We compared Commvault Complete Data Protection and Dell Avamar based on user reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: Commvault Complete Data Protection is highly regarded for its extensive recovery options and compatibility with diverse storage systems. Dell Avamar earns acclaim for its scalability, data compression capabilities, swift incremental backups, and seamless integration with Data Domain and VM stacks. Users suggest that Commvault Complete Data Protection could offer more Windows security features and a unified console. They said Commvault should expand support for container-based systems and improve its ability to archive large video files. Dell Avamar could improve its tape connectivity and bare-metal restoration. Users also requested better Azure backups and a more user-friendly interface.
Service and Support: Commvault Complete Data Protection earned mostly positive feedback for its customer service, but some Commvault customers mentioned concerns about network-related support and the need for more direct access during emergencies. Some customers express satisfaction with Dell support, but others said there is room for improvement.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Commvault Complete Data Protection is complex, time-consuming, and may require outside help. The lack of sufficient documentation and online resources adds to the difficulty. Opinions on Dell Avamar’s setup were mixed. Some users found it to be straightforward, while others considered it complex and difficult. Deployment time ranged from a few hours to a week, and assistance from Dell engineers might be necessary.
Pricing: Commvault may need to lower its price to attract customers in certain regions and customer segments. Dell Avamar’s pricing is generally seen as reasonable, but some users think it is expensive.
ROI: Commvault Complete Data Protection offers significant cost savings. Some enterprise customers estimated that they saved between $100,000 to $300,000 by reducing labor costs, speeding up backup and recovery, and implementing remote access. Dell Avamar provides cost savings through data reduction, deduplication, and compression.
Comparison Results: Commvault Complete Data Protection is a robust and flexible solution with the potential to save customers money, but users say the setup is too complex and it needs better support for container-based systems. Dell Avamar is a scalable solution that offers excellent data compression and fast compression. However, Avamar earned mixed reviews for support, deployment, and pricing. Users also requested better Azure and bare-metal backups and restoration capabilities.
"The solution has the fastest backup and better licensing."
"Quick backups and restores of data are the most valuable features. It is important that it is an easy solution to integrate with the SAML authentication of our tenant, so we can have our users log into the systems and do their own restores, if needed."
"Backup and archive with a single window, with a single backup job. You only need to type "c"."
"The backup and restore capabilities are key. The most useful things to us about Commvault, in general, is the breadth of the applications that it can protect as well as the features inside of it, like deduplication and encryption. When people get their data encrypted, Commvault has a way to tell if somebody is being attacked through a cybersecurity threat because their data changes. So, Commvault has what they call honeypot files out there to look to see if anybody is changing these files. Only Commvault knows which files those are, so nobody should be messing with those files. If it changes, then it will alert you to say, "Oh, I potentially have somebody messing with my files." It will alert you to something going on in your environment that probably shouldn't be happening. We deploy that with all our customers so they have this capability as well."
"It is easy to use and stable. It delivers what has been promised. When it says it can do something, it can actually do it, as opposed to some of its competitors."
"It's very easy to set up the storage across all platforms. This allows us to be dynamic and change on-the-fly."
"Commvault is very simple to use and it is automated."
"The product is user-friendly."
"Dell EMC Avamar is very good with endpoint backups."
"We love the instant recovery functionality. It's very useful."
"Quick incremental backups and product replication are the two highlights of the product. Once you capture a full backup, incrementals are pretty quick. It is fairly efficient from that perspective."
"We sell Avamar with Data Domain. Data Domain and Avamar work really well together and their compression ratios are very high compared to Veeam, Commvault, and all the other backup software on the market."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The product is very powerful and offers very good performance."
"We are talking about a complete end-to-end solution which comes with its own hardware storage to back up the data on tape-less."
"The entire system operates seamlessly, with minimal hands-on involvement, allowing us to focus on monitoring rather than constant adjustments or deployments, as seen in larger, more dynamic environments."
"The product does not provide an option to save a copy of data on-premises."
"Commvault Complete Data Protection meets market standards, but an area for improvement is its licensing model. It would be good if it could use the subscription-based model rather than the traditional licensing model."
"The retention log feature could be an issue for us and can be improved. The backup schedule can also be better in terms of how you set it up."
"The solution needs better Office 365 data backup management."
"Endpoint backup."
"The most common feedback I get in terms of Commvault is that it can be complex. I always refer my customers back to their own environment. Almost everything that goes into Commvault is a request by a customer. While it can be complex, it can also be very simple. You just need to understand your environment in order to make sure that you really need to turn on that extra feature or thing inside of Commvault. Maybe you don't need those things. It really depends on how simple or complex your environment is, whether you need all of Commvault's features."
"I would like them not to push Command Center. It is good, but I would like them to enable all the features for the Java console. Some things are not in the Java console, like Office 365 agents. In fact, they are there, but one of the engineers had to show me how to configure it. It's not done the same as in the Command Center."
"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."
"Dell hasn't done a good job at handling these upgrades, or the way EMC used to handle them."
"A benefit would be support for either Azure Cool Storage or AWS Glacier."
"If you don't have DPA, the reporting features are not as user-friendly, so reporting is something that they can improve on."
"It would be better if we could integrate easily with other platforms."
"Dell Avamar could improve by adding more backup features."
"Desktop-laptop backups and backup over the WAN needs lot of improvisation. For DTLT there must be a provision to push agents from the management console."
"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."
"It's an expensive solution."
Commvault Cloud is ranked 3rd in Backup and Recovery with 104 reviews while Dell Avamar is ranked 12th in Backup and Recovery with 81 reviews. Commvault Cloud is rated 8.6, while Dell Avamar is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of Commvault Cloud writes "Provides excellent visibility and helps reduce costs and time". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell Avamar writes "Stable, integrates well with other solutions, and has a good price, but its UI needs a refresh". Commvault Cloud is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Rubrik, Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Azure Backup and Cohesity DataProtect, whereas Dell Avamar is most compared with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, Veeam Backup & Replication, Dell NetWorker, Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) and Cohesity DataProtect. See our Commvault Cloud vs. Dell Avamar report.
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