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Dell Avamar 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

Dell Avamar
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
7th
Ranking in Deduplication Software
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Ranking in Deduplication Software
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Avamar is 2.6%, down from 3.6% 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 (%)
Dell Avamar2.6%
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager3.6%
Other93.8%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Ayodeji  Oyewole - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable with good backups but has occasional failures
I use Dell Avamar primarily for backup and recovery The most valuable feature for me is the backup functionality. It gives large enterprises the comfort of knowing their workloads are being backed up. There are instances where backups fail on certain applications, which is an area that could be…
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

"I always recommend Dell Avamar to our enterprise customers because the product is costly, and enterprise customers can afford it."
"The solution's ease of use simplifies the disaster recovery processes in our company"
"I found the most valuable features of Dell Avamar are the user-friendly interface and ease to use. Our clients have administrated this software and there is no additional training required."
"The setup is very easy."
"The stability of Dell EMC Avamar is very good."
"Avamar has long been the best in its class, but that's changing as new solutions emerge. However, Dell has traditionally been a leader in deduplication and compression. Avamar enabled us to shift data from on-premise local appliances to data centers and multi-tenant infrastructure. That's a powerful feature. because customers can back up to the cloud without upgrading o high-capacity links or congesting their backups."
"The most valuable feature for me in Dell Avamar is the automation, which is good for completion."
"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."
"Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager is user-friendly and easy to use. it does what it needs to do."
"It satisfies my customers' scalability needs and provides interactive features, allowing efficient integration."
"Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is a comprehensive backup software that integrates with Dell backup storage to enhance data protection."
"The solution adequately handles data storage."
"The management part of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager has improved significantly."
"I would say flexibility is the most important feature of the product. The performance and speed are the best on the market."
"The deduplication is the most valuable feature because it helps to control the overhead."
"The solution's initial setup is straightforward."
 

Cons

"The solution, in the future, should offer support for mobile."
"Some integrations are not in place, such as the email alerts, which are not compatible with Office 365 SMTP gateway."
"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 solution could improve by having better integration and more flexibility."
"The interface has room for improvement. It's not ideal right now."
"The stability could improve, a lot of scheduled backups failed at one time."
"EMC has discontinued their Avamar hardware version. They only advertise the Avamar virtual edition."
"Technical support should be more knowledgeable."
"The interface is too complex."
"The tool's scalability has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The main issue that needs improvement is the support system. 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 marketing strategy is lagging behind competitors such as CommVault. Dell needs to improve its market presence and communication with customers and solution providers."
"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."
"As a new product, there are some things that still need to improve a bit as it matures."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a very high-end solution and comparable to Rubrik and Cohesity."
"Dell Avamar, including its virtual add-ons and cloud-based offerings, is cheaper than other solutions, but in the end, the price still depends on your use case. Price-wise, I'm rating Dell Avamar as six out of ten."
"This is a fairly expensive solution. It cost approximately 21,000 each year."
"Dell's pricing structure is not overly expensive."
"On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing policy of Dell Avamar as five. The solution has a very good price, and a lot of improvements were done to it."
"It is expensive. The maintenance comes with it for five years. So, you buy the whole thing for five years, and your maintenance is included with it, but it's a big chunk of change upfront. We like capital expenses because we can CapEx them. We pay once every five years, so we spend a big chunk of change. You'd have to divide that out by the five years to come up with how much it costs. It's just about three-quarters of a million dollars for five years."
"Its licensing is weird. It is not just the licenses; we also purchase hardware. With most software products, such as Veeam, Commvault, and Data Protector, there is no hardware purchase at the same time. Because Avamar and Data Domain are tied together, they have an integrated pipe. You can separate them, but basically, they're designed to work as a couple. Because the Data Domain backend is designed to do dedupe and compression, we get 60:1. When you count it, you count it as a straight compression, but of course, that's with dedupe and some other stuff. You have to buy the hardware, the licensing, and the software at the same time. So, it's not just software."
"The current pricing is generally satisfactory."
"The solution is not less expensive than competitors but pricing deals are available."
"We offer monthly or yearly subscriptions. The price could be cheaper."
"The product is offered at a very competitive price in the market."
"The licensing costs and pricing model are based on capacity and the license is easy to upgrade."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager is reasonable."
"Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is not an expensive solution."
"The solution is more affordable than other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
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 Business26
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise48
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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

Avamar
PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions
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 Dell Avamar vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.