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Oracle Data Guard vs Retrospect Backup comparison

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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

Oracle Data Guard
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
36th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Retrospect Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
81st
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (65th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Oracle Data Guard is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Retrospect Backup is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Data Guard0.8%
Retrospect Backup0.5%
Other98.7%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

AdnanNaseem - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal DB A at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Active data protection has ensured high availability and supports seamless reporting workloads
In my opinion, Active Data Guard is the most valuable feature. We use the secondary side for reporting purposes, which reduces the load on the primary side. Oracle Data Guard includes functions such as automatic failover, but we use manual managed failover. After some months, we converted our primary to secondary and secondary to primary. Oracle Data Guard is effective in minimizing data loss and provides a good solution for that. The main benefits of Oracle Data Guard include minimizing data loss during a production failure. It is used for maximum availability when paired with Oracle RAC, so if any disruption occurs, we have an alternative Data Guard to convert our load to the disaster recovery site. Oracle Data Guard maintains a high level of data integrity by using archive logs. When a transaction happens, redo logs create archive logs, which are then applied on the disaster recovery side, ensuring that both databases are synchronized.
Sujeet Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Lighthouse Solutions
Can be used to back up servers and desktops, but needs to have an Oracle agent for its on-premises model
Retrospect Backup has a single console that can be used to manage and backup servers and desktops. The solution supports tape and cloud since certain customers are still on tape. The solution provides a dissimilar hardware restore feature. If you have a complete machine burnout, you can restore it on new dissimilar hardware. Retrospect Backup is used to protect file data and SQL databases. Streamlining data backup processes with Retrospect Backup is automated and does not need any human intervention. The solution doesn't take up much time and does the backups automatically. Policy creation is very easy with Retrospect Backup. Once it's done, you don't have to bother about it because it keeps working on its own. A disaster recovery (DR) solution has been built into Retrospect Backup. You can restore the whole machine on a fresh setup with ISO images. Retrospect Backup is very easy to use and not very complicated. Creating policies and adding clients is very easy in the solution. The solution doesn't take up much LAN bandwidth except for the first full backup. The solution is efficient and does the backups really fast. It takes backups in batches of 14 machines at a time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is quite stable, as we haven't experienced any bugs, glitches, or crashes, and we find it to be quite reliable."
"It is a top-notch product, super stable, making it our go-to for internal operations."
"We like Oracle because the solution is very robust, it's also efficient for queries and is easy to scale."
"I think for our company, the way we use it, we are very happy with it and the end customer is very happy with it."
"The most valuable feature is the flashback standby, which allows us to test without scrapping the database."
"Data Guard also improved because customers with an active Data Guard license want to reduce the I/O in a production environment. Some application complaints to it for Oracle reporting purposes. It has a production environment that needs to be enhanced."
"We use Data Guard for online replication from data center, to data center for high availability. This is the most important feature."
"The stability and resiliency are closely monitored, and you cannot find the same protection solution outside of Data Guard or Oracle RAC for protecting your data."
"Retrospect Backup has a single console that can be used to manage and backup servers and desktops."
 

Cons

"Oracle is not easy to implement, and you cannot find clear documentation on the internet or, unfortunately, on the Oracle website."
"Yes, if the underlying network is not stable, then the Data Guard and standby databases will disconnect and not be operational."
"For Italian medium-sized companies, the main challenge lies in the cost associated with licenses."
"I would like to see better failover."
"The database administration needs improvement. With Oracle, we have a lot of features for administrating data, but it might be too many. It needs to be simplified. It should be automated. Looking at Enterprise Manager, there are too many KPIs in place."
"I think it would be great to have a graphical interface assistant (like DBCA, ASMCA, NETCA, etc.) for initial configuration, monitoring, configuring Oracle Data Guard Broker and all the Data Guard Broker commands, without needing Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control installed."
"It's a master of making money! If you want to have everything automated and done smoothly, you have to add additional licenses."
"We sometimes had scalability issues with read only."
"Retrospect Backup needs to have an Oracle agent for its on-premises model."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is expensive."
"It is not a cheap product, but if you look at the price, features, availability, scalability, and maturity, it is a very good product."
"It's a cost-effective solution."
"The cost of the Oracle license will depend on the negotiations with Oracle."
"The pricing is on the higher side."
"The licensing cost is significantly high."
"If you want to have everything automated and done smoothly, you have to add additional licenses."
"​Oracle Data Guard is a feature available only in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, and is available for extra cost."
"Retrospect Backup is more cost-effective compared to other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
10%
Government
8%
Construction Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise22
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?
Ik fluister:VM Host Oracle en DataGuard hebben we per toeval vervangen door Zerto :-) tijdens de Zerto implementatie en VPG werden de Host Data in write-ack Block-Level gerepliceerd. Qua licentie 1...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?
It is a very useful administrative IT tool. It saves on costs. I strongly recommend Data Guard. I've been using it for eight years and I would strongly recommend it. I'd rate Oracle Data Guard a se...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?
We're Oracle partners. We've worked with databases 11G and 12C. If a company is planning to implement Oracle solutions, I would suggest they also implement Data Guard. I'd rate the solution nine ou...
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Also Known As

Active Data Guard
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Athenahealth, Discover Financial Services
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rubrik and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: August 2026.
912,006 professionals have used our research since 2012.