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N-able Cove Data Protection vs StorageCraft ShadowXafe [EOL] 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

N-able Cove Data Protection
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (33rd), Cloud Backup (20th), SaaS Backup (11th), MSP Backup (3rd)
StorageCraft ShadowXafe [EOL]
Average Rating
0.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

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.
reviewer1281621 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder/CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
An expensive next-generation data recovery and backup software solution with poor data restoration
Their restoration protocols could be better. I pulled all my clients out of their cloud mostly because I wasn't confident that they could restore out of the cloud. This was backed up by friends who had been burned by stuff like that. We moved away because of the lack of resources to restore from a potential catastrophic failure. It's challenging, and in some cases, they couldn't do it because they didn't have enough resources. For example, if there was a major disaster, and everybody needed their images out of the cloud, they couldn't give them to everybody.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of use and the console are great."
"The monitoring makes it very easy to check whether a backup has gone bad."
"Overall, our team is much more satisfied, I don't have to bite my fingernails every morning wondering "What happened here?" and pretty much when things don't back up, it's usually either a machine failure or their network went down or something else is screwed up."
"Because the package includes cloud storage, we don't need to worry about hosting it inside. That was very important to us. And because the vendor has data centers worldwide, our reps in Europe and other places can get to what they need quickly and easily."
"It's extremely important that Cove provides cloud-based data protection with backup, disaster recovery, and archiving. That is a necessity for my insurance. As an IT company, my insurance would cost more if my backups were not offsite and off-network."
"What I like the most about it's the ease of use and the reliability that it has when copying information to the cloud."
"N-Able, as a whole, has given me the RMM solution that I desire and the backup solutions that I desire."
"One of the bigger features and advantages of the solution is that it is easy to integrate with my RMM which is also N-able."
"The most valuable feature is the backups."
"I like that they have some new devices that are simpler to use because they kind of tie right into the cloud."
"The technical support has been very good."
 

Cons

"This solution is not very good for image restores, but really excellent for files, databases and System State restores."
"The only reason I wouldn't give them a ten out of ten is we aren't able to restore in the cloud and test everything out as we can on Datto, without having to download the full image onto bare metal hardware."
"This solution is not very good for image restores, mainly just files. The solution also does not allow you to enable or disable backups. Sometimes, our users will connect via mobile device and it will use their data to perform the backup. If they were able to enable and disable the backup, they would not have this issue."
"We don't use the solution’s automated recovery testing because SolarWinds made me cross."
"There could be a possibility to create a local NAS backup for infrastructure."
"For small amounts of data, recovery is easy, but when it's large amounts of data, it takes forever. So, if they can have a service where they put our data on a hard drive and ship it to us as fast as possible, it would be great. Even if there's a fee associated with it, it's fine."
"The reporting feature and functionality need improvement."
"Currently you can't dump the files that were backed up. You have to use the web interface and you can only see 30 files at a crack."
"Their restoration protocols could be better. I pulled all my clients out of their cloud mostly because I wasn't confident that they could restore out of the cloud. This was backed up by friends who had been burned by stuff like that. We moved away because of the lack of resources to restore from a potential catastrophic failure. It's challenging, and in some cases, they couldn't do it because they didn't have enough resources. For example, if there was a major disaster, and everybody needed their images out of the cloud, they couldn't give them to everybody."
"I wouldn't use it. It failed me every time I tried to use it in a real-life scenario."
"StorageCraft ShadowXafe should improve the on-premises console management controls and protection and recovery."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very competitive and it's well worth the price."
"The pricing is affordable. N-able Cove Data Protection has a direct-to-cloud architecture, but it also allows saving backups locally without extra storage costs."
"N-able Cove Data Protection is an averagely-priced product."
"I believe that the price is very reasonable in comparison to other options. It is cheaper than both Redstor and Acronis and, since we are now using our own on-premise cloud, there is absolutely no comparison since we have unlimited storage rather than paying per gigabyte used for their onsite storage. We are currently able to backup fifty computers for the same price that we use to backup five computers."
"The cost is around ten dollars per workstation a month and that includes a certain amount of data."
"When you have a device/appliance on the site quite a lot of the other enterprise class backup people insist that you have their appliance, which is frankly offensively expensive. Because when you pry the top off, it's just a standard 19-inch tin box with a standard Intel I5 in it, some RAM, and a hard drive. Then, you go, "Why have they just charged me 5,500 quid for a box, which I could have probably build for under 500." Whereas, with the SolarWinds product, they don't have that. The backup appliances that we have onsite are just plain cooking PCs. We can build our own machines, which is reflected in the price that we can offer a customer."
"The only option I would like to see is an adjustable scale. Right now we have 250 seats and we're not using all of them. It would be nice to be able to save that little bit of money by being able to buy just what we need."
"The pricing of SolarWinds seems to be fair compared to the rest of the industry."
"They are more expensive than some of the others out there. We have gone away from their cloud due to pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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Also Known As

N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup
ShadowXafe
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia
Kawasaki, NASA, Amazon, Sonic, Callaway
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