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reviewer1131192 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Senior Systems Engineer at Southland Industries
Real User
The engine is ransomware-agnostic so ransomware doesn't compromise our backup data
Pros and Cons
  • "Commvault provides data protection. Their engine is ransomware-agnostic so ransomware doesn't compromise our backup data. Therefore, we can rely on their data protection to recover and back up our production system."
  • "Commvault could make the product more cost-effective on the public cloud side. We are using this solution to back up whatever is still on-prem. We are not using it to back up what is on the public cloud because we have a native backup solution for that, which is provided by the vendor. As our footprint gets bigger, we will continue to evaluate this, but the last time that we did a cost analysis, the cost was not comparable to the solution that public clouds are offering."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for data protection.

We have two consoles: one on the West Coast and another on the East Coast. Our database copy and auxiliary are sent to an outside location for DR, just in case we need to do a system recovery.

Initially, it was on-prem, but we moved it to the public cloud since everything is on the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

Several years ago, we encountered some ransomware. We just had to recover the file with Commvault, which was great.

Commvault provides data protection. Their engine is ransomware-agnostic so ransomware doesn't compromise our backup data. Therefore, we can rely on their data protection to recover and back up our production system.

What is most valuable?

The virtual server agent (VSA) backup for vCenter is useful and also saves some money. If you use the front-end, which is the agent, then it is a front-end terabyte model, which is very expensive.

Everything is in a single place. I love it. I use the Java GUI console.

Commvault provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover our data across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud locations. This is important to us. 

There are a vast number of supported storage vendors out there who can support the Commvault connection, whether you are using public or private cloud. This is something that I really like.

What needs improvement?

Initially, I spent quite some time understanding the product and how it functions.

While there are newer features on the Command Center, there are still some missing things. I don't use it at all.

For Office 365, they have limited functions and features. 

Commvault could make the product more cost-effective on the public cloud side. We are using this solution to back up whatever is still on-prem. We are not using it to back up what is on the public cloud because we have a native backup solution for that, which is provided by the vendor. As our footprint gets bigger, we will continue to evaluate this, but the last time that we did a cost analysis, the cost was not comparable to the solution that public clouds are offering.

Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for seven years, since I joined the company.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is great. The product is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. You can scale out as much as you want to the data platform as well as expand to other network platforms. We have seen some resellers or other vendors who are using Commvault as part of their service provider to back up their clients. In terms of scaling, they can use it to back up private data, public data, etc.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is great. They are very responsive and right on top of things. Sometimes they go above and beyond to get your answer and solve the problem.

Our 24/7 SLA has never been missed. When you call support, whatever time frame is promised based on the SLA, they deliver on that.

I would rate the technical support as eight or nine out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

It is a little complex at first when you need to choose the product design, features, and functions. Once you understand those, it is not difficult.

What about the implementation team?

Early on, we were using Commvault Professional Services. Now, I handle the deployment and maintenance myself. I support this solution for our entire company, which is about 2000 users.

What was our ROI?

If you architect and design it right, then it will save you a lot of time. Right now, I don't need to spend much time on it. I am spending an hour on it per week. It is saving our admin teams around 50% of their time.

Commvault is saving us a lot with its dedupe and compression. This reduces our footprint by 75% to 80%.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Based on the customer's needs, their pricing and model is very confusing sometimes. You need to check with their sales to make sure you are getting the right pricing on whatever you are using. I know that they have simplified a lot regarding the licensing model nowadays, but it is good to always double check and make sure it has everything that you really need.

We pay for the license every year. Initially, it was around $100,000. Now, it is down to $30,000 to $40,000.

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Commvault has the capability to go to the tape library directly. I know that there are some solutions out there not capable of doing that. 

What other advice do I have?

Look at your business needs, potential growth, and the vendor from a technical, support, and the cost standpoint. You also need to look at the cost, looking at the license very closely, which is a bit confusing.

Go to their classes and try to attend their training, at least for the fundamentals of building a foundation. Take a few classes to get up to speed. That is probably the best learning path to understanding Commvault.

Commvault has good scalability and functionality that support what is needed.

The product is pretty strong. You just need to know how to use it and implement it correctly.

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
ICT Consultant at U.K. Local Government
Consultant
It is set and forget, which saves us time daily
Pros and Cons
  • "Restoring is very fast. In testing, I did a restore for a single item from a mailbox. Within a minute, I had the message back in my mailbox. So, it didn't take hours or days. Obviously, there will be a limit. If we suddenly go into DR and have to restore five terabytes of emails for people, then it will take a couple of days, which would be acceptable. For general usage, where we have to do the odd restore, we have never had issues. It happens within minutes."
  • "It would be nice to have just one email report come in, then we can filter out failures. If everything is backed up, we really don't need to see the report. If it is in a single report. A simpler customised report would be good."

What is our primary use case?

Back in July 2021, we migrated to Office 365. I am in the process of migrating users' mailboxes from on-prem to Office 365 in the cloud. In the initial design, there was no backup solution. Whereas, we back up all mailboxes twice a day onsite. I raised it with Senior Management that we need a backup solution for users' mailboxes. 

Via Metallic, we are backing up Exchange mailboxes in Office 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. Our presence for OneDrive and SharePoint is very minimal because we are still in the project phase. We have already migrated 100 mailboxes out to the cloud and further migration of another 600 users. We are in the process of scheduling that. 

How has it helped my organization?

They gave us the option of where to store data. We chose UK data stores, which is called Storage U.K. South. It is really flexible. The best thing is that Metallic followed the model for Office 365. It is the same model, so we pay only for user mailboxes. We do not pay for shared mailboxes, which is really good. We don't have to buy four terabytes of space or anything. We are paying at a level of 750 users mailboxes to be back up and shared mailbox is free. More than 750 users and the price will reduce. 

The backup runs automatically every eight hours. Therefore, there are three backups in a day. So far, we have never seen where the backups have over run. As far I am concerned, it is very good product, simple to restore and I would highly recommend it. 

From the technical point of view, we have delta backups. Once a mailbox is migrated to Office 365, whatever the size is, it gets a backup fully once. After that, only delta changes get backed up. This is a really good solution because you don't use a lot of bandwidth since you are only changing deltas. There are no restore charges.

What is most valuable?

So far, for anything that gets backed up, it is good.

Restoring is very fast. In testing, I did a restore for a single item from a mailbox. Within a minute, I had the message back in my mailbox. So, it didn't take hours or days. Obviously, there will be a limit. If we suddenly go into DR and have to restore five terabytes of emails for people, then it will take a couple of days, which would be acceptable. For general usage, where we have to do the odd restore, we have never had issues. It happens within minutes.

It does back up Azure AD. This is a feature that we really haven't used. We have not had any issues with users or a group to run a restore. The option is there and if required the Azure AD Group object can be restored. I am sure if I tick on it, then it will restore that option back into Azure AD. This is an extra bonus that we got for free.

What needs improvement?

I am a consultant. Therefore, I have assessed the product, recommended it, and implemented it. I then hand it over to the BAU guys for the normal business day-to-day, as I work on projects. They do a Daily check. Unless in the last four weeks something has changed, we get four emails. One for each product: Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. So, we are getting four backup reports. 

It would be nice to have just one email report come in, then we can filter out failures. If everything is backed up, we really don't need to see the report. If it is in a single report. A simpler customised report would be good.  

In the roadmap, they have something around reporting. They are aware that they need to improve it. It might already be there or we haven't set it up. However, in the last four weeks, which was the last time that we checked, we didn't see anything different.

For how long have I used the solution?

We set up the solution in November 2021. So, by November 2021, we were fully up and running.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is perfect. Whenever I log in, it logs in. When I click on something, it loads up. So, I haven't seen any issues.

Sometimes, some dashboards take a bit of time to load but they have to go back and do queries, which is normal. It is your bandwidth and your Internet. When 700 users are logged onto our site, then our Internet will be a bit slower. When compared with our other products or anything else that I have used, the solution is sleek, fast, and smooth with no issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't been involved in any scalability. We just have a simple backup for our four products, and that's it. I am sure it is scalable since I can see in their dashboard that they use Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and do endpoints. However, we do not use any of those products.

The project has been handed over to a BAU (business as usual), which is a team of two server engineers who work with it. One of the engineer's jobs is to check the backups daily. That involves checking the Metallic backups. We set up an daily email, which they receive and can confirm the backup has run. Rather than log into a dashboard, look at figures. or go around looking for information, it is on their fingertips in the morning. It takes one minute and their job is done.

How are customer service and support?

We work through another partner for support. We work through them, and if they can't resolve anything, then it is escalated to Commvault directly.

Metallic support is direct. I have raised one ticket. One of my OneDrive folders was not backing up, so I raised a question. Before even half the day was gone, the problem was resolved.

I would rate them as a nine out of 10. I didn't get a very clear answer on exactly what they did to resolve the issue. I know they took the issue onboard and resolved it in a reasonable time, but it wasn't detailed technically enough for me about what was the actual issue. Why did it not back up those two folders in One Drive?

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We reached out to our partners, COOLSPIRiT, who engaged with Metallic and we setup a Demo. We all liked it because the solution is just simple.

We have Commvault for onsite backups. Commvault is used for on-prem mailbox backups, whereas Metallic is used for cloud backups of Office 365. We moved to Metallic as a SaaS backup solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy.

What about the implementation team?

COOLSPIRiT is our partner, so they set up the session with Metallic.

We had a Metallic consultant. He went through it step by step. I wanted to keep the control, because if I gave him the control, I literally would have put my feet up on the desk. There was not a lot to do. There was just the connectivity with Azure AD. The consultant does this day in, day out, so he just whizzed through it.

We had less than an hour-long session. If I wasn't slow with the mouse, we would have been done in half an hour. He was letting me drive and understand as he was explaining. We didn't even do the full hour session.

The Metallic consultant was nice and friendly. He explained what and why he was doing something. He also explained what our prerequisites are.

The prerequisites are very simple. You just need a O365 global admin account. Later on, it was removed. It is just for the initial Metallic and Azure AD connectivity.

What was our ROI?

Metallic has reduced the amount of manual work that we require to manage our backup operations. It is set and forget. It is actually one of those things. Usually when you set up a backup system, you need to sometimes work on it, do your daily checks, etc. Now, this solution is just set and forget. You receive a report telling you, "You are backed up."

Every day, if you do a daily check of backups, that could take anywhere from half an hour to an hour. So, it is probably saving us at least five hours a week.

If needed, we have Commvault on-prem backup solution for Exchange. Now, that has gone to the cloud. The good thing is we don't have to pay for bandwidth and hardware. We don't pay for licensing, operating systems, updating those systems, and having a team for it. Comparatively, there is a cost savings. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We like that there is no extra cost for SharePoint, Teams, or OneDrive. It is all mimicking Microsoft's model. Every user has one terabyte of space. When users start using OneDrive, everybody has one terabyte that will be backed up included in the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't actually physically evaluate another solution. Our biggest concern was that if we selected something like Veeam, Veritas Backup, or another backup company out there, we would then have had to change our backup systems since we are running Commvault. We wanted something similar to the Commvault product, or something they would recommend in their solution, as we are not ready to change from Commvault and go to another backup vendor's solution.

What other advice do I have?

Close your eyes and just go for it. it just works. I would highly recommend it.

I would rate the solution as 10 out of 10. I love criticising companies to find some fault or try to break the solution. That is what I was trying to do during testing. However, I couldn't pick up anything apart from reporting, where there is room for improvement. I am sure they can come up with something better for the reporting.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Storage and Backups Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
In-built deduplication, good compatibility with our environment, and has helped reduce storage costs
Pros and Cons
  • "The embedded deduplication engine is really good because we use a Near Line SAS disk as a repository for our backups, and we don't need to pay for another appliance such as a Data Domain or Quantum so that we can have hardware-based deduplication."
  • "I would like to have a manager-level dashboard to review the backups. This is not from an administrative perspective where you can see the details of the execution. Rather, it would only show the percentage of completeness for each one."

What is our primary use case?

We provide backup services to our customers and we implement Commvault for most of our backups. This includes cloud with VMware, cloud with IBM, cloud with Azure, SAP applications like HANA or traditional SAP, for databases including Oracle and DB2, and across several operating systems including AIX, Solaris, Windows, and Linux.

We have a separate, private backup network. It has its own appliances from different vendors and the information on it is not visible to our main network. This is to help protect against ransomware and other threats.

How has it helped my organization?

Commvault provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover data across our on-premises and cloud locations, which is something that is very important for us. We have data centers in Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, and we need to administer all of the environments from a single location in Mexico.

The administrators connect to all of the environments on-premises. We have two flavors; the multitenant environment and the dedicated environment. We manage all of these from Mexico.

Commvault is very good in terms of coverage for applications and databases. This is important because we don't only administrate backups. We have managed services that include the database, application, operating system, and storage. We talk with the administrators for the database and operating system to create a policy that ensures all of the data that we need to recover the environment is complete.

The recovery process is consistent across platforms and this is important to us because clients give us the information, and we need to back it up and to ensure that we can recover it if they have a problem.

The recovery options are good because we offer our clients a complete recovery of their information, as well as an option for partial recovery, based on their needs. For example, we can offer the recovery of a single table in a database, depending on what the scenario is.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the compatibility with our entire environment.

The embedded deduplication engine is really good because we use a Near Line SAS disk as a repository for our backups, and we don't need to pay for another appliance such as a Data Domain or Quantum so that we can have hardware-based deduplication.

One of the benefits of using Commvault over the years has been that all of our administrators have the ability to perform admin functions. They haven't had any complaints about the interface.

Commvault has support for multiple storage platforms, which is helpful for us. We use block storage for some backups, and we use appliances that have duplication capabilities for other backups. The method in which Commvault fits in depends on how much money the client spends. For example, if they have a higher budget then we use PCI-compliant appliances, or snapshots in the backups to ensure that we don't have ransomware. Other clients pay only for the amount of storage that they use. In some cases, we use replication at the host level, whereas in other cases, it is at the hardware level. The console that we have with Commvault can manage all of the environments and hardware that we have.

What needs improvement?

I would like to have a manager-level dashboard to review the backups. This is not from an administrative perspective where you can see the details of the execution. Rather, it would only show the percentage of completeness for each one.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Commvault for more than eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not had any problems with stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have more than 10 implementations in all of our data centers.

Using Commvault helps to minimize the amount of time that we spend on backups. I am not exactly sure how long it would take otherwise, but we back up approximately four petabytes of information each day.

Scaling is not a problem for us. If we need to, we can install more servers and install a new console.

How are customer service and support?

We use Commvault support on a daily basis. People from the database teams need help restoring data, so they contact Commault for assistance.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to Commvault, we used Veritas NetBackup for five years.

A lot of our environment is currently backed up using Commvault but we are planning to use Veeam and Commvault together. Veeam is priced better than Commvault and right now, we use Veeam to back up our virtual machines. As we split more of the information between the two different applications, we may use Veeam for cloud environments, and for traditional environments, Commvault.

There are some applications like SAP HANA that are not compatible with the Veeam software. In cases like this, we use Commvault.

How was the initial setup?

This product is very easy to set up. The reason is that we do everything. We implement, we operate, and we migrate. One of the reasons that we continue with Commvault is that we have spent a lot of time training people. This means that the people in the company can do everything without the need for third-party persons.

It takes between two and three hours to install a new console.

What about the implementation team?

Over the years that we have had this same software, people on the admin team have become certified by Commvault. This ensures that they are doing things properly and doing them well.

What was our ROI?

We charge our customers on a per-gigabyte basis.

Using Commvault has helped us to reduce storage costs because, in some cases, we changed to block storage. Using block storage and software-based deduplication is cheaper than the appliances that have deduplication embedded in them. In some cases, we have reduced our hardware cost by 50%, whereas in other cases, it has been reduced by more than 75%. It depends on the technology that we compare. For example, the Data Domain appliance is perhaps four times the cost of the Near Line SAS disk in traditional block storage.

Reducing the hardware that we have in the data center, also reduces our costs in terms of energy and space. I do not have an estimate as to how much we save.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Commvault is more expensive than Veeam, which is the reason that we are changing to Veeam for cloud environments.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had been running Veritas NetBackup and did an RFP to change the backup software. We tested Veritas, Commvault, TSM from IBM, and Dell NetWorker. The finalists were Veritas and Commvault. We found that there were more advantages to using Commvault. For example, it has deduplication embedded into the software and if we wanted this with Veritas, we needed to pay an additional fee. This is why we changed and we have maintained it for several years.

In comparing solutions, I think that generally, today, all software solutions are the same. We have the same compatibility using Veritas, TSM, NetWorker, and Commvault. The main reason for us to maintain Commvault is the expertise that we have with the tool. All of them have deduplication capabilities and can use different repositories, so I don't have a problem with the other brands.

What other advice do I have?

Commvault has the capability to discover unprotected workloads, although we don't use this because we only work with policies. Our clients tell us the policy that they want to apply to their environment, and we don't analyze their environment beyond the scope that they specify.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Storage & Data Protection Transition Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Notably simplifies our disaster recovery testing, and reduces our backup costs
Pros and Cons
  • "All the management is centralized from that CommServe server. You can manage all the clients and all the infrastructure using one interface and one server... Using the Commvault interface, you can customize and generate multiple reports to easily see what is protected and what is not protected in the environment."
  • "The Java interface is not great. The Command Center interface is far better and it looks nicer, but it doesn't have all the powerful features available in the CommServe/Java console. The place to improve the product is on the management interface level."

What is our primary use case?

It's being used as our main backup and recovery product. We use it to back up virtual machine infrastructure, using VMware and/or Nutanix. We use it to back up our SQL, Exchange, and File Systems, where is a mixture of Linux, Windows and Solaris. We also use it to backup NFS and CIFs Shares under NetApp. We also use Commvault for Oracle Backup and/or RMAN Clones.

We migrated everything we had from other vendors to Commvault. About 95 percent of everything in our environment, is being backup by Commvault.

On-Prem, Cloud, Data Centers.

How has it helped my organization?

The disaster recovery features of Commvault have improved the way we operate. In the past, we had a very complicated process for testing disaster recovery. That kind of testing is one of the nice features of Commvault. You are completely sure that your data resides in multiple locations at the same time and you can be sure Disaster recovery Data it's there in case you need it. 

HyperScale X also helps our admins to minimize the time they spend on backup tasks so that they can spend time on other projects. We are a big company and we have at least 80 locations using Commvault. We have admins for it in four or five regions on different continents. Overall, I would estimate HyperScale X has improved our productivity by 30  to 35 percent. We are more productive using Commvault than with other backup software.

It has also helped to reduce storage costs. We chose the solution because it decreases the backup costs for our end-users. We have been able to reduce backup costs by at least 50 percent.

What is most valuable?

There are a number of features we like HyperScale X:

  • The deduplication is pretty good. 
  • We also like the ability to generate reports using the Command Center feature. 
  • We like how the software upgrade process works. 
  • From the start, the disaster recovery for the CommServe has been very robust and flexible and works pretty well. 
  • It also provides us with protection from ransomware, by default for Windows, and it can be enabled for Linux as well.
  • Replication and Auxiliary Copy features, like dynamic throttling, are helpful.
  • There is also the flexibility to create self-service capabilities for end-users and to give them access to restore their managed servers for data.

In addition, HyperScale X provides a single platform to move, manage, and recover data across all locations in our environment. The CommServe is the brain of Commvault. It's the server where the index and the cache are stored for the backups that are happening in the environment. All the management is centralized from that CommServe server. You can manage all the clients and all the infrastructure using one interface and one server. For redundancy, you have a disaster recovery CommServe server in standby mode. You can configure a disaster recovery backup to happen every 15 minutes.

Using the Commvault interface, you can customize and generate multiple reports to easily see what is protected and what is not protected in the environment. There is also a third-party feature called Commvault Activate. It's a separate product and you need another license to use it. That product specializes in discovering the environment, and the data in it, that you are not backing up.

What needs improvement?

You can manage everything from two interfaces. There is a Java console (CommCell), but in the near future that will be fully replaced by the Command Center, the HTML5 interface. The Java interface is not great. The Command Center interface is far better and it looks nicer, but it doesn't have all the powerful features available in the Java console. The place to improve the product is on the management interface level because that's the point where it's not perfect.

Today, to manage the product, you just have to use both interfaces. The Java interface is basically for the admin because it has all the powerful features in it. The HTML5 interface is mainly used by end-users, and by admins when they just need to generate a report or see something graphically to help with the management of Commvault.

One other note. I would rate the ransomware feature at about eight out of 10. There are different processes for enabling ransomware protection on Windows versus Linux systems. In the current version, there is no ransomware for HyperScale X. That feature has been released in CV SP 24.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Commvault HyperScale 1.5 and HyperScale X for the last three and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable. We haven't had a major issue in the three-plus years we have had Commvault. 

There were some issues in the first year, until we managed to acquire the skill sets and learned how the product should be used, including the best practices. But overall the environment is pretty stable. 

We perform a disaster recovery test twice a year and the product is robust and resilient.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is pretty scalable. You can grow the environment. We have been using the same CommServe server for the solution for the three years that we have had Commvault, and we have just scaled and scaled the solution. We started with about 3,000 clients and now the number of clients has doubled or tripled.

HyperScale X, which was released one year ago, is more scalable than version 1.5. You can put more nodes in one cluster and, because of that, you can increase your overall storage.

We don't have the Commvault Activate solution. We are thinking about acquiring it in the near future to improve our environment. Our migration from other vendors to Commvault took between one and two years because our environment is so large. Right now we are fine-tuning the product and the processes around it. Perhaps we will use Commvault Activate starting next year. It will be in our scope.

How are customer service and support?

Support for the product is pretty responsive and pretty good compared to the other vendors. Commvault's support is far better than Dell EMC's support.

If you hit an issue or a bug, Commvault support is there. And it's pretty easy to solve something that support cannot handle, if it's a bug that needs to go to the Commvault developers. We have initiated sessions with their developers to solve an issue that was affecting the environment. Because support is responsive, you can solve almost everything.

And if you need a feature that is not available, Commvault developers are responsive there too. They usually integrate such requests within a few months, and after that it's available for use.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In the past, we used Dell EMC NetWorker and Dell EMC Avamar. The main reasons we switched to Commvault were the storage and backup costs. We wanted to find a cheaper solution. In addition, we wanted a solution that we could manage using a single interface, versus the multiple interfaces that we had with Dell EMC. Third, we wanted something that was simpler to manage and that could perform disaster recovery much better, including disaster recovery testing. We also wanted the ability to upgrade agents and software in a centralized fashion. We have seen an improvement on all of these points with Commvault, as a replacement for Dell EMC.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup process is pretty complex. I was involved with the product from phase one. There are multiple points where you need to configure the product to have it functioning well in your environment. It's a complex product. There is a lot of stuff to set up from scratch to have things working as expected.

The time for deployment depends on how much infrastructure there is and on how many media agents and VSAs you need to deploy in the environment. For the first deployment we did in our environment, it took us two or three days to finish all the settings. But we were new to Commvault and we needed some time to understand it and to familiarize ourselves with all the options. Today, if we need to deploy a remote, on-prem site, where there is one media agent and one VSA, where the requirement is to back up a small or a medium site, the whole process can be done in a few hours. We work with Commvault's professional services to automate some of the deployment steps using Commvault's workflows.

Initially, we had about six petabytes of data that had to be migrated from one environment to another. It was pretty complicated because we had to disable the backup in one place and enable and configure the backup in another place. The process was also complicated because we had to look at the remaining space, how many workloads we needed to migrate, and how much had been migrated. We had to create procedures and train operations.

Commvault was new to everybody in our environment. Everybody had to become familiar with it and with the new processes and procedures. We had been using another technology for five years. Today, everybody in our operations, in our engineering, and our managers, is familiar with the product. Now, because we know the processes, everything moves much faster than it did in the past.

What was our ROI?

We have decreased the cost of our backup infrastructure using Commvault, by 30 to 35 percent.

Also, using Commvault HyperScale X has taken us to new ground where we can offer self-service recoveries to our customers and give them access to whatever server they manage. The other plus is the automation that we can create with Commvault's workflows to decrease the time it takes for a site deployment. That also translates into money saved because instead of having one admin resource occupied for a day to deploy a site, we can deploy a site in five minutes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is far better than we had in the past. The license for Dell EMC was not too expensive, but the storage, given that Dell EMC is based on data domains, was pretty expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Veeam, as well as Dell EMC NetWorker and Avamar. Before we bought, we ran some try-and-buy and some PoCs in our environment, to see how the products handle things. We were convinced that Commvault is better and fits better than the old product, and we acquired Commvault.

The pros of Commvault are that you can manage everything from one console and the disaster recovery scenario functions much better than with Dell EMC NetWorker. Also, Dell EMC Avamar was specialized to back up VMware environments and NetWorker was specialized to do them all. We wanted a solution that could do all the backups that are required in our environment. Veeam was not able to handle all our backup scenarios. Veeam is very good on VMware backups, but you cannot do Oracle backups, SQL backups, or file system backups. We were looking for a solution that could fit all the backup requirements, operating systems, and appliances that we have in our environment. There are very few products that can cover all of them, few of them are: Dell EMC NetWorker and Commvault.

What other advice do I have?

Involve Commvault support from the start, at the implementation level, to be sure that you implement the infrastructure with best practices. What can happen is that, a year after you implement the infrastructure, you notice that your clusters have not been properly set up and it's too late to change anything. Use their support during the implementation. Have some sessions with them to understand the whole infrastructure and the whole process of deploying HyperScale X.

We made a mistake in our first implementation, three years ago (Hyperscale 1.5). The recommended number of nodes per cluster was six, but for some reason we added nine. Because of that, we had some issues. Don't make the same mistake. However, HyperScale X, released in the last year, is a little bit more scalable and more flexible. Clusters can exceed nine nodes and can be extended further (current limitations per cluster are around 5 PB).

If someone is buying Commvault today, they should try to buy HyperScale X. It's the next generation and has some advantages. It can help avoid issues with clusters, moving forward.

Overall, we have been impressed by the features of the solution and by the responsiveness of Commvault's support. We like the product and we feel we made a good decision in acquiring Commvault and working with them. We are pretty happy.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Karabo  Molema - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and Director at BMBE SOLUTIONS
Real User
It's user-friendly and cost-effective
Pros and Cons
  • "Metallic is user-friendly, cost-effective, and the technical support is impressive."
  • "The reporting could be improved because the reports we get from our partner aren't sufficient. It isn't very detailed. I'm not sure if it's an issue with our partner or Metallic. They do a full backup on Monday and incremental backups throughout the week. However, we don't get detailed reports about the size of the incremental backups. The report just tells us whether a backup was successful."

What is our primary use case?

I use Metallic to back up a customer's environment. It's the solution offered by our partner, a South African company called Data Protection Management. I'm just the intermediary, providing data loss prevention to my client. I've never seen the interface or used the platform. My client uses Metallic to backup data from Microsoft solutions like SharePoint and OneDrive. 

What needs improvement?

The reporting could be improved because the reports we get from our partner aren't sufficient. It isn't very detailed. I'm not sure if it's an issue with our partner or Metallic. They do a full backup on Monday and incremental backups throughout the week. However, we don't get detailed reports about the size of the incremental backups. The report just tells us whether a backup was successful. 

In addition to the core backup features, I would also like to see Metallic add patch management. It's a crucial way to minimize threats against data sources. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Metallic for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Metallic eight out of 10 for stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Metallic 10 out of 10 for scalability. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Metallic support 10 out of 10. They did the setup for us. Metallic support was exceptional, and they knew what they were doing. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I rate Metallic nine out of 10 for ease of setup. Metallic set up the solution for me, but they walked me through the process. It seemed easy and took a few hours. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate Metallic 10 out of 10 for affordability. It's highly cost-effective compared to other products I've used. I pay a monthly fee of 57 rands per user as a reseller and sell it at a markup to my client. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Metallic 10 out of 10. Metallic is user-friendly, cost-effective, and the technical support is impressive. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. reseller
PeerSpot user
Ingo Bader - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre-Sales Engineer at DMP
Real User
Reliable, easy to install, and has agents for most products
Pros and Cons
  • "Not everyone has agents for everything and Commvault has agents for most products. It's the most complete."
  • "Not everyone has agents for everything and Commvault has agents for most products. It's the most complete."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution as a backup for databases, VMs, or servers. 

What is most valuable?

Not everyone has agents for everything and Commvault has agents for most products. It's the most complete.

It's easy to install. 

It is stable and reliable.

The solution can scale. 

What needs improvement?

I don't have any notes for improvements. 

The price could always be lower. 

We'd like to have local support in Germany.

The POC is only 30 days, and it really should be 90 days. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. I'd rate the reliability nine out of ten. It doesn't crash or freeze. Based on what is possible, it is okay.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. I'd rate it ten out of ten in terms of the ability to extend.

Everyone uses the solution. We have 20 to 30 people using the product. That includes consultants. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is currently based in India. I'd like to have more local support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution is simple to set up. It is not complex. 

It takes approximately two weeks to deploy the solution.

You simply download the .EXE file and start the installation. 

We had one person that handled the setup. We had an engineer, myself, handle it. 

What about the implementation team?

We handle the initial setup ourselves. We did not need any outside assistance. 

What was our ROI?

I have not really noticed any ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Inside the 30-day trial period, you do not need a license. After that, you need to pay yearly.

The prices are pretty high. It's quite expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm an end-user.

We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd recommend potential new users talk to a proper consultant and do a proper POC. 

I would rate the solution nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1055571 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of the Company at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
The best compatibility metrics with very good security, stability, and integrity
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution includes the best compatibility metrics for integration and they are managed by Google support."
  • "Support could improve and the initial configuration would be easier with assistance from a professional engineer."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses the solution to implement cobots for customers. 

What is most valuable?

The global application provides a lot of storage for customers.

There are good security features for Google, videos, irregular encryption, and backups. 

The solution includes the best compatibility metrics for integration and they are managed by Google support. 

The Google reporting is very, very good. It lets us know our data or any losses so we don't need tickets to check our data. 

What needs improvement?

There is a lack of marketing in our region so there needs to be a focus on improving the solution's reputation. We believe in the solution but competitors like VIN have an edge in the market. 

The network and service need to cover more regions than just the Middle East. 

The solution should provide virtual updates on Linux OS via a host address or in utilities instead of via a secret database. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable so stability is rated a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable so scalability is rated an eight out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is helpful but it can take one or two weeks to sort out issues. 

I rate technical support a seven out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial configuration file can be a bit complex. A professional technician who is provided by the vendor should assist with setup. It would boost the solution's reputation to provide configuration, expansion, and upgrade services to customers. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the solution in-house and the initial configuration took about four hours. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost of an integrator license is moderate and its features cover most customers. Application features for government or compliance require a separate license. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our company proposes solutions to customers depending on their use cases. We have multiple applications and multiple technologies. 

For example, we propose a particular solution to customers in the banking or government sectors. We propose another solution for small or medium companies in the general business sector. 

What other advice do I have?

For every security level, there is good stability and integrity. 

Support could improve and the initial configuration would be easier with assistance from a professional engineer. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
ALbert Navarro - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager IT at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Reseller
A solution with a great rate of duplication and easily scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The rate of duplication is great."
  • "The interface could be improved because it has two different consoles."

What is our primary use case?

The rate of duplication is great because when you do the first full backup, it duplicates 20%, but when you do more increments, depending on the mode, the duplication is 99%. It is also great at detecting ransomware. It's not an antivirus, but when you copy files, the system can send you a message such as, "Mr. Albert, have you downloaded 10,000 files in two minutes? Why are you doing this?" Again, it's not an antivirus, but it notifies you if something is wrong with your system.

What needs improvement?

The interface could be improved because it has two different consoles. The first console is Java, and it is a little complex, but you can do 100% of the operation. But now, there is an alternative console of HTML 5. It is trendy and simple, but you can only do 70% of your operation. The HTML console is perfect for a client or a partner.

You have all the information centralized with the Java console, and I believe they plan to transition to the HTML console fully.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for three months, deploying both on-premises and cloud. The choice of on-premises or cloud depends on what the client wants.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability an 8.5 out of ten, and there is a small room for improvement.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easily scalable. We have about 300 users of Commvault Complete Data Protection in our company.

How are customer service and support?

We have used technical support, and you can contact them by opening a ticker and in a few minutes, they will action it. For example, we opened a ticket last week, and the issue was solved in 30 minutes.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Veeam, Veritas and Rubrik are three software comparable to Commvault Complete Data Protection. Veeam is competitive in price and demand. Their solution is not very good, but many people use it because it is not expensive. Commvault Complete Data Protection, however, is the best out of all of them.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being a good price and one a high price. Depending on the client, they have different types of licensing.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. We would like to see a single console for everything in the future.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.