Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Reviews

We use Dell PowerProtect DD for different scenarios like database storage and backups.

I like the different features. We work closely with Dell on different products and features, which is why we use them all. 

It could be more secure.

I have been working with Dell PowerProtect DD for almost four years.

Dell PowerProtect DD is a stable solution.

Dell PowerProtect DD is a scalable solution. We have about seven customers using this solution.

It's ok because we have our own support and our own distributors for the vendor's part.

The initial setup doesn't take too long—just one or two days. You need two people to deploy and maintain this solution.

We are integrators, and we implement this solution ourselves.

We usually buy products at the end year, and the license is included.

I will recommend this solution to potential customers because it's one of the top brands and it's good.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) a nine.

We use Data Domain to back up the SAP ERP system, and it worked very well.

We are moving to a public cloud.

We are very satisfied with this solution. It's easy to use and efficient.

The price is expensive, so that could be improved. The interface and dashboards could also be improved.

We have some problems with backing up on the Power Platform. PowerServer is an IBM product, and it forces us to back up over LAN, which is not suitable for us.

It needs some added features to back up the AIX OS or the old applications running on AIX OS.

10 years ago, we used the network backup, but we have upgraded our devices many times.

It's 99% stable.

It's 99% scalable.

Technical support is very good.

Setup was very easy.

The cost is expensive.

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

I would recommend this solution to anyone who wants to use it, for an enterprise of any size.

We use it mostly combined with software, such as NetWorker, and the Data Domain works as a repository for the information.

The features that I have found most valuable with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD are its deduplication feature and its DD Boost protocol for fast transfer, which is amazing.

I have seen documentation from other products saying that they protect against ransomware and I haven't seen this in Data Domain. I don't know if it is a good idea to have it in the appliance, but I would like to see some kind of integration with the ransomware in the next release.

I have been using Dell EMC PowerProtect DD for about 15, 20 years.

It is working stably. I haven't had any trouble with the implementations I have done.

The backup solutions are from EMC umbrella. I have been using them for more than 20 years. All the implementation I have done for the past nine years+ have combined NetWorker and Data Domain.

In terms of scalability, you can grow it and you can put additional units as needed.

In terms of the number of people required to maintain the solution, that depends on the size of the customer environment. As an example, we have a customer with about 50 physical and virtual servers. They have two Data Domains with an administrator, but it is maintained by only one person.

I haven't dealt with support because I haven't had any problems with the equipment.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It is pretty straightforward to implement - nothing very complicated. Most of the work is in the software part, so it depends on the software solution, not Data Domain particularly.

The software part also depends on the amount of servers we are trying to protect. It also depends on the amount and types of database and applications. That is the complex part of these types of implementations.

My advice to anyone considering this product is that the most important thing is to have a good sizing. If the sizing at the beginning is good, you won't have any trouble with the implementation or using the product. But if you have a bad sizing, it's going to be a headache.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give Dell EMC PowerProtect DD a 10.

My primary use case is as the backup storage feed application.

The most valuable features of this product are its guaranteed reliability and its duplication capability.

The size and scale of the product are limited and could be improved.

I have been using this solution for about five years.

I would say this is a fairly stable solution.

My experience has been that the tech support is pretty responsive.

This is a great product and should definitely be considered when comparing solutions. I would rate this product as seven out of ten. 

We as a company use this product to protect our information. We have Data Domain combined NetWorker for our own company, and we also install and provide services around those solutions to our customers.

In our company, Dell Data Domain is used to protect our servers (on-premises), where the most important servers for us are the File Server and the eMail server. The Dell Data Domain we have It´s combined with Dell NetWorker as the backup software. The Data Domain works as the repository of the information, taking advantage of the duplication and all the features that it has. We are getting about 30x as the deduplication ratio. It is managed by the software NetWorker, where all the backup policies reside. We have clients in all the servers directing information from the server to the Data Domain taking advantage of the software client direct feature. We make backups on a daily basis, as incremental backups, and over the weekend we have full backups. We have about 14 servers in our office. Mostly Windows and Linux.

Yes, Dell Data Domain has improved our organization's backup strategy. As I mentioned, our infrastructure has different types of servers, all of them are virtual servers based on VMware. Once we had to make a recovery and we used the Instant Recovery feature where we started the virtual machine over the Data Domain instead of the VMWare server. Then we used VMotion to move the virtual machine from the Data Domain to the VMware server. We were able to minimize the service failure to 15 minutes approximately. 

The feature that I find the most useful is its data duplication. We had been having problems doing backups for the file server because we did not have enough space to store our backups. Data Domain solved that problem for us.

In terms of what could be improved, when you use Data Domain, you have to have at least 15% to 20% of free space so it can work properly. I understand that space is needed to process all the data, but it would be a big improvement if we could use that space too.

Just to give you a little background, I work for an integrator and we are also users of the technology. We have installed and used Data Domain for five to six years now. We also provide installation and support services for Data Domain for our customers. 

I think it is awesome. We've been using Data Domain for almost five years, and during this time we have only had one problem with one disk. We reported that to Dell and they sent us the replacement part and we only have to exchange the disk with the failure. 

We are looking at the scalability right now, because the family of Data Domain we have is already being replaced, so we are looking at changing the Data Domain. It seems that the upgrade will be easy, but we are still planning how to do the upgrade. 

Sometimes it's difficult to reach the real experts to get a solution. The escalation process is not that great, but in the end, it works.

Tape based backups

I installed the Data Domain and it was really easy. 

It is not a big Data Domain, so it was just mounted in our rack. We followed the initial setup where the IP and the name are configured. After that, most of the configurations had to be done over the software.

The complex part of the configuration is in the backup server (software part), it is not in the Data Domain. The Data Domain was really easy to set up. The Data Domain setup took us about four hours.

Our deployment plan was based on the installation of the hardware first, and after that, the software deployment, starting with the backup server.

I implemented it alone.

N/A

The licensing was not an issue because it is related to the software part. I'm not really sure about the price, because I think we've gotten a discount as we are partners.

Traditional Disk-Based backups 

The main consideration for anyone interested in Dell EMC Data Domain is to have a good initial sizing. The planning part at the beginning of the project is the most important. 

On a scale of one to ten, I would give Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Domain a nine.

We use it for backup.

It is very fast as compared to the other competitors. Its simplicity and bit rate are also valuable. It takes less time if we compare it with the old solution that we have.

Its management can be improved.

I have been using this solution for five years.

It is scalable. It gives the possibility for extension. You can add to the existing units.

They are excellent. We have access to them, and they respond immediately and provide the required solution. Their solutions are valuable and effective.

Its price is reasonable.

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Dell EMC PowerProtect DD an eight out of ten. To be able to rate a solution as ten, one must be very proficient and should know several products to compare them all, which is not true in my case.

The backup is very secure. The deduplication using EMC is very good. We are able to make systems and handle random cloning. EMC is a very stable solution for making backups.

The solution needs to improve its platform, especially backup features like DB2 and other system backups. 

They should reduce the CPC cost to customers. The product is becoming very expensive.

In the next release, EMC should support stable level listings at restoration and stable space level in the database. Sometimes if I want to take the stable level restoration, EMC is not available. Only this one part is lacking in the current version. 

The solution is very stable.

The solution is easy to scale. We have nine people on it and they are all system admins. We are planning to increase usage and to increase the license.

Technical support is excellent. I would rate it eight out of ten.

We previously used HP Data Protector. The HP Data Protector backup was not secure. We used to do a backup, but at the time of restoration, it would give us some issues on the restored data.  We were not able to access and stream data on HP. EMC is much easier in terms of restoring the backup properly. 

The initial setup is very easy. Any person can handle the initial setup of the solution.

I handled the implementation myself.

I would recommend the solution. I'd rate them nine out of ten.

Primarily we use the solution as data storage and as a backup solution.

The solution's most valuable feature is the integrated deduplication function. Another valuable feature is the possibility for replication between two devices on different occasions.

The pricing could be better but it's still not too expensive. We haven't used the solution for long enough to really know what might be useful in a new release. We haven't used the full functionality yet and I'm not sure if all the functions are working as expected. We are using it, but it's not fully implemented.

We don't use technical support from EMC, but we do get it from our reseller, and they have been just fine in terms of offering assistance.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We had a reseller assist us with the implementation. We're very satisfied with the experience we had with them.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would recommend the solution to someone considering it. 

I would rate the solution seven or eight out of ten.