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Commvault Cloud vs Dell PowerProtect Data Manager 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

Commvault Cloud
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
eDiscovery (3rd), Cloud Backup (2nd), Disaster Recovery as a Service (2nd), File Archiving (1st), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (3rd), SaaS Backup (2nd), Threat Deception Platforms (1st), Container Backup Software (1st)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Commvault Cloud is 6.1%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is 3.6%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Commvault Cloud6.1%
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager3.6%
Other90.3%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Reller - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides extremely fast backup, is easy to manage, and is flexible
Commvault Cloud's automated policies provide the notification we need to ensure our data is secure and managed correctly. Commvault Cloud provides excellent visibility across all of our organization's data. It is extremely important to our organization that Commvault has a unified platform that offers recovery across cloud, on-prem, and SaaS workloads. It has helped our organization improve by simplifying the way we manage our environment. We could not manage the same environment with only half of our current staff. We have yet to find anything in our environment that Commvault does not support. Commvault Cloud's Risk Analysis helps us identify, categorize, and classify sensitive data enabling us to take the appropriate actions to protect it. Commvault does a good job helping us limit our exposure and ensure compliance. Commvault has helped us reduce our data management costs significantly. Compared to Dell Avamar, the costs are vastly different. Commvault is much more cost-effective. We are licensed by capacity, so we don't have to worry about licensing different features. We have all the features that are licensed by capacity. And as far as ongoing support costs and other expenses, they are much lower than what they were with Dell Avamar. Commvault also gives us the flexibility to use any storage we want, while Avamar is tied to the Data Domain, which is not cheap to support. It has helped us reduce our backup time unless we are using Data Domain. This is because we can perform deduplication and compression on the client layer, which reduces the load on the network. We cannot do this with Data Domain. In fact, if we even attempt to perform a quick progress check before sending data to the Data Domain, the system fails completely. We learned this the hard way. We are using many more advanced features in Commvault Cloud than we ever did in Dell Avamar, simply because we had to license each feature separately in Avamar. As a result, we did not perform many backups in Avamar, such as all database backups (DB2, SAP HANA, Oracle, and SQL). These backups were performed outside of Avamar. We are now using Direct Connect agents for all of our databases. This allows us to perform incremental backups, which we could not do with the previous method. As a result, we have reduced our backup times by two-thirds, or even more in some cases. Compared to when we were backing up directly to Data Domain, Commvault is now running our backups ten times faster. This has resulted in a significant reduction in our backup times. Commvault has helped us reduce the RPO. Even in Data Domain, it has reduced our storage times by about half. It has also helped us reduce the threat detection time. We reduced the RTO significantly with Commvault. Commvault has helped us reduce downtime primarily due to the increase in the performance of resources.
MinaMagdy1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive integration and user-friendly dashboard enhance data protection workflows
PowerProtect Data Manager lacks the tape-out functionality, which is important for organizations relying on it for offsite backup. While PowerProtect Data Manager offers a workaround, it's not always accepted, notably by sectors like banking. Additionally, I would like PowerProtect Data Manager to provide microservices and container backup for modern applications.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There's no impact on the endpoint. It runs in the background and it's something that you install and then forget about."
"Commvault HyperScale X is also a good choice for regulations that require the backup system to be isolated from the rest of the infrastructure."
"The most valuable features of Commvault Cloud include deduplication and compression."
"The data protection itself is very good compared to other products."
"The most valuable feature of Commvault HyperScale X is the automatic nature of its operation. We don't need to worry about sets of documents. It worked automatically, we don't need to think about it. When you set the solution up in a good way, you don't need to worry."
"Integration with Active Directory and the Azure platform make it a complete solution."
"The product's stability is good enough."
"What I find valuable is restoring the complete server. Restoring files is also valuable, but I like restoring the server because you don't have to rebuild a new one."
"It's the perfect solution for virtual and container directives. The data reduction feature works well, and we haven't had any issues."
"One notable feature is its robust backup support for Kubernetes and container environments. Additionally, PPDM stands out for its ease of deployment and management compared to other backup solutions. It is highly user-friendly, allowing users to quickly learn and implement backup and restore processes within a week. PPDM represents the next generation of backup software and is comparable to offerings from other vendors. Furthermore, PPDM prioritizes security with various access controls, such as user and database access controls. Its deployment tool is also known for its simplicity."
"It satisfies my customers' scalability needs and provides interactive features, allowing efficient integration."
"I would say flexibility is the most important feature of the product. The performance and speed are the best on the market."
"The management part of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager has improved significantly."
"I love that it has an interactive GUI, and it is not complicated to use."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The most valuable features of the solution are flexibility and data protection."
 

Cons

"They need to improve when it comes to large, video file archiving. They're good, but they have not met my expectations as a customer in this area."
"The customer support is not good."
"Commvault has two management dashboards. The first is the CommCell Console, which is Java-based, and the second is Command Center. We don't always find all the features we need in the Command Center and we need to go through the Java console, and sometimes features are only on the Java console."
"The reporting is complicated and should be simplified in an upcoming release."
"The pricing could be more flexible in terms of licensing."
"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."
"Commvault should keep and continue to develop the Java GUI."
"Commvault could improve in the area of monitoring and notification services."
"There is always room for improvement. The compression ratio should be improved as well as the efficiency."
"They should include a feature similar to S3 bucket."
"The marketing strategy is lagging behind competitors such as CommVault. Dell needs to improve its market presence and communication with customers and solution providers."
"The tool's scalability has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"When I raise a ticket, it sometimes takes a while to get a response."
"You need to use additional software to back up entire environments. It will be good if they could support entire tape libraries."
"The Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager reports could improve. There should be different kinds of reports on failures, such as dashboards that we can submit to top management or auditors."
"PowerProtect Data Manager is missing a feature for takeout, which means I cannot store backup data off-site within the software. This is a limitation for organizations that require off-site solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is cost-effective."
"Everyone else offers the subscription-based model nowadays, while Commvault Complete Data Protection still has the traditional license model, where you must buy a set of licenses. You pay for one hundred licenses even if you only use fifty virtual machines, so the licensing model needs improvement."
"Metallic is an affordable solution."
"Licensing could be better explained. Sometimes, it's unclear what features are available in different licensing models."
"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."
"Compared to other competitors and vendors the pricing is fair."
"Commvault Backup & Recovery is priced fairly, and its performance-to-cost ratio is also better than fair."
"The price is a little bit high."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager is reasonable."
"The licensing costs and pricing model are based on capacity and the license is easy to upgrade."
"The solution is more affordable than other vendors."
"The product is offered at a very competitive price in the market."
"We offer monthly or yearly subscriptions. The price could be cheaper."
"The solution is not less expensive than competitors but pricing deals are available."
"Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is not an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise81
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Commvault Backup & Recovery?
Commvault Backup & Recovery's search utility is its most valuable feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Commvault Backup & Recovery?
Commvault Backup & Recovery is priced fairly, and its performance-to-cost ratio is also better than fair. I am not here trying to figure out how to get Commvault to reduce their cost by ten per...
What needs improvement with Commvault Backup & Recovery?
Commvault is a behind-the-scenes operation that's working flawlessly. So how do I know what Commvault is doing for me every month? I would like more communication informing us on what Commvault is ...
What do you like most about Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
One notable feature is its robust backup support for Kubernetes and container environments. Additionally, PPDM stands out for its ease of deployment and management compared to other backup solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
Overall, pricing does not significantly impact our decision. The main concern is the solution itself, presales activities, and positioning it in the right place. Commercial aspects are secondary to...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
The marketing strategy is lagging behind competitors such as CommVault. Dell needs to improve its market presence and communication with customers and solution providers.
 

Also Known As

Commvault Complete Data Protection, Commvault Backup & Recovery, Commvault HyperScale X, Metallic, ThreatWise
PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aberdeenshire Council, Acxiom, BAM Group Ireland, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, CI Investments, Clifford Chance, American Municipal Power, American Pacific Mortgage, AstraZeneca, Dongbu Steel, Denver Health, Dow Jones, Emirates Steel, Penn State Health, Prime Healthcare, Sonic Healthcare, Sony Network Communications, TiVO, UCONN Health, The Weitz Company
National Bank of Greece, USC Australia, PCS Publishing, Dell Digital IT, Rushmore Electric, Melanson Health, Arrow Electronics
Find out what your peers are saying about Commvault Cloud vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.