Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Rubrik comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jan 2, 2023

We performed a comparison between Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and Rubrik based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: A small number of PowerProtect users say that the initial deployment is complex, but many users say that it is straightforward. Rubrik users say that the initial setup is a straightforward process.

  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability and scalability.

    PowerProtect reviewers say that it performs well and has good deduplication, monitoring, and security features. Some users mention that PowerProtect should have more cloud integration options.

    Rubrik users like its instant recovery features and automation options and say it is user friendly and fast. A number of users mention that they would like the reporting tools to improve.
  • Pricing: Most users of both products feel that they are costly solutions.
  • ROI: Users are satisfied with the ROI of both products.

  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of support they receive.

Comparison Results: Rubrik’s users report that, in addition to being a powerful solution, it is simple to deploy and work with and therefore it comes out on top in this comparison. According to reviewers, PowerProtect’s deployment process can be difficult.

To learn more, read our detailed Deduplication Software Report (Updated: September 2023).
735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: What is the biggest difference between EMC Data Domain and Rubrik?
Answer: As Neil Mistry said, they are quite different products: Rubrik is a complete solution where Data Domain is deduplicating storage that requires software to drive. I used to manage a B&R for a company that had a Data Domain in each data center which supported 4, Tivoli Storage Manager instances at each site and the Data Domain replicated all data cross-site. It was a simple setup but we did run into some performance issues since our TSM servers were all VMs and networking inside VMware is hard to determine performance. In the end, the customer didn't like the cost of DD disk and our devices ran out of capacity. Turns out only database full backups deduplicate well. All else, including transaction logs, can go to much less expensive disk and simply be compressed.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Its pricing is not overly expensive.""We are very satisfied with this solution. It's easy to use and efficient.""I like the different features. We work closely with Dell on different products and features, which is why we use them all.""The compression aspect of the solution is great.""Good starting capacity and scalability.""This solution has a feature called Domain Boost, which allows for source deduplication and compression.""Deduplication and compression are the best features of the solution, which are popular and very effective.""It's very competitive in terms of the price and technology. Also, the development team continuously makes updates. The data reduction feature is very useful."

More Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Pros →

"The feature that I have found most valuable from Rubrik is its protection against ransomware attacks. Rubrik is a very nice, very good solution because it is able to protect your data and you have the possibility from the backup to detect any abnormal behavior, like a ransomware attack. You are able to detect and restore very easily with this solution. This is a major differentiator in comparison to the other competitors.""I haven't encountered any bugs or glitches using the solution.""The web-based approach is the most valuable feature.""The solution is extremely stable. They've been phenomenal, especially for a young company.""The management and ease of installation are the most valuable features.""The most valuable features of Rubrik are the restoration and ease of use.""The Live Mount feature is excellent; it's useful for the backup administrator and end user.""Its reporting is most valuable. I like how it reports that everything is successfully backed up. It provides a summarized report that I can give to auditors and management."

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Cons
"They still have hardware different from the software.""The usage of this solution is a bit difficult to develop processes, and it takes a long time to market permits.""It could be more secure.""The price of the product is high.""It helps if you have in-depth knowledge in order to use it correctly.""We have some problems with backing up on the Power Platform. PowerServer is an IBM product, and it forces us to back up over LAN, which is not suitable for us.""Technical support needs improvement.""The only problem is that it's more expensive than any other vendors available in the market."

More Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Cons →

"The main pain points we experienced was the stability of the system. We received a lot of instability when we have upgraded from a certain version to a new version. The newer version was completely filled with bugs and we needed to purge the system every week until we update to a newer version that was available one year later. The stability of the code is the main problem, they need to make it better.""They need to find a solution for SMBs. It is currently only suitable for enterprises or big customers. They need to find a solution that suits SMBs.""Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I need to create reports to know whether something is available or not, how much frontend data is being protected, etc. Rubrik gives a lot of things in the report, which can be confusing. It isn't very easy to get reports. It shows all the backup, index, replication, and everything else in one report. So, I have to export, filter, and then do the calculations.""The solution could improve by having fewer VM Stuns.""There are some features to improve on in Rubrik. For instance, they should have a tool where we can integrate with our SAP HANA. Directly from the HANA studio, we should be able to do a backup. That's what I'm looking forward to in the future.""I would like to see more information on encryption with the next release.""The only thing that can be improved is catering for open source databases because at the moment it doesn't cater for Mongo, MySQL, and Postgres.""In terms of what could be improved with Rubrik, we need to improve the backup for remote sites. The competitors are stronger in terms of their remote office back up. Rubrik needs to improve to be stronger for backup. This is the main thing."

More Rubrik Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The price is on the high side."
  • "Becoming more expensive."
  • "The solution is expensive. However, if you pay less you receive less, it is cost-effective."
  • "Pricing for this product could still be improved, though several years ago, its price was very high. When buying an IDPA product such as Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), you don't have to buy anything else, because you'll have an integrated solution: a data domain appliance plus software."
  • "The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD could improve, it is expensive."
  • "The price of the backup appliance is slightly expensive. Compared to other vendors, the pricing will be slightly higher."
  • "If we do not move to the cloud solution and stay with our on-premise version we will miss some new features."
  • "The cost is expensive."
  • More Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Some people say it is expensive, but you get what you pay for. If you want a Maserati, you have to pay for it. If you want to buy a Porsche, you have to pay for it."
  • "We pay annually for the license for Rubrik. There are no additional costs. Initially, we needed to set it up, negotiate and finalize the offer."
  • "Rubrik is priced high, but it was the solution that was providing us encryption and was secure. The solution price is high, but you get what you pay for."
  • "Its price tends to go up with time. Its pricing definitely has room for improvement. If you negotiate right with them, you might get a good price. Support is a part of the package, and every three years, when we renew our contract, we get new hardware."
  • "There is a license requirement for the solution. If you expand or if the maintenance period expires, there's a license renewal as well."
  • "We are on an annual license to use Rubrik and it is priced well."
  • "I don't remember the cost, but I know that for Veeam, we were spending almost $250,000 a year for 205 licenses. It was an enterprise version. When we purchased Rubrik, it was just a little bit more. It was not a terribly huge amount, and if I recall, that was for three years of support as well. So, Veeam priced itself out of the market at a certain point in time."
  • "High priced when considering a total change in backup solution."
  • More Rubrik Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Miriam Tover
    NeilMistry - PeerSpot reviewerNeilMistry
    Real User

    The biggest difference is Rubrik has native software and hardware on one platform. Data Domain is only a disk target and a very good one but you still need backup software such as Networker, Veritas, Commvault, etc. That software requires both a master and media server which drives a lot of complexity. Rubrik is hyperconverged data management, there is not software licensing, end of year true-ups or additional infrastructure. Policy-based backup and restore functions with cloud archiving integration. It’s also really fast! Finally, if you’re running Nutanix and its native hypervisor AHV then Rubrik can protect that hypervisor and VMware.

    JohnBowling - PeerSpot reviewerJohnBowling
    Real User

    I agree with the other answers - With Data Domain, you still require a software solution to go with the back-end storage. I.e., Avamar, Networker, etc.
    Rubrik is a Software Defined Solution or can be deployed with its own set of hardware\storage.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:There are many different licenses, so you pay for what you need. There are various aspects you can add on, like extra speed, or something just for reading data. There are licenses to do replication as… more »
    Top Answer:Veeam Backup & Replication provides an easy-to-set-up solution to the issue of data storage and recovery. Setting it up is a relatively simple affair. For the most part it prompts you from screen to… more »
    Top Answer:I haven't encountered any bugs or glitches using the solution.
    Top Answer:I rate the pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high.
    Ranking
    1st
    Views
    11,521
    Comparisons
    7,327
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    484
    Rating
    8.4
    3rd
    out of 132 in Backup and Recovery
    Views
    27,441
    Comparisons
    18,011
    Reviews
    20
    Average Words per Review
    532
    Rating
    8.9
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    DataDomain, Dell EMC Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain
    Learn More
    Dell Technologies
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    DD series enables your organization to protect, manage and recover data at scale. As the next generation of Dell Data Domain appliances, DD series sets the bar for efficient data management from edge to core to cloud and includes the ecosystem support and comprehensive data protection that customers have come to appreciate from Data Domain. The DD series offers a super-fast, secure, and an efficient solution that is built for multi-cloud data protection and to keep up with future demands. The DD series consists of the DD9900, DD9400, DD6900, DD6400, DD3300, and a software-defined option, PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE).

    DD series empowers organizations to protect, manage and recover data at scale across their entire diverse ecosystems. DD series provides broad ecosystem support, efficiency, powerful data protection, cloud-enabled capabilities, and the cyber resiliency that our customers demand.

    The DD Operating System (DDOS) is the brilliance that drives the DD series. DDOS contributes the agility, security, and reliability that pushes DD series to deliver high-speed, scalable, and standard-setting protection storage for backup, archive, and disaster recovery. DDOS integrates seamlessly with many existing infrastructures, permitting ease-of-use with leading backup and archiving applications, and provides superior performance in conjunction with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and Data Protection Suite. When you decide to purchase a new DD series appliance you can easily consume DDOS as a subscription providing greater flexibility for deployment while minimizing your overall upfront costs.

    DD series does a great job to minimize the threat of data loss and adds to the value of protected data while meeting ever-increasing demands of SLAs and increasing ROI. DDOS drives DD series to deliver up to 38% faster backups and up to 45% faster restores at significantly higher compression levels.

    DD series supports high availability within the single rack. Additionally, DD series can greatly reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by minimizing downtime in the unlikely event of a hardware failure. DD series delivers amazing high-speed networking connectivity with support for 25GbE and 100GbE network adapters.

    Benefits of Dell PowerProtect DD

    Fast, secure, efficient data protection:

    • Provide 1.5PB usable capacity in a single rack
    • Allow for Up to 3PB capacity for long-term retention
    • Logical capacity is increased by up to 30% per TB when compared to the previous generation
    • Allow for instant access and instant restore of up to 64VMs and 100k IOPS
    • High-speed network connectivity – 10GbE, 25GbE and 100GbE
    • Seamless fast integration and outstanding performance with PowerProtect Data Manager and Data Protection Suite
    • Supports many of the leading enterprise backup and archive applications

    Industry-leading multi-cloud protection:

    • Provides software-defined protection storage on-premises and in-cloud with PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE).
    • DDVE scales up to 256TB in-cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others).
    • Greatly improves in-cloud restore performance by as much as 10x when compared to previous versions.
    • Cloud Tier delivers super simple and value-added long-term retention to public, private, or hybrid clouds
    • Cost-efficient disaster recovery to the cloud

    Operational simplicity:

    • Enhanced DD System Manager supports a complete chassis view
    • Significantly lower administrative costs
    • Grants a single point of management for all DD series by PowerProtect DD Management Center
    • Deploy Smart Scale for PowerProtect appliances directly from PowerProtect DD Management Center. Smart Scale helps drive down management complexities while increasing storage efficiencies. 

    Reviews from Real Users

    One user, who is an enterprise IT architect at a tech service company, says that “Dell PowerProtect DD is highly stable and reliable. I have not had a time when the system did not work and in an emergency this is critical.” He rates the ROI it has brought his company a five out of five.

    A pre-sales and technical manager at a tech services company says that "The features that I have found most valuable with Dell PowerProtect DD are its deduplication feature and its DD Boost protocol for fast transfer, which is amazing."

    Chris C., lead infrastructure architect at ThinkON, relates that Dell PowerProtect DD “allows our organization to send more data to this device compared to others. It also allows us a fast recovery of files or Virtual Machines if needed being on-premise.”

    Rubrik is a backup and recovery solution that can be used as a converged data management platform for physical, virtual, and hybrid environments. The solution works to protect your data and applications from ransomware, operational failures, and rogue employees, and also helps your organization simplify data management and accelerate cloud mobility. In addition, Rubrik is designed for cloud integration and infinite scalability to enable hybrid cloud for all enterprises.

    Rubrik’s software is also built to support most operating systems, databases, hypervisors, clouds, and SaaS applications, and the solution integrates with on-premises hardware if necessary.

    Rubrik Features

    Rubrik has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Instant recovery
    • Live-restore
    • Single console
    • Automatic incremental backups
    • Policy-driven automation
    • Instant search
    • Live Mount capability
    • Compliance and capacity customized reporting
    • Quick and efficient snapshots
    • Multiple backup destinations
    • Deduplication and file compression
    • Intuitive web interface
    • Good performance
    • Easy to use
    • Low maintenance
    • Flexible deployment

    Rubrik Benefits

    There are several benefits to implementing Rubrik. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Single policy engine: Because Rubrik is policy-driven, it functions through a single policy engine that orchestrates service level agreements (SLAs) across the data lifecycle. Management is automated through one programmatic interface.
    • Customized reports: With Rubrik, you can create customized reports and utilize data visualizations.
    • Advanced security: Regardless of location, data remains secure in transit and at rest throughout its lifecycle, as it is stored and backed up.
    • Compliance: With Rubrik, you gain granular role-based access control while automating compliance reporting, which helps complete various industry and internal audits.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Rubrik users.

    PeerSpot user Chadd B., System Administrator at a manufacturing company, says, “The solution is easy to use with an intuitive web interface, helpful support, good performance, and saves us time. The most valuable feature is the Instant Recovery, where we can restore a VM or SQL database or any server or application, and have it up and running on their appliance within a few seconds. The VM backup and the SQL backup are blazingly fast for both backup and recovery.”

    A Storage Administrator at a healthcare company explains that the solution “Cut our backup management time significantly, and the near-instant recovery reduces our downtime. He also comments that “The scalability is wonderful. That is one of our biggest advantages with this.”

    Burhan S., Systems Engineer at Harvard University, mentions, "There is a live-restore feature, their Live Mount, and the way it works we can instantly recover a VM, a past backup, to be directly attached to our VMware environment. Rubrik will act as a disk for it. It's like an instant restore. Within a few minutes our VM is up and running. And then, if we want to restore it, we can just migrate it to our actual storage."

    Kevin M., Head Of Operations at University of Reading, states, “The solution’s SLA-based functionality means we don't have to manually manage backup windows, and recovery times have been notably reduced. Its web interface is really easy to use. It's just click and go. It's fast and intuitive. We've never had any problems in navigating.”

    Offer
    Learn more about Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)
    Learn more about Rubrik
    Sample Customers
    The US Army, City of Houston, Lloyds TSB, TiVo, Teck, Ingram Entertainment, The New York Mets
    Driscoll's, Red Hawk Casino, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Wabash National, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Galliker Transport & Logistics
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Insurance Company15%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    University12%
    Healthcare Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise62%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise63%
    Buyer's Guide
    Deduplication Software
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp and others in Deduplication Software. Updated: September 2023.
    735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is ranked 1st in Deduplication Software with 30 reviews while Rubrik is ranked 3rd in Backup and Recovery with 20 reviews. Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is rated 8.4, while Rubrik is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) writes "Stable and easy to scale suite of deduplication, backup, data protection, and storage solutions". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Rubrik writes "Allows us to restore a VM in minutes and has the best ransomware detection and support". Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is most compared with HPE StoreOnce, ExaGrid EX Series, Veeam Backup & Replication, Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and Cohesity DataProtect, whereas Rubrik is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Cohesity DataProtect, Commvault Complete Data Protection, Zerto and Veritas NetBackup.

    We monitor all Deduplication Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.