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Dell NetWorker vs Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.0
Dell NetWorker delivers cost savings, enhanced recovery, and efficiency, proving invaluable for business continuity and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
3.7
Dell PowerProtect DP offers cost efficiency, high malware protection, and significant ROI with data reduction and time-saving benefits.
The data reduction allows customers to maintain their capacity without needing to purchase new hardware, which is beneficial.
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
In terms of cost, because of deduplication and compression, we can almost say there is a savings of 20% to 30%.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
I see it as both time-saving and money-saving.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
Dell NetWorker customer service is praised for quick assistance but criticized for delays and variable expertise, especially regionally.
Sentiment score
7.4
Customers appreciate Dell PowerProtect DP support but suggest improvements in scheduling, parts delays, and communication on escalated issues.
Technical support from Dell is excellent.
Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom
quick responses whenever we log a complaint
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
They are very responsive and helpful.
System Engineer at NCCPL
If I were to rate customer service from zero to ten points, I would give it ten out of ten.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Challenges exist in certain Linux-based cases.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
On the one or two occasions where we needed to engage with Dell support, they've been most helpful.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Dell NetWorker offers scalability but faces challenges in VMware connections, storage, licensing, and large-scale stability for some users.
Sentiment score
6.0
Dell PowerProtect DP offers scalability, supporting scale-up and scale-out, but may require model changes at higher capacities.
While the solution is scalable, the cost involved in upgrading or enhancing the solution can be significant.
Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom
Dell NetWorker is very scalable and flexible, deserving a high rating for its scalability.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
It is scalable enough for our environment.
System Engineer at NCCPL
Scalability is great here, and it achieves this without downtime.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Because it is all based on the controller, which has a limited number of expansions.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I think it is just a case of putting another node in and slotting it in, adding it to the storage, which is exactly what you would expect from enterprise equipment.
Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Dell NetWorker exhibits stability, rated high by users, improving with updates, while older versions faced occasional challenges.
Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerProtect DP is praised for stability, reliability, and performance, ensuring no downtime and seamless management.
The stability of Dell NetWorker is excellent.
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
In terms of stability, I would say it is about 80% stable now.
Senior Specialist Backup/Storage at National Bank of Kuwait
Dell NetWorker is stable.
System Engineer at NCCPL
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is a stable solution because it's a mature product.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
None of the customers has experienced any downtime.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Regarding stability, I have not really seen any lagging, crashing, or downtime on Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) itself.
Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Dell NetWorker users seek improved interfaces, cloud integration, and security, citing deployment challenges and a need for modern enhancements.
Dell PowerProtect DP is costly and complex, needing better authentication, compatibility, and improvements in setup and data recovery.
The interface on the Java application makes it difficult, whereas the web interface is simple to use.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
It is complex, and compared to solutions like Tivoli, Veritas, Veeam, and others, its look and feel are not up to par.
Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom
To connect to a server, it's necessary to install a client on the server, which is challenging.
System Engineer at NCCPL
I believe if they could offer options for higher capacity with QLC drives, it would greatly benefit customer pricing and performance needs.
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) requires more updates and innovations in AI-powered cyber resilience.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
You cannot integrate with any other third-party solution or your Data Domain since it is very tightly coupled and has limited licenses with respect to capacity that are integrated directly with Avamar.
DGM at Airtel Digital
 

Setup Cost

Dell NetWorker offers complex licensing, with varied pricing; included in bundles, often costly but comprehensive and flexible for sectors.
Dell PowerProtect DP offers competitive pricing with flexible licensing, discounts for partners, and features enhancing data reduction and integration.
The licensing cost is somewhat expensive.
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
In fact, as I know, even give details inside Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) and how much it costs every single component in it, I am going to say it is somehow a bit expensive, why? Let me tell you.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In terms of quantifiable CapEx reduction, I can estimate a decrease of about 20% to 30% thanks to the efficient deployment and DRE options available in Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA).
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Pricing is competitive with other software vendors.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
 

Valuable Features

Dell NetWorker provides robust backup solutions with automation, deduplication, scalability, and wide compatibility for various environments and systems.
Dell PowerProtect DP excels in ease, scalability, and performance, offering integrated backup, AI, and efficient deployment features.
I find NetWorker valuable for its wide range of automation features, including replication and data processing systems.
Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom
Dell NetWorker is versatile, allowing server backups and IBM tape library backups.
System Engineer at NCCPL
The new deduplication feature helps significantly with data compression and saves disk space by using pointers for repeated data, improving backup speed.
Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi
AI integration enhances backup operations by analyzing data and ensuring malware protection.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) has a scalable architecture, offering flexibility, so you can always scale the capacity to meet any increased demands.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
The concept of pre-integrated solutions was very nice, allowing a customer to have a single dashboard to manage everything, which includes backups for desktops, laptops, enterprise applications, virtual and physical servers, along with comprehensive cloud-based backup capabilities.
Pre Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell NetWorker
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
34th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell NetWorker is 1.2%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell NetWorker1.2%
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)0.7%
Other98.1%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

RaedHassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Specialist Backup/Storage at National Bank of Kuwait
Has supported flexible multi-platform backups and improved over time
Regarding the effectiveness of Dell NetWorker in terms of role-based access controls, I have experience with it, but I find it somewhat lacking in flexibility as it offers limited features, and I would rate it around seven out of ten. It is not that there is something wrong with the role-based access controls in Dell NetWorker, but it lacks many permissions or roles to assign, providing options only for administrator or user. To improve Dell NetWorker for the next release, I recommend enhancing flexibility in the policy, allowing selection of multiple options within the same policy, and addressing issues like the DNS lookup dependency to make it more controllable from Dell NetWorker itself rather than relying on other applications. Looking forward, I would like to see improved policy features and a more enhanced GUI, as it is still slow.
NimitPuvar - PeerSpot reviewer
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Centralized backup has improved data protection and simplifies secure, compliant restores
The biggest advantage of the product is that it is basically a single appliance which comes with a bundle of backup software and the appliance, as we have a single console to manage it. It also provides other features such as data encryption at rest, along with data deduplication and compression in backup which is very useful. From the centralized dashboard, we can manage the backup job and determine if the backup job is happening appropriately or not. If any backup job fails, we can find out the root cause for the failures. Because it is a hardware-based appliance, we can restore the data immediately, and it provides genuine restore capabilities. In terms of data availability compliance, we are looking for data availability and data security in terms of encryption, data deduplication and compression. It provides data availability as each appliance comes with RAID. If one or two disks fail, then our data appliance is still available for backup. It also provides encryption, so our data is also ransomware protected.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell NetWorker?
Regarding the pricing of Dell NetWorker, it depends on the deal or negotiation we have with the vendor, making it reasonable, although I cannot make a definitive decision without knowing the specif...
What needs improvement with Dell NetWorker?
Regarding the effectiveness of Dell NetWorker in terms of role-based access controls, I have experience with it, but I find it somewhat lacking in flexibility as it offers limited features, and I w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
The pricing for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is quite expensive, but I would say, compared to the work that has been put into the appliance itself, we all know Dell is the most expensive product on ...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
I find it difficult to identify faults with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA). The only initial issues we had were with bare-metal restores, but their support was absolutely excellent, and we worked thro...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is used to back up Dell VX Rails, as we have six Dell VX Rail nodes or clusters in our current company, and to have an off-site backup. We have two Dell PowerProtect DP ...
 

Also Known As

NetWorker
Dell EMC IDPA, Dell IDPA, EMC IDPA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport
Under Armour, Christian Brothers University, Presidio
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell NetWorker vs. Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,495 professionals have used our research since 2012.