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Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Unitrends comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 PowerProtect DD (Data ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (1st), Disk Based Backup Systems (1st)
Unitrends
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (36th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and Unitrends aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is designed for Deduplication Software and holds a mindshare of 28.2%, down 29.8% compared to last year.
Unitrends, on the other hand, focuses on Backup and Recovery, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 0.4% since last year.
Deduplication Software
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Faisal_Zia - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers efficient data management with robust features and reliable performance
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) can be improved in terms of price. While Dell is providing a proper device, other solutions, such as Symantec, can replicate their data through any NAS storage. Although their deduplication and compression might not be as effective, they can still accomplish the task. Medium-level and SME-level businesses can easily utilize this feature, but Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is a relatively expensive solution to propose to customers.
Todd Guthrie - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution can be used to back up servers and Hyper-V cluster nodes, but its support is super expensive
I wouldn't rate Unitrends a ten out of ten because we had some hard drive failures in the appliance. Typically, when you have OneDrive, you can get it replaced. For some particular reason, the situation caused the entire system to crash. We had to reinstall the CentOS operating system on it, and we lost all our backups. They said there was no way to retain it, and it was pretty devastating and concerning that a drive failure would cause the loss of all the data on the appliance. It was extremely disappointing, and we had to start from scratch after three years worth of backup data. I rate Unitrends a nine out of ten for stability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of PowerProtect DD are the immutable storage and the AI scanning."
"The product provides good backup and compression services."
"Deduplication and compression are the best features of the solution, which are popular and very effective."
"The features that I have found most valuable with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD are its deduplication feature and its DD Boost protocol for fast transfer, which is amazing."
"I like the different features. We work closely with Dell on different products and features, which is why we use them all."
"Our clients like the wide range of features that are available within this single solution."
"9900 has around 1.5 petabits of capacity in a single rack, and that's huge."
"It is very fast as compared to the other competitors. Its simplicity and bit rate are also valuable. It takes less time if we compare it with the old solution that we have."
"Replication to Forever Cloud."
"The ability to backup both physical and virtual machines, along with having an appliance store the backups locally instead of on a file server, NAS, or SAN."
"It is an easy system to use. The support, if needed, is always willing to help."
"Backup/archive to multiple locations."
"It is very easy to set up and get started. Almost too easy. We racked this device and had it up and running in less than 15 minutes."
"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."
"The simple and fast restore routine."
"I like the fact that you can recover the VMs inside the appliance. For example, they're basically running this appliance on a Linux-based distribution, and they're spinning off KVM virtual machines inside."
 

Cons

"The tool's pricing could be cheaper."
"I would like to see some kind of integration with the ransomware in the next release."
"EMC is very expensive for small customers."
"If I were a manager for this infrastructure, I would look into load balancing for cost, maintenance after sale, and improving Dell PowerProtect DD."
"First-time integrations are difficult in NetWorker. NetWorker software needs to be simplified. It's very complex."
"The only problem is that it's more expensive than any other vendors available in the market."
"The price is also a disadvantage. Price is a disadvantage with the PowerProtect as it needs to be cheaper."
"The Data Domain solution appliance is quite expensive. It is on the higher side, but technically or functionally, there is no issue."
"Support is great for small simple issues, but anything more difficult, it is hard to get good resolutions without having to badger them and their management."
"The ability to run just differentials without pulling the full on your archive."
"I would like to see the real-time replication process improved, and a zero RPO feature added."
"The amount of updates which are being released. Updates should be limited to two or three a year, focusing more on quality instead of a rushed bug release."
"I would like to see more storage options for the free version."
"It would be great to have the job throttle/limit the max number of backups on a single ESXi host."
"There are a few quirks where the GUI, agent, and back-end are not precisely meshed."
"If the interface could be less complex, it is would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is related to size. A lower range solution might be about $33,000. My customers use higher range versions with a price of around $100,000. That's the price for both the hardware and software."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect DD could improve, it is expensive."
"The price is on the high side."
"The cost is expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"The pricing is cost-effective for the solution"
"It is expensive, but the performance and deduplication cover for the cost."
"This is one of the more expensive backup solutions on the market."
"Their licensing depended on the number of CPUs you had."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing is yearly and it depends on the customers."
"Initial pricing is competitive. Renewal pricing is steep, so make sure to project costs for the lifetime of the appliance(s)."
"You should be aware how much the monthly costs are to use, what the initial costs for hardware are, and what the options to expand are, if needed."
"We found that the cost of Unitrends was about the same as the Dell DR6300. We liked the fact that the Unitrends appliance was all-in-one."
"Pricing model constantly changes."
"Unitrends is an expensive solution."
"Make sure you do the homework to size the solution properly. Buy the Enterprise Plus licensing if you can afford it."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)?
The typical use case for Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is for backup purposes; it is disk-based backup, which provides fast backup capabilities. Additionally, data can be replicated from site ...
What do you like most about Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)?
The product, a disk backup solution, improves our data application tasks. We used tape libraries with Dev drives in legacy architectures, resulting in slow backups compared to modern drives like NV...
What do you like most about Unitrends?
The most valuable feature of Unitrends for me is the automated feedback
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Unitrends?
Unitrends is an expensive solution. We've negotiated deals where they've given us the $ 62,000 to $ 64,000 appliance for free but charged $ 90,000 for three years of support.
What needs improvement with Unitrends?
In terms of improvement, the UI, especially in the recovery section, is unclear about which repository it uses—I had to hover over to find that information. Figuring out the scripting part wasn't s...
 

Also Known As

DataDomain, Dell EMC Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The US Army, City of Houston, Lloyds TSB, TiVo, Teck, Ingram Entertainment, The New York Mets
NHL Players Association, Salvation Army, Sligro Food Group, Mason General Hospital, Tec Group, Saldab IT, Baker Tilly, Clinton Savings Bank, Ennit Magna Bank, Manukau Institute of Technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp and others in Deduplication Software. Updated: July 2025.
863,331 professionals have used our research since 2012.