Dell Encryption Enterprise [EOL] Reviews

My company uses this solution for end-to-end encryption. 

We like the auto-decryption features. For example, a file is auto-decrypted when it is moved to a different location, either over the network, through email, or through upload to a web server.

I see a lot of room for improvement in a couple of areas. One is that the decryption process is a bit complex and takes a lot of time, depending on how many files you have. If that can be improved, it would be great. 

Second, whenever there is an operating system-related problem, for example, if the OS gets corrupted and I need to reinstall the operating system, it's very difficult because first, I have to move the data onto another disk. From there, I have to decrypt and install the operating system and then copy it back, which consumes a lot of time. So if that can be improved, it would also be great.

One additional feature I would be interested in is an easy way to unlock a file. Whenever a file gets locked or encrypted, the admin should have an easy unlock mechanism or some superior control to get the file unlocked on the fly, which would save a lot of time.

I have been using this solution for almost one year.

The solution is stable as long as we are not introducing any new tools or applications to the environment. As soon as we introduce any new tools or applications, we have to work with the back-end team to handle new problems that are created. Once they're figured out, the solution will stabilize, but the problems keep coming up whenever we introduce a new tool or application. It has been a challenge.

We are able to scale, so scalability is not a problem. 

The technical support is very good. The tech support team has a deep, in-depth knowledge of the product and their understanding of our problems and root cause analysis has been very good.

The initial setup was complex and a pain because there were a lot of issues, and the solution took time to stabilize in our environment. To start with, the initial deployment itself had a lot of problems. The clients could not contact the servers due to some policy conflicts, so they were not getting initialized.

Once all the clients got deployed, there was a conflict between one of our in-house tools and the DDP agent, which caused an error in the operating system. As a result, we had a massive productivity loss because many of our employees couldn't work for a couple of weeks. We escalated, and the engineering team got involved and applied some exclusion policies. After that, the solution slowly stabilized. 

We implemented the solution using a deployment team, and it took about three months. Something noteworthy is that the initial deployment team was not very technically sound regarding the product. This caused many problems because, for any changes or even small queries, they had to depend on the back-end or engineering team, which took a lot of time.

Considering the features included in the solution and the support we get from the back-end team, I think the pricing is fair. Our license is $50 per user, and we have a three-year contract.

We looked into Microsoft BitLocker and Symantec's product before going with DDP.

I advise spending more time during the POC in the environment and looking at all the pros and cons because each environment will respond differently to the product. My company did a very short period for the POC. I recommend doing a bigger window, say three months, or at least two months, if that's not possible.

I would rate this solution as a six out of ten.

One place where I can give them top level is the tiered administration, whereby you can assign roles to the support team to say, "You would be responsible for changing passwords. You would be responsible for system management and configurations, and you are the major admin of this." They have that on lockdown. The active directory integration is also pretty okay. It is not so bad. 

It does have normal features that most of the encryption tools have, such as full-disk encryption, volume encryption, and external drive encryption. I am not sure if they do file-level encryption and if DLP is integrated with the encryption product. I would like to assume that these features are there.

It is not working properly for us because of which we had to decrypt all our encryptions. I have not used it much, and based on what I have heard, it is very tough to manage. Managing this system is not as easy as it should be. The central management is awful, and the encryption process is tedious. There are too many issues with even recovering passwords. Its ease of deployment is awful. 

Their support needs to be improved. It is just my fifth week working with this organization, and since I got here, it has been about, "Oh! We have these issues with Dell, and it is not working properly. It is so hard to work with, and please get on with the support team so we can get this resolved as soon as possible." To get the support on the phone is usually a big problem, and by the time they call you back and tell you it is going to take, for instance, about an hour, we end up spending like four hours, and we don't get anything done. The firm has finally decided that Dell is not going to be the way to go. We are now exploring other encryption products.

In terms of new features, it should have cloud tenancy encryption. Everything is moving to the cloud, and it would be cool if the next version of Dell encryption can offer that. Based on my research, it seems that a few solutions can do that right now, particularly the McAfee Complete Protection suites. It would be good if Dell can also move away from on-prem. The solution that we're working with is an on-prem solution. I don't know if it is available in the cloud, but it would be good if they can make it available in the cloud. This probably would also help with the cloud tenancy encryption.

Another feature that I would've loved them to have is for the passphrase self-recovery for a user. Such a feature would reduce some bit of burden on the help desk team. Currently, people forget their passphrase every single week, and they have to get to the help desk to reset their password. It would have been pretty cool if a passphrase self-recovery option was available for a user.

I started to use it very recently when I joined this organization. We are using its latest version.

It has not really been stable.

We have about 70 users of this solution. Almost everyone in the normal organization hierarchy, from the CEO down to the office assistant, uses this solution. We all are in different departments. 

We also have some partners to whom we've given laptops, and we also encrypt their systems because we deal with a lot of PHI, and we want to be sure that all our systems are encrypted. If a laptop gets in the hands of an unauthorized person, we want to ensure that it is encrypted and unauthorized access will not be granted. 

I'm not the one who interacted with them directly. One of my teammates has been interacting with them. To get the support on the phone is usually a big problem, and by the time they call you back and tell you it's going to take about an hour, for instance, we end up spending like four hours, and we don't get anything done.

Its ease of deployment is awful.

I would rate Dell Encryption Enterprise a seven out of ten. It is not totally bad. It is quite cumbersome to work with, and it is not as simple as it should be. Its backend is a lot to deal with.

We provide the services and the solution architecture proposing the features for our customers and clients. Most of them are using hybrid architecture. They may use their own private for the main epicenter. Then we use the hybrid cloud as a VR, especially, for Dell EMC you can use Amazon or Azure. Any type of customer that demands security and they demand specific information or restricted information. They are using encryption to prevent any kind of hacking. 

Some customers have less security in the solution regarding their data. We need to use multiple security applications and a set of security protocols. So security could be improved. Also, if Dell could provide the proposed 32-gigabit Hyperhannel connectivity as some competitors do it would be improved. The features already included are enterprise level. It would be better if they could provide more from the entry-level to mid-range level. 

We have been using Dell Encryption Enterprise for four years.

Dell EMC Encryption Enterprise is very stable.

The technical support provided by Dell EMC comes with proactive technical support. Customers can upload logs to the Dell EMC portal. We can analyze it and they can monitor. Dell EMC has remarkable support. And whenever there is a ticket open it will be handled within four hours at the maximum. We have had a great experience with them.

It is a pretty standard setup. The customer does not need to do a lot of tasks to complete it. It is a simple setup. The encryption comes pre-installed so there is not much configuration in that regard.

A physical person can be helpful as all of the support comes through a remote session. It only comes with hardware support but then you can provide people to the customer even when it comes to migrations and some integrations and upgrades. So it would be very helpful. 

I would rate Dell Encryption Enterprise at a nine out of ten.