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Microsoft DPM vs NetApp SnapCenter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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

Microsoft DPM
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
28th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp SnapCenter
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
48th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Microsoft DPM is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp SnapCenter is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Nirukshitha Gamage - PeerSpot reviewer
User finds setup straightforward but seeks wider platform support and advanced features
Microsoft DPM could implement backup capabilities for third-party systems such as Linux. They also need to consider other features such as replication to DR sites, similar to what Veeam and other products offer. Microsoft DPM didn't have that capability at that time. If they want to remain competitive in the market, they need to observe the competition and implement improvements. The backup should have compression, deduplication, and DR replication. They should also improve monitoring of the environment. Microsoft DPM didn't have these basics at that time. If they had continued development on the products, they could have reached a higher level, especially given Microsoft's significant presence and majority of servers. Microsoft DPM didn't have any support structure in the backend. If they had a support structure, we could have escalated issues. I never received any support from Microsoft DPM.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrates well with various applications , provides a cloning feature for creating snapshots or clones of volume and a centralized command
It is basically centralized command control software. When the users visualize the workflow of the backup, the management and the customer storage administrator know the ins and outs of the backup and recovery. They can make the strategy for their backup and recovery and the certainty of their backups and restore. Strategic planning: Also, it is easy to make a strategy when you have visualized the inflow and outflow of the backup and recovery. With the CLI or native way, without any UI or management tool, you might not be able to create any strategy at all. This is especially important when you have multiple storage systems inside your data center or organization. You need a tool that connects and visualizes the workflow of the backup and recovery from all the storage systems and NetApp storage systems installed within the organization. It is very important when you have multiple storage systems, and you need to manage your backup and recovery workflow. Ease of Management: Unlike other storage vendors, NetApp has its own product called SnapCenter. Other vendors need to acquire third-party software or integrate with other software to manage storage systems. NetApp has its own solution, which is SnapCenter. NetApp's SnapCenter gels well with their storage systems and products. Ease of management is already there. It's a fine software with easy installation, management, and understanding. It's not a complicated software to understand.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most effective features of Microsoft DPM is its integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem."
"I could back up all the stuff we had, even the VMs we have for Hyper V."
"This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations."
"I like the core backup feature. I also like the file server backup feature. I find Microsoft DPM interesting because it has fantastic integration with Microsoft products. For example, in Exchange and SharePoint, DPM is excellent when it comes to backing up data. It also does a decent job with open-source products."
"Its capability to give a BMR for all the workstations that I want to connect to."
"It has an application backup, a file backup, a system backup and a hypervisor."
"The user interface is very good. The reporting and monitoring features are also good."
"One of the most effective features of Microsoft DPM is its integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem."
"It's integrated with VMware vCenter. You can also see the backups there and you can do a restore completely out of vCenter."
"The reporting feature has been particularly beneficial to upper management... When you do manual backups, you do not get the benefit of seeing successes and failures and how often you have to do restores. With SnapCenter, you get all of that."
"We have been very satisfied with the technical support's help. Their knowledge level is great. For a noncritical question, they will get back to us within a day."
"It allows us to easily take a Snapshot and use it with any backup tools. We can also take Snapshots on the application side. We can also take Snapshots on the application side. If we want to restore an SAP or an Oracle machine, a normal Snapshot won't do it, but we can do so with SnapCenter."
"The product’s most valuable feature is cloning."
"The backup features are the most valuable because they allow the DBAs to replace SnapManager for Oracle (SMO), which is going away, and to do cloning as well. We can also clone to different servers and have the actual backup clone mounted on different servers. And we can split easily too."
"It's very helpful because SnapCenter is already integrated with VMware Snapshot, so it's very easy to use."
"It's all together managing both storage and backup, which makes it easier for troubleshooting issues and the automation part of it"
 

Cons

"Compatibility and integration with other products needs improvement."
"It needs portability for other vendors. It is good for backing up Microsoft servers, but it doesn't support third-party solutions such as Oracle Database. It depends on Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy, especially for Hyper-V, which has a lot of problems. They should enhance the Volume Shadow Copy functionality. Its reporting should also be better. Reporting is too weak in DPM."
"Additional Hyper-V knowledge would be great."
"The user friendliness could be improved."
"There is a very poor online user community in terms of people blogging about their experiences with DPM."
"Management reporting could be improved."
"Setting up the solution can be complex."
"To evaluate the solution's abilities and its performance under demanding conditions, it is recommended to carry out a stress test."
"We would like to see more granular repording and reporting in bigger sets available in SnapCenter."
"The product lags in terms of availability."
"The Microsoft environment is its biggest disadvantage due to the central management of all the actions. Because the SnapCenter server is where we deploy everything, it also affects the Microsoft environment, which can cause many difficulties when resolving issues like Windows update problems."
"I want to see a few more features add that will help our team in managing solution better."
"I'm waiting for SnapCenter for hybrid solutions. Right now, we only have SnapManager for hybrid. I need agents for that. People are looking to install SnapCenter in a SQL environment, but where they're running SQL on Hyper-V and using virtual files. Currently, we don't have support for hybrid."
"We tend to have a lot of Hyper-V... so now we have two management consoles and we would ideally like to leverage SnapCenter to include Hyper-V."
"The documentation could be a little bit better so that we could handle more of the troubleshooting ourselves, rather than having to go through support."
"I have an issue with SnapCenter because sometimes a VM cannot be backed up... The way SnapCenter works is that it makes a backup of all the VMs and then it removes all the old backups. If one VM cannot be backed up for some reason, it has already created a new backup for all the VMs but it cannot remove the old backups. It ends up creating so many backups in VMware and it will cause a performance problem if the condition is not fixed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft DPM can be considered as an expensive solution for smaller or medium enterprises, but we have been satisfied with the price structure as it is fixed and it offers a variety of useful features"
"Microsoft DPM is a free solution. However, we pay approximately $3,000 annually for support."
"I think Microsoft DPM pricing is reasonable. The additional costs are related to storage and technical support."
"The licensing is well-designed because it's already included in some packages with NetApp storage. Therefore, for most customers, it's okay as the SnapCenter license is already included in some NetApp bundles."
"The product is inexpensive."
"We see a financial value with SnapCenter because we don't have to license Commvault, which is pretty expensive."
"The license for SnapCenter was included with the storage array."
"It comes free with the amount of equipment we purchase from NetApp. In terms of pricing, zero is my favorite number."
"Pricing is very good because if you already have NepApp controllers, then it's included."
"It's free. The license is included with other NetApp products."
"We have a site license, so it comes with the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft DPM?
This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft DPM?
Microsoft DPM was more affordable for customers compared to other products such as Veritas, which were somewhat expensive. This was one of the main reasons customers chose to purchase Microsoft DPM...
What needs improvement with Microsoft DPM?
Microsoft DPM could implement backup capabilities for third-party systems such as Linux. They also need to consider other features such as replication to DR sites, similar to what Veeam and other p...
What do you like most about NetApp SnapCenter?
Most banks and financial institutions use the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp SnapCenter?
The product should be free because it is just software to administrate systems purchased from NetApp, which are already expensive.
What needs improvement with NetApp SnapCenter?
The interface usability needs improvement. It should be more user-friendly and easier for customers to use.
 

Also Known As

DPM, Data Protection Manager, MS DPM
SnapCenter
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medical Park, Centropol Energy, a.s., NCFE, D & H Distributing, Metalor, Colosseum, a.s., Sanitas S.A., Icebreaker
All for One Steeb AG, Accenture
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft DPM vs. NetApp SnapCenter and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.