What is our primary use case?
NetBackup helps system administrators and solution architects to easily replicate and back up data from one site to another site. It is very flexible and suitable for mix environments. it has many advanced features which are needed for my customer's data centers. Most of our clients are looking for stable and sustainable solutions for protecting their data.
Most of our customers are using this software. We help to implement this solution for our customers. Most often, I use this solution in private-cloud and on-premises environments.
How has it helped my organization?
We can create a unified solution for our customers, in many data centers.
For example, one of my customers has some important data that needs backing up, and we had to use several solutions at the same time. These included Veeam and some backup scripts for their Linux environment. This solution has allowed them to unify their backup solution. The others were removed, leaving them with a single solution that was well suited to their requirements.
Another one of my customers had experienced a virus a few years ago, and most of their services were affected. Most of their data had been encrypted by the virus, and they were unable to decrypt it. This solution helped that company to restore their data in less than one week, and they were thereafter able to continue providing their services. It was an amazing event at the time.
What is most valuable?
This solution is flexible, powerful, and fast. It is very capable of scaling and very good for heterogeneous environments.
The day-to-day operations including imaging, backup, and restore, are very easy to do.
This solution includes many good features such as:
NetBackup Accelerator
NetBackup Replication Director
Synthetic Backups
Multi-streamed Backup
OpenStorage (OST) support
Bare-metal restore, supports P2V as an option
Automatic robotic/tape drive configuration
Broad tape device support
And also replication, compression, and integration with VMware. Many of the features it has are not available in other solutions.
What needs improvement?
This solution is very expensive, which is a problem for many companies. Some of them rule out this product because of the price.
I would like to see support for databases such as MySQL and MongoDB. This solution would benefit from integration with new operating systems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for more than twelve years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is really stable. It worked very well in the case of my customer who was attacked by the virus, and it is not dependent on other solutions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is designed in 3 layers Master Server, Media Server, Clients. This flexible architecture helps customers protecting their data across multiple data centers with maximum flexibility replication data across two sites also integration with the other storage such as EMC Data Domain and NetApp is very helpful for replication management, deduplication, and staging backup data.
How are customer service and support?
Due to sanctions, my customers are often unable to use support from the original companies.
I have not had any experience with their technical support, although two of my colleagues have worked in Australia and have experience with their team. The level of support varies depending on the contract.
From what I understand, customers were satisfied with the support.
How was the initial setup?
When it comes to the initial setup, this solution is not as easy as others when you are implementing it for the first time. You need to have experience with solutions such as Oracle, Linux, Exchange Server and the Malware Agent, otherwise, you will not be able to implement this solution at all.
This solution is easier to implement and configure than the software versions of NetBackup. You need to connect the channels, and then install the agents on your operating systems.
What about the implementation team?
My customers generally implement this solution using in-house consultants.
I have implemented this solution, and it took me less than five days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution is more expensive than HPE Data Protector and EMC NetWorker.
It costs more to license support for this solution, compared to others.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We routinely evaluate solutions in this area. One of them is EMC NetWorker, which is a good solution. IBM TSM and Veeam are also good solutions. However, none of these compare to Veritas in large projects.
What other advice do I have?
This is a very good solution for Enterprise-level companies. One of my larger customers has been using this solution for more than five years. Because they didn't have experience with NetBackup, they preferred this appliance version. They have it deployed in their private data center.
While this is one of the best solutions in this space, the price is expensive compared to other solutions.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
IBM
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.