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Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Dell PowerProtect offers automation, improved recovery, and deduplication, appreciated for integration and cost-effectiveness despite competition from Cohesity or Veeam.
Sentiment score
2.1
Dell PowerProtect DP is praised for reliability, efficiency, and malware protection, with feasible cost recovery despite initial expense.
Previously they had somewhere around 100 TB of capacity for the backup for a few VMs on one side. Now, the overall setup is hardly 80 TB, where they use almost 240 TB of production data into that 80 TB.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would recommend Dell PowerProtect Data Manager to other organizations because it is cost-effective and delivers good performance compared to alternative solutions.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I do find that with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, the ROI is good when compared to other Dell products, but when compared to others in the current market, such as Cohesity or Veeam, it is not as good.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I see it as both time-saving and money-saving.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager support is reliable but has slow responses; documentation reduces frequent direct support needs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Dell PowerProtect DP's customer service is praised for responsiveness, though scheduling and communication issues affect some users' experiences.
Dell provides reliable support for PowerProtect Data Manager, with 24/7 availability and a qualified support team.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My experience with the technical support team of Dell is that they are actually great.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
When we had the compliances and any of the backups were getting failed or we identified that some of the backups were frequently failing, the system would alert us.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
5.6
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is valued for scalability, ease of licensing, and support, though cloud scalability could improve.
Sentiment score
5.7
Dell PowerProtect DP offers scalable data solutions with seamless upgrades, though may need higher models for extensive capacity growth.
Its capability to back up existing environments can be improved, particularly when it comes to disaster recovery in the cloud.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
As per the documentation, that is an easy process, whether you need to scale up or scale out.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
If you are okay to purchase the license, they have the feasibility to increase the capacity as well.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
8.0
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is stable, rarely crashes, but occasionally has upgrade or connection issues; users find maintenance infrequent.
Sentiment score
7.9
Dell PowerProtect DP is praised for its reliability, scalability, and rapid bug resolution, ensuring stable and dependable performance.
It is extremely reliable and I have never experienced a crash.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Making sure the system is properly understood before deployment and handling upgrades efficiently would improve stability.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
I would assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager as quite stable; there are no issues with the workloads I am using.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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 PowerProtect Data Manager needs UI improvements, enhanced features, and better integration, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and technology compatibility.
Dell PowerProtect DP needs easier setup, improved integration, better pricing flexibility, and enhanced features for user satisfaction.
I would like to see improvements that include bare metal restore capabilities and enhanced data restore features in Dell PowerProtect Data Manager.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhancements for microservices and container backups would be beneficial, enabling a more consolidated management platform for modern architectures.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ 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.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
The solution is quite expensive, but when it comes to manageability or interaction with the solution, it is great.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager offers flexible licensing and competitive pricing, enhanced by features like compression and collaborative pricing decisions.
Dell PowerProtect DP offers competitive, versatile pricing with available discounts, slightly higher than some rivals, offering strong value.
From a license perspective, it is a cheaper option, and there is a subscription license as well.
Pre Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is cost-effective, as it is licensed per socket rather than by workload.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Overall, pricing does not significantly impact our decision.
Business Development Manager at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
Pricing is competitive with other software vendors.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
The only disadvantage I can see with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is the cost.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager provides efficient, user-friendly data protection with cloud compatibility, centralized management, and enhanced backup capabilities.
Dell PowerProtect DP provides scalable management, efficient data protection, and seamless integration with enhanced performance, recovery, and cost-effectiveness.
It provides a seamless backup solution integrated with a dashboard full of capabilities, enhancing recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It satisfies my customers' scalability needs and provides interactive features, allowing efficient integration.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
Compared to other products such as Veritas, Dell offers more competitive pricing while other vendors charge significantly more.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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 PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
34th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
20
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 PowerProtect Data Manager is 2.0%, down from 4.6% 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 PowerProtect Data Manager2.0%
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)0.7%
Other97.3%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2767527 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized backups have simplified hybrid protection and improved ransomware recovery and compliance
The majorly needed improvement is that the product should easily simplify the upgrade and installation process. Sometimes Dell support should be more active. They take time for P1 issues. Sometimes it is not a P1 for Dell, but it is P1 for the customer, and the support needs to be very mature. That is a major drawback I see. Otherwise, the product is quite well. This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard. In that way, it makes their backup management easier and they can get detected anomalies as soon as possible. This is one of the solutions I would recommend. However, if it is a very small company, they really need to think about the cost, as it is very costlier for them. But as an enterprise solution and a mid-enterprise solution, this is the solution where companies think their data is very critical, in sectors such as financial, banking, and health. This kind of sector should go with that solution because it always gives the compliances of HIPAA, GDPR, and all those things that are really required for them. From management perspectives and consolidation solution perspective, the integration is quite easy. With respect to the backup administrator and everything, it is quite straightforward. There are some layers that need to be improved and should have the internal feature instead of creating the additional VMs for the NAS backup. It should be internal and directly have the agent base or something that can communicate easily with Dell storage. If it is third-party, I would understand, but it should be able to communicate. The benefit of it is that it is easily understood and you can do knowledge transfer with a lot of documents available. The drawback of it is that when it comes to the installation, Dell always takes a lot of time for all these things with third-party involvement in between Dell and the customer. Support is the major part of it. People need to understand that when a customer raises their ticket for P1, they should treat it as a P1. Instead of by their book being P3 or P2, sometimes they only treat it as such when the complete backup server is down. However, for the customer, if it is not happening with the critical system of backup, then it is a P1 for them. From Dell support, they do not treat it as a P1, or they treat it as a P3 or P2. That kind of understanding and some agreements need to be done between the customer and Dell. It is a costlier solution. Comparatively, other backup solutions make this one of the costlier solutions. However, someone who has their enterprise data or needs protection in a good way can go for it. I could say it is a mid-enterprise or enterprise level solution. Otherwise, people do have the same solution but with differentiated features. However, it is costlier compared to the other.
Burger Beukes - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized backups have simplified virtual infrastructure protection across remote mining sites
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 through the problem and eventually sorted it out. After that, there were no more issues with regards to that, so it is very stable, and the restores are brilliant. Regarding room for improvement on Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA), we have not really tested all the aspects of the appliance itself. We were actually surprised that we could conduct Hyper-V backups as well, so I am assuming any sort of virtual infrastructure would be backable through Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA). However, I would say the bare-metal restores need improvement because if you have a failure on a certain piece of hardware, you have to replace it with the same hardware, which is the only thing I can mention.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I have had a great experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing; it is clear and simple.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I think Dell PowerProtect can be improved in that I see PowerStore supporting the synchronous and asynchronous replica, similar to PowerMax.
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
Our main cases for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager are for virtual tape library.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
The only disadvantage I can see with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is the cost. In terms of the usage and also the management aspect of it, it has been great and fantastic.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
The negative aspect I can mention regarding Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is that when it was built on VMware, it had some flaws, and the system was not built properly, necessitating access to indivi...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
My use cases for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) are mainly for backup and then recovery because that is what we propose to most of our high-end customers so that at the end of the day, they can integr...
 

Also Known As

PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
Dell EMC IDPA, Dell IDPA, EMC IDPA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Bank of Greece, USC Australia, PCS Publishing, Dell Digital IT, Rushmore Electric, Melanson Health, Arrow Electronics
Under Armour, Christian Brothers University, Presidio
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
899,324 professionals have used our research since 2012.