of the solution, although I don't know what the product is called at present, as it replaced a branded IBM Protect product. 

We were using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager at a time when the majority of our data servers were running on physical machines. From IBM's perspective, the licensing has become more involved since virtualization became increasingly prevalent. While it was not in my purview, the prohibitive nature of the product led us to migrate to Veeam software and to procure a different license. 

While IBM Tivoli Storage Manager was considered to be the leading solution of its time, it was also very complicated. 

The installation involves a single package and is pretty simple. This is in comparison to the installation of the DB2 of Tivoli. Now, the installation is done in a single stroke and is so simple and the solution so nice. While we don't really make use of it at the moment, several years ago we constituted one of the main monitors of the virtual environment. 

The installation time is contingent on its scale as it varies based on the size of the environment. Another factor would involve the installation of disparate versions for different machines, such as concerns a proxy repository. A further possibility is to install everything in a single machine in virtual storage. 

I would put the main installation at 20 minutes and add another hour for configurations, such as those involving emails and reports. 

I consider the installation to be fully completed once I can carry out a task. We are talking about one or two hours. This takes into account the different applications for disparate environments in Veeam's environment. 

Overall, we have two people who are responsible for deployment and maintenance as it relates to everything involving the physical backup and virtual environment. 

We purchase a license annually. 

When it comes to the cost, IBM software is significantly more expensive than the solution for our environment, although we are talking about four years ago. 

We have two Veeam servers in two disparate sites.

The solution is not deployed on the cloud. One of the servers is physical and the other virtual, with the support and backup capabilities comprising 50 kilobytes of SSD storage. 

I would recommend the solution to others. 

There are approximately 700 people making use of the solution in our organization. 

I rate Veeam Backup & Replication as a ten out of ten.

I use the solution in my company mainly as a server backup for Windows Server.

The cost of the product is an area that would prevent me from using it in the future. The aforementioned area needs to be considered for improvement.

I have experience with Veeam Data Platform for three to four years.

The tool's stability is good.

The tool's scalability is good, but it can get very pricey. 

I personally use the product for around ten endpoints, a couple of servers, and VMs.

I haven't used the solution's technical support since it provides good online documentation.

The product's initial setup phase was not the easiest one I have dealt with recently. It has some level of complexity to it. It is good that the tool has built-in ransomware protection. The tool protects workloads on Azure, Blue Prism Cloud, and AWS.

The product's installation phase was okay.

The solution can be deployed in a few steps. It's not the type of product that you set up, and forget about it since it needs some more steps to get it started. It is important that the tool remains reliable. Some other backup solutions provide the backup features, and then you have to get back to them every week and sometimes every day to make sure that nothing has stopped it from working.

The product is expensive.

Compared to the other solutions in the market, I chose Veeam Data Platform since I knew that it was one of the top products. The product also offers a community that I wanted to try.

In terms of data recovery, I use the tool to back up servers and VMs. It is a reliable and easy-to-use tool.

The security features offered by the product are good.

The ease of use when deploying and managing the product is not difficult, especially when you become familiar with Veeam's interface and the way things are organized. In general, the tool is not very complex, especially if we consider the aforementioned aspects.

I think Veeam is one of the two or three best solutions in the market, but users have to balance the course and the things they want to do with the product. One needs to be ready with the resources needed to maintain and keep it even working. It is better to be set up and maintained by an experienced technician.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use the product to manage the data workloads for small and medium businesses.

Veeam Data Platform’s most valuable feature is replication.

They could offer a hardware appliance as a comprehensive, full-stack solution. At present, we have independent software and hardware for data backup purposes. Instead, they could provide all the necessary components in one single box. Additionally, they should add new features for containers to align with the landscape of new technologies and cloud-native applications.

We have been using Veeam Data Platform for seven years.

I rate the platform’s stability a nine out of ten.

Veeam Data Platform provides better scalability than Backup Exec in terms of time. It works smoothly without any complexities for workflow or database management.

I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

We use Veritas, Commvault, and NetBackup to manage workloads for enterprises.

The initial setup is simple. The installation process is swift. However, post-installation, the crucial aspect lies in the expertise of the implementing engineer to configure the tool effectively for scalability. We can deploy it on the cloud and on-premises as well.

The product is inexpensive. They offer customizable licensing models including perpetual and subscription-based licenses. However, I recommend using Backup Exec for customers using Microsoft products such as Windows Server as it offers more flexible pricing models.

The platform has a useful disaster recovery feature. Additionally, it has a good feature for instant recovery. However, a notable consideration arises when dealing with a scenario involving seventeen workloads, where customization may require the provision of two packs, each accommodating ten instances of Instant VM recovery. This setup could potentially result in having three VMs left unused. 

I rate it a nine out of ten.

My focus is on the business continuity and disaster recovery planning aspects.

So, I am working on the consultation part. My customers used Veeam for backup and sometimes for replication.

Veeam Data Platform has simplified data management and protection strategies. Compared to other vendors, Veeam stands out for its simplicity, ease of use, and deployment. 

So that's the main distinction of Veeam because nowadays, nobody hires a dedicated backup administrator. Not many companies do that. So, usually, there is one guy managing everything or a couple of guys managing everything all together. So Veeam made it a lot simpler. 

Usually, with the other vendors, they are much more capable, but they require expertise, okay, such as dedicated expertise, not shared resources. 

So, most companies, especially small and medium-sized companies, don't have the privilege to have a dedicated backup administrator. So they will have a general IT administrator administering their systems, etc. And then Veeam for these kinds of guys is just the jackpot because it just gets going. It does the compliance, and it does the backup, etcetera, and it's easy to use.

The recovery point objective relies on how Veeam offers different transport modes. However, there are integrations with various storage providers that can help reduce the RPO drastically. They also released their new continuous data protection feature, which can reduce the RPO to seconds, if not minutes. 

For the RTO, since back in the day, Veeam has been famous for their instant Veeam recovery and their Veeam Explorers, which can help conduct the VM restore in minutes or conduct the application granular restore, etc. So, almost all the time, Veeam reduces the RTO drastically.

The most valuable feature is the immutable Linux repository. Before that, customers needed expensive storage appliances to protect their backups. Now, they can use a regular server with Linux for secure storage, maintaining immutability against accidental deletion or ransomware.

Moreover, Veeam Data Platform manages and protects data across multiple cloud environments amazingly. From the console, Veaam has an appliance integration with Microsoft Azure. They have integration with AWS. They have integration with Google Cloud, and I can back up workloads on-premise and restore them to the cloud. I can back up workloads on the cloud and restore them to the other clouds, etc. It's amazing.

Veeam has been rolling out a lot of integrations lately. But compared to the other backup vendors, they are a little bit behind on the application support. 

Veeam does image-based backups, whether it be of virtual machines or physical workloads, and they are able to back up general applications like Active Directory, SQL, Exchange, or SharePoint. Sometimes, even Oracle and SAP. 

But still, there are many customers using other types of databases that Veeam does not natively support. For example, in the Linux area, MySQL and PostgreSQL are supported, but with many limitations. Like, if a customer is running a Postgres cluster, Veeam does not support that. 

If a customer is running a MySQL cluster, Veeam does not support that. But they support customers who have standalone instances of such workloads. So, I'd really like to see Veeam start to focus on supporting as many applications and scenarios as possible because that is the major difference between them and the other backup vendors.

So, supporting more applications and cluster scenarios is key. Especially cluster scenarios. 

I've been working with the Veeam Data Platform since 2018, so about six years now.

Veeam Data Platform is stable if you're using the latest release what I mean by the latest minor release, not the major release. But whenever there is a new version of the software, just like any other software, it comes with its baggage of bugs. 

So, with the latest minor release of Veeam, it's pretty stable.  

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

Scalability depends. It depends on the environment. For example, in VMware environment, then Veeam is extremely scalable. However, for Nutanix environments, it's not as scalable.

For Nutanix, there's a component called the backup proxy that enhances backup performance. In VMware, I can deploy as many backup proxies as needed, bare node or bare cluster. 

However, on Nutanix, I'm limited to one proxy per cluster. The architecture there is scalable within the cluster by adding CPU and RAM to the proxy, but there's no way to add multiple proxies in Nutanix.  

I only deal with enterprise-level customers. But I have also worked with small and medium-sized businesses in the past. 

The customer service and support are very good. It's one of Veeam's key distinguishing points.

So long as you communicate the issues properly and you follow up with them, then you will have an amazing support experience. Even if you have a bad support experience, they have an option for you to talk to a manager so that you can escalate things.  

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, with ten being easy. It's a very easy to deploy. 

Anybody can download Veeam Data Platform and install it on the same day. Then, integrating it with the environment will depend on the environment. 

Some environments are hard. Some environments are easy. Some environments are well-designed, so that's a different story. But in general, compared Veeam to other backup solutions, Veeam is the easiest to deploy.

The time taken for deployment depends on the customer's environment. For example, if all the prerequisites are intact and the customer environment is fit enough, one week is enough to deploy Veeam anywhere.

So, it depends on customers. They are PIA when it comes to their environment, their details, etcetera. Maybe an implementation can take one year. But for others, it could get done in a couple of days. It depends. But from Veeam's point of view, it's easy. It's easy to configure. It's easy to work with, etc.

From a distributor background, I've seen Veeam raise prices three times a year. With each new edition, they increase the price, making it hard to justify to customers. 

Their licensing model is simple and per-machine based, which is better than that of other vendors. However, they recently added a capacity-based backup for five shares. 

In general, my experience is that with every new feature or addition, there's a new price increase. In fact, last year, before I left the distributor, we increased prices a couple of times within the same quarter.

We have to justify it by mentioning added features and enhancements. Some customers accept it, while others complain about the rising price every year.

So, while Veeam's pricing isn't terrible even after the spikes, it's not stable.

It keeps increasing. Compared to other vendors, Veeam's pricing is good. But compared to the past five years, it's constantly increasing.

From my experience, all backup vendors should use capacity licenses, which control costs better. Veeam went for per-machine licensing to gain market share, and they succeeded. But that means they need to increase costs as they expand and add features. So, they have no choice but to keep raising prices.

Thoroughly check compatibility. Veeam is amazing, but it has limitations. Even if someone says it works with your environment, double-check everything. Verify application versions and cluster support. This is the biggest challenge customers face. They buy Veeam and then discover unsupported cluster scenarios later because they didn't ask about specific versions or configurations. 

For example, a customer would buy Veeam, and then later on, the customer would discover that "I have a Postgres SQL database, but it is a cluster. Then, Veeam will not support its cluster." 

But during the initial phase,  the customer didn't check that point. 

I recommend all potential customers to carefully check compatibility with their existing systems, with all the details.

Based on my experience, it's been very solid. Moreover, Veeam is making many changes and improvements. I'd give rate it a nine out of ten.

The solution is used for backup and replication of data. We can create a backup copy of off-site data.

The backup feature is valuable. It uses snapshot-based replications. Continuous Data Protection is a game-changing technology. Including Veeam, there are only three software vendors that provide this technology.

The product must improve its performance. Sometimes, the backup is very slow. It might be because of the backup infrastructure or the network infrastructure. Sometimes, it is because of Veeam’s abilities.

I have been using the solution for more than ten years. I have been using the latest version for two years.

The tool’s stability depends on the people who maintain the platform. If they do not manage it well, the stability will be lower. The more we manage, the more stability we get. If we take care of our platform daily, there won't be any problems. If we don't look at it for a week, we will have some problems.

Veeam has some performance issues after we reach a couple of 1,000 virtual servers. We have more than ten customers using the product.

The technical support is very good.

The initial setup is not straightforward. It depends on the customer’s infrastructure, architecture, CDP, and storage. We must be very careful about which tools should be used for the implementation. Infrastructure assessment should be done very carefully. A person must be a good Veeam engineer to decide which tools and add-ons should be in place to deploy the solution.

The customer infrastructure assessment should be done. We must find how many virtual servers will be backed up, how many client machines will be backed up, and how many physical servers will be backed up. If a replication solution is in place, we should ask for a wider bandwidth for the customer.

If the customer will be using CDP technology, then we have to do some additional installations on the customer's physical servers. We must understand how many proxies, backup repositories, and immutable repositories we will use.

The solution provides flexible licensing options. We can have it perpetually. We can have it yearly or once in three years. We can also get the Veeam Universal License.

Veeam is the only IT vendor that provides many features in one bundle. I recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.