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…
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Unitrends
Score 7.8 out of 10
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The Unitrends Recovery Series Backup Appliances are hardware developed for data backup and management. They cover enterprise backup, ransomware detection, recovery assurance, proactive monitoring, and cloud continuity into a single platform for organizations of all sizes.
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Pricing
PowerProtect DD Series
Unitrends
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PowerProtect DD Series
Unitrends
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PowerProtect DD Series
Unitrends
Features
PowerProtect DD Series
Unitrends
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
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.
Application restorations will be tested fully automatically and measures what the actual recovery time is and what the recovery points are. It's analysis compliance with service-level agreements and also identifies any potential threats to data recovery. If the system identifies an issue, then it will notify the user and will recommend steps for correcting those issues. Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery provides fully automated and customizable dashboards which require less administrative interaction on a day-to-day process.
The setup of the device is very straightforward and simple. It's not confusing when configuring the backup device.
Adding assets to the system is very easy. The Unitrends agent that enables the backup of devices is simple to install. Once it is installed, you move on to creating a job for backing up the asset, which is also simple to setup.
Looking at the whether backup jobs are successful has a well laid out UI. You can filter by almost anything you want to find specific jobs or assets to check on the backups that were made.
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.
When attempting to do a restore, it is a bit clunky on the process. While when it is completed it does work, but kind of confusing, especially on your first attempt.
We had to back up not only AD servers, mixed environment of stand-alone and VM's we also still had Netware servers that required a backup. It was a bit more tedious setting the Novell servers up for backup. A cleaner install for Netware would be nice, but not sure how big of an issue that will be since it is less used (Netware).
Unitrends and VMware work well with snapshots, but it needs to be emphasized that in some instances you need to REMOVE any existing snapshots of a server before you do different tasks, or it will not work at all.
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.
I am 100% likely to renew my Unitrends support and keep my appliance. I don't see any products that have come close to being able to do the on-prem and cloud backups with the ease of Unitrends. This is a great tool and I can't imagine someone wanting to implement anything else.
Unitrends is simpler that most other appliances but I believe there is some room for improvement. The backup wizards could be simpler and retention rates need to be easier to understand. The registration of appliances with the appliance can be frustrating. Once the appliance is setup to backup the various machines it is a breeze to administer.
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.
They're incredible, attentive, thorough. They make sure my issue is resolved and follow up. I'm usually behind on giving them a reply or an update. They have always gone above and beyond for me, and I'll continue to do the same for them.
We were contacted by Unitrends and they scheduled a training/install/configuration session with us. They were more than happy to answer any questions we had and we arranged an additional session with them to help us with the archiving. The implementation went very well with no major issues.
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.
While all of the products I evaluate could do the job and I have experience with them all, Unitrends' solution is just easier and more affordable. All solutions have negatives, but Unitrends' are so easy to live with that I had no reason to make a change. I'd also put their support up against anyone. You can almost always get someone if you need them, but I almost never need help.
