Share your experience using CData Sync

Most replication products focus solely on replicating block data from production to your disaster recovery (DR) site. RecoverPoint's advantage is snapshots. You can recover data from up to ten minutes or ten hours ago on your DR side.

For example, if your production site data is corrupted, the replicated data on the DR side is also unusable. You need a good backup of the production environment. RecoverPoint's snapshots allow you to restore or view the image on either the DR or production side if data is compromised.

I've used both Dell RecoverPoint and Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines.

During the first phase, I used the RecoverPoint appliance, a physical hardware appliance by Dell EMC. Later, I used RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines in a smaller capacity. I recommend it to clients as well.

The image backup feature is great. For example, if you set the journal to take a backup every ten minutes, it will create a snapshot or pointer every ten minutes for as long as you need.

It's very user-friendly. RecoverPoint has an excellent graphical user interface (GUI). I even prefer it over Veeam in terms of ease of use.

Everything is delivered at the appliance level. I recommend using dedicated hardware appliances. Once the development relies on physical hardware, the performance and operating system are very good. However, they are moving the appliance functionality into the virtual machine realm. If the cluster is down on the virtual machine side, you cannot restore your data or run your DR site until the cluster is back up. So, I recommend using physical appliances.

I have been using this solution for ten years. 

It's a very stable product. I've installed it in two zones, and I've been using RecoverPoint appliances since 2007.

For almost twenty years. Earlier versions did have some bugs – not many, but there were configuration or validation issues. However, it's a very stable product now.

A small IT team dedicated to data management and infra team uses it since they own the device.

I've worked closely with Dell since 2007. Back then, we could create a "Severity 1" case. I think they've discontinued that option. Now, you can create a "Severity 2" case. For Severity 1 issues, you can call the helpline. 

I've often recommended to Dell EMC Pakistan that there should be a portal option to create Severity 1 cases. Their engineers are good, but since COVID, many experienced engineers have left the company. This is a problem for every vendor, not just Dell EMC – they face challenges finding experienced technical engineers. 

So, while I recommend Dell EMC, sometimes they don't have the technical staff for very quick responses. In those cases, you might need to engage your account manager to find the best engineer on a Severity 1 issue.

Any replication product – Zerto, Veeam, or RecoverPoint – encrypts data by default. The appliance compresses and encapsulates data before replicating it. This reduces network bandwidth usage. When data travels across the network, it's encrypted, and upon reaching the disaster recovery (DR) site, the appliance decrypts it.

The deployment is based on specific principles. If you are very technical, you'll need to be trained by Dell EMC because they have to mark specific flags on both the storage side and the replication side. It's not easy for an end-user; they need Dell EMC or a similarly trained professional to configure it. That's why it's not easy. 

Basic tasks like creating a new LUN or replicating are straightforward. But the initial setup, where you receive the appliance, unbox it, rack it, and configure it, is difficult for a new user. However, I can do it since I've been trained.

While I recommend Dell EMC, it depends on your specific use case. Licensing is perpetual, meaning you buy it once. For example, you have 100 terabytes (TB) of data but only need to replicate 10 TB of critical transactional data. You purchase a license to replicate only that 10 TB. I wouldn't recommend replicating the full 100 TB – focus on the most critical data. Consider what your replication requirements are in terms of TBs, GBs, or MBs.

First, consider the criticality of your data. If you're a bank where you can't afford to lose any transactions, RecoverPoint is a great option. If you have a good budget, it's worth considering. 

Another excellent product is Zerto, which offers similar functionality. If you have a smaller budget, then Veeam replication is also an option. So, there are three options I've used, and the best choice depends on your company's specific needs.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. The main reason I recommend it is the ability to restore data from previous points in time. Also, RecoverPoint is designed to integrate seamlessly with Dell EMC storage. If you don't have Dell EMC storage, you can't use it with other brands like IBM or HP. If you do have Dell EMC, it works well. Another good EMC product is SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility); I haven't worked with it directly, but it's worth considering.

The main use cases for NetApp Snapshot are data recovery and disaster scenarios.

We provide file services directly from NetApp Storage. NetApp Storage has the SMB service installed around the world. We leverage snapshots at the volume level for the SIP file shares. We connect the NetApp Storage with cloud volume objects sold in Azure. Our purpose for the Snapshot is to create a point-in-time Snapshot of storage and then replicate all the data into the cloud for our DR backup purposes.

Our architecture is designed using NetApp as a file server for DR backup. We use cloud volume objects as our hosts in Azure to move data from on-premises locations to the cloud. We leverage NetApp's Snapshot feature to capture the data.

We use primarily NetApp storage arrays for the entire file share infrastructure. Integration into our management infrastructure is done via monitoring, which SolarWinds provides. It integrates well with open-source setups like SNMP reporting or email alerting. Additionally, control-based access control integrates well within our infrastructure because NetApp supports integration with Active Directory. We use another product from NetApp called NetApp ActiveIQ for monitoring and troubleshooting the NetApp Storage, which is custom-made for NetApp.

The most important feature to us is creating live snapshots without impacting user access to the file. NetApp's processes are transparent to users and allow us to create point-in-time snapshots, enabling us to replicate that data into the cloud in real time without any impact.

The second feature is the possibility of storing long-term snapshots. We can keep a snapshot for more than one, two, or seven days, which is important as a backup strategy.

NetApp Snapshot uses copy-on-write technology, meaning data consumption will only grow if you have an active snapshot and write new data into the array.

The licensing cost could be improved.

I have been using NetApp Snapshot for 10 years. We are using the latest version of the solution.

The product is stable. We have never encountered any problems. If you have active support, the leading support rules for their data storage architecture ensure consistency for root and data partitions across nodes. The solution remains operational unless faced with critical infrastructure issues or location-related problems.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good.

Over 10,000 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

Customer support is astonishing in terms of response time. They respect our SLA, investigate, and respond within two hours. Moreover, they possess deep technological knowledge and communicate effectively. We highly value their support, in addition to hardware reliability.

Positive

I have used NetApp, Pure Storage, IBM, HP, Lenovo, and IBM Storage.

We were using NetApp as our primary storage vendor. However, we had previously experimented with other vendors. They only had a small presence within our infrastructure. Our infrastructure relies heavily on NetApp, which accounts for 80-90% of our storage. We still have a few HP, Dell, and Lenovo storage arrays in certain regions, such as South America, that we intend to replace with NetApp. As for other vendors like Pure Storage and IBM, they are solutions I've worked with.

The initial setup is straightforward. Its simplicity can vary depending on perspective. We completed the acquisition last year and transitioned from ABB infrastructure to our new one. This meant initiating a purchase order with NetApp for equipment and installation services, including configuring IP addresses and hostnames. Once NetApp provided these details, we seamlessly integrated them into our automation workflow, streamlining configuration and service delivery to end-users. Our storage installation and automation process typically takes around eight days but can vary for each customer, ranging from one day to several months. In our case, configuration took one to two additional days.

The solution is expensive.

I rate the product’s pricing a three out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap.

We use LDR and NetApp within our enterprise architecture. It exceeds both FPO and LPO standards due to the built-in technologies. Additionally, accessing a snapshot needs an LPO objective when restoring data from snapshots.

We have a global presence in over 100 countries around the world. We have an on-premises presence with infrastructure as a service in more than 65 factories worldwide. These factories span continents from China to South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Each factory hosts at least one storage array that facilitates hosting our server functions and projects. We integrate with the cloud to achieve backup and disaster recovery. If a factory or an entire region experiences downtime, we have the data replicated in Azure Cloud via NetApp. Hence, all files from factories worldwide are daily replicated in the cloud.

NetApp Snapshot is for data recovery, including disaster scenarios. You don't need any other solution to take your data and pull it somewhere else instead of that single NetApp storage array. You have the storage array and cloud volume objects from NetApp, connect them between themselves, and then create a task and a snapshot of these volumes that are locally in these factories. After this snapshot is completed, replicate the data into this cloud object. 

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.