Arctera Backup Exec vs. BDRShield

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Arctera Backup Exec
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Arctera Backup Exec is a backup and disaster recovery solution. It works in virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments and integrates with several third-party software releases and applications.N/A
BDRShield
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
Vembu BDR Suite is a universal backup solution catering to the backup, recovery, and disaster recovery needs of diverse IT environments. It is also optimized for service providers who deliver BaaS and DRaaS to their customers.
$12
per year per endpoint
Pricing
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Editions & Modules
Veritas Backup Exec
Contact sales team
Endpoint / Workstation Backup
$12
per year per endpoint
SaaS Backup
$12
per year per user
VMs, Servers & Cloud Backup
$48
per year per VM
Apps & DB Backup
$72
per year Apps
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Features
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Arctera Backup Exec
8.6
Ratings
1% above category average
BDRShield
9.6
Ratings
12% above category average
Universal recovery10.00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Instant recovery7.50 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Recovery verification7.90 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Business application protection10.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations6.40 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Incremental backup identification7.90 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Backup to the cloud10.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression7.40 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Snapshots8.40 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Flexible deployment9.00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Management dashboard9.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Platform support8.50 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Retention options8.40 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Encryption10.00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Small Businesses
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.9 out of 10
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
6.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
1.0
(0 ratings)
6.5
(0 ratings)
Availability
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
3.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Arctera Backup ExecBDRShield
Likelihood to Recommend
One of the differentials is that of all the backup tools I used, Veritas Backup Exec has the best management and control interface. It is very easy to use and configure the rules. There are several options that we can optimize our work for our specific needs, from scheduling a backup, restoring data, directories, alerts system, error reports, backups, inconsistencies and other very interesting things. It has integration with SQL, vmware, hyper v. Backup and restore speeds are fast and secure.
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First of all Web UI makes it so much easier to manage, with few clicks you can schedule a backup, you can see the progress and you can instantly recover it. There is a multiple environment support which is great for hybrid environments. Pricing is more reasonable than other high priced backup solutions
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Pros
  • The license/agent deployment feature in Backup Exec facilitates effective and speedy population within your data center.
  • Veritas Backup Exec's feature rich job creation is intuitive and simplifies backup strategies.
  • Customizable views in the Administrator console allow you to view your backup environment to maximize visibility.
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  • Bare metal system images. These are incredibly flexible, enabling you to do dissimilar hardware restores, local or online backups and restore to VHD
  • Full, differential and transaction log backups for SQL server, ensuring rapid backup and restore, with maximum storage efficiency.
  • Incremental backups for files, meaning only the changes which have been made to a file are backed up, dramatically reducing time to backup and increasing storage efficiency.
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Cons
  • The user interface can sometimes be sluggish and hang between options.The minimum spec is 2Gb but if running on a dedicated server I think 4Gb is recommended
  • As more companies seem to be entering the backup software market, Acronis is very aggressive on pricing and even offer discounts if you are replacing other backup solutions, the Backup Exec pricing plans have become a more expensive
  • Our version is an older 2014 version and has inadequate support for VM backs
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  • User interface on the servers do not have enough tools to better monitor the systems and finding information is difficult.
  • User interface at portal is difficult to navigate and confusing
  • Support documentation is too generic and rarely answers my questions.
  • Licensing and acquisition. As a reseller and partner the licensing model is confusing and the portal interface to manage licensing should be scrapped and rebuilt. It is difficult to navigate and the available information is too vague.
  • Recently, communication with new channel contact. My previous contact was articulate and answered my questions.
  • Did I mention licensing? This is the most confusing and difficult process I've dealt with in 25 years. Makes Microsoft look simple.
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Likelihood to Renew
This software is a mess in my brutally honest opinion. I've spent more time babysitting this software while backing up 20 servers than I did with Veeam backing up 600+. I've had multiple jobs run fine for weeks at a time that just randomly fail out of the blue for seemingly no reason whatsoever. There's no intuitive way to chain jobs, so automation becomes somewhat more problematic if certain jobs depend on other jobs. The forever incremental feature feels tacked on since the merge operation merges all your incremental jobs into the most recent backup and doesn't have the option set a limit on how long to keep your point in time restores.
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I think the product will remain useful for us and as the company keeps improving features it will continue to be relevant and useful. We don't like switching technology much and BDR solutions shouldn't be something that a company replaces every few years., that's why most likely we will keep using it.
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Usability
It can do a lot of things on paper and sounds terrific, but in practice it doesn't do any of them well. It can easily be sold to non-technical minds and C-levels, but of all the backup solutions I've used in the last 15 years of my career, Backup Exec is easily the least fault tolerant. Unless this software is a sunk cost and you're on a shoestring budget, I recommend almost anything else. Jobs fail often with obscure error codes and the KB articles in the Veritas support portal are a mess. Within 30 days of a fresh deployment I've logged more tickets with their support than I did in 3 years with Veeam.
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As outlined in are parts of this review, I have various issues with the way their KB center is structured and how error codes aren't documented or KBs for a specific error provide steps for older versions of the software and aren't applicable to the current version because of a design layout change. "Go here and select Y" where the "here" has been removed and doesn't exist anymore. Or they release a new version without any supporting documentation even though they restructured a lot of the interface and updated the error messages.
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Reliability and Availability
The weekly error on save needs a manual reload from me. The SDR can't restore the virtual machine of hyperV during a test.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
No problem for this point it is in the average.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
In the few instances of having to contact support, our overall outcome was always good. They would have received a better score if the wait time was less, but I attribute this to the timing of support calls - it was during the previous owner's time. We have not had to open a support ticket since Veritas Backup Exec took the product back over.
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It often takes a very long time to get an issue fixed. the support folks seem committed to getting it fixed but they often seem to be trying different things and hoping something works. I did not get the sense that they had a clear idea what was wrong.
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Implementation Rating
It was pretty straightforward.
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Overall the implementation was not complicated. The linux version installation is rather easy step by step process. It's just when you do something for the first time, it always take a bit longer because it's new and you just need to be more focused to configure everything properly
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Alternatives Considered
Veritas Backup Exec is very comparable to Unitrends and in some areas is easier to use. The license side of Veritas Backup Exec is much more difficult to manage compared to Unitrends. Unitrends seems to be a much smoother solutions to protect virtual environments. Restoring data with Veritas Backup Exec is logical and easier to achieve, Unitrends is a bit less logical or intuitive.
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I tested Vembu against Veeam and for the price, Vembu was the better option. I also had a great support experience as I had to contact Vembu twice after mistakes I made. While using Veeam the software was not as intuitive and support responses were not as swift and accurate.
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Scalability
We only use it on the on-premise version on a single site.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • As the person tasked with the job of protecting the company's data, I am glad that Backup Exec performs that job well. I am able to often set-it-and-forget-it and go about the rest of my duties. I have never had a situation where Backup Exec was called upon to restore data and it was unable to do so. This reflects well on both me and my department and provides a sense of security to the rest of the company.
  • I am not making full use of the product and have not licensed a number of its features, but even the base feature set is impressive. To be clear, Backup Exec is no longer the only product we reply upon for data protection, but it is still a large part of that program. If an SMB can find the budget to afford to license the set of features meet its particular demands, Backup Exec will do what you need.
  • As an industry leader, Backup Exec is well positioned to stay at the head of the pack (as they have done for many years) and provide their customers with a comprehensive set of capabilities that will always remain in the forefront of technology.
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  • Backups complete quickly each night saving me time from always having to modify client backups to fit within their backup windows.
  • Money: We are saving hundreds of dollars per year for us and our clients by switching to this product.
  • I no longer spend significant time managing backups, checking their status, etc. Alerts are consistent and warn me if there's a problem. It just works. I rarely have to touch it other than when I do random restore tests (as I do with any backup product) and the instant recovery feature works well for that.
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ScreenShots

BDRShield Screenshots

Screenshot of EncryptionScreenshot of Multiple recovery optionsScreenshot of ReportsScreenshot of RetentionScreenshot of SchedulingScreenshot of VM Selection