What is most valuable?
Instant Recovery – Instantly recover a virtual machine from the backup file on backup storage, then migrate it back into production. RTO’s can be measured in minutes.
Virtual Lab – Spin up an environment (web app, middleware, and a database) from the backup files in a virtual network bubble and tinker around with it – maybe apply and test patches (not that they ever go wonky).
SureBackup – Ever restored something only to find out you didn’t configure the backup job correctly. This feature tests the backups, without impacting the production systems. What a brilliant idea! To actually test the validity of restoring from backups.
How has it helped my organization?
Ability to attract customers with a simple product to protect their data and lead them into conversations about how to enable business outcomes that are positive as opposed to catastrophic. With the multiple facets of potential data compromise (ie: Virus, Ransomware, employee mistake, etc., etc.) and or destruction, educating our customers on the inexpensive options that can provide quick remediation to inevitable outages that could be extremely detrimental to business continuity.
What needs improvement?
The product is really awesome for the virtualized environment – hands down. It really lives up to its motto – it just works. One caveat – those physical servers that are still outliers. We are constantly hearing that our customers would be “SOLD” if there was a solid physical server solution. To their credit – I know they are working hard to provide a solution that meets these needs. And candidly, I want them to take their time and develop, test and deploy a solution that works as reliably as the current product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve used it for year through Cloud Connect, and the base platform for five years.
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Veeam Data Platform
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We did have some small discoveries as we rolled out the product to our customers. WAN acceleration is extremely robust and a valuable feature built into the Enterprise version of the product.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We found that due to faster than typical internet speeds available (i.e. 1 GB) – we were not seeing the benefits that we had expected. Turning it off increased the speeds and reduced the bottleneck.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
One feature that was missing, but introduced in v9, is the ability to manage multiple repositories across disparate storage arrays or sources. Now the new feature can present them as one repository, allowing robust expansion without having to move and balance datasets as the increase in size, and we know how backup sets grow exponentially as time marches on.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup requires some thought as to sizing and future growth. But it is also very forgiving and adaptable as growth and complexity changes. Don’t let that statement fool you though. To take advantage of the more advanced feature – which are incredible (Virtual Labs for instance) do require some more advance investigation and for me – deep dives into the forums.
What about the implementation team?
We leveraged talent in-house. Implementation of simple (but robust) functions can be really straight forward for most small to medium environments. To get basic services up running we suggest that customers download the free version and get started with it. This will introduce them to how Veeam approaches backup and recovery. Sometimes Backup Admins are a little shocked at how easy it is to admin, even though they have used and are very familiar with legacy products.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, most of our customer who have been used to buying, supporting and maintaining other well know products are shocked at how economical Veeam is and sometime question “how good can it be?” They are quickly convinced that it is a very robust product and start designing ways to “leverage” their backup data in ways they hadn’t imagined.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have evaluated and currently offer other products to meet specific needs. But as a general offering for our customers who have mostly virtualized environments, and want an economical way to protect and leverage their backups, Veeam has the most robust and forward thinking feature set.
What other advice do I have?
Start simple. Get it up and running. Then start investigating the many, many “cool” features that are available. Definitely take a look at future proofing technologies such as Virtual Lab, Cloud Connect for an offsite copy and SureBackup.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a Service Partner and part of the VSPP
I agree about the physical servers and if they can come up with something that would sell many people even more on their solution. Using Endpoint Backup to me is a workaround as it is not fully supported like the product with "Best Case" support via email only but the product does work well for Veeam Repositories. Can't wait to see what comes in the future.