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Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) vs N-able Cove Data Protection 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
3.7
Dell PowerProtect DP offers cost efficiency, high malware protection, and significant ROI with data reduction and time-saving benefits.
Sentiment score
7.8
N-able Cove Data Protection provides high ROI, efficient backups, cost savings, seamless transitions, and reduced downtime compared to competitors.
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
I have experienced time savings and money savings.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We think the ROI is very good; we are very satisfied with our return on investment, even though I don't sit and calculate what would be better.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Customers appreciate Dell PowerProtect DP support but suggest improvements in scheduling, parts delays, and communication on escalated issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
N-able Cove Data Protection offers fast, knowledgeable support via multiple channels, ensuring high user satisfaction despite minor frustrations.
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
if it gets complicated, the backend support comes in quickly
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
If I raise a ticket, they get back to me.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Dell PowerProtect DP offers scalability, supporting scale-up and scale-out, but may require model changes at higher capacities.
Sentiment score
7.8
N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for adaptability, ease of integration, scalability, advanced features, with minor storage issues.
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
There are some limitations, such as storage, where I cannot support a large number of employees who need to back up their data.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerProtect DP is praised for stability, reliability, and performance, ensuring no downtime and seamless management.
Sentiment score
8.1
N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for stability, minor issues, compatibility, and reliability with minimal downtime over years.
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 DP is costly and complex, needing better authentication, compatibility, and improvements in setup and data recovery.
N-able Cove Data Protection needs improvements in dashboard, cloud integration, backup speed, disaster recovery, and support response.
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
There should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
N-able Cove Data Protection does not provide a lot of SaaS backup products, which is an area they can improve.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerProtect DP offers competitive pricing with flexible licensing, discounts for partners, and features enhancing data reduction and integration.
Enterprise users appreciate N-able Cove Data Protection's fair pricing, flexibility, no lock-ins, and competitive costs compared to others.
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.
In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerProtect DP excels in ease, scalability, and performance, offering integrated backup, AI, and efficient deployment features.
N-able Cove Data Protection provides reliable cloud-based data protection with easy management, fast setup, and seamless integration for diverse needs.
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
The most valuable feature of N-able Cove Data Protection is its ease of use.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The integration of N-able Cove Data Protection into our existing infrastructure is easy.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
21st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
N-able Cove Data Protection
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
33rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (22nd), SaaS Backup (11th), MSP Backup (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able Cove Data Protection is 1.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)0.7%
N-able Cove Data Protection1.5%
Other97.8%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Per MøllerJacobsen - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
Delivers cost-effective data backup with room for search improvements
The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for something—you need to know where it was and when it was there to restore it, plus it would be nice to take out data from Microsoft 365 in some portable format, which is currently not an option. I would like to extract the data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format, something like a database or maybe just to take out a PST file or SharePoint and Teams files to the file system. Especially in these times, where we discuss potential risks with the Microsoft cloud for European companies, companies would want to know how to access their data from the backup if they suddenly don't have a tenant. I believe there should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format. I know that Cohesity is working on making such a thing. It's not there yet; I asked last week for something for forensics, and the support team said it's not possible yet, but I know from our technical account manager they are working on some solutions.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N-able Backup?
In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.
What needs improvement with N-able Backup?
The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for s...
What is your primary use case for N-able Backup?
Our main use cases for enabling N-able Cove Data Protection include backing up our customers' data on servers hosted in data centers and servers hosted in our own data center, as well as a few onsi...
 

Also Known As

Dell EMC IDPA, Dell IDPA, EMC IDPA
N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, Christian Brothers University, Presidio
Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) vs. N-able Cove Data Protection and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.