Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) Reviews

We use this solution to replace existing backups for Avamar and Data Domain that have been integrated and set up earlier.

The primary use case is backup and restoration.

The upgrade process is a single upgrade. You don't have to upgrade Avamar Data Domain separately for DTA. These products get upgraded automatically with one upgrade.

It is very simple to perform an upgrade of the system and the environment.

DPA is built-in, and you have other features such as the DPA search. DPS search is a pretty good feature.

The DPC, which is data protection central, is a single pane of glass view of the environment. This is a new feature and it is helpful.

The biggest issue is with the SSO, which is missing. With other products, you login into a single user and have access to everything. DPC is not integrated.

You can log into it but you have to log into Avamar and Data Domain separately. It's not really a single sign-on to the entire environment in one shot.

I would like to see it fully integrated. They need to bring in the SSO so that you can log in once to the IDPA and should be able to access everything through a single user. You shouldn't have to re-authenticate to each of its components. This is a problem.

They have multiple logins. They could have made it easier by using SSO. 

Another area that is missing is the two-factor authentication. The two-factor authentication is missing from Dell products.

They don't have the ability to integrate with Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Okta. There is no way of doing two-factor authentication.

They need SSO with role-based access. You will have role-based access control to log in, then you should be able to define that login. You can define what access levels it has to the various components. For example, I log in with one user, I should be able to say only have one backup operator, access to Avamar or Data Domain. I can have admin access, search, or have admin, your advisor, the DPA, or I can have normal monitoring of user access. I should be able to define that in a central location.

I have been working with Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance for one year.

It's more stable because everything is managed through one process.

It is scalable to a certain extent. There are some limitations. If you have a specific model then you have to upgrade to a higher one. 

You can add another shelf, but once you have reached your limit, you have to go with a new model. You can't go on increasing it, you will have to invest in higher models of the IDPA appliances based on capacity.

The head IT team is using this solution and they support the IDPA. It's a team of 10 to 15 people. Our team is made up of managers, admins, engineers, and developers.

Depending on our customers' needs, we will increase the usage. It depends on the requirements for more capacity. 

Our clients have already sized it for three to five years.

The installation is done by Dell. They take it as a project and complete it. It is not done by the current customer. 

Dell offers a professional service to do it.

When you purchase a new appliance from Dell, you will get an IDPA, but you will no longer get a separate Avamar Appliance.

The licensing is billed on a monthly basis. Dell is bundled so that when you order IDPA, you get everything together with the license.

Avamar is the brain, but we have Data Domain and you have the latest versions. Both are integrated closely.

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

Dell themselves will not sell to you individually. It depends on your environment. They are moving to IDPA everywhere.

In summary, this product is very stable, has the best of Avamar Data Domain, and has good reporting.

I would rate Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance a nine out of ten.

Right now, we are using it for traditional backup purposes. It's deployed on-premise. We do have an option to use 200 terabytes in the cloud, but it's not exactly what they told us it would be for a cloud-based solution.

We bought Dell IDPA to compress our backups. 

After resizing and compression, the system continuously runs out of space. Dell EMC doesn't do automatic cleanup or other things, so we constantly have to manually go in there or work with Dell support on this. The solution has not been working as advertised.

I've been using Dell IDPA since the tail end of 2019, so going on two years.

We haven't had to restore anything, so IDPA has been pretty stable.

It takes a week for Dell's frontline support to find a solution or we have to escalate it with somebody above them.

We were using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM). Well, with Tivoli, when we recycled and retired backups—if we claimed the space—we didn't run into any capacity issues. But it took longer to backup and restore. We haven't had to restore with the IDPA, so we can't compare the two. So, we're pretty much leaning heavily on the recovery point in our VxRail environment instead of taking a chance with restoring a full VM from IDPA.

We worked with the Dell professional services team, and there were a couple of delays getting things set up. For starters, there were a few specific components we needed that weren't included, and they didn't tell us that, so we had to wait weeks for parts to be shipped in. After we got everything we needed, their professional services set everything up, so it was pretty straightforward from there. However, it hasn't worked as advertised since.

We're on our second year of a three-year license.  When our third year is up, we're going to choose another solution.

Based on our experience, I'd give Dell IDPA a five out of 10. Our experience with it so far has been underwhelming. We implemented the solution for a specific purpose, and it hasn't lived up to our expectations. I'm sure it's a good solution. It backs up our Windows systems and our Linux systems and everything. However, it doesn't do well with databases, no matter what they claim. That's where we're having a capacity issue. Every time we back up our databases, we're running out of space. And then, we have to work out work with support, which takes too long. Dell's support is a big reason for the low score. It has been completely unsatisfactory. We've always had to escalate that support to get traction.

If you're considering Dell IDPA, work with your Dell rep and make sure that the features you want are not an add-on. Get everything you need for your solution because whenever we had an issue, they told us we should've bought this or that. This solution has been piecemeal. Every time we're trying to solve a problem, their answer is to buy another product or add-on.

We primarily use the solution for backup and recovery.

It's a converting solution. We don't need to manage different devices. For example, for storing the data, you don't need to have separate storage. It is in a purposeful built-in backup pipeline. It's a very good product.

For our purposes, we are happy with the product. We don't have any challenges and it is not that critical to managing. For a person having any kind of backup experience, background in the backup software, he'll be able to manage it easily. It's one of the best products in the field.

The product offers an easy initial setup.

The pricing is good. It's not the most expensive option.

It gives you a very good deduplication ratio. It is my understanding that no other database can do this much deduplication.

I can't speak to any missing features. We are happy with the product.

We would like to see the pricing drop a bit.

It is a good, stable product with good reliability and performance. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product can scale up and scale out. There is no issue in that regard. Scaling is easy enough to execute. 

The product is simple to set up. It's not overly complex or difficult. I'd rate it a five out of five in terms of the ease of deployment. 

If a company has a knowledgeable person on staff, it definitely only needs one person to manage and deploy the solution.

The pricing of the product is pretty reasonable. I'd rate the pricing at a three out of five in terms of affordability.

Licensing is paid on a yearly basis.

While this solution is available on the cloud, we are using it on-premises. Which we use depends on the customer. 

Dell has different backup solutions within its portfolio. It depends on our requirements which one we go with. In terms of IDPA, for me, it's a good product.

I would recommend the solution to others. It depends on the use case, however, if you are a small to medium organization, definitely go for it.

I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use Dell IDPA for backup and disaster recovery.

IDPA's best feature is Turbo Boost Technology. The compression and duplication features are excellent, too. 

I would like to see more options and features about Recovery from Dell EMC Cloud Tier

I started using Dell EMC IDPA in the last year. 

Integrated Data Protection is stable. 

Integrated Data Protection has a lot of options for scalability. 

Setting up Integrated Data Protection was simple and easy, and deployment only took a few hours. 

We pay for a yearly license, and it's affordable. 

I rate Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance 10 out of 10.