Veritas NetBackup Reviews

We use the solution for backup and recovery purposes. It serves as enterprise software and helps with virtualization environments, databases, and backups. It addresses our requirements for backups. 

Disaster recovery primarily involves backup usage. We employ it for both backup and recovery purposes. The backup and recovery processes have been executed multiple times, even restoring data from backups created three to four years ago.

We use the deduplication feature in Veritas NetBackup. This feature helps us to compress the information, especially when utilizing appliances, helping with our storage usage. It has been very beneficial for us. The feature has resulted in significant space savings, especially when performing daily full backups for various applications.

The product itself includes all the necessary database and data security features. Initially associated with Symantec, even after being separated, it retains all its security capabilities independently.

We are facing a challenge regarding the support for Docker and Kubernetes features. We hope for the possibility of directly backing up Kubernetes and Docker images without the necessity of taking full virtual machine backups.

I have been working with the product for ten years. 

The solution is stable and we haven't encountered any instability. 

The product is scalable, and despite experiencing data growth of around 20 to 25 percent, we have been able to handle backups without encountering any issues. Currently, we have two resources working with Veritas NetBackup. However, they are not exclusively dedicated to NetBackup; they also manage different applications. We have about 400 endpoint servers. 

When needed, we open cases within our backup team. An engineer then troubleshoots the issues and responds to any required adjustments or additional information needed for the backup system.

Positive

The initial setup process was not complex. We have gone through it multiple times and performed updates on several occasions, making the process straightforward. The deployment process for Veritas NetBackup is straightforward. It involves setting up a master server and a media server.

You can assign both roles to a single server or keep them separate. Additionally, clients, representing the machines for which backups are needed, require the installation of a client component. Ensuring open communication ports is crucial for successful backup operations. If the implementation engineer is skilled, they can handle the deployment process independently.

It's not difficult to maintain Veritas NetBackup. Maintenance mainly involves upgrades; as long as there are no issues, it runs smoothly day and night. Regular upgrades are the only maintenance requirement for the system.

At times when data is needed and not available, it becomes a significant challenge in organizations. However, with Veritas NetBackup, we haven't faced such issues. Despite being relatively expensive, it is not as complex as some other solutions, providing value for money.

The solution is expensive compared to other products. 

I would recommend Veritas NetBackup as it is relatively easy to manage and can serve as a single-vendor solution. If deployed correctly, it proves to be a good solution with integrated security and scalability. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

The solution backs up applications and databases like Microsoft Exchange, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and VMware.

I've restored and recovered application, disk, and server failures. The solution has been beneficial to us. We could see the benefits of the tool almost immediately. We don't need to have a failure to use a backup. Sometimes, to create a test environment, we clone an environment from the backup and have it up and running.

The backup and restore features are helpful.

The product must enable data migration from on-premise to the cloud. It must provide features that support a hybrid approach. It should provide interconnectivity to manage data across multi-cloud providers.

I have been using the solution for about eight years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable. It is able to increase its capacity and functionalities based on our demands. My organization is planning to increase its usage.

The technical support can be better.

Neutral

The deployment of the appliance was pretty straightforward. It gets complex when we start integrating the appliance into the media server to increase the library and back up multiple operating systems. Our landscape is not small. The deployment can be simple or complex, depending on the phase we are in at a particular time. We cannot deploy the solution and walk away. The product evolves as the environment grows.

Last year, we swapped out some appliances that were at the end of life. Taking those out and bringing in other things was simple. Deploying libraries is complex. It's not a static space. It's a very dynamic space. Every year, we take a look at the environment and make changes. The number of people involved in the deployment varies. Sometimes, we need two, other times, more. We have about five people in our backup team.

Veritas’ partners helped us with the deployment.

Measuring the return on investment on backup and recovery is very difficult. There were possible scenarios where potential problems have been resolved in our organization due to the tool, and we were able to restore services.

The solution is expensive. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The price could be a problem for smaller businesses. We’re engaged with the product as an enterprise. We might have received a lot of discounts on the price. It might not be the same for a small-scale business.

I recommend the tool to others. It's an enterprise solution. It comes with various options that can meet different needs. If someone is looking for a backup and recovery solution that meets the needs of both large and small-scale businesses, Veritas NetBackup is a good option. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use Veritas NetBackup to back up our system for compliance and security reasons.

Veritas NetBackup is a reliable, easy-to-use, and easy-to-deploy solution.

Veritas NetBackup is an expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved.

I have been using Veritas NetBackup for 15 years.

Veritas NetBackup is a very stable solution.

Veritas NetBackup is deployed in two locations with around 1,000 end users, and we have plans to increase the usage.

I rate Veritas NetBackup a nine out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s technical support is very good and fast. They understand what we want and solve our issues in a very short period.

Positive

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

The solution's deployment can be done from a couple of days to not more than two weeks. You need to get approval, purchase an extra license, and then deploy the solution.

We implemented the solution through an in-house backup storage expert.

It is easier to find a backup solution engineer with technical expertise for Veritas NetBackup because it is a popular product in my country.

The solution's backup time is good. The solution is easy to deploy for newer projects, and we find it very stable. Just one person is required to maintain the solution.

I would recommend Veritas NetBackup to other users.

Overall, I rate Veritas NetBackup a nine out of ten.

Our customers use Veritas NetBackup for backup and disaster recovery. The solution is used to back up operating systems, databases such as Oracle, SAP, and SAP HANA, and open-source databases such as Postgres and MongoDB.

Veritas NetBackup has been in the Turkish market for years. So, customers consider it to be a trusted and robust solution. It provides an entire solution and not just virtualization. Veritas NetBackup embraces many new open-source technologies, such as MongoDB and Postgres. Containerization is very crucial in our domain, and Veritas NetBackup works with many container technologies.

Veritas NetBackup is very user-friendly and has some good quick recovery features. The solution also provides some features via the cloud that may provide some good opportunities for our customers.

The most important thing for backup solutions is not just to back up the data but also to recover it quickly and correctly. Veritas NetBackup's recovery is very fast and quick for our customers.

Veritas NetBackup should be quicker than its competitors to pick up modern disruptive technologies. The solution's technical support process should be improved. The technical engineers' capability and experience should be improved.

They should add network acceleration by effectively using the network pathway.

They should support other backup technologies like Veeam. Our customers use more than one backup solution. In Turkey, people use both Veeam and NetBackup. Customers are trying to find just one backup storage solution that supports both Veeam and NetBackup software.

Since the Veritas NetBackup appliance doesn't support Veeam, customers have to find another solution that supports both NetBackup and Veeam software.

I have been working with Veritas NetBackup since 1998.

Veritas NetBackup is a generally stable solution.

Since Veritas NetBackup appliances have some options for very, very big environments, there are no complaints about its scalability. Compared to solutions like Veeam, Veritas NetBackup is more robust and scalable. It's possible to increase the solution's capacity and functionalities based on the demands of our customers.

Veritas NetBackup is a robust and mature solution. However, there is some latency with its support process. Sometimes, its support process takes a long time. Although we are talking to Veritas to improve their support process, it's still stable.

Positive

The initial setup of Veritas NetBackup is not difficult. Veritas NetBackup's initial setup is easy because it is a mature solution.

Our team is very mature, and Veritas has local offices in Turkey with very competent engineers. So, if we have any problem during implementation, we submit it to Veritas support, and they help us by answering our questions. They are always with us if we need anything during the discussion or assessment stage. Their documentation is also very good and open. Our field experience, good documentation, and Veritas local support make the implementation easy.

The solution's deployment depends on how many clients will be backed up, not how big the environment is. For instance, our team will take one to two days for just one NetBackup appliance. However, setting up the requirements for the environment, like network, cables, and cooling, is important. The implementation can be done after this setup.

At least two people to three engineers are involved in the deployment process. We do a periodic check once every three months, which is crucial for all technology and not just Veritas NetBackup. The surveillance team at the customer's side always monitors the solution. Backup solutions should be monitored regularly. We currently provide level one and level two support. For level three support, we submit it to AWS.

Veritas NetBackup's pricing is somewhere between affordable and expensive. On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate Veritas NetBackup's pricing a seven out of ten. Veritas NetBackup's price could be a problem for small businesses.

Veritas NetBackup's strong point is that it embraces many technologies like SAP HANA, Oracle, and MSSQL. There are some add-ons for cloud pickups for Veritas in hyper-scale cloud environments like Google, Azure, and AWS. Effectiveness, best backup time, and best recovery time are predominant features of Veritas NetBackup.

Overall, I rate Veritas NetBackup a nine out of ten.

We are currently phasing it out, and we've gone to Rubrik. At one point, we were backing up everything with it, which included physical and virtual NAS. We moved the virtual first and then we started packing the physicals to move them.

I used to have a lot of respect for Veritas NetBackup, but over the years, they've lost their focus, and they're just not doing much to improve the product.

It has been around for so long, and it is very in-depth. It has a solution for everything that you can cover.

It was very complicated, and it required a lot of work in terms of management. We have moved to Rubrik. One of the reasons for getting rid of Veritas NetBackup was the fact that at one point, we had the support staff with 12 to 15 people to manage Veritas NetBackup, whereas, with Rubrik, I'm the only one managing Rubrik. There is one more person who works with me mostly due to the fact that in case I'm not around, someone else knows what to do, but I'm the only one who is a full-time manager of Rubrik. The complexity of Veritas required a large staff to manage it.

We had daily issues that had to be looked into and resolved. A lot of these issues revolved around Veritas' handling of VMware, which is why first we moved VMware off Veritas. After we did that, we were also able to reduce our staff count.

Their licensing is a disaster. It is extremely complicated. In most cases, Veritas themselves can't understand their own licensing.

I have personally used Veritas NetBackup for 15 to 20 years. In my current organization, it has been ingrained for quite some time. They have been using it for quite some time, but I have been here for only three years.

Dependability was lacking quite often because we were not getting the support for the support cases. 

It has scalability.

We were not getting proper support for the support cases that we were opening. Some of that came down to the fact that they knew we were leaving. It was more like, "Yeah, you're already on your way out the door. So, we'll look at that when we look at it." It wasn't like, "You're a happy customer, and you're going to be staying around. We need to make sure we keep you happy." Typically, you need to escalate before you get to anyone helpful.

It had been installed long before I joined.

At some point, it did provide ROI, but over the years, Veritas has not continued to put enough effort into research and development. As a company, they're focusing on other products and really not managing the backup software very well.

It was on a yearly basis. During the annual review, when we asked them about our licensing, they couldn't explain it. For example, we had reduced by a factor of 40%, but our license only dropped by 5%. We would then ask Veritas people if we've reduced this much and shut down these servers, why has our license changed so less? They were never able to give us a straight answer. They weren't able to say, "Well, you're using this, and this is more expensive." In many cases, as we reduced our capacity and what we were using with Veritas NetBackup, our licensing actually went up, and they were often unable to explain why. 

We also looked at Cohesity and decided to go with Rubrik. Rubrik was just simpler and easier to manage. As a result, we went from 12 to 15 members staff to 1 member.

I honestly don't feel that Veritas NetBackup is forward-thinking. There are a lot better options to implement at this point. I would not suggest Veritas NetBackup to anyone at this point. It is not being managed properly.

Veritas needs to come out with a completely new product and break away from the old. They've basically been continuing to update the same product since the eighties. It is time for them to more or less move to a more forward-thinking. They need to be more in-line with how the environments work today. It has outlived its usefulness in all honesty. They would honestly be better off by re-inventing Veritas NetBackup than trying to fix what's broken.

I would rate Veritas NetBackup a three out of ten.

We primarily use Veritas NetBackup for backing up and restoring data, but primarily to restore data backed up with NetBackup. I primarily do maintenance for end users who need me to back up their servers.

Veritas NetBackup is currently one of the most professional products in the area. It is compatible with my features, and what I like most is it is a professional product. It supports all kinds of technologies, and I consider it one of the best backup products available. Its versatility and compatibility with multiple systems are its best features.

I am particularly impressed by its compatibility and the granular backup and restore options. The storage connection is also excellent. NetBacku’s compatibility, stability, and catalog management capabilities are what stand out the most.

I like that the solution is compatible with many features and technologies. Specific strengths include granular backup and restore, as well as compatibility with storage, along with its stability and the way it catalogs data.

Veritas NetBackup is a very old product, but it is based on Linux, which is not user-friendly. Although they have made some improvements in GUI to provide a more user-friendly interface, the web interface could be better organized and easier to use. It is not really suitable for anyone without strong knowledge of the product, which is its main disadvantage. So the user interface (UI) is the main area for improvement.

UI feels a bit outdated, like an application from the '90s, due to its Java-based design. Additionally, because NetBackup's roots are in Linux, the best way to work with it is through commands. The current web interface is still somewhat outdated, and there are limitations compared to what can be done with the command line. That's why managing it without strong knowledge can be challenging.

Though they have a GUI to make things easier, it would be better to improve the GUI and the web interface by making them more organized and easier for anyone to use the products without a strong knowledge of the product.

For additional features, I could give one example. Veritas Protection and Veritas NetBackup are somehow integrated but obviously cannot be one product. If they were one product, it would be much better. So, like if it merged with SaaS protection and became one product.

The first time I used NetBackup was when I was training with Veritas was actually around 2018. Prior to that, I supported Veritas products such as Backup Exec. I joined Veritas when they split from Symantec. Initially, I worked with Backup Exec and DLP. Then, in 2018, I received training for Veritas NetBackup. We are currently using version 9.1.

I'm an administrator who supports NetBackup. So, I'm essentially a backup administrator. My job is to manage NetBackup. In my previous experience, I provided support for various Veritas products. Currently, I have a good understanding of many of the policies due to that support. Primarily, I manage three Veritas products: NetBackup, Enterprise Vault, and DLP. What I do involves backing up and managing restrictions at my agency, and they have chosen Veritas products. I'm the right person to manage these products.

I would rate the stability at least an eight. In my opinion, it's one of the best products in the market. I've encountered various products, and in terms of stability, NetBackup is top-notch because it is mainly based on Linux. It can be used in both Linux and Windows servers. 

In Linux, it's very, very stable. However, when installed on Windows servers, the problems tend to increase, and stability may decrease. So, eight seems like a reasonable rating overall. The roots of Veritas NetBackup are very very stable. However, when you interact with the user interface or perform configurations, sometimes the GUI may appear a bit glitchy. That will not affect your backups, but it might affect what you are trying to do.

The solution is very very scalable because, even with a product like SaaS Protection, NetBackup has integration with them, so you can scale it.

My agency is an enterprise business. We currently back up hundreds of servers, both virtual and physical.

The customer service and support team is good. The support is straightforward and always available. However, one issue I have with the support is that they follow specific guidelines. If your environment doesn't match their guidelines, you might face some difficulties. So, that's a minor downside of their support, but it's also their right to do so.

Positive

The installation is not difficult. It's more about the recurrent operations, the command lines. The installation process itself is straightforward if you follow the steps and have a basic understanding of what you're doing. It's an easy-to-install product and also supports multiple platforms.

When you have multiple installations, you will need to set up the agents on the clients, but for product installation on the server, half an hour should be plenty to have the minimum preparation and to launch it. But to set up the environment, it wouldn’t be half an hour; it would take more time depending on what you are trying to back up.

NetBackup is not a user-based application, so I don’t have many deployments; it is just deployed at my agency. If we have been requested to update to a new server or upgrade the application, in which case I would have to update the clients as well, it might take longer to do that, but that can all be handled by one person.

The solution will require maintenance because you will have problems with the backups: there will be sensitive things that you need to monitor because you will have all kinds of issues, even if they are not related to NetBackup. It depends highly on the client. Maintenance here is about backups, not the application. The application maintenance itself would be the upgrades. Otherwise, it works well if there is no problem with any of the clients. When I say clients, I only mean the OS or the application where the solution is running that we want to back up.

The agency I work with handles deployment.

The solution is expensive. I would rate the solution an eight of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive.

We have an unlimited license with NetBackup, with support for upgrades. Mainly, the product itself is a one-time purchase, and then there will be more for support, maintenance, or other additional features that you will have to pay for, and it will not be forever.

For a recommendation, I absolutely recommend it as the best product that I know for the backup world, and why I'm saying it's the best is because it's very, very responsive, and very scalable. And personally, I have had good experiences with the support, and also I'm very familiar with Veritas. But mostly, it's because you can back up your environment safely with Veritas NetBackup.

The best way to use the solution is with commands since they have roots in Linux. The current web interface is still outdated, and you cannot do many things in the web interface that you can do with the command line.

If you don't have a strong knowledge of the solution, it will be hard to manage.

Otherwise, the product is very versatile and scalable that allows you to back up your environments easily, and I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I primarily use the solution to back up my customer's CMs or servers inside all of their data centers.

The VM portal and the CloudCatalyst are two of the solution's most valuable features.

The interaction of NetBackup with the cloud is not an easy process. You can't choose, for example, data optimization with the cloud. We would like to use CloudCatalyst with AWS and we can't. I don't know how to explain it, but the data file optimization is not usable everywhere. It's not a seamless solution in all instances. We'd like it to be multi-cloud and it's not there yet.

It would be helpful, in future releases, if the solution could add WORM (Write Once Read Many) support right within the product.  

The solution would benefit from the addition of disaster recovery.

I've been using the solution for five years now.

The stability is quite good. We haven't had issues with the product crashing. There aren't bugs or glitches that affect our work. It's reliable.

We're quite a sizable company. We've got maybe a 1000 operations and maybe 200 people working on projects. The solution is extensively used on a daily basis by our teams.

The solution is very scalable. We've scaled it ourselves within our organization and didn't have any issues. Other companies should feel confident that they can scale as well if they need to.

I personally have never contacted technical support, however, our operations teams have. I haven't heard anyone in our organization complain about their service which leads me to believe they've quite good. I would say overall our teams are satisfied with their level of service provided.

We previously used Dell EMC's Avamar solution. We decided to switch to Veritas after running into problems on Dell's platform and dealing with large overhead costs to have the solution.

The initial setup is not straightforward. it's quite complex. The process required a lot of engineering and had lots of components that needed to be addressed.

I don't recall the amount of time it took to deploy the solution.

The solution does require maintenance, however, I don't know too much about the process. We're a quite large company. I don't know how many people are working on this solution in total. 

The implementation was handled by us. We are a service provider for our clients. We didn't need an outside consultant or integrator to assist us. We have our own in-house team of engineers that can handle everything.

Compared to other solutions, such as Dell EMC's Avamar, the solution is reasonably priced. 

We've got a simple payment scheme set up where most of the features and the product itself are included in one single cost. It's quite straight forward in terms of pricing.

Since we are a service provider, we have a close relationship with Veritas. We offer services based on their technology and on their product.

I'd advise others considering implementing the solution to first evaluate against use cases. Depending on the use cases, the cost can change quite a lot. Overall, I'd recommend the solution, however. It's quite good and very reliable.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

The primary use case for this solution is as a backup. We use virtual infrastructure and use it as a backup for the SQL server, for example. We provide solutions to different companies that are handling many releases and it's important to have backups for the infrastructure. 

Sometimes there are bottlenecks in the backup infrastructure or there are some profile issues. If you have big infrastructure, you need to have a team and backup infrastructure in place in order to back up smaller sites and provide better, more efficient, solutions. 

We can easily expand the ability of the solution. 

It's great that we can have a backup for the server architecture.

It works with various solutions, including VMware, SolarWinds, and all the OS you can imagine. 

The solution centralizes everything. I can do everything from one pane of glass.

If we want to, we can work with tape and make libraries for offline backups. We can do off-site backups and work with cloud services as well. 

This is a solution you can rely on. You are sure when you have a backup. When you need to restore, it's always successful. There are no inconsistency issues. 

It easily adjusts to your future needs. If you want to, you can easily change your license. You don't need to change your backup solution. It's also easy to add features. 

There may be a learning curve. It can be a bit hard to understand when you are trying to figure out how it works. The interface could be a bit more user-friendly. It would be better if it were simpler. The process workflows when working with the solution could be easier as well. 

There are a few things that could be improved from an administrator standpoint. If it could be possible to change a basic disk to an advanced disk without including the backup, for example, that would be ideal.

I've used the solution for about four years. 

I'd rate the stability ten out of ten. It's very stable. 

We have experience deploying the solution over a network of multiple sites.

There are a lot of endpoints. We have between 1,000 and 5,000 users - no more than that. We do work with servers. 

The solution scales well. As long as you have the hardware, you are fine. I'd rate scalability nine out of ten. We're working with the solution more and more. We may expand usage. 

Technical support has taken care of us very well. I don't use them a lot, however. I tend to go to my colleagues to ask questions. Technical support is kind of a last resort. 

Positive

I'm also familiar with Veritas Backup Exec. There are other solutions. However, they work in the background. We moved to this solution based on its reliability. It offers a better backup experience, and it works with our server infrastructure without any hesitation.

I was involved with the implementation. We would have to devise retention policies and strategies for our backups. After we did that, we did a central setup and implementation. We also maintain the backups. If we ran into issues, we had a clear troubleshooting process. It was a bit complex. It would take us one to two days to deploy it. 

We had two or three people involved in the deployment process. One person manages the strategy, and another checks everything and goes on to perform maintenance. 

I have some colleagues who are backup professionals, and I sometimes would ask them for assistance. There's a community out there that can help. However, my first step is to reach out to colleagues. 

We do witness an ROI in regard to being able to avoid losing data. Fear of data loss no longer exists. When you invest in backups, you are investing in your most valuable assets. 

The product is expensive. That said, it's not meant for small businesses. It's for enterprises. You can add more features to it, and those cost more.

We did evaluate other solutions. This offered good documentation that was quite accessible. 

We did look into Commvault, which is an awesome tool. However, it had some limitations with accessibility and knowledge sharing. 

For this solution, I'm not very specialized. I am a technical manager. While I'm familiar with it, I do not specifically focus on the platform. 

We are end users of the solution. 

This is the top solution on the market. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. Others should not hesitate to use the solution. Once you have some experience, you'll like it.