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Arcserve UDP vs Dell Avamar comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Arcserve UDP
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
19th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (10th)
Dell Avamar
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Arcserve UDP is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell Avamar is 3.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

MukundKambli - PeerSpot reviewer
Global deduplication, stable, and flexible licensing options
I give the solution ten out of ten. This solution offers one dashboard to manage the BC con, disaster recovery plan, DR solution, and backup as well as different licensing options, unlike other OEM products. We are the system integrators for our clients, so we design the solution as per the customer's requirements. We provide several solutions options to our clients such as Druva inSync, Druva Phoenix, and Arcserve UDP with the specifications and the client makes a decision based on their requirements. I would advise potential users to first be clear on whether they are going to use it as a backup solution for compliance purposes, just wanting to take the backups of files and servers, or for instant recovery. The IQ and RPO discussion with our customers usually takes 30 minutes. I recommend this solution.
Rahul Sarangdhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Works excellently for on-prem backup but not the best for Azure backups
Avamar is not the best tool when it comes to taking Azure backups. Like Commvault, if Avamar can support VM-level backups for the cloud, that would make it a bit better. There is another Dell EMC tool called NetWorker, which is a bit centralized tool. If you deploy a storage node locally, you can use the same UI tool for central management, but in the case of Avamar, it needs to be deployed individually on a site, irrespective of whether it's small or big. So, if I have 10 sites, I have to manage 10 Avamar. That's a bit of a headache. The Dell EMC solution professionals who connect with the clients should suggest NetWorker to clients with multiple sites rather than Avamar. That's because NetWorker gives more centralized control, but they keep recommending Avamar, which isn't the best practice. There are no free or cheaper training plans. Unless your company is a partner with Dell, you don't get the student guide training, etc. Their administrator guide does not have all the information required for a new person. It doesn't cover the basics. The student guide is good, but it's not free. If you are a partner, only then it's free. Otherwise, there is a cost of $2,000 to $3,000. For people who are new to Avamar, there should be some resources to enable them to study on their own at least 50% of the basics. If I want to study Commvault, I get so many documents and resources to study, but in the case of Dell EMC products, there aren't any free resources. Only if you're a partner, the resources are available for you to learn. The user manuals and administrator guides are just for deployment. They aren't good for learning the basics for a fresher.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It is a very stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"This product is extremely user-friendly and it is capable of performing large-scale archive/backup (five+ years worth). It is easy to store, maintain, and check backups."
"One of the things that I do like about it is that it has a very good deduplication feature."
"Arcserve UDP has a good configuration and user interface. It makes the job of an administrator easy."
"We are satisfied with Arcserve UDP. The most important feature that we use and why we choose this product is the RHA feature."
"The product provides instant and virtual standbys."
"The most valuable features are that it is able to restore quickly and that it is able to virtually restore on Hyper-V."
"Instant recovery is the most valuable feature of Arcserve UDP."
"We've been using this solution to backup our servers. It is a simple backup and restore data application."
"We have seen huge data reduction and data deduplication and compression, which is very cost-effective and cost-reducing for the company."
"The most valuable feature for me in Dell Avamar is the automation, which is good for completion."
"Dell EMC Avamar is easy to work with and is user-friendly."
"The solution scales well."
"Centralization is Avamar's biggest advantage. It moves data to a central location from various geographical locations."
"The tool’s ability to restore files discretely is useful."
"The most valuable feature of Avamar would have to be the way it works over needing very little bandwidth to move data across a WAN or LAN."
 

Cons

"StorageCraft ShadowProtect can improve by making one console that can control backups of all desktops and servers in one place. Additionally, the recovery process of the backups is very slow and could improve. It's very slow when we went to recover a complete disc but to recover one file is very fast."
"Arcserve UDP is in the middle range of complexity. The interface can be developed a little bit more to be user-friendly."
"The only problem with the solution is that when I change the drive capacity, it has to do a full backup. It's a problem when I have five servers to backup. When I only want to change the size of the drive, I have to do a full backup that can take one week."
"Licensing can be quite difficult."
"The solution's reporting could be improved and should provide customized reports."
"One of the biggest drawbacks of Arcserve UDP is that it does not have a single console, making it an area that needs to be considered for improvement."
"The tool doesn't provide cloud integration in India."
"The solution can use a lot of bandwidth when the scheduling is not done, it should auto-schedule itself. For example, if there are 50 users connected in the network at 12 o'clock and the backup is not scheduled. At this time the network offices are going to have performance issues when it is doing a backup. Having a feature to auto-schedule a time when the network is not being used often would be beneficial."
"Avamar is not the best tool when it comes to taking Azure backups. Like Commvault, if Avamar can support VM-level backups for the cloud, that would make it a bit better."
"The interface has room for improvement. It's not ideal right now."
"We have had a lot of problems with the Dell EMC Avamar solution. The snapshots are not being erased after backup."
"The solution could improve by having better integration and more flexibility."
"A huge storage space needs to be bought with Dell Avamar, even when it's unnecessary for an organization"
"Performance can sometimes be affected when tools are utilized for tasks like backup or deep archiving."
"I have found the support from Dell EMC Avamar to be not as good as Veeam. The time it takes to receive support could be improved. However, once we have the support the agents are knowledgeable and helpful."
"Setting up Avamar wasn't so easy, and we had a partner doing the installation for us. Though it was hard at first, it's getting better. The main difficulty was finding plugins for Oracle Database. It took some time to open a ticket with Dell, but everything was fine after that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are annual subscription fees and there are licensing costs for three computers. It is an expensive solution."
"The solution is very expensive."
"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"The price of StorageCraft ShadowProtect is competitive in the market."
"Normally our customers purchase the premium plus license, rather than the standard one, which provides more options."
"The pricing is moderate."
"Its price seems reasonable. Its price is average as compared to the other products I've looked at. We have a three-year license right now. There are no other costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"The price of this product is high and it should be lower."
"It's an expensive tool"
"It is very expensive. It's a trust based licensing. So that's an ethical challenge."
"I'm not sure, but perhaps the pricing could be done better at the moment."
"Licensing was generally on a per VM or terabyte basis. They changed their licensing model a couple of times and turned it into socket-based licensing, which is an improvement in their licensing model."
"This is a fairly expensive solution. It cost approximately 21,000 each year."
"Avamar's pricing is quite competitive compared to other vendors."
"It's a very high-end solution and comparable to Rubrik and Cohesity."
"It was approximately $70-80,000 when it was under support, but right now EMC has not been supporting this product for two years."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Non Profit
10%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Major Differences Between These 4 Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions?
Comparing the features of the four is not the right approach. You need to develop a list of requirements for backup and DR that are specific to your organization and then compare each of the four ...
What do you like most about StorageCraft ShadowProtect?
The interface is very refined, works fine, and is very intuitive most of the time. Scalability is nice. The multi-tenancy feature is very welcome. The integration with Linux works fine too.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StorageCraft ShadowProtect?
Pricing for SPX MRP/MSP is under $400 per server (Single VM) with a 1-year subscription. After discounts, it could decrease by 20%-30%, and opting for a 3/5/10 server pack may offer even better (lo...
What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?
From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...
What do you like most about Dell Avamar?
Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.
 

Also Known As

StorageCraft ShadowProtect, StorageCraft Backup Analyzer
Avamar
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ITPS, North Hertfordshire Homes, SEMIKRON, Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, Test Valley Borough Council, EK Services
Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about Arcserve UDP vs. Dell Avamar and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.