Arctera Backup Exec Reviews & Insights

Score6.8 out of 10

163 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Veritas Backup Exec are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Ease of Setup: Users have appreciated the straightforward setup process for storage platforms, mentioning the intuitive interface and quick configuration. They also found it easy to associate tapes with backup sets, streamlining their data protection workflow efficiently.

Integration with VMware: Reviewers have highlighted the accurate and seamless integration with VMware, emphasizing the reliability in managing virtual environments. The option to replicate data to the cloud seamlessly adds an extra layer of flexibility for users.

Feature-rich Job Creation: Customers have praised the feature-rich job creation capabilities in Veritas Backup Exec, pointing out how these tools simplify complex backup strategies effectively. The customizable features allow users to tailor backups according to specific needs and enhance overall data management practices.

Reviews

25 Reviews

Classic Backup Software without bigger flaws

Rating: 8 out of 10

January 30, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Veritas Backup Exec mainly for the Backup of our data and bare metal servers. We use a scenario with a primary backup to disk and then copy to tape, which is then stored in safe on another location.
Based on this we have an easy and fast recovery from disk, if a colleague accidentally deleted his files (again) and a disaster recovery from tape. Veritas Backup Exec makes a pretty good job in this scenario and works well. It passes every test till now and every recovery of the encrypted tapes are working without data loss.

Pros

Backup to disk
Backup to tape
Fast recovery from disk
Reliability

Cons

The design
The User interface
Files are sometimes hard to find
Endpoint Protection (Clients)

Likelihood to Recommend

Veritas Backup Exec is a somewhat classic backup software and should be used es such. It's main capability is server backup, but it would be a fine idea to integrate some endpoint protection.
Therefore the scenarios are totally typical. Every environment who has the need to backup their data (in other words: every environment) has the right scenario for such a software.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

13 years of experience

Veritas backup exec 20.6 my saving experience.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

January 11, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to back up our servers with virtual machines on HyperV. The scenario is very simple: save the server on different media for hot and cold storage, plus another one outside of the office. We have an agent for HyperV. No need for a Microsoft SQL agent. Simple Disaster Recovery (SDR) is on.

Pros

Save
logs
Summary of last backup.

Cons

More easy connection to a NAS.
Stability of save is some scenario.
Open an old save that is not in the backup exec database.

Likelihood to Recommend

Globally, it's good backup software, but there are a lot of little things that handicap the experience. You don't know why, but sometimes the saving process bugs during the night and works perfectly tomorrow or after a manual reload. Saving to a NAS is difficult in comparison with Veeam backup.

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

Flat pricing (no data tiers) and probably the most intuitive backup solution out there.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 3, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Veritas Backup Exec for Disk-Disk-Tape-Cold Storage. Essentially we use Veritas Backup Exec to manage daily backups along with a disaster recovery plan that allows us to air-gap our backups and cold storage off site. We really wanted an all in one solution that was easy to implement, did not have data tiers, and provided clear licensing plans.

Pros

Easy to setup storage platforms
Easy to see to which tape sets are in cold storage, associate tapes with backup sets
Agents are easy to deploy across windows and Linux servers

Cons

Initial setup of backup configuration is not suited towards big data. I wish there was a selection that asks: how much data is within scope for initial, daily, weekly, then it would automatically adjust the backup parameters including timeout windows.

Likelihood to Recommend

Veritas Backup Exec is best suited for <1PB environments that deal with typical Windows & Linux file storage arrays. Once you delve into more sophisticated storage environments, there are no available agents for those environments.

Mark McCardell

Computer Systems Engineer IV in Research & Development at University of Virginia - Center For Applied Biomechanics (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

13 years of experience

View profile

Veritas Backup Exec - AVOID! It was great (and about the only choice) 2 decades ago, but it has fallen by the wayside.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

June 3, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I consult with multiple companies that at some point in time had Veritas Backup Exec setup as their backup software on their servers.

Pros

Backing up files that are in use.
Backing up Exchange Server databases.
Backing up SharePoint Server Websites.

Cons

Veritas's memory usage is exorbitant - one of the most memory intensive applications running on the server.
Cluttered interface.
Slow to backup.

Likelihood to Recommend

Veritas Backup Exec is great at backing up heavily used File Servers and Exchange Servers. Its backup compression is VERY slow and doesn't compress well. [I feel] it is very unfriendly at trying to recover using a Bare-Metal Restore.

Michael Craven

Owner/President/CEO in Professional Services at P.C. 911 (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

20 years of experience

View profile

Veritas Backup Exec solutions versus cost and ease of use.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Incentivized

May 19, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Originally we used Veritas Backup Exec for all servers in our district. We have since moved away from it and currently it is being used only on a remote backup server. The product does function well and it performed fine for the purpose of providing full and partial backups. We were predominantly a Netware shop with approximately 32 Netware servers, with 14 stand alone Windows based servers. With our move to a virtual environment our backup solution needs changed.

Pros

Backup Exec does do an excellent job of backing up all data on both Netware (which is no longer a pressing issue) and Windows based machines.
As long as you are licensed correctly Backup Exec does a good job of backing up SQL instances, but the key is you must be properly licensed.
Restoring files back to the original server and format is done fairly easy with Backup Exec. It is actually easier than Unitrends which requires a slightly different and less logical method.

Cons

Backup Exec is painful regarding licensing their products and solutions especially if you are in a scattered environment with many physical servers to protect. Then through in SQL backup solutions and depending on who your sales rep is you may have a nightmare to manage. We actually purchased the product through Dell when we bought the servers, then upon renewal we used a different vendor. Backup Exec does not track these keys well when different vendors are in the mix. We lost our licenses on several servers for weeks until the issue was finally resolved. I do believe if you buy and manage your Backup Exec licenses from one vendor you will not have these types of issues. You just need to be aware that there is potential for confusion.
Backup Exec does have some issues when servers go offline and you no longer want to have a backup instance for that server. You need to be very thorough and follow the procedures exactly or you will have backups that simply don't go away. You can remove them but it is not logical or intuitive. Simply removing the backup process and the host being backed up does not remove the stored backups.
This should no longer be a major issue for people archiving and using tapes, but, tape backups have a nasty habit of not being consistent or reliable unless you manually do a verify of the tape after each and every backup. We have experienced several archival restores fail when attempting to do a restore. Restores from digital hard drive format does have far fewer issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

Backup Exec works well generally in most environments or situations. The licensing can potentially be a nightmare, but manageable if you have a decent reseller. Backing up and restoring from physical tapes which is not all that common is not as reliable as when backing up and restoring from datastores that reside on hard drives or digital media. It does a good job with large or small backup jobs. Backing up and managing SQL backups requires additional licenses and be a bit clunky. If you are very careful (which you should be anyway) and document as you build these backups you will get better at managing them. Regarding a virtual environment, I have limited experience in that arena, but have done it. Backup Exec can backup VMware environments, but honestly we moved to Unitrends to backup our VM's and are much happier with the backup process. However, restoring a VM in Unitrends can be tedious compared to Backup Exec.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

Veritas Backup Exec is smart, flexible and secure backup.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 4, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Veritas Backup Exec has been used in our datacenter to backup our servers, approximately more than 10 servers, including servers with VMWare. We have programmed an automatic backup routine with incremental backups every day of file servers and other services used by employees and daily backups of all services and the datacenter environment. It is an expensive investment but it is the best way to keep all data saved in case of any type of problem / damage / virtual threat.

Pros

Accurate and seamless integration with VMware.
Possibility to replicate to the cloud.
When necessary, restoration to a specific point is quick and safe.
Clean and friendly interface.
Great Alerts and personalized reports.

Cons

Updates happen frequently but are not so easy to perform.
Providing more training for beginners.

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.

Gabriel Silva

Analista de sistema in Information Technology at Natura (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Good backup software, some learning curve

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Veritas Backup Exec not for resale version is being used to backup all critical server based data on linux and windows servers.

Pros

Backs up data
Backs up data to usb drives
Backups data to MS Cloud

Cons

User Interface
Job creation
Alert management

Likelihood to Recommend

It is not as easy as it should be, but does provide a great level of control and detail to backup operations. It Does backup Linux clients which is a huge plus to us.

Jay Moore

CIO in Information Technology at The National Beta Club (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Yesterday's Backup Solution Today

Rating: 1 out of 10

September 17, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use backup exec to backup our mostly virtual server environment.

Pros

It works sometimes.

Cons

Can't intuitively chain backup jobs.
Forever incremental backup feature is limited and basically useless, feels tacked on.
Storage based compression and de-duplication are awkward to manage compared to other backup solutions.
Convoluted licensing model.
Poor fault tolerance.

Likelihood to Recommend

Backup Exec probably works well if you're only backing up a small number of servers (around 20 at the most) locally. This seems to be the only scenario where its at least capable of doing its job.

Any kind of serious enterprise is going to want to avoid this software like the plague. Deploying this across multiple sites requires fully licensed servers at each site and a second management server at the primary site. Beyond that, running multiple backup jobs can be problematic as, per Veritas support, there is no native way to chain separate backup jobs.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

BackupExec for enterprise? Why Not?

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

January 23, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Veritas Backup Exec is used as our central backup platform for one business location consisting of about 250 end users with 20+ servers

Pros

Version updates are fairly frequent and provide new features often.
Easy to use interface.

Cons

Speed of access to backup sets is pretty slow, could use a boost.

Likelihood to Recommend

As a standard, Back-up, Veritas Backup Exec has been around for quite a while. Even though it's not usually considered as an enterprise-level backup/recovery platform, I've been using it for several years through many changes, and it has always met my requirements. They offer several different agents for various programs, databases, VMware, etc. You only buy what you need.

John Mota

IT Manager in Information Technology at Precix (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

20 years of experience

A Stable, User-Friendly Disaster Recovery Solution

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 21, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Veritas Backup Exec provides good replication and compression features from a simple dashboard. We use it on exchange and SQL for mass files and folders. We find that for Exchange, SQL and even for single files we are able to restore the resource process as well.

Pros

Vertias Backup Exec allows my clients to restore a backup from a specific point in time.
Works well and has good integration with technologies such as VMware.

Cons

Restoration can sometimes be slow.
The cost is quite high.

Likelihood to Recommend

I can only speak to Windows environments, but it works well there. They seem to keep up with evolving technology. The cost may be too high for smaller companies.

Verified User

Executive in Information Technology (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Loading Reviews List....

Veritas Backup Exec solutions versus cost and ease of use.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Incentivized

May 19, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Backup Exec does do an excellent job of backing up all data on both Netware (which is no longer a pressing issue) and Windows based machines.
As long as you are licensed correctly Backup Exec does a good job of backing up SQL instances, but the key is you must be properly licensed.
Restoring files back to the original server and format is done fairly easy with Backup Exec. It is actually easier than Unitrends which requires a slightly different and less logical method.

Cons

Backup Exec is painful regarding licensing their products and solutions especially if you are in a scattered environment with many physical servers to protect. Then through in SQL backup solutions and depending on who your sales rep is you may have a nightmare to manage. We actually purchased the product through Dell when we bought the servers, then upon renewal we used a different vendor. Backup Exec does not track these keys well when different vendors are in the mix. We lost our licenses on several servers for weeks until the issue was finally resolved. I do believe if you buy and manage your Backup Exec licenses from one vendor you will not have these types of issues. You just need to be aware that there is potential for confusion.
Backup Exec does have some issues when servers go offline and you no longer want to have a backup instance for that server. You need to be very thorough and follow the procedures exactly or you will have backups that simply don't go away. You can remove them but it is not logical or intuitive. Simply removing the backup process and the host being backed up does not remove the stored backups.
This should no longer be a major issue for people archiving and using tapes, but, tape backups have a nasty habit of not being consistent or reliable unless you manually do a verify of the tape after each and every backup. We have experienced several archival restores fail when attempting to do a restore. Restores from digital hard drive format does have far fewer issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience