Dell EMC Data Domain DD670 - NAS server - 12 TB
Mfg # DD670-12TB
CDW # 2143480
Know your gear
The Data Domain system derives its performance advantages from the EMC Data Domain Stream-Informed Segment Layout (SISLTM) scaling architecture. This CPU-centric approach minimizes the number of disk spindles required to achieve the throughput performance needed for critical single-stream operations. Data Domain system stores unique data sequence only once and save significant physical storage capacity by substituting small references for identical redundant sequence, enabling cost-efficient retention on disk for fast, reliable recoveries. Snapshot technology further enables extended local and off site retention on disk.
The Data Domain appliance series is qualified with excellent enterprise backup software and archiving applications and easily integrates into the existing storage infrastructure without change for either data center or distributed office data protection.
The Data Domain appliance series is qualified with excellent enterprise backup software and archiving applications and easily integrates into the existing storage infrastructure without change for either data center or distributed office data protection.
Enhance your purchase
Dell EMC Data Domain DD670 - NAS server - 12 TB is rated
4.53 out of
5 by
40.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
ITKoo67 from
Good integrated deduplication functionality with the ability to replicate between two devices on different occasions
What is our primary use case?
Primarily we use the solution as data storage and as a backup solution.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is the integrated deduplication function. Another valuable feature is the possibility for replication between two devices on different occasions.
What needs improvement?
The pricing could be better but it's still not too expensive. We haven't used the solution for long enough to really know what might be useful in a new release. We haven't used the full functionality yet and I'm not sure if all the functions are working as expected. We are using it, but it's not fully implemented.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six months.
How are customer service and technical support?
We don't use technical support from EMC, but we do get it from our reseller, and they have been just fine in terms of offering assistance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We had a reseller assist us with the implementation. We're very satisfied with the experience we had with them.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises deployment model.
I would recommend the solution to someone considering it.
I would rate the solution seven or eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-08T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user156375 from
Data Domain is a highly efficient ‘global' De-Duplication storage product that provides multi-protocol read/write access
Valuable Features
Efficient De-duplication, highly efficient replication, Data Domain BOOST for enabling a level of 'Source-Side’ De-duplication.
Improvements to My Organization
For many clients it has provided a Backup & Archive tier of storage separate from primary storage systems, replicated so as to eliminating the need for tape and has enabled organisations to achieve backups within backup windows and provide an appropriate place to tier and archive inactive data too whilst ensuring it is protected, secure and recoverable.
Room for Improvement
Tighter integration with certain storage arrays or software for even more seamless data tiering perhaps, however the system is quite hard to fault as it ‘just works’.
Use of Solution
I have used Data Domain for over 4 Years, designing, implementing and integrating it as part of a solution for many clients with diverse needs of all scales.
Deployment Issues
Watch out for getting the sysadmin default password wrong more than 5 times, it will lock you out and requires a hard reset which has to be done via serial connection and is time consuming. My best advice is to create at least another admin account immediately at deployment time with a simple password as a ‘backdoor’ and then remove this account once configuration is complete.
Stability Issues
No, the product (both hardware and software) is very stable and robust.
Scalability Issues
In some of the entry level models (DD2200, 2500) you have to be aware of the scalability limitations and ensure you purchase a large enough controller if you foresee growth and scaling beyond its recommended operating parameters as typically the controllers cannot be upgraded in place or without data migration. It is important to get a qualified EMC storage professional to size and design the solution for your purposes up front. However, the DD2500 can scale to 3 x Expansion Shelves (130TB Raw) and the larger models can scale well beyond this up to multi-petabyte scale so typically there are no real scalability issues. You have a LOT of backup and archive data if you fill one of the large systems, however proper planning and design should prevent this ever occurring in the first place.
Customer Service and Technical Support
EMC Support provides a high quality service, however I have encountered very few technical issues with this particular product. When a customer did have an issue due to their backup product filling the Data Domain system (backup application mis-configuration issue) EMC Support worked tirelessly to resolve the issue with a high quality and faultless approach.
Previous Solutions
I have seen other software based and hardware based De-duplication storage products, so far none has lived up to the efficiency, scalability and integrity of Data Domain.
Initial Setup
Very simple, just follow the prompts for the ‘config system’ command from the CLI. The only issue is with the new generation systems initial configuration is via Serial connection, there is no VGA port or pre-configured IP address, however after initial configuration all is very straightforward.
Implementation Team
I have implemented this solution for clients working for a Partner/Integrator many many times, I have also designed solutions with Data Domain for EMC… therefore I cannot answer this question without being biased. However the Data Domain system is relatively concise and not monolithic to configure in a short space of time, typically the more time will be spent tweaking and tuning backup applications to write to it in the most efficient manner.
Other Advice
Fantastic product that really is the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of backup/archive/bulk storage products, so usable and can save significant $ and can save many headaches with data management, the more you store on it the better De-duplication and greater ROI you get. If you archive inactive data to this product you can reduce primary storage (SAN/NAS) use by an average of 70%.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-22T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user157944 from
It's a good product, with excellent customer service.
Valuable Features
DD Boost.
Improvements to My Organization
It makes working with backup solutions very easy.
Room for Improvement
None that I see yet.
Use of Solution
3 years.
Deployment Issues
No.
Stability Issues
No.
Scalability Issues
No.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: 5 out of 5
Technical Support: 5 out of 5
Implementation Team
A vendor team, they were excellent.
Other Solutions Considered
The company chose this product not me, so no.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ahmed A. Hussien from
It provides better performance than the competition and deduplication
What is our primary use case?
Used as a backup target with NetBackup 8.0.
What is most valuable?
DD Boost.
How has it helped my organization?
Short backup window has made a difference in the way my organization functions.
What needs improvement?
I would like them to improve on the short backup window as it would make my organization even more efficient.
For how long have I used the solution?
From 2011 until now.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Some small issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues.
How is customer service and technical support?
Nine out of 10.
Which solutions did we use previously?
We used IBM ProtecTIER. We move to EMC Data Domain for better performance.
How was the initial setup?
Straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented using a vendor team.
What was our ROI?
Three years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive, but the performance and deduplication cover for the cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
IBM ProtecTIER and Oracle's Zero Data Loss.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2017-11-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user158214 from
?Stability, replication, deduplication, virtual library & ddboost are valuable but deduplication could be better.
Valuable Features
Stability, replication, deduplication, virtual library, ddboost.
Improvements to My Organization
Could fully automate backup process with 1500 backup clients (machines).
Room for Improvement
Smarter & better deduplication, CLI shell should have more options for managing this product.
Use of Solution
4 years.
Deployment Issues
Yes, but it related to hard disk manufacturer, not product itself.
Stability Issues
No.
Scalability Issues
Haven't scaled it yet.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: 4/5
Technical Support: 4/5
Previous Solutions
Before we used EMC VTL, an awful and nasty product from EMC with lots of manual work.
Initial Setup
Initial straightforward.
Implementation Team
Via vendor with excellent support.
ROI
100%.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
We have special discount from EMC.
Other Advice
Would recommend.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user157662 from
If you have a senior backup and/or storage tech, go for it. If not, it's harder to manage.
Valuable Features
Deduplication and VTLs.
Improvements to My Organization
As the cost of tapes start to mount, using the DD box for daily and weekly backups, and just keeping monthly backups on tapes, has greatly reduced the cost of backups.
It is an extremely useful tool to use for example in my case, in a redundant environment, as I manage duplications through Netbackup with Storage Lifecycle Policies. I keep my daily and weekly backups on the DD boxes replicated on both sites, and download the monthly backups for archive purposes.
That way I get the instant recovery that the DD unit provides, and in case I need to go live on the secondary environment, I can restore any vmware server in a matter of hours.
Room for Improvement
1 - Adding tapes to the VTL is a complex task.
2 - If DB backups could be somewhat compressed it would just be the dream product.
Use of Solution
5 years on different versions of DD.
Deployment Issues
None on basic deployment for CIF usage, the VTL and virtual tapes is more complex to setup.
Stability Issues
None at all, I have hardly had to reboot the boxes aside from a firmware update.
Scalability Issues
None, I am adding a second disk box and it is pretty much plug and play.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: Excellent, when there is a new firmware update, EMC will call me to do the upgrade without even having to ask.
I have had a couple of hard drive fail, and they sent a replacement right away.
Technical Support: Very good, I had only had to deal with first level support for firmware updates, had some minor discrepancies with the steps to follow, after reading the instructions on how to do the firmware upgrade, the tech wanted to jump a couple steps.
Previous Solutions
No, we had regular backups to tape and a staging area, but no deduplication.
Initial Setup
Initial setup is pretty straightforward, VTL configuration is a bit more complex.
Implementation Team
Implementation was done through a vendor, their level of experience was very good. At the time of implementation I have had experience with the technology, but had not participated in the initial setup of the product.
ROI
With the increasing amount of data handled every year, the money we save on tapes, plus the speed that the DD allows backups to be done and having instant restores, makes this product the best investment a backup environment can add.
Other Solutions Considered
At the time of purchase, there was no other solution that was able to perform the same tasks.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-21T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user159162 from
Good product, the technical support leaves much to be desired.
Valuable Features
Data Domain deduplication is excellent.
Improvements to My Organization
Not yet had a significant measurable improvement.
Use of Solution
I used this solution for 6 months.
Deployment Issues
The implementation was not done with me. This product was already in place when I arrived at the company.
Stability Issues
No.
Scalability Issues
No.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: No.
Technical Support: Bad. The service left much to be desired, even with the proper support.
Implementation Team
The implementation was not done with me.
Other Solutions Considered
Was not present in this decision.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2014-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user159876 from
?I used Sympana commvault and CA Arcserve. Both are good for small organisations but not up to the mark for enterprise.
Valuable Features
Fast backup for complex and huge size data.
Improvements to My Organization
My Organisation provides Backup as services. DD useful for shared platform for customers.
Room for Improvement
From a technical point of view, all EMC products have to improve the troubleshoot feature like, log should be in human readable format. Instead of generic errors, they should elaborate a bit more.
Use of Solution
Past 5 to 6 years.
Deployment Issues
Easy to deploy.
Stability Issues
Wrong integration is always the cause of unstable environment. We use clusters environment and EMC Procrustes have redundant parts. We have a stable environment.
Scalability Issues
Not yet.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: 3.5/5
Technical Support: 3.5/5
Previous Solutions
I used Sympana commvault and CA Arcserve. Both the products are good for small organisations but not up to the mark for enterprise level.
Implementation Team
Through vendor team; try to just know how to fix the hardware and plug the networker cable. Rest of the things we had to do remotely.
Other Solutions Considered
For enterprise level backup solution – No .
Other Advice
I recommend EMC products due to their stability.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user155190 from
The Deduplication storage Array for backups. Data Domain can acts as VTL, NAS/CIFS shares or DDBoost devices.
Valuable Features:
Deduplication
Features of Archiving
Improvements to My Organization:
*) Thanks to deduplication, backups take less capacity in Data Domain than traditional storage devices.
*) Backups to VTL take less time to finish than traditional tape backups (the time traditionally allowed to mounting/seaching tapes is avoided).
*) Using DDBoost improves DataDomain system throghput up to the double and Network usage during backup will be reduced.
Room for Improvement:
DDBoost function is not compatible with IBM TSM. Since DDBoost is one of Data Domain key options (it enhance its performance up to the double), it wil be great if in the next future Tivoli Storage Manager can support it!
Use of Solution:
< 1 year
Deployment Issues:
The deployment is very easy. No problem encountred.
Stability Issues:
No
Customer Service:
10/10
Initial Setup:
Initial setup is easy: After hardware installation (which is well documented) you just have to power up the data domain device then run a script which configure your device.
Then you can configure backups devices using webgui and this is really easy.
Other Advice:
The EMC Data Domain product is a real success and customers which have never bought EMC products are now buying Data Domain...
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We are an EMC partner
Date published: 2014-11-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ghayur Abbas from
Very reliable and capable of getting huge data
What is our primary use case?
Currently, we use Dell EMC Data Domain for our back-up requirements. We use Cisco Nexus 5K5540, as our core switches. We use Cisco USC-B as a compute engine.
We use Dell EMC storage as our core storage, and all of these products are still in use. We have had a very good experience with all of them.
We purchased Data Domain 2500 in 2015 as a primary backup unit. In 2017, we purchased another one, which is the 6300 Data Domain, as our element for the offsite backups. That product is very good. They are both very good in the backup expertise and the installation processes but the issue that we are facing is in the software which is NetWorker. NetWorker is the core Dell EMC software which runs the backups and restores the backups. NetWorker is not as mature as the other products. I have Backup Exec running now, different backup software products.
The hardware product (Data Domain 2500 or Data Domain 6300) is very good, very reliable, and capable of getting huge data in the form of duplexing, in the form of compressing or in the form of on-lapping. These are wonderful products.
We are using Data Domain 2500 at the primary site and Data Domain 6300 at the other site. We do backups on both the sites with these products.
How has it helped my organization?
As our organization functions, we have a total of 2500+ primary sites and 6300+ secondary sites. All of our backup systems are totally dependent on this product.
Dell EMC Data Domain is very reliable and we have had no issues using it since 2015.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the reliability of the backup service. The compressing mode or the number of the backups which are available on the device is also excellent.
What needs improvement?
Dell EMC Data Domain needs to have better compatibility between NetWorker and the hardware. NetWorker is not as good as the other products which are currently on the market like Backup Exec.
NetWorker is not as feature-rich as other products. On the hardware, there is no issue but the need for improvement is always there. They need to improve the NetWorker software.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable, 100%.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is there. If you need more storage you can add more boxes of the hard drives and get scalability for multiple terabytes.
We do not have users on this solution, only the data backups are initiating on this product. Any user is not interacting with this device.
We only require two people for maintenance. One is the primary, the second works as a backup or alternate staff.
Overall, scalability depends on the backup size. If the backup exceeds more than 80% of the storage, we need to add more. It allocates space for more hard drives to begin setup easily.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is not very good from the India region but very good from the UK region or the USA. Initially, the Dell EMC support initiated for us from India on the first level but it depends on the principal, i.e. the partner or the purchaser.
You can identify that the company is not willing to get support from India or any particular region. All of the support we get is now from the USA and the UK. It's very good.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
We only use Dell EMC products.
How was the initial setup?
Setup with EMC Data Domain is not complex. Setup is straightforward. Deployment speed depends on the architectural design. In our case, it took around 20 or 25 days for the setup.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator from Dell EMC for the implementation. They are the integrators for the deployment of products and their unique configurations.
My team was also involved in deployment because most of the procedure was conducted with mutual understanding between the partner vendor and our engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing is available under per TB storage rates. Another level of licensing is available on technical support. There is a third licensing tier that includes more features. They are expensive but not complicated, i.e. more for high-end users. Reliability needs more cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated local tape drives. We were using the tape drives from IBM (LTO 3) before the Dell EMC equipment and the product was good but not reliable.
The backups available on the tape drives have no reliability whether you store them correctly or not. They depend on the nature of the tape or the condition of the tape.
What other advice do I have?
If they have the budget, then I would advise any organization that the Dell EMC Data Domain product is very good. If they don't have the budget, then go with an alternate solution like Veeam.
As a market standard, data tapes are not reliable for a long duration. Only the hard drive based solutions are technically reliable now. It all depends on your budget.
I would rate Dell EMC Data Domain an 8.5 to 9 out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-04-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Chris Childerhose from
The Deduplication and Compression are the most valuable. The processing capabilities (version DD670) could be improved.
What is our primary use case?
The Data Domain serves as our primary backup device used with Veeam. It is used for all service backups and restores.
How has it helped my organization?
This allows our organization to send more data to this device compared to others. It also allows us a fast recovery of files or Virtual Machines if needed being on-premise.
What is most valuable?
I would rate it at 5/5 as the deduplication and compression of the device for backups is outstanding. We have about 55TB total space on the Data Domain which we send Veeam backups to and we have sent over 200TB to the array.
The Deduplication and Compression are the most valuable as it allows us to back up allot more data to the device knowing it will compress it well.
What needs improvement?
The processing capabilities I believe could be improved, however, we have an older unit DD670 and newer units may have already improved upon this.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered as we added a second shelf of disks without bringing the head unit down.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Customer service for this unit is top notch and they are fast to get back to you with a Support issue.
Technical Support:
Technical Support is also top notch and are quick to respond to queries or tickets.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup of the array.
What about the implementation team?
It was implemented through a vendor as well as in-house personnel.
What was our ROI?
It has been very good especially with the expansion shelf added.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
Review the newer versions of the device and evaluate them if possible. You will get great benefit for backups.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-26T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
it_user158877 from
Replication of backed-up data between sites for disaster solutions is valuable. Delivers all the time.
Valuable Features
VTL, Dedupe and replication.
Improvements to My Organization
Replication of backed-up data between sites for disaster solutions.
Room for Improvement
Haven’t thought about it because its deliver all the time.
Use of Solution
5 years for customers.
Deployment Issues
No.
Stability Issues
No.
Scalability Issues
No.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: 10 of 10.
Technical Support: 10 of 10.
Previous Solutions
No, it was the first VTL we used for customers and because of its function and uptime we can’t see a reason to change to another vendor.
Initial Setup
A walk in the park = straightforward.
Implementation Team
Both vendor and in-house. The vendor had a high level of expertise.
Other Solutions Considered
No.
Other Advice
Read the config and admin guides for products and as well implementation guides for backup vendors, for my customers, IBM TSM.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2014-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Michel Taung from
Good performance, stable, and responsive technical support
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and we use the Dell EMC PowerProtect DD to provide service for our clients. It is used to provide backups for VMware environments.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the performance because you can back up data really quickly.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see better integration and support for backing up to cloud providers such as Alibaba Cloud.
In the next release, they need some monitoring, not only of the backup but monitoring of the firmware and the applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this product for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable and I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable product.
I have a team of two that maintains it.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is okay. We opened a case and the response was good. We did not have any issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we deployed Commvault HyperScale and the Veritas NetBackup Appliance, but the performance is better with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a little bit complex after the initial configuration when we tried to integrate it with the firmware.
It took one week for the deployment, configuration, initializing the backup, and monitoring of the backup for one round.
What other advice do I have?
In summary, this is a good backup product and we are happy with the performance.
I would recommend this product to customers. I think that it has better performance than Commvault HyperScale.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-08-01T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Sufyan Khan from
Great deduplication, robust hardware, and extremely reliable
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for backup purposes.
What is most valuable?
The deduplication on the solution is great. It's elaborate but the companies already understand it.
The hardware can operate in high temperatures, in case of any disaster.
The scalability of the equipment and components of Data Domain are outstanding. We never go without Data Domain if we are talking about backup solutions. We always go with Data Domain.
It's a very reliable and consistent product.
There's no match with any other product. It's outstanding. The performance of the hardware is improving day by day and new models are coming with more scalability.
What needs improvement?
In terms of backup software, NetWorker is a very, very good. However, it is very complex. If you want to export on a NetWorker deployment, usually you need to add more plug-ins. If you install Titanium, through the vCenter, you can directly backup all virtualized data. Using Titanium, you can backup Oracle data through the main directly or on the data lake.
First-time integrations are difficult in NetWorker. NetWorker software needs to be simplified. It's very complex.
The technical support has gotten worse as of late. They could work to make it much better.
One feature which IBM has, and which I am unable to see in Data Domain (or on their optimum roadmap) is the utility-based backup solutions. There are no utility-based Data Domain models.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for more than five years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is extremely stable. You just need to install it and then you can basically forget it. Our users have never complained about the performance and never complained about the consistency or reliability. There aren't any bugs or glitches at all. It's a very solid product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is excellent and continues to improve with each new release. That said, a company needs to buy assuming a future scale, as it is physical hardware. If you only buy four terabytes, it's hard to just jump to 16.
How are customer service and technical support?
In terms of support, Dell EMC support was outstanding. Right now, we've observed some changes in support. It's not as good. Whenever a log is up, we do not get immediate support. This has happened a number of times now. If I don't have a senior system engineer available at my company, and I have a server issue, or a backup suddenly stops due to some application restriction, I have problems. I've had a few incidents just this year, the year.
While the support is excellent, the experience of some delays is off-putting. From 2015 until now, we didn't really experience any type of support issues. The delays are kind-of new. Support is perhaps limited in our region. However, beyond the delays we experience, the service we get, and the advice, is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Banks will often have Lenovo or IBM. I always prefer, and my company always prefers, Data Domain. It's scalable and robust and far superior.
We've used Avamar as a backup software. However, we find Networker has more features.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price point is high. That said, they're competing with other products like Veritas, so in that sense, the price is good, or, maybe typical. And yet, whenever we are competing with some legacy type of product, the price difference is huge.
It's a premium product and so the pricing is somewhat expected.
In terms of scaling, the price is difficult to pin down. IF you buy 4 terabytes, it's not so easy to upgrade to 16. YOu cannot add shells. So users should scale up, to avoid hitting limits down the road. The standard of Data Domain is typically 32 terabytes in terms of sizing.
What other advice do I have?
We are doing multiple POCs right now. We have already installed it in the banks of Pakistan. We are providing solution architects, support, deployment, and residential services.
In early deployments you need to size the backup solution properly and then design it, create it, and export it. Early on, we are sure to always have a delivery of that statement. After delivery, my engineers will be aligned with the Dell EMC CPU, who makes the PDQ chain. That way, we can always patch the required IPs and do those backups as well.
We always deploy the bank's backup software, and we'll do the patches for every requirement. Sometimes we use NetWorker and Avamar. We've deployed Data Domain using Veeam as well.
We always do on-premises deployments, which are mandatory in our country. In Pakistan, you can't have any cloud-based deployments. Compliance and government rules are slowly changing. In a few years, we may also do cloud deployments as well.
That said, wherever we deploy Data Domain virtualization, it is a step towards cloud-based deployment as it's a virtual machine. You can always send the data from a virtual machine to any cloud, including Microsoft Azure, IBM, and ECS.
If a company is looking for an implementation partner, it's best to go with a tier-one partner - someone who is Gold, Silver, or Titanium. They will understand the product fully.
I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. There's no comparison between Data Domain and any other partner. It's solid and consistent. We'll continue to use them. They are excellent.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-10-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1777704 from
Highly reliable, scalable, and beneficial duplication security
What is our primary use case?
We use Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for backing up a target.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD are the duplication security and uptime.
Dell EMC PowerProtect DD works well with other solutions, such as NetWorker. It's really easy to pass over to Data Domain and vice versa.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for approximately 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD cannot be beaten, it is highly stable and reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD is very good.
We have around 2000 employees and all the infrastructure that goes with it. We back up maybe 250 to 300 servers.
How are customer service and support?
I have had excellent support because I am not using overseas support. I try to have support agents in Utah USA, and Canada.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation of Dell EMC PowerProtect is straightforward. However, there are lots of options available. There are three different types of compression. It mainly dupes the data, and it also does local compression on the data domain itself. Once you choose the compression, you then have to decide whether you're going to do an entry backup or a straightforward input, big bucket type of backups, and only have one directory for your data.
When you purchase Dell EMC PowerProtect DD, you always have help from EMC. They will help you get familiar with whatever is new to you.
When you spend the kind of money for this solution you do receive good support to help you through any issues, it is not complicated.
What about the implementation team?
We have two people that manage the solution, but the two people are more to cover sickness, training, vacation time, et cetera. A single person can do the maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD could improve, it is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is to ensure they understand the solution well so that when they do implement it, it is done correctly for the business. Lots of different companies use it in different ways. I was with EMC for 10 years and I have spent the last 15 years supporting EMC customers, every implementation is unique because everybody has different ways of doing things. They don't always follow best practices, they will follow their business best practice rather than the vendor's best practice. They want a different thing out of a backup environment.
If my business said that they were going to change to a different backup product, I'd be looking for another job because I wouldn't trust my data with anything else.
I rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD a ten out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-18T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mina_Magdy from
Powerful compression and deduplication, data integrity protection, and integrates well with software from different vendors
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. We do pre-sales activity, configuration, migration, integration, and more.
We have a Data Domain on-premises in our business, and we also provide it to our customers. The entire suite contains lots of backup software.
How has it helped my organization?
The Data Domain is the only backup appliance that we are proposing to our customers. We sell it in conjunction with the Data Protection Portfolio from Dell EMC.
Data Domain will not work without backup software. It integrates with Veeam and other products from other vendors, but the most beneficial backup process is when it's used with the Dell EMC Data Protection Suite.
The only concern that we have about the Data Protection software from Dell EMC is the interface. There needs to be some sort of enhancement. Veeam has the number one backup GUI in the world and although Dell EMC has a good interface as well, it is not like Veeam. If Dell would further improve the interface then it would be very hard for others to compete.
Dell has their own backup engine, which is remarkable. It is integrated with many enterprise applications, like SAP/HANA, Oracle eBusiness, Oracle Database, Hadoop, and more. However, because of this integration with complex enterprise applications, it comes with a complex interface. If they enhance this interface, it will be great.
What is most valuable?
This product has a lot of good features.
It has the most powerful deduplication and compression for data backup. Data consumes a lot of storage capacity, but with Data Domain, it splits the data into many chunks. The data is managed with smart architecture and algorithms, saving between 80% and 90% from the target capacity. This means that for every tier of capacity, it may reflect 20 times that, which is remarkable.
Data Domain has good data regulation features to prevent data corruption. Frequently with other products, users face data corruption. Data Domain always generates a hash from the target backup data and compares it with the hash of the data in production. This is done to make sure that the data is identical. If it detects a problem then it will rebuild the data on its own. This is why I recommend people make sure that they have a valid backup. In case of a crisis, it will restore and things will continue to function well.
This solution has a feature called Domain Boost, which allows for source deduplication and compression. Backup data consumes a very heavy amount of traffic because you are transferring almost all of your production data across the network to the backup appliance. By using Domain Boost, it supports source deduplication and compression, so you are only transferring a very slight amount of data across the network. This will assure very rapid data backup, guaranteeing RPO and RTO.
What needs improvement?
The software from Dell that can be used to operate Data Domain needs to have enhancements made to the user interface. It is too complex.
For how long have I used the solution?
We began working with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) approximately five years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very stable and durable product.
How are customer service and support?
This product is backed by very powerful support from Dell. If there are any concerns then they become engaged very quickly. The support is very fast and very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We began working with this solution before the migration between Dell and EMC.
I have some experience with Veritas, and they offer backup appliances as well. However, they have nothing that can be compared to or compete with Data Domain. This solution from Dell EMC is the number one backup appliance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. Even the integration with different backup vendors is a straightforward process.
What was our ROI?
Although the price of this hardware backup appliance is expensive, it comes with its benefits.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the backup appliance is slightly expensive. Compared to other vendors, the pricing will be slightly higher.
The backup software from Dell that you can use to operate the Data Domain is very cheap, and there are many different plans that can be purchased as a subscription or full license.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is implementing Data Domain is to use the backup software from Dell EMC. Combined, you will get a very powerful package for backup that includes both software and appliance. These together come at a very affordable price against any combination from any other vendor.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-19T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1772523 from
Stable and easy to scale suite of deduplication, backup, data protection, and storage solutions
What is most valuable?
What I like about Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is that it is a performance technology.
One of the features I find very interesting in this product is deduplication.
I also find it valuable that it's very easy to communicate with just one vendor if you're using this product. Normally, with other security systems, CAP systems, etc., you have to use the server, some hardware, and some software. The server could be from one vendor, while the software could be from another vendor. When a problem arises, this means you have to communicate with more than one vendor, but with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), this is not the case. The only competitor I know that manufactures a similar product with this feature of one vendor communication is Symantec.
What needs improvement?
Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is not a product that's easy to install by customers. There are a lot of products, e.g. entry-level storages that can be easily installed by customers themselves, but this product and other IDPA solutions need to be installed by professionals.
Customers who buy Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) should not worry about its installation and deployment. It should be installed directly by Dell, or by a Dell partner for free, but the price of this product must include installation, so installation will no longer be a problem.
Installation and deployment for this product need to be improved. These processes need to become easier. The user interface could also be improved, but I did see that Dell now provides a number of products with very nice interface. We used to have Dell PowerEdge VRTX, but it reached its end-of-life (EOL). It was a small blade server with a small storage that's working, but it was equipped with a friendly interface for customer installation. Dell EMC and some other vendors should also sell entry-level to mid-range products that are more user-friendly, and make them out of the box products.
For how long have I used the solution?
It's been a few years since we started selling Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain). Normally, we sell Dell EMC backup systems, but we started to sell IDPA products last year, but the Data Domains we've started selling years ago. We're still working with this solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I find this solution stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a scalable product.
How was the initial setup?
The installation of this product is not easy, though it's easier to install than IDP and DP units. If you have knowledge on this product, then installing it will be easy.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed this solution in-house. We have two certified staff for data protection products. We have also have two certified staff for data storages, and more people certified for other products, e.g. desktops, servers, etc.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Buying Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), our clients don't have to pay for extra licenses. They can just buy any backup solution. For example, they can buy Dell EMC Avamar, or they can buy Symantec, Convault, etc.
When buying IDPA products, you don't have to buy anything, because you'll have an integrated solution: a data domain appliance plus software, the software being Dell EMC software which is a big package of software that allows you to do everything.
When buying Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), you can just buy a very cool backup software with deduplication, and that's all. It's very perfect, very nice. You can buy the backup software, e.g. Dell EMC, Convault, Symantec, etc.
Pricing for this product could still be improved, though several years ago, its price was very high. When there are more competitors, though, the price becomes more attractive both for the customer and partner. Now we can get more discounts for projects. The price for this product will decrease, because more and more companies now produce integrated devices, e.g. deduplication is not a very new technology, but it was a feature that was limited to several market leaders.
What other advice do I have?
My company MiroMIX United is a Ukranian company, and we are the platinum partner of Dell EMC. The majority of our solutions are based on Dell EMC products. We sell HP servers, but not too many, just 5%. We sell Cisco equipment, but we prefer selling Dell EMC networking products. We're partners of Cisco Systems, but we try to sell more Dell EMC products, because we know Dell EMC products best.
We sell Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) which is an integrated data protection appliance (IDPA). We have not sold many, e.g. just 10 or 15.
Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a promising product. It's very competitive. Last year, this product was sold and utilized into the most powerful banks here in Ukraine, but not by my company. My company sold these products to departments and segments in the government, though we were able to sell several Data Domains to a bank, but it was not a project worth millions of dollars. Our competitors were able to sell this product for millions of dollars. It's a very interesting, promising, and competitive product.
This solution is very promising and competitive, and we would like to sell more, but it's difficult. We can't predict how it will fare against the competition, for example: HP. At the moment, we have a POC in one bank here in Ukraine. It is a Hungarian bank, an OTP Bank, but it has a branch here in Ukraine. In the near future, there will be an official tender procedure announcement, but at the moment, they are testing Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), while also testing the backup solution from HP. It would be very interesting to hear their conclusions, but at the moment, we don't have the results.
We have 15 clients who are using this solution. It would be great to expand our presence in this market. We have a service center certified by Dell, with 10 people working in it, and all of them are certified in various products, e.g. desktops, laptops, servers, data storages, and Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain).
We've been working with Dell for many years. Our company was founded 22 years ago, and during this period, we've been working with service and warranty, and the independent service in Ukraine is based on four service centers for private companies, with one of the service center being ours. In previous years, e.g. in the early 2000s, we had to keep spare parts at our stock room. We used to do this, but 10 years ago, Dell changed the strategy of service in Ukraine and they arranged the spare parts hubs located in all the regional centers.
I recommend Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) to other users who want to start using it because it's a very interesting product.
My rating for Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a ten out of ten, when compared to its competitors which are utilized in large accounts.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-02-04T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
ManuelIglesias from
It has good compression and compatibility with a lot of different solutions.
What is our primary use case?
I'm an architect, so I only use Data Domain to design solutions for clients right now. I'm not using it so much as for management or administration. My clients all like it, and It's an effective storage system.
What is most valuable?
Data Domain is an excellent repository that's compatible with a lot of different solutions. Even Veeam Backup recommends sending backup to Data Domain. Space optimization is great. Currently, it guarantees 50-to-1 compression of the application in the same device. In all these years, I never had a client who was unsatisfied with Data Domain. It is a solid appliance with VMware integration, instant access to restore and search, and analytics.
What needs improvement?
Data Domain lacks compatibility with fiber channels and tapes. We can't use it with a tape library. That's an issue in Latin America sometimes because a lot of clients still use tapes for budget reasons. Maybe they have a lot of archives. In North America and Europe, they do a lot of archiving, but they use the cloud more than we do. Sometimes we have to put together a Frankenstein where we connect another server to the tape library and send all the data there.
I understand why integration with tapes isn't possible because they are designing these applications for the future. In the next decade, all the information will be sent through private and public clouds. It's a great way to send data. It can be software-defined, so you have lots of paths to send information, and it's it's not too slow, so I guess that's why they don't support tapes. When we have challenges with other providers, maybe an internal ID would help.
Also,Dell's backup software comes in a lot of flavors, and there's a bundle that gives you all the functionality. You use this software to do this and another to do that. There isn't a single application that can do everything, and sometimes that makes some struggles.
For how long have I used the solution?
I got my first Dell certification in Data Domain about six or seven years ago, but I've been working on it for maybe two years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use other products, but it's not a one-to-one comparison with Data Domain because they're software solutions. For example, competitors like Veeam Backup have only one software solution that you can't license to other users. You have to buy the license for Veeam Backup for a socket, but it involves all the the functionalities. Maybe you have to buy a part of the instances for taking the backup for the databases.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a perpetual license, but you pay monthly for support. If you're integrating with the cloud, you have to pay for using the cloud. That's the only recurring cost you have with this tool.
What other advice do I have?
Data Domain is a 10 for me. It's a great storage device.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-07-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Dhaval Pancholi from
A secure, reliable solution with a straightforward setup
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for various workloads for our customers. It is a backup solution for our banking customers' applications, farmer customers' farm assist applications, and manufacturing customers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it is secure, reliable, and has officer support.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have worked with this solution for about six years and deployed on-premises.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution with no issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution, and we have more than 50 customers using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
We have support within our company but leverage the technical support for backup support when required.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and not complex. It took about two to three houses to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is not cost-effective, and the pricing could be better. It is a costly solution compared to Veritas, but it has good performance, scalability and assurances.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend this solution to other companies.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2022-07-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
MirziyodMirsaatov from
A next-generation protection storage appliance with useful features
What is our primary use case?
We use Dell PowerProtect DD for different scenarios like database storage and backups.
What is most valuable?
I like the different features. We work closely with Dell on different products and features, which is why we use them all.
What needs improvement?
It could be more secure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Dell PowerProtect DD for almost four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell PowerProtect DD is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell PowerProtect DD is a scalable solution. We have about seven customers using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
It's ok because we have our own support and our own distributors for the vendor's part.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup doesn't take too long—just one or two days. You need two people to deploy and maintain this solution.
What about the implementation team?
We are integrators, and we implement this solution ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We usually buy products at the end year, and the license is included.
What other advice do I have?
I will recommend this solution to potential customers because it's one of the top brands and it's good.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Integrator
Date published: 2022-06-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Darshan Kolambkar from
Offers data compression and deduplication for large organizations and has great technical support
What is our primary use case?
This solution is deployed on-premises.
What is most valuable?
The most important feature is the level of data compression provided by Dell EMC. It's a leader in data compression and deduplication, and the level of compression isn't available with any other vendors in the market.
What needs improvement?
The only problem is that it's more expensive than any other vendors available in the market. Overall, the product has a very large portfolio, and even the support level is great, but the challenge is the cost.
I would like to see a direct cloud backup solution. I should be able to directly take a backup into the cloud instead of having another product in between PowerProtect. It should be flexible enough to support the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for almost six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
How are customer service and support?
They have very experienced guys, and we have exchanged information with the offices in Singapore and Europe. I would rate them 4 or 5 out of 5.
How was the initial setup?
For the initial setup, you need to involve some of the OEM or service providers. You need support from the vendors because the complete design should be perfect, otherwise the product will not be deployed as per the requirement.
For maintenance, it's very limited because automations are available, but we need people to keep track of all the backup jobs that are in progress. You need a team that has experience with these products, but it depends on how large your environment is. If you have multiple offices in multiple countries, you need a large number of staff who can support these products.
It has a lot of automation which is supported, and it supports cloud-based implementation as well. The cloud side of it is very easy to create. You don't need to build anything in the cloud. If you're using it on-premise, you need people to manage and maintain it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is really high compared to other vendors. The licensing cost is huge. Normal, mid-tier companies or small-scale companies wouldn't be able to afford it easily. Only bigger organizations like enterprises can afford this kind of product.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-05-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Vedat Gunes from
Reliable, scalable, but performance could improve
What is our primary use case?
I am using Dell PowerProtect DD for data extraction for extract, transform, and load(ETL) processes. This is a tool that receives data from operational platforms, or systems, such as in my factory in insurance, underwriting, claim management or health provisioning, et cetera. It receives the data from the source systems and not from the data warehouse platform by doing transformation or by loading the data or after loading the data.
What needs improvement?
The usage of this solution is a bit difficult to develop processes, and it takes a long time to market permits.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell PowerProtect DD is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell PowerProtect DD is scalable but there are better tools.
The data engineers are using this platform in my company. There are 15 data engineers, and all of them are using this tool.
How are customer service and support?
We are using technical support from the producers, and it is not good. I'm not happy with the technical support.
I rate the support from Dell PowerProtect DD a two out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Dell PowerProtect DD is complex. Its initial setup is a bit complex because it uses many services on the operating system. Sometimes it is hard to solve the issue while installing the solution on-premises.
I rate the initial setup of Dell PowerProtect DD a three out of five
With the Dell PowerProtect DD, it is not possible to deploy the solution by ourselves. We deployed, and upgraded the solution, it took more than a month because there were problems, and the producer need to solve the issues. This is what took time.
What about the implementation team?
We needed to get help to implement the solution because the producers because it is not easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If we do not move to the cloud solution and stay with our on-premise version we will miss some new features.
I rate the price of Dell PowerProtect DD a three out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Dell PowerProtect DD a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-05-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Adrian Constantinescu from
Very scalable, integrates well with other solutions, and has good security
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for storage.
What is most valuable?
The solution integrates well with our VM.
I like the hardware and the software together.
Based on what we have achieved in our environments on the bank's telecom, it's the best product. We have it installed with Dell EMC protection suite, NetWorker, but also with VM. There are many cases where we integrated with IBM TSM as a VTL.
The best point is the duplication encryption and disaster recovery replication. The network replication's software has network verification where the product can not offer it. We use nothing for Data Domain replication. And when we use NetWorker, we use prone console application. With VM, also we use replication under the Data Domain application instead of copying the data from the VM.
The solution is very scalable.
The product offers excellent security.
What needs improvement?
The price could be improved.
Technically speaking, the solution is okay. It's not perfect. We have to remember that it's a backup appliance. A storage appliance is not primary service. Let's say in a standard configuration you have only one controller, you don't have high visibility. We have installations on higher-visibility on one environment when one bank says, "We want a controller, doesn't matter how much it costs." We explain that something that is not the main storage is not production. " It's not primary storage, however, it can be used for different environments. Let's say to use it as the NFS or VMware deployment.
Dell is improving the product all of the time, actually. There were a lot of improvements from version 7.3 to 7.4 for example.
I've worked with the solution on and off since 2009 and I've watched it evolved from a small backup appliance to what it is now. They've done very well with it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution since at least 2009.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, it depends on who is using it. When our customers use it via IP, now, almost everybody has 10G. When they use the application, they have at least one gigabit for the application. Data Domain is capable of using smaller bandwidth and therefore I haven't had any complaints regarding how it's working. The main problem is not the backup, its costs vary.
The data has to get duplicated in blocks and sent across the network. It's optimized in such a way where when you bring back the data there is a process that will take place in the memory or the system in order together that data and compose the file. Then it will take it back to the network to where it will need to be stored. We have a fiber cable, so we are okay. We don't have a problem with this. However, smaller bandwidths may face issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is excellent.
We can start from many minimal configurations for SMB customers and we can scale it out for big a environment, for example, for different bank clients. It's suitable for all environments. It works well with other solutions as well, such as VM or TSM.
Any company can work with it and any company can expand it to fit their needs.
How are customer service and technical support?
Dell works with partners in order to provide technical support, and as partners, we often troubleshoot for our clients. We are sent alerts the moment a ticket is opened and so we are able to see if there are problems happening right away. When it comes to hardware, we'll be able to see what parts get dispatched and we can follow everything. From a hardware perspective, support works very well and is very transparent.
From a software perspective, that's handled by a different team. If we have problems we can't fix we can apply for help to the software team. They can release patches and can inform us if an upgrade is mandatory in order to fix an issue. They are also very helpful and responsive.
Overall, I would say we are quite pleased with the level of service we receive from Dell.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex. It's very straightforward. If you have a serial port opened up, and you configure the management port fees, first on the licensing, then it's really straightforward. However, if you have a different configuration, it may be a bit more challenging. Even so, it's not that complicated. It's 90% straightforward. If somebody is not comfortable with the console, they can use a web interface and it's fine.
What other advice do I have?
Dell Avamar is a very good product. We've used it in the past when it was, let's say, one of the first solutions. I believe they offer duplication. Whenever Avamar came on the market, it was a revolutionary application. Right now, however, due to other software solutions not only for Dell EMC but for Avamar, it makes everything very good and also very bad from the sales point of view.
With aggressive marketing of products, clients may request the wrong product. Avamar isn't well-positioned in Romania right now. Data Domain is better. When clients ask for certain other products, we try to steer them to Data Domain.
Depending on the customer's needs, Dell can fit into all environments. If you want to have a very good backup appliance, then choose Data Domain because it will fit in almost everywhere. I don't think I know of another solution in which somebody can have a backup project or data protection where this product will not fit.
Technically speaking, I cannot make a comparison with other products, as this solution can fit almost everywhere.
I recommend better sizing to the client. That's important. Customers need to take into consideration their needs very, very well so they don't end up with too small of a product. It's better to go a bit bigger if it will fit the budget. Of course, the technical requirements need to be addressed. Data Domain integrates well with other products. It's something to consider.
Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-12-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Khalid El Harchi from
Very fast, simple, and excellent support
What is our primary use case?
We use it for backup.
What is most valuable?
It is very fast as compared to the other competitors. Its simplicity and bit rate are also valuable. It takes less time if we compare it with the old solution that we have.
What needs improvement?
Its management can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. It gives the possibility for extension. You can add to the existing units.
How are customer service and technical support?
They are excellent. We have access to them, and they respond immediately and provide the required solution. Their solutions are valuable and effective.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. I would rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD an eight out of ten. To be able to rate a solution as ten, one must be very proficient and should know several products to compare them all, which is not true in my case.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-11-20T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1473288 from
We use it to protect our file and email servers. It provides excellent deduplication features.
What is our primary use case?
We as a company use this product to protect our information. We have Data Domain combined NetWorker for our own company, and we also install and provide services around those solutions to our customers.
In our company, DellData Domain is used to protect our servers (on-premises), where the most important servers for us are the File Server and the eMail server. The Dell Data Domain we have It´s combined with Dell NetWorker as the backup software. The Data Domain works as the repository of the information, taking advantage of the duplication and all the features that it has. We are getting about 30x as the deduplication ratio. It is managed by the software NetWorker, where all the backup policies reside. We have clients in all the servers directing information from the server to the Data Domain taking advantage of the software client direct feature. We make backups on a daily basis, as incremental backups, and over the weekend we have full backups. We have about 14 servers in our office. Mostly Windows and Linux.
How has it helped my organization?
Yes, DellData Domain has improved our organization's backup strategy. As I mentioned, our infrastructure has different types of servers, all of them are virtual servers based on VMware. Once we had to make a recovery and we used the Instant Recovery feature where we started the virtual machine over the Data Domain instead of the VMWare server. Then we used VMotion to move the virtual machine from the Data Domain to the VMware server. We were able to minimize the service failure to 15 minutes approximately.
What is most valuable?
The feature that I find the most useful is its data duplication. We had been having problems doing backups for the file server because we did not have enough space to store our backups. Data Domain solved that problem for us.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what could be improved, when you use Data Domain, you have to have at least 15% to 20% of free space so it can work properly. I understand that space is needed to process all the data, but it would be a big improvement if we could use that space too.
For how long have I used the solution?
Just to give you a little background, I work for an integrator and we are also users of the technology. We have installed and used Data Domain for five to six years now. We also provide installation and support services for Data Domain for our customers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I think it is awesome. We've been using Data Domain for almost five years, and during this time we have only had one problem with one disk. We reported that to Dell and they sent us the replacement part and we only have to exchange the disk with the failure.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are looking at the scalability right now, because the family of Data Domain we have is already being replaced, so we are looking at changing the Data Domain. It seems that the upgrade will be easy, but we are still planning how to do the upgrade.
How are customer service and technical support?
Sometimes it's difficult to reach the real experts to get a solution. The escalation process is not that great, but in the end, it works.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Tape based backups
How was the initial setup?
I installed the Data Domain and it was really easy.
It is not a big Data Domain, so it was just mounted in our rack. We followed the initial setup where the IP and the name are configured. After that, most of the configurations had to be done over the software.
The complex part of the configuration is in the backup server (software part), it is not in the Data Domain. The Data Domain was really easy to set up. The Data Domain setup took us about four hours.
Our deployment plan was based on the installation of the hardware first, and after that, the software deployment, starting with the backup server.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented it alone.
What was our ROI?
N/A
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing was not an issue because it is related to the software part. I'm not really sure about the price, because I think we've gotten a discount as we are partners.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Traditional Disk-Based backups
What other advice do I have?
The main consideration for anyone interested in Dell EMC Data Domain is to have a good initial sizing. The planning part at the beginning of the project is the most important.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Domain a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner/Integrator
Date published: 2020-12-31T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1619904 from
Good deduplication, good support, and easily scalable
What is our primary use case?
We are just using it for backing up the workloads using Avamar. We are using its latest version.
What is most valuable?
It works within backup windows and has got good deduplication.
What needs improvement?
It can probably have integration with other OEMs. It should also have more features for ransomware protection.
It could be more competitively priced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easily scalable. We have around 2,000 people in our organization.
How are customer service and technical support?
It is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using HPE StoreOnce about four years ago.
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward. It only takes a couple of hours to implement.
What about the implementation team?
I can do it myself. For its deployment and maintenance, I only need a couple of engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It could be more competitively priced. Its licensing was for five years. Obviously, the support will get renewed at some stage, but that's it.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-07-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Asim Sinha from
Stable and scalable
What is our primary use case?
We use model number 6800. The operating system is 7.4.
What is most valuable?
I find the data to be most valuable.
What needs improvement?
The price is on the high side.
I would like to see integration with public cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for almost ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is, thus far, stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is okay. It's not bad.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not work with other solutions prior to using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain).
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was handled solely by the Dell EMC, so it was okay and not that complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is a bit steep.
We pay for the support every three years.
What other advice do I have?
I am an end user.
I feel the solution works fine for us.
There are around four or five people working with this solution in our company.
My advice to others looking into implementing this solution is that they acquire the requisite knowledge. It is important to be properly trained in how to use it.
I rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) as an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1166613 from
Reasonably priced with good reporting and monitoring features
What is most valuable?
The cost is quite good if you look at the product.
It should provide everything that an enterprise needs.
It can back up all the workloads on-prem, off-prem, and mainly the VM infrastructure. You should be able to replicate to another site.
The reporting and monitoring features that it provides are great.
It offers security with the software.
The stability is excellent.
The solution scales well.
What needs improvement?
The new niche players are currently very good, but some things that they lack. As an example, NetApp Filer. There is no real partnership between different vendor platforms such as EMC or NetApp. They don't really talk that much. There needs to be better ease of use with like APIs and automation and things of that nature. Some vendors are more API friendly, some vendors are not. Being API friendly will help.
EMC is just coming out with their global deduplication future with virtual addition and things like that. Which is still in the works.
They need to make migration easier.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. There is not any other storage, deduplication storage appliance, that will match Data Domain. That is pretty much as stable a product as we have seen.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale well.
How are customer service and support?
Overall, technical support has been pretty good. However, the support recently, the support that is coming in from India, is not as good as what we used to get before. In the past year, we have seen a significant drop in call response.
How was the initial setup?
When we installed the solution, pretty much the software all was new. It was Legato earlier and then it was using Networker version eight everywhere else. When we started deploying it, we started with version nine. We pretty much started with the latest versions of the software. There were some growing pains, however, we were able to step up the enrollment and it was good in the end. Beyond a few issues right at the outset, it was a good experience.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is quite reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
Earlier, when we started deploying, we had to use a single DDBoost user for each EMP. I don't know our storage unit, however, now, with the latest release, we can use multiple users. That is one good reason why people should start using this solution, as there is one DDBoost user per entry. That way, it is easier to migrate or move across, for example, during your tech refresh. When they offer some kind of a load balancing feature in front of Data Domain it will be a good thing. We know that they always have it in the roadmap, however, we have never seen that come through.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-07T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1426962 from
Guaranteed reliability but size and scale are limited
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is as the backup storage feed application.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this product are its guaranteed reliability and its duplication capability.
What needs improvement?
The size and scale of the product are limited and could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would say this is a fairly stable solution.
How are customer service and support?
My experience has been that the tech support is pretty responsive.
What other advice do I have?
This is a great product and should definitely be considered when comparing solutions. I would rate this product as seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-11-24T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mohamed Fahim from
Efficient solution for backing up our SAP ERP system
What is our primary use case?
We use Data Domain to back up the SAP ERP system, and it worked very well.
We are moving to a public cloud.
What is most valuable?
We are very satisfied with this solution. It's easy to use and efficient.
What needs improvement?
The price is expensive, so that could be improved. The interface and dashboards could also be improved.
We have some problems with backing up on the Power Platform. PowerServer is an IBM product, and it forces us to back up over LAN, which is not suitable for us.
It needs some added features to back up the AIX OS or the old applications running on AIX OS.
For how long have I used the solution?
10 years ago, we used the network backup, but we have upgraded our devices many times.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's 99% stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's 99% scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
Setup was very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.
I would recommend this solution to anyone who wants to use it, for an enterprise of any size.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1473288 from
Excellent features for deduplication and fast transfer
What is our primary use case?
We use it mostly combined with software, such as NetWorker, and the Data Domain works as a repository for the information.
What is most valuable?
The features that I have found most valuable with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD are its deduplication feature and its DD Boost protocol for fast transfer, which is amazing.
What needs improvement?
I have seen documentation from other products saying that they protect against ransomware and I haven't seen this in Data Domain. I don't know if it is a good idea to have it in the appliance, but I would like to see some kind of integration with the ransomware in the next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for about 15, 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is working stably. I haven't had any trouble with the implementations I have done.
The backup solutions are from EMC umbrella. I have been using them for more than 20 years. All the implementation I have done for the past nine years+ have combined NetWorker and Data Domain.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, you can grow it and you can put additional units as needed.
In terms of the number of people required to maintain the solution, that depends on the size of the customer environment. As an example, we have a customer with about 50 physical and virtual servers. They have two Data Domains with an administrator, but it is maintained by only one person.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't dealt with support because I haven't had any problems with the equipment.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It is pretty straightforward to implement - nothing very complicated. Most of the work is in the software part, so it depends on the software solution, not Data Domain particularly.
The software part also depends on the amount of servers we are trying to protect. It also depends on the amount and types of database and applications. That is the complex part of these types of implementations.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anyone considering this product is that the most important thing is to have a good sizing. If the sizing at the beginning is good, you won't have any trouble with the implementation or using the product. But if you have a bad sizing, it's going to be a headache.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give Dell EMC PowerProtect DD a 10.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-12-01T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Adams Rasheed from
Admirable technical support, but could use real-time online backup and restore
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution with NetWorker. currently we are using it to back up our sap ERP. We have scheduled backup at intervals. We have two DDs, one Data Domain is on the Production Site while the second Data Domain is on the DR site. NetWorker backs up the SAP ERP to the Data Domain in the Production site and the backup is automatically cloned to the DR DataDomain.
How has it helped my organization?
Before we deployed the NetWorker, the process was to have the backup uploaded to an external drive, then the external drive would be transported from the Production Site to the site where we would then initiate the restore process. Now the backup is scheduled, and the entire process is automated
Restore is now done remotely to the recovery host over the WAN.
What is most valuable?
The feature that is most valuable is the Data Domain Boost. With the DD Boost, it takes minimal time to clone very large data over WAN to the DR site with a very reasonable bandwidth. Over 1.5 TB of data is cloned every day. The cloning process is seamless.
What needs improvement?
With very minimal cost implications, we would want to have a real-time online backup solution.
It would be perfect to see EMC include real-time online backup option to significantly reduce RPO, if possible 0. Currently, backup is scheduled at intervals.
One other important feature to add to Networker is bare metal restore.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have never had any issues with Data Domain. It has been very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Data Domain is scalable, the appliance can be expanded at any point in time.
How are customer service and technical support?
I admire EMC for their technical support. In general, they are very responsive, and in this case, it is no different. They supported the system without any issues.
I think that the users needs some training before and after implementation for better understanding of the solution. I have gone for the training.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
Previously, we tried deploying Tivoli Storage Manager. Tivoli was very complex. The backup and the restore procedures were complex, and the backup process took a very long time.
There was an eighty percent improvement with EMC Data Domain.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup wasn't complex. It was straightforward.
All that we had to do was to install the application on the hosts, and provide all of the parameters for the database.
Understanding the customer's needs is what is most important. The implementation was not complex at all.
Everything from delivery of the server to implementation took between one to two months aside aside waiting time for hardware delivery.
The deployment method was on-premises and took less than ten members to deploy it.
What about the implementation team?
EMC did the deployment. The deployment team was very experienced and professional
What was our ROI?
We had a major crash at the Production Site, which caused a failure to our server on the site. The restore process was good, and for that alone it goes a long way. We don't have to manually transport the backup to the site. It eliminates the transport costs, and the data integrity is huge, so we are fine with it. Hence, the return on investment is huge and its instant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In Naira it was about twenty-seven million (approximately $75,000 USD) for the implementation and maintenance cost for three years. All that is needed now is the maintenance cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We tried IBM TSM and it didn't work. It was complex. Before IBM TSM it was a manual process, backup was done on external storage/ Tape and then transported daily from Production to DR Site. It was expensive, tedious and time consuming. In fact it was not a good experience moving the backup manually to the DR site.
What other advice do I have?
The users should embark on the EMC NetWorker /Data Domain training before the implementation.
Considering past experiences, I will rate this product a seven out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
MohamedDakn from
Reliable solution that reduces the time and effort required to manage the system
What is our primary use case?
We primarily used this product as a solution for backups.
How has it helped my organization?
This product improved our system of backup by reducing the time and effort required to manage the system.
What is most valuable?
The reliability of Data Domain was the most useful feature to me. Every piece of data is recorded multiple times in several devices in a cluster. If any hardware failure occurs, it does not impact the data and does not result in any data loss. Resilience and reliability under any circumstances are important to data security.
What needs improvement?
Spanning the time I worked with EMC Data Domain, I had no issues that suggested to me that it needed improvement. It was working fine, and anything I wanted to do with Data Domain, I could do it. So I had no idea that it might have needed improvement. That is just thinking from a technical perspective as a user. It did what it needed to do for backup.
In hindsight, I am aware that there is a feature that does not exist in Data Domain related to the security of the product and the data. A friend who works in another organization had a problem when his organization was infected with ransomware. The ransomware locked up the data in the Data Domain and disrupted the data system asking for something in return or it would delete all the data. The ransom was not submitted and the hack successfully deleted all the data. This is a big concern and no small issue where data is critical.
So I believe security measures are not strict enough in Data Domain. I would like to see something in place for better security.
In addition to this — which is related to security as well — there are regulations from the central bank that mandates that we need to keep backup copies that are not connected to the network. They must be completely isolated from the network. Data Domain does not have any arrangements to satisfy this requirement. For compliance, we need to use a secondary solution.
The only other issue is that the prices seem high in comparison to other products and they should consider restructuring their pricing plans.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the product for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable and reliable. I have never had an issue with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a very scalable solution. Whenever we needed to we could add new nodes with minimal effort and keep the same data structure.
Defining the number of users for the system is a little tricky because only the backup administrators actually use the Data Domain solution to do the backup procedures for the whole bank as a company. So the actual number of users of the product — hands-on — is around three people. But these three people are doing backups for many systems that are centrally connected to Data Domain. These many systems have around 300 total servers which go through the backup process. Each one of those 300 servers contains data from many users and transactions. In a way, our implementation of this product is serving many thousands of customers, and it can serve many thousands more.
So, yes, I think it is very scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Our experience with customer and technical support has been very good. For example, in one instance we had a problem with the hardware and technical support guy came and replaced the failed component. This was seamless from our operations because the system is highly available and redundant. So everything continued working even with some part failing. But the technical support people were knowledgeable, quick and on-premises.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
Before using Data Domain, I was using a tape library. It was IBM Tape Library with LTO (Linear Tape-Open). We switched to EMC Data Domain because of the speed. Backing up data to a tape library is much, much slower than backup to Data Domain, which is based on hard disks. it's much faster in backup.
The system we switched to is actually EMC Data Domain as the hardware device for backup, while Veritas is the software backup. Veritas has its own hardware device. However, EMC Data Domain hardware is much better than Veritas. The golden combination as I see it is EMC Data Domain hardware with Veritas software. Going that way, I get the best of each in our backup solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. For the deployment, it took one day for the hardware implementation and a couple of days for integration with the software. For several days, I worked with IBM TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) or Veritas. All of the parts came together well and I had no real issues.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was carried out by my team and myself with some input from EMC as well. That was a team was a total of two persons from EMC, one person from my team and myself. I just managed the team and oversaw the process. I think normally that a technical team of about three people can handle the deployment.
What was our ROI?
As far as having a return on investment, I see investing in Data Domain as having a positive return. It is reliable and it does a very good job when it comes to data compression and deduplication. It makes the backup size much smaller, which saves the company a lot of money because you are not buying tape cartridges for the tape library or even hard discs for temporary backup to store redundant information.
Another ROI which is less tangible is the time for recovery. If I have a problem and I would like to recover something, it is a much faster procedure working with hardware than with tape.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
One thing that anyone considering this solution has to realize is that it is expensive. It is expensive for a reason, but it is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Anyone considering using this solution will first need to make a proper assessment of their need for the data storage because this is misleading. Sometimes managers just make a simple assumption that an organization has about 50 terabytes of data and that they don't need more than this for backup. This is not correct.
If you look into the whole backup strategy, you will see how frequently you will do backups, how many copies we will need to retain, and the period of days that the data is retained — It will be a specific period of days and the backups will rotate. There should be a retention strategy and a rate of change of the data backups. All of these are parameters that affect the sizing of the data domain device. It could be many times the initial size depending on the strategy and how critical the data is. So assessing the proper sizing is very important and key for the success of the backup strategy.
It is important, as well, to assure that the software and the hardware work seamlessly together because you can mix and match software and hardware solutions to come to the ultimate package. Making sure that every feature in the software would work with the hardware is really imperative before making any decision.
On a scale from one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate EMC Data Domain as 7.5. The reason why it is not higher than 7.5 is mostly because of the cost. It is a very expensive solution. The lack of better security features to protect the data is really another big issue.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-10T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Sajid Khan from
A secure backup solution that is easy to use and very simple to implement
What is most valuable?
The backup is very secure. The deduplication using EMC is very good. We are able to make systems and handle random cloning. EMC is a very stable solution for making backups.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to improve its platform, especially backup features like DB2 and other system backups.
They should reduce the CPC cost to customers. The product is becoming very expensive.
In the next release, EMC should support stable level listings at restoration and stable space level in the database. Sometimes if I want to take the stable level restoration, EMC is not available. Only this one part is lacking in the current version.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for four to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is easy to scale. We have nine people on it and they are all system admins. We are planning to increase usage and to increase the license.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent. I would rate it eight out of ten.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
We previously used HP Data Protector. The HP Data Protector backup was not secure. We used to do a backup, but at the time of restoration, it would give us some issues on the restored data. We were not able to access and stream data on HP. EMC is much easier in terms of restoring the backup properly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. Any person can handle the initial setup of the solution.
What about the implementation team?
I handled the implementation myself.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the solution. I'd rate them nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Asem Hamamdi from
A solution with excellent technical support and good stability
What is our primary use case?
The primary use is as a company backup.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the DD Boost and the multiple applications and model platforms.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs a better cloud version. We need a solution that has a better understanding of the cloud.
The pricing model needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability isn't the best.
How are customer service and technical support?
The solution has excellent technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment takes about two weeks with migration. You only need a few people for deployment and two or three people for maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator to assist with the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know the exact pricing, but I believe the solution is costly. You may also need to pay for extra features above the standard licensing.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises version of the solution.
I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
SystemCoc204 from
An excellent enterprise-level solution with a good deduplication feature
What is our primary use case?
Our customers have a lot of big data that they work with. The solution allows them to decrease the amount of data which can appear over the network and optimizes the bandwidth of the network itself.
What is most valuable?
The deduplication feature is the most valuable part of the solution.
The backup storage is also very good.
What needs improvement?
The solution could adjust the size of the discs. The processor or the cache on the Data Domain could be better.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. Deployment takes about a week. We needed two engineers to handle the initial setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
EMC is very expensive for small customers. For enterprise-level companies, like banks, it offers a good price.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises deployment model.
We're a reseller; we offer this solution to our clients.
I would rate the solution eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Kenneth Etsula from
An easy to use solution with a good interface and simple setup
What is our primary use case?
We've primarily been using the solution as a backup. What we understand is that we can create it with Veeam where Veeam backs up the network into Data Domain.
What is most valuable?
It's very easy to use Data Domain once it's been set up. The interface is also user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
The firmware upgrades could be simplified. I'm in the process of struggling to upgrade right now.
The dashboard could be more interactive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution isn't very scalable from what I understand, but I haven't attempted to scale the solution myself. We only have about ten IT personnel on it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good. I'm satisfied with them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. I was finished with the setup after two to three hours.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution ourselves.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the on-premises deployment model.
I would recommend the solution. I would rate it eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Reseller.
Date published: 2019-09-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ashraf Ali from
Compatible with other backup software and has good deduplication and compression features
What is our primary use case?
We use the on-prem deployment model of this solution and sometimes the public cloud. Our primary use case is for on-prem backup and for replication servers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the deduplication and compression and the Data Domain Boost feature. It's compatible with other backup software.
What needs improvement?
We have had deduplication and replication issues. When we used another backup software we noticed that it didn't have the same issues.
Our customers would like to enhanced deduplication and compression features with Veeam software.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of the scalability, I would rate it a ten out of ten. It's better than average.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is good. I would give it an eight out of ten. It could use enhancements.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It only takes around fifteen minutes or less. We required five staff members for the implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We used a service team for the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are a lot of different models and each one has a different price. Some models require spending more on additional fees.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it 9.5 out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-08-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Jayson Martin from
Has superior data compression capability but there are a few caveats to using this product for data backup
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this product is for backup purposes and compression.
How has it helped my organization?
There are a number of ways that it improved our organization with the processing of backups and saving disk space, but the costs are somewhat prohibitive.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature, beyond simply backing up our servers, is the data compression capability.
What needs improvement?
There are several things that can be improved with this product even though it is not bad.
The biggest concern for us is the licensing model. In terms of feature capability, there are too many separate modular features that require licensing. I would like to see a Data Domain license for one cost that contains what we need to utilize the product to its full capability. I don't like the idea of having to worry about buying another license to do something else and add functionality. So I am suggesting that it would be good if they made the product more integrated and adaptable.
If I choose not to use only EMC products, it should allow me to make whatever integration I choose to do with ease. It is not so easy to do this.
The technical support after the initial deployment and having the service account manager on site was not so good. They should have better means of support while you are using the product to encourage success with the product and that you remain a customer.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for about nine years
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
During the period where you have resident, live support to take care of issues the product remains stable because they help with any issues. Without a service account manager after the initial deployment, the support is poor. Because of this, stability starts to become a problem.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is centralized to the company or business process, so I don't really have users using it as an application. I've got one division — a team — that takes care of data protection which makes use of Data Domain services.
How are customer service and technical support?
The initial, on-premises EMC technical support is pretty good. I have no complaints about them. Although we did have some initial support issues with Data Domain during the implementation, we always had that EMC account manager available. He dealt with most of the support issues when they arose and he was resident on-site. He was there only for as long as he was required to be there. He was very good. So we didn't really have support issues with EMC product initially as they addressed problems fully. However, when we did not have the service account manager resident on-premises anymore, the level of service changed. The regular channels for support are poor and not so responsive or they don't come back with good with solutions.
If you previously used a different solution, which one did you use and why did you switch?
EMC is a solution we are starting to move away from because of the cost more than anything. We are evaluating it along-side a Veritas product currently.
How was the initial setup?
The installation and initial setup of the program was a straightforward process.
What about the implementation team?
We did use EMC services for that initial implementation and had a service account manager on site.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I can't say I am very happy with the cost of the EMC product because we also have got a Veritas product. The comparison is that the EMC Data Domain solution is more expensive than the Veritas and they have similar capabilities.
We were satisfied at the time we made the purchase of the EMC product, but subsequently, we went in a different direction. We added another product because we decided the price was too high for the original solution and to continue to add licenses. We are running both environments now.
What other advice do I have?
Anyone who is considering this as a solution should study the availability of the features and caveats surrounding the licensing. You will want to make sure that you are covered for all the capabilities that you require. Then, if you choose to go with the product, I suggest adding a service account manager as part of the initial scope of the project and implementation as that was very helpful to us. That sort of guarantees you will definitely have a more controlled approach to implementation and better continuity from your experience with EMC.
On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the product about seven or eight. For us now it is a little closer to a seven.
A lesson that we learned in using the product is that its CPU capability does not match its storage capacity. These two things should be more in synch to enhance performance.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Abdelrahman Mohamed from
Good deduplication and compression of storage
What is our primary use case?
The primary use of the solution is inline deduplication.
What is most valuable?
The solution offers good storage. Also, deduplication and completion are the best features, in my opinion.
What needs improvement?
The pricing should be adjusted. Customers continuously talk about the price. They know it is a good solution and they really need the type of storage the solution offers, but it costs somewhere around $100,000 and up for enterprises. It's not cheap, but it's very important for data vendors. My customers are banks and petroleum sectors, so they need the backup and archiving systems. They can't leave a data center without it, even if the cost is high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been selling the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. My customers have been very pleased with the solution so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale up to one petabyte right now. It's very good for enterprise-level organizations.
I think this level of scale is still only for cloud providers. It's not for every customer. If I am a cloud provider or internet service provider, I can use it, as my scale is very, very, large. With any other company, you will not need more than 200 kilobytes.
How are customer service and technical support?
The level of technical support depends on your SLA. You have, for example, next business day, full support, full support plus, full support in four hours, onsite service, etc.
EMC is under the Dell technologies portfolio. You've got one of the best technical support teams looking out for you.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is related to size. A lower range solution might be about $33,000. My customers use higher range versions with a price of around $100,000. That's the price for both the hardware and the software.
What other advice do I have?
I'm using the solution as a technical case professional. I'm selling it to my customers.
I sell the on-premises deployment model.
It's the best solution for deduplication and compression of storage, but the pricing is a little high.
The solution works with any backup software. You might use it as a standalone or use it with VM, or solutions like Symantec, CMC software, etc.
For those considering implementing the solution, I would say that they need to know their data gross and they need to allow for architecting. They need an understanding of their current backup situation and what they will need. They will need to remember to back up every day if their data is very, very important.
When you are buying a backup solution, the Dell EMC team has an architecture team. They can be used to study the environment, so they can advise on what you need. A new user won't have to worry about it. Dell EMC will take care of everything.
Also, a user will still need to do data protection. They need to buy security devices for their environment. They should make a backup outside of their environment and make sure the backup is not connected to any internet connection to avoid hacking.
I would rate the solution ten out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Reseller.
Date published: 2019-08-13T00:00:00-04:00