What is our primary use case?
It was a pilot. We did a bake-off between Zerto and RP for VM, which was an EMC product. It was to fail over 130 Oracle databases.
We wanted to handle disaster recovery for our data center. Zerto was mainly a failover product. We did not use any security layering.
How has it helped my organization?
When we tested it, it had more functions than what we used it for, but it was a very good BCDR product. We liked the reliability and availability.
Zerto enables you to do disaster recovery (DR) in the cloud, but we did not use that feature. We used Zerto to help protect VMs in our environment. It was strong in that aspect. I would rate it an eight out of ten there.
Zerto's speed of recovery was comparable. There was no synchronous and asynchronous replication. If I had to give it a number, it would be a seven out of ten. It was the same as others. There was not much difference.
It was easy to migrate data. There was some initial configuration in syncing, but it was easy. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of the ease of migration.
Zerto’s ability to keep our users collaborating with one another during a data migration was good. I would rate it a seven out of ten in this aspect as well as in terms of its impact on RTOs.
Zerto helps reduce downtime in any situation. We can bring up a database in minutes. It probably takes five minutes for the final sync. The cost of downtime depends on the database. It may be 50,000 if you have call center people sitting around. Normally, most of our small outages like that ranged in the tens of thousands.
Zerto did save time in a data recovery situation. We did not have ransomware, but there were times we had database corruption where the users would corrupt the database, and the database would not start. It would do snapshotting. It was not necessarily ransomware, but it was testing upgrades or Oracle upgrades. The data recovery happened within five minutes, if not sooner. A normal restore would probably be four to eight hours if we had to restore from a tape and apply logs.
Zerto helps to reduce an organization's DR testing. You can spin off an extra database pretty quickly and have users test against the third or fourth copy. It saves one to three days of testing depending on test cycles. You could do sequential testing. I would probably measure it more in days than hours. All of that time can be used by a DBA to do something else.
Zerto reduces the number of staff involved in a data recovery situation. One person could probably orchestrate it now versus one to three people.
It did not reduce the number of staff involved in overall backup and DR management because we are pretty thin. We would not have gotten rid of anybody.
What is most valuable?
Zerto offered a very good front-end GUI for orchestration. The graphic interface was very good.
What needs improvement?
The replication layer can probably be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We ran the pilot for about nine months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of scalability.
In terms of our environment, we had 130 databases, 35 prods, and 2 data centers. In terms of end users, in our call centers, we had probably 10,000 users who accessed the databases.
How are customer service and support?
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used VMware SRM. We used Veritas clustering, which was a Veritas/Symantec product. We then went virtual, so we went from physical to virtual infrastructure, and we went from HP-UX to Red Hat infrastructure. Zerto was probably 50% easier than others.
Zerto has not replaced any backup solution.
How was the initial setup?
It is a private cloud deployment. It is all VMware vSphere.
Its initial setup was straightforward. It was not as complicated as any other product. It took two to three weeks.
In terms of the implementation strategy, we wanted to reduce our synchronous synchronization. We wanted a better RTO, so we went to an asynchronous replication on private network infrastructure for faster syncing. There were a few technical aspects, but we took our time to lay out the network infrastructure.
In terms of maintenance, you have to patch it and upgrade it. We have a team of four for backup and storage.
What about the implementation team?
Zerto helped us. They had very good staff. We got great support. I would rate them a seven out of ten.
We had two people working on that project, primary and secondary. We did use some of the networking team, maybe a half-person worth of time, because it is a little network intensive.
What was our ROI?
It is hard to measure an ROI. It is more like an insurance policy. You may or may not use your insurance policy, but it provides comfort to management. There may also be some soft cost.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It was a little higher. We were in a corporate agreement, and we had a software package that included RP for VM. It is easy to compare pricing when you are already in a corporate agreement. Zerto lost on the pricing scorecard.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Zerto and RP for VM, which was an EMC product. They were different in replication logic and how they did journaling.
In Zerto, the replication is done through vSphere, and they did not license that product, so at any point, they could have probably lost it. We licensed RP for VM. We felt more comfortable with an EMC replication product because it was Dell and VMware combined or merged. The replication in Zerto was good, but it was using VMware hypervisor replication.
What other advice do I have?
To those evaluating this solution, I would recommend doing an architectural design and implementing best practices. Involve your network team early and use Zerto's expertise.
I would rate Zerto an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.