Cloud System Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 5
Fast, cost-effective, and easy to manage
Pros and Cons
  • "It is cost-effective and stable. It protects virtual machines, and there is a fast recovery time."
  • "One thing I would like to see in their roadmap is introducing long-term storage in the cloud such as Azure or AWS. They can make it more seamless."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zerto for disaster recovery. By implementing Zerto, we wanted fast recovery time.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps to meet recovery point objectives. Management is simplified. Its automation capabilities simplify the management of the disaster recovery processes.

It reduces the burden on the IT staff. It is also cost-effective. We could realize its benefits only in eight months.

Disaster recovery through the cloud is very important for our organization. We want to ensure that we are able to retrieve data in a proper manner.

Zerto helps to protect VMs in our environment. It replicates a lot quicker than what we were using previously. There is a reduction in the time taken to replicate. It takes a quarter of the time and protects our VM environment.

Zerto has been very good for our RPOs. It has been within seconds for us. It has also helped us to meet our RTOs.

It is easy to migrate data. We have not had any challenges. Zerto provides the ability to keep our users collaborating with one another during a data migration. It is very useful for a smooth migration process. 

Zerto helped to reduce our organization's DR testing. It saved three to four hours. 

Zerto has reduced the number of staff involved in overall backup and DR management. Instead of ten people, we now have seven people.

What is most valuable?

It is cost-effective and stable. It protects virtual machines, and there is a fast recovery time.

It works well. It is simple to set up. It works a lot quicker than what we were using previously. It takes about a quarter of the time. It is important for our organization.

What needs improvement?

One thing I would like to see in their roadmap is introducing long-term storage in the cloud such as Azure or AWS. They can make it more seamless.

The downtime features can also be improved.

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April 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zerto for one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. It can scale based on the growth of the organization.

We have about 25 people using this solution. It is being used in multiple regions.

How are customer service and support?

Their customer support is good. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using the disaster management solution of AWS. We switched to Zerto because of cost management and recovery point objectives. They were offering real-time replication and automation to help our organization achieve its RPOs and RTOs. We wanted better recovery time. 

Zerto is also easier to use than other solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Its initial setup is good. Its implementation took one month.

It is easy to maintain.

What about the implementation team?

We had support from Zerto.

What was our ROI?

We have definitely seen a return on investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is cost-effective.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Zerto to others. I would rate Zerto a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
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Director of IT at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
It is easy and simple. Allows administrators to sleep at night.
Pros and Cons
  • "We don't have to spend a whole lot of time worrying about DR and whether or not we are covered. Zerto just works. As it is replicating, we don't need to spend a whole lot of time with it. That is a huge benefit as far as daily management."
  • "We would like more mobile options. If we are at a restaurant or out and about in our normal daily lives, we would like to be able to interface via our mobiles."

What is our primary use case?

We have three locations. We replicate circularly around all those locations for all our VMs. This is for DR.

How has it helped my organization?

We don't have to spend a whole lot of time worrying about DR and whether or not we are covered. Zerto just works. As it is replicating, we don't need to spend a whole lot of time with it. That is a huge benefit as far as daily management.

Luckily, we haven't actually had to do a full failover. We have tested it many times, and it proves out okay, but we don't have to spend a lot of time managing it.

Our insurance companies provide assistance with staff or boots on the ground. Whereas, using Zerto has allowed us to act very quickly with just our current team. We can fail over and switch over to our disaster recovery site, instead of having to bring in a bigger team.

What is most valuable?

It is amazingly simple to use, monitor, look at, and utilize. It is great for that.

What needs improvement?

We would like more mobile options. If we are at a restaurant or out and about in our normal daily lives, we would like to be able to interface via our mobiles.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for about five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is simple. If you just add more virtual managers, then you are good to go.

How are customer service and support?

Our customer rep, success manager, and engineer are great.

Luckily, I haven't had to use the technical support that often. The times that I have, it has been fantastic. They quickly had me where I needed to be, which is top-notch and good.

I would rate them as eight or nine out of 10. Nobody is perfect.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It gives us peace of mind. Before we had disaster recovery and long-term retention protection against ransomware, it was one of those things that kept us up at night.

We previously used VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and Veeam for backup. Zerto is way better and more friendly. Zerto's interface, simplicity, and reliability are definitely better than SRM.

When we were using SRM, it didn't have a web interface. Zerto's web interface makes it easier to navigate. When we used SRM, it was an actual application. It was a bit clunkier and a lot more difficult to use. However, it has been awhile, so it might not be a fair comparison at this point.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was pretty simple. The implementation took less than half a day. It has been awhile, but it was very seamless, easy, and did not take very long. We were up and running pretty quickly.

What about the implementation team?

Zerto was involved with the initial deployment. We paid for their Professional Services, who walked us through the whole thing. It was very simple.

What was our ROI?

Our technology committee established an RPO and RTO. We beat those times with Zerto. We have a 30-minute RTO and we can recover within seconds. We have far exceeded any expectations so far.

From the simple point of not having to worry about whether or not we are protected in the event of ransomware or disaster, it is worth the money.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing seems fair.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other solutions around five years ago.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend buying it. It is easy and simple. It works. It is all the things that any administrator would want. You don't need to spend a lot of time messing with it and you can sleep at night.

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10 because nothing is perfect.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Zerto
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zerto. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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IT Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Pretty easy to scale, not only horizontally, but also vertically
Pros and Cons
  • "Using Zerto, you can have your VM up and running in a matter of minutes. All you need to do is flip a switch, then you are good to go."
  • "It needs more documentation and automation features. I would like more documentation on designing an environment and network operations. On the automation side, I would like automation to clean up the environment in cases of a failed DR effort. An API interface to perform the DR exercise would also be nice."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to protect VMs. Disaster recovery is our use case. Our compliance requires that we need to simulate a DR exercise every six months if we are protecting a VM. One of the features of Zerto is simulating a disaster recovery exercise in case of failure. We fail back the VM to the DR site, and when the event is over, we fail it back to the production site.

We are using one of the newer releases, but we are still six months behind.

How has it helped my organization?

It meets our SLAs for RPOs and RTOs.

What is most valuable?

  • Replication
  • Failover and failback for DR

What needs improvement?

It needs more documentation and automation features. I would like more documentation on designing an environment and network operations. On the automation side, I would like automation to clean up the environment in cases of a failed DR effort. An API interface to perform the DR exercise would also be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zerto for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. We have had no big problems. 

There have been a few minor upgrades.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. From a few hundred to 5,000, it has been pretty easy to scale, not only horizontally, but also vertically.

Zerto is protecting a couple thousand VMs.

How are customer service and support?

The support is very good with quick response times. They are helpful. If you open a session, they will take over and immediately solve your problem. I would rate them as nine out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used SRM and Veeam. 

Zerto is a better product. It has more modern features. It is easy to use. It also has a good interface with command line for scripts.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. The solution is easy to implement. You implement it and it starts working out-of-the-box. There is not much configuration required. It takes a couple of hours to have it up and running, protecting you.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed the system ourselves.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI with the RTOs, RPOs, and speed of recovery.

Using Zerto, you can have your VM up and running in a matter of minutes. All you need to do is flip a switch, then you are good to go.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

For speed of recovery, Zerto is faster than SRM. SRM takes more time and needs some manual effort. Veeam is pretty good and on par with Zerto.

What other advice do I have?

Do a PoC. You can compare it with other products, like SRM and Veeam. Then, you will see that difference. It is good to have the solution working in a lab. Or, engage Zerto who can assist you in building a lab for it.

I would rate the solution as nine out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Systems Specialist at KESA
Real User
Easy to operate and very dependable.

What is our primary use case?

Disaster Recovery and quick file recovery.  We have used Zerto to recover from Ransomware three times.  Between the attacks we have recovered over 2 million files.  We have never paid a ransome.  Our users were only affected just under two hours with the attacks, majority of the time is actually figuring out in the office which pc actually had the crypto locker program running.

How has it helped my organization?

Zerto was able to use an EMC PROD SAN, and a HP DR SAN with no issues or compatibility problems which allowed us to avoid buying expensive hardware for a DR site.

Zerto has allowed us to feel comfortable our data is being replicated, and the data is not corrupted.

What is most valuable?

Zerto is packed full of useful features. The main feature is easy to manage, you will not need to be in Zerto day to day as it runs flawless.

Zerto has a plugin to integrate seamlessly into VMware VSphere tab.

I would highlight is the fact Zerto was used to migrate all of our VMs from one data center to another data center (two different physical locations) when we upgraded to new hardware. The migration was a breeze.

My second valuable feature is being able to click just a few points in the program to initiate a test vm recovery at our DR location. After testing, all test VMs are deleted along with the data. This is automated, you do not need to interact with deleting VMs.

In Zerto depending on your hardware and internet connection between your production site and DR site you can expect an RPO of 15 seconds.

As of the summer 2016, Zerto just created an extremely fast way to recover files from their journal. Instead of going to our long term backup program and taking a half hour or longer to find a file, Zerto is getting me the file in 4min. This is making my life easier and keeping users happy.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see Zerto come up with an emergency line for support. Support does get back to you quickly, but when your heart is racing because something happened the calmness of a pro on the other end would be helpful. The reports also need TLC, as I do not really find them helpful.

With these two minor negatives the product and support are great and they get the job done. I am an extremely happy Zerto supporter.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The only issue with stability was when I caused the issue by changing VM settings in the DR site. This was a great test for support, they took care of the issue quickly and got me back up and running.

I consistently see 8-18 seconds RPO. We test DR by adding a file to a server, then 1minute later launching the test failover to a site that is 6 hours (drive time) away. The file will be there in the DR bubble.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We added new VMs with no issues, the only issue to keep in mind is the more VMs you add, the more storage your DR needs.

How is customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Outstanding! Pre-sale we had someone with Zerto actually come to our office and make sure this was the right choice for us. After we went live we had a few calls (initiated by Zerto) making sure we were happy and everything was running smooth. We still get periodic emails checking on us. I have not seen that with other companies.

On the Zerto team, Jennifer and Ciana helping us in our times of need.

Technical Support:

AWESOME!

Tech Support is all initiated by email, but then Zerto will call you if needed. This avoids phone cues. The person I talked to the two times I called in were awesome, they were very knowledgeable. Even though I caused one of the issues that needed fixed by support, they did not treat me with any disrespect even though I caused the issue. The tech did explain how to correctly do the tasks.

How was the initial setup?

We had a very experienced consultant set us up.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for someone thinking about Zerto is to do the trial run that Zerto offers, you will be impressed. If you are looking to get RPO's of 30seconds or less, Zerto can do it. I typically see 8-18 seconds RPO. Needless to say this depends greatly on your WAN link.

I highly recommend going to Boston in 2017 and meeting the staff at Zertocon!

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Network Services Manager at M. J. Electric, LLC
Real User
We were able to start replication within minutes of the initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "During a failover to a DR site, Zerto can automatically change the IP address of servers."
  • "With Zerto, we were able to replicate our virtual servers to a remote DR site across a WAN connection."
  • "The initial setup was very straightforward and easy. We were able to start replication within minutes of the initial setup."
  • "I would like them to add a VM host replication option. Being able to replicate host configuration between sites would be a huge benefit."

What is our primary use case?

Virtual server replication, as well as a level of backup, to our disaster recovery site.

How has it helped my organization?

Zerto is the key to our DR strategy. With Zerto, we were able to replicate our virtual servers to a remote DR site across a WAN connection. Zerto has made it possible to have different hardware (processor and storage) at each site.

What is most valuable?

  • Hardware independent: Being able to replicate between two different sets of storage and processors.
  • On the fly IP address changes: During a failover to a DR site, Zerto can automatically change the IP address of servers.

What needs improvement?

I would like them to add a VM host replication option. Being able to replicate host configuration between sites would be a huge benefit. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zerto is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No scalability issues. We have added additional licensing over the years and haven't had any issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had to use technical support too much, but we have always found the technicians helpful and knowledgeable. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use another solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward and easy. We were able to start replication within minutes of the initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

Zerto support helped us install and implement it initially. They were very knowledgeable.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We believe the pricing, setup costs, and licensing are easy to understand. The pricing seems very reasonable. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

For the most part, we are very satisfied with Zerto and its features. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user704025 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Infrastructure Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Has a significant impact on moving the data center across various sites with perfection
Pros and Cons
  • "Failing over the VM without removing/touching the production VM from inventory is also an important feature."
  • "There is a need to allow the source vCenter Inventory to be imported with a single click."

What is most valuable?

The Clone Virtual Protection Group does not impact the production virtual protection group which is the most valuable feature.

Failing over the VM without removing/touching the production VM from inventory is also an important feature.

How has it helped my organization?

This product has a significant impact on moving the data center across various sites with perfection.

What needs improvement?

There is a need to allow the source vCenter Inventory to be imported with a single click.

What I meant by one click vCenter is that there is no current option to migrate a vCenter logical cluster as a whole. You can only migrate individual VMs only by adding them into a VPG (Virtual Protection Group). You can failover multiple VMs after adding them into VPG.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for over three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues, it is one of the most stable software out there.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues, it is very simple and easy to deploy/scale.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is amazing, i.e., if you purchase the premium support. They respond within minutes, it is a very professional technical support team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used a different solution. It was more complex and full of bugs, so that was the main reason that we switched to this product.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very straightforward. Anyone can do it!

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing depends on your future growth. Start small and then scale up.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at another solution namely the VMware SRM solution, it is the recovery point for virtual machines.

What other advice do I have?

Just buy it with eyes closed, no requirements are needed. It works with various VMware versions.

This is the most amazing hypervisor-based replication that I have ever used.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Adjunct Professor at Southern New Hampshire University
Real User
Journaling allows us to leverage for sub-minute recoveries
Pros and Cons
  • "Journaling allows us to leverage Zerto's journal for sub-minute recoveries, instead of having to wait for the storage array to replicate."
  • "The full site recovery is not up to SRM standards."
  • "It is difficult to manage failing over between sites if you are at the site that was impacted."

What is our primary use case?

We were able to replace most of VMware SRM with this solution. It allows us to failover individual machines or application clusters with ease. The one thing that it does not do nicely is a full site failover. We have never needed that aspect though (only for testing).

How has it helped my organization?

We have leveraged the individual server failovers a number of times, and it has saved us a lot of man hours (doing things such as rebuilding, fighting viruses, or forcing more servers to failover than we wanted). It has been a phenomenal addition, and proved its worth in the pilot phase, when it saved us from having to rebuild a machine that was included in our pilot trial.

What is most valuable?

Journaling allows us to leverage Zerto's journal for sub-minute recoveries, instead of having to wait for the storage array to replicate. The solution is well worth the money invested.

What needs improvement?

The full site recovery is not up to SRM standards. Within a VPG, you can do great failover timing as well as ordering and scripting, but if your site contains many VPGs (as mine does), then it is difficult to manage failing over between sites, especially if you are at the site that was impacted.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None. Even the upgrades are speedy and easy. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None. As long as you have the licenses, it goes smoothly.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have contacted their vendor support in regards to backup performance of SQL databases. They provided me with adequate instruction and background information to be able to adjust my environment to better suit Zerto's processes. It's been smooth sailing since.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

VMware Site Recovery Manager. We changed from this vendor because we hit the 75 license threshold and were forced to consider the conversion to Enterprise. We searched the marketplace and Zerto was a great fit for our needs.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward and easy. I was able to install it myself without any help from Zerto.

What about the implementation team?

In-house was all that was necessary. It only required one engineer to work for about two hours to install everything, and then a week to configure and protect the entire environment. This will vary depending on your link to your DR site.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is steep, but once you experience recovering a single server along with its granular restore times, you will see that the cost is justified.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Unitrends.

What other advice do I have?

Make sure that you understand the limitations of any software before you dive in. Make sure you document your use cases and have the vendor show you how it can perform those tasks.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
VMware Systems Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Is stable, easy to use, and has good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "We've never had any major headaches with the virtual-protection groups. They seem to work exactly as they should. If there's ever an issue with replication, we know right away, so it's all been very reliable."
  • "The time between releases is too long. Zerto doesn't seem to really keep up with the products with which they need to be compatible. For instance, the 9.5 updates 3 took about 90 days to come out after the latest version of vCenter 7.0 update 3 was released."

What is our primary use case?

We use it mostly for VMs that are hosting client-facing applications and mostly client databases. We replicate 100 servers; we have 100 protected VMs.

What is most valuable?

We've never had any major headaches with the virtual-protection groups. They seem to work exactly as they should. If there's ever an issue with replication, we know right away, so it's all been very reliable.

Zerto is much easier to use than Veeam when you compare the two in terms of ease of use. Everything is very straightforward and simple in the Web Client. It's very clear if something is wrong, and everything in the Web Client works great. In Veeam, it's a little more complex; I find myself having to look through long error messages when a job fails. Whereas with Zerto, if I see a red VPG I can click on it. I would then know exactly which VM is having an issue, and I can try to troubleshoot the issue.

What needs improvement?

The time between releases is too long. Zerto doesn't seem to really keep up with the products with which they need to be compatible. For instance, the 9.5 updates 3 took about 90 days to come out after the latest version of vCenter 7.0 update 3 was released.

We were facing a vulnerability, so we had to choose between patching our vCenter to address that vulnerability, which would break the Zerto operability, or leaving it as is with a potential vulnerability. That was really the main issue we ever faced with Zerto.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Zerto for the past three or so years, but my company used it before I started working there.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Zerto is very stable. I've never had an issue related to stability with Zerto, and anytime we have had any potential issues, we get alerts from Zerto. It has always been a simple fix. Also, the issue has never had to do with the platform; it's always been a VM that was powered off or deleted.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been pretty sufficient. I've only had one or two cases ever that weren't related to looking for a release date, but I've had pretty good success with them so far.

I would give technical support a rating of eight out of ten. They've never particularly impressed me, but they've always done their job.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I was not present for the initial setup, but I deployed Zerto Virtual Manager. It was pretty straightforward. You walk through the wizard, and if you have all your networks on the server and everything is done correctly, you can start to build VPGs right away.

If you have all of the network and firewall rules already in place, you could probably stand up a new one in 45 minutes.

What other advice do I have?

It's a pretty set-it-and-forget-it type of tool, and it's very reliable. So, I would rate it an eight on a scale from one to ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zerto Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Zerto Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.