Dell Data Protection Advisor Reviews

Our use is limited to backup and recovery.

It has a lot of stock reports. I believe over 300 canned reports, which for the most part meet a lot of generic needs. As far as creating customer ports this solution has definitely evolved and become more of a construct to where you can build reports as long as you know your data sets and really customize them for your customer's environment.

In the same hindrance — this is a plus and a minus —, because Data Protection Advisor is a multi-platform, multi-vendor product, if you look for something that you know is called X in one product, it may not be called X in DPA. Column for column, that creates a mapping challenge. An example would be policy. In policy, it's called "group" in DPA.

There's always room for improvement. EMC, Dell as of late has dragged behind in their Java protocol, keeping up with Java and security vulnerabilities. They should empower their customers with the ability to upgrade this solution as long as it's in the same major release or in another way that allows those security vulnerabilities to be addressed quicker.

I'd like to see better hooks into other analytic applications, like Splunk. That's really a partnership relationship versus EMC Dell control.

I have been using Dell EMC Data Protection Advisor for almost a decade.

For the most part, it serves my needs. There hasn't really been a report that I can't create as long as the data is collected for the backup product. Regarding general ability, it's fairly light on the agent side for the clients.

Throughout the years they've been very, very good. In the early days, I ran into some SQL corruption back in the 5X. When they went to 6X, they redid their database; there was definitely a performance change and some different nuances. They did pretty well over the duration.

The initial setup all depends on what your requirements are for deployment. In a simple lab, it's very easy to deploy. If you're setting up a two-data store and application server, there is a little more to it because you've got to deal with that secondary data store, but also if you're dealing with it in a cluster, there's another level of complexity. It's all dependent on how you're deploying it.

As an engineer architect, ROI is not really my area of focus. Does it provide from a technical perspective, what I need? Yes, to do my job.

Know your client and understand their policies. Licensing is a big one, which a lot of people get messed over.

overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

Our primary use case for the solution is for daily and head of reporting. It supports our chargeback process by identifying resource users, which helps ensure that departments are billed accurately for data protection services rather than receiving them for free.

The platform's most valuable features are the ability to generate tailored reports for different departments and comprehensively monitor backup statuses. These features have greatly improved our reporting efficiency and data protection oversight.

The product could be improved by addressing intermittent collector failures affecting status reports' accuracy. Additionally, enhancing bulk update capabilities for items like cost centers would be beneficial.

We have been using Dell Data Protection Advisor for approximately four to five years. We initially used it, switched to another product, and then returned to Dell.

The platform has been stable for the most part, with occasional issues related to collectors. I rate the stability as a nine.

The platform scales well with our needs, though we are constantly expanding our environments and may need additional data protection solutions. 

I rate the scalability as an eight.

The technical support team is responsive and knowledgeable, providing valuable assistance whenever needed.

Positive

We previously used a different product but switched to Dell due to its superior reporting capabilities and overall effectiveness.

The initial setup was straightforward and efficient, taking approximately one working day to complete. The process involved standard installation procedures without significant complications.

The implementation was conducted with the help of our in-house team.

The product pricing has been satisfactory, particularly with the economy of scale in our agreement.

We are evaluating Dell Apex as an alternative but have not yet implemented it. We also consider other solutions periodically to ensure we receive the best value.

Overall, I rate Dell Data Protection Advisor a nine out of ten. 

We have one customer that uses this solution. We have one technical team member that handles all maintenance-related issues. 

This solution is great for IT auditing. The reporting has many capabilities, including the implementation of charts. It also includes a standard reporting mode. 

It can support many backup solutions; you can even backup hosts. It generates very detailed reports, which makes things easier when it comes to IT auditing.

It's a bit difficult for first-time users. It could be easier to use, overall. For example, when searching for one specific feature, you need to go through many tabs, which can be confusing if you don't know what you're doing. If this process was simplified, it would be very time-efficient. 

One of our customers has been using this solution for two years. 

Dell EMC Data Protection Advisor is not very scalable. 

The initial installation is quite straightforward. Deployment took roughly 45 minutes. 

We need to add additional licenses for support so that the IT monitoring process will be very smooth. 

Our customer pays for the license. It's not very expensive — I think the price is fair. Considering the number of features, the price is moderate. 

I would absolutely recommend this solution to others. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

The protocols are very good. Clients use them a lot as backup extensions due to the reports on the backup, the capacity managing, and the success rates, etc.

Personally, I find it's more than an extension of the backup solution. It's more of a data center than a reporting tool. You can get information about everything and you can anticipate some errors that may occur on the system.

Customization of reports or creating new reports can be difficult. Users need to have a deep knowledge of SQL. 70-80% of customers can't seem to understand how to do it. They don't know how to address reporting. If Dell EMC could simplify it, it would benefit the end-user.

Currently, you have the option to put the solution in a Windows server, but by putting your general reporting on the Windows server you have the potential to lose everything one day. It's better to be able to deploy it on a VM.

I've been using the solution for eight years.

My impression of the stability of the solution is that it is quite good. We've had a few issues here and there, but it's always been minor things. Stability hasn't been a big deal.

Scalability questions are a bit difficult to address. It's straightforward, but the questions should be more around what you think about the sizing of the DPA.

There should be some sort of proper sizing for DPA. Proper sizing is very important. Otherwise, scaling is tricky.

I've never contacted technical support. I know a lot about the product myself, and I know people that I can talk to if I have issues.

We didn't previously use a different solution. There was only a bit of SQL script and that was it.

The initial setup is very straightforward. Deployment typically takes about one hour. You just need one person to handle the deployment process.

I handled the deployment myself.

We did evaluate other options before ultimately choosing DPA.

We're a gold partner with Dell EMC.

The clients that we have on the solution are medium to enterprise-level organizations.

I'd advise others to see if there's a data center solution and not just an extension of the backup. You also need to edit the data to show what you want and you'll want to set up and get the reports that apply to your specific needs.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I really like it, but they do need to address the difficulties surrounding reporting to make it perfect.

We primarily use the solution for backups.

The most valuable aspects of the solution are the compression and the deduplication.

It has all the technology we require in a backup solution.

The solution requires more integration with our other solutions. I know that they have full integration with VMware because it is also from EMC. However, we have to have better integration with Microsoft and Nutanix as well.

We previously used Asper from Computer Associates. The solution was too old and for the amount of our data, we needed a solution that was faster but also very strong and easy to use. That's is why we switched to EMC.

The initial setup was easy. Deployment took about one month. We only need one person to handle maintenance.

We did the deployment with the EMC partner in our country.

Before choosing EMC we did compare the price with other solutions. We found the pricing to be pretty good.

We use the private cloud deployment model.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. I'd recommend it; it's a very strong solution.