Dell Avamar vs. PowerProtect DD Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dell Avamar
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
Dell Avamar is a hardware and software data backup and deduplication product. It provides protection and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution when paired with Dell Data Domain for virtual environments, remote offices, enterprise apps, NAS servers, and desktops/laptops.N/A
PowerProtect DD Series
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
PowerProtect DD (a next-generation appliance replacing Dell EMC Data Domain) is a suite of hardware appliances used for data protection, backup, storage and deduplication. PowerProtect appliance offerings are cloud-enabled and vary by organization size, capable of supporting small business and enterprises. PowerProtect appliances are separated into two categories: entry-level to midrange, and enterprise. Entry-Level to Midrange Backup Appliances PowerProtect…N/A
Pricing
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Features
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Dell Avamar
7.8
Ratings
9% below category average
PowerProtect DD Series
9.4
Ratings
10% above category average
Universal recovery8.50 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Instant recovery8.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Recovery verification9.40 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Business application protection8.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations6.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Incremental backup identification9.40 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Backup to the cloud3.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression8.60 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Snapshots8.60 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Flexible deployment7.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Management dashboard8.40 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Platform support4.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Retention options8.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Encryption8.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
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
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell AvamarPowerProtect DD Series
Likelihood to Recommend
It's well suited when you are looking for something to keep your on-premise environment safe and you don't want to spend a lot of time doing the setup. It's easy to scale and a very reliable solution. I think it is not a really nice solution in terms of pricing, so the challenge here is to check if the value [is] worth it.
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When used as a backup target PowerProtect DD models offer incredible density and can efficiently replicate to another cloud-based or offsite unit. Most complaints about these have been addressed in software over the years and they are now a intuitive and easily managed backup system. You are not buying a Swiss army knife, you are getting a machine designed for a purpose, use it for that and you will not be disappointed. While they have the ability to serve as a CIFS server, they are not a filer and lack many of the features inherent to filers and are a poor substitute.
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Pros
  • New and improved interface no longer requires separate program to run on a management server.
  • The avamar interacts with the data domain device to allow for cloud storage.
  • The Avamar AVE footprint is much easier to install and use, given the new GUI.
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  • It writes backups quickly. DDBoost add-on is very useful as well for improving backup speeds.
  • DD is very efficient in its use of capacity. It dedupes and compresses very well.
  • It spans to large capacity amounts.
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Cons
  • The technology is stagnant. It's had the same basic interface and feature set over all of the years we used it.
  • A clunky java based management GUI.
  • It only supports RedHat for the management console under Linux.
  • Meta-data continues to grow even when backup sets do not cause nodes to fill, requiring professional services to clean it up.
  • Fork-lift upgrades.
  • It requires a lot of care and feeding with a lot of time on the phone with support.
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  • Depending on the model of Data Domain, there is a limit to the number of NFS/SMB threads that can run concurrently. When this limit is reached, the system is slow to respond to client requests.
  • Data Domain support is very slow to turn out new features and bug fixes in their code.
  • OS upgrades are very slow and disruptive.
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Likelihood to Renew
I have been using the product for over five years. This has performed so well that with the current system reaching its End-of-Life with EMC next year, I have proposed replacing it with the latest version of the product. Now that it integrates with Data Domain, the cost has been greatly reduced. Instead of the need to purchase many nodes, one Data Domain can replace them creating a significant cost savings.
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DD has performed flawlessly for almost 10 years as our backup/recovery storage with offsite replication. Given its track record and great support from EMC, we're unlikely to look elsewhere any time soon.
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Usability
The system overall is easy to monitor and see your backup/restore status. The user interface could use updating as it relies on Java and any updates to Java cause the interface to stop working need to be reinstalled
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Support Rating
Support is very convincing, always eager to solve issues from the root rather than workaround, don't hesitate to take webex, describe the issues to the core and recommend configuration to avoid further issues. We can ask few questions other than the main issue. They don't hesitate to answer.
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Customer support has had some ups and downs here. We've had several issues with EMC support before and during the acquisition by Dell, but in the last 18 months support has been top notch. Quick and knowledgeable help is but a chat away, or they will call you back so you don't have to wait on hold. The team supporting us is responsive and is quick to assist with any request or issue.
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Alternatives Considered
Unfortunately, Avamar has stayed behind solutions like Solarwinds Backup and Datto in many different things, like the management of the applications being only desktop, the old fashion interfaces and configurations and specially the fact that it doesn't work as a business continuity tool, which makes it mostly and out-dated application when you compare it with how the market is evolving.
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We already had Avamar in place, and since we have a good ecosystem of Dell Solution suite and wanted to evaluate PowerProtect DD also from that perspective, hence we thought of going ahead with it. We knew the limitations with Avamar and PowerProtect DD were right there from that side of the business.
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Return on Investment
  • Absolute Zero ROI
  • This appliance does not work in its current state and to update we need to wait 2-3 months
  • Can't wait to get rid of it and replace it with something else. (not even sure if we will be able to get it running before that)
  • [I think] this is one of the worst mistakes we made
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  • Positive: The high compression (58.0x) and data reduction (98.3%) have allowed us to optimize the storage for efficient usage.
  • Negative: even after adding capacity, we are running out of space. Adding capacity adds to the overall TCO (e.g. lease cost).
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ScreenShots