Enterprise backup, Veeam and what else?

Lanz · 21 Jun 2013 at 11:06

We currently use Commvault and Veeam, but Commvault is starting to get too expensive. What combo's do others use that offer better value?

covenantuk · 21 Jun 2013 at 13:09

Pretty much everyone's coming to the same conclusion when they look at Veeam pricing- you can probably squeeze a big discount by threatening to leave Commvault.

Symantec is the obvious contender. Veeam is the cheapest by a long way - we're moving all except NAS NDMP/SQL and file servers (file servers are a bad fit for virtualisation unless you have dedicated storage for it), especially as our physical estate continues to shrink and we'd have to buy more licensing to back up virtual servers.

Also see EMC, CA Arcserv, HP Data protector

Yamahahahahaha · 21 Jun 2013 at 16:37

If you're virtual, get Veeam.

Never buy CA Arcserve. It is one of the worst pieces of software I've ever encountered. They are like Symantec, but worse in every regard.

beavis · 21 Jun 2013 at 17:03

Currently (IMHO) for virtual Veeam, for physical Unitrends.

LizardKing · 21 Jun 2013 at 19:55

covenantuk said:
Symantec is the obvious contender. r

Not if you value your sanity!!

Unitrends or Veeam all the way these days.

Jumping · 21 Jun 2013 at 20:12

Veeam is pretty easy to work with and we use it for a quite a few VM backups at work.

covenantuk · 22 Jun 2013 at 09:41

LizardKing said:
Not if you value your sanity!!

Strange so many enterprises use it then? Whenever I look for a new job it seems at least 50% want Symantec experience

Commvault is actually a great product but the annual cost is pretty steep.

LizardKing · 22 Jun 2013 at 18:20

covenantuk said:
Strange so many enterprises use it then? Whenever I look for a new job it seems at least 50% want Symantec experience

There was a time when there was little choice but Backup Exec, not if you wanted a product that could handle everything. That no longer applys.

Lanz · 24 Jun 2013 at 22:07

Thanks for the replies.

Veeam is a no brainer, we have around 30 sockets and its very affordable, Veeam 7 looks pretty good too, adding new things that will make it much better for us.

Not heard of Unitrends, but we basically need something that will backup large Windows file servers, Linux and Solaris. We have never had a problem with Commvault apart from the cost, the license model sucks basically.

beavis · 25 Jun 2013 at 11:48

Unitrends will make you wonder why everything else is so complex, it's very straight forward. I've only tried it on Windows targets but the documentation says it has support for various linuxy things.

UEB is Unitrends Enterprise Backup and comes as a VMware or HyperV image. Otherwise they make various prebuilt rackmount servers.

Have a play with the NFR (not for resale) version for virtual machines, or take a look at this presentation for a free full version, limited to 1tb.
http://www.slideshare.net/SpiceWired/2013-spiceworld-london-unitrends-presentation (last slide).

Lanz · 27 Jun 2013 at 16:34

For those that use Unitrends, I've just had them on the phone and they seem on paper very reasonable. But do you need Veeam and Unitrends, is there VM backup good enough to replace Veeam also?

Yamahahahahaha · 27 Jun 2013 at 21:38

Unitrends is great because it kind of does everything in one console, good for a mixed estate of physical and virtual. Their virtual side of things is quite strong compared to the competition.
Their 'unlimited agents' appliances are good if you don't have much in terms of bulk storage, I'd go so far as to say good value. When you start looking at higher capacity solutions (Probably over say... 20TB) then you'll want to look at rolling your own storage and buying the agents separately.

Veeam is still the best for virtual though. Not to mention actually really cheap compared to everyone else.

LizardKing · 27 Jun 2013 at 21:55

Lanz said:
For those that use Unitrends, I've just had them on the phone and they seem on paper very reasonable. But do you need Veeam and Unitrends, is there VM backup good enough to replace Veeam also?

Ask them if they have any offers on, i spoke to them a month or so back and there was talk of 50% off if your moving away from Backup Exec.

One thing that grinds me about Unitrends is it being web based, i keep wanting to right click on the menu's! And the restore function is a little clunky but functional!