What is our primary use case?
I utilize Carbonite within my organization for high availability purposes, especially for critical servers where downtime is not acceptable. When a primary server fails, Carbonite permits a quick failover to a backup server.
Moreover, image backups are taken at various intervals throughout the day to ensure data safety.
What is most valuable?
Carbonite offers direct synchronization and replication to one or more off-site locations. This feature ensures data consistency even if the main server fails. It is highly beneficial for maintaining business continuity without any significant data loss, allowing organizations to continue operations without substantial downtime even during critical server failures.
What needs improvement?
The reverse failover process takes a long time, especially with physical servers, often requiring 48 hours without any surprises. For more granular restores, Carbonite is not the right product, as it only allows for full-server failovers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I know Carbonite from the Carbonite product line and also from the long-term, high-availability product line.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Carbonite is generally very stable once set up properly. It rarely requires backend support for critical issues. I would rate its stability around 8.5 on a scale from one to ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability can be a challenge if not planned properly, potentially resulting in running out of space. Proper planning and using external NAS or SAN storage as iSCSI volumes is recommended to mitigate this issue.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service has been good and responsive without any major issues. Critical issues have been rare.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Along with Bitdefender, I work with other vendors such as EMSAsoft for additional malware and ransomware protection.
What about the implementation team?
My whole team is involved in the implementation, and if the project demands more resources, I hire outsourcing engineers. The design and project management are overseen by our CTO due to his technical experience.
What was our ROI?
Return on investment relies greatly on how much downtime costs my business. In the digital age, reducing server downtime is increasingly crucial, however, budget constraints often make it challenging for small and medium-sized businesses to afford such solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
For high availability, I recommend Carbonite. For backup functionality with folder backups, other products are suggested.
What other advice do I have?
If customers say, 'I want the server to be running 27/7/365 without any fail,' then we say this is your high availability option, not the backup. I am clear on that. If you are looking for backup, I suggest other product lines that take folder backups.
I use another backup solution with that one, so you have this option. The main concern with other product lines is DC change, meaning it goes to the first head office failover server, then to the remote failover server. If the head office failover server fails, the Doctor server will not have an update. That is the area of concern, as more than eighty percent of the product lines do head AC chaining.
I used to ask for direct synchronization. That is where Carbonite plays a role, allowing direct synchronization or replication to one or multiple Doctor sites.
I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises