Veeam Backup & Replication

I came across a request for the customer to choose Veeam Data Platform. During the implementation, I faced a lot of challenges. Veeam Data Platform has some limitations similar to other tools. When I engaged the support team or during implementation, I personally felt that there are many more limitations and enhancements needed on Veeam Data Platform.

From a security standpoint, I can give a good rating. When it comes to replication, Veeam Data Platform is good. The instant recovery in Veeam Data Platform is also good. However, retention extension or customization to meet banking or customer requirements is lacking. We do not have direct features, and it would be beneficial if Veeam Data Platform could concentrate more on this.

The alerting is minimal and cannot be customized in Veeam Data Platform. I cannot enable alerts only for success for one application and only for failure for another application. No such customization is supported. Other enterprise tools offer minimal features that allow customization for alerts and report configurations. In Veeam Data Platform, this aspect is not up to the mark, limiting us from opting for the features offered.

Veeam Data Platform is good at VM replication. When it comes to enterprise solutions like Oracle backup or MySQL, PostgreSQL, HANA, and similar databases, the features in Veeam Data Platform are not as impressive as those in other tools. For VM replication and if you are looking for redundancy for the primary site, Veeam Data Platform is good. However, to deal with enterprise databases or multiple applications, Veeam Data Platform presents some challenges.

The instant recovery is a feature I noticed in Veeam Data Platform, and it is good. Regarding ransomware protection, I can give a good rating in terms of ransomware because it allows us to enable immutability and also gives us an option for malware detection. We can use our own custom encryption if required, so from the security standpoint, Veeam Data Platform offers good features.

I feel policy-driven data management is good, as it follows the GFS retention, such as grandfather, father, and son. It restricts us to choose a specific data backup as a GFS one, but that is acceptable. I do not find any challenges concerning the policy-driven concept. The backups are retained according to the retention policy and age appropriately when they meet the retention period.

The support and compatibility are areas of concern. When it comes to Azure workloads, Veeam Data Platform has limitations with only MS SQL database and Cosmos, and no other databases are supported by Veeam Backup for Azure.

The main challenge I noticed is that enterprise customers may have a requirement to retain backups for 10 years or 15 years with monthly and weekly backups. In Veeam Data Platform, we do not have customization or compatibility to retain specific data backups as monthly and yearly. The retention schedule is fixed. For instance, it is the first Friday of the backup or the last Friday of the month. If it is weekly, it should be one of the weeks. If it is monthly, it should be the last Friday. For yearly, it is the last Friday of that respective month in that year. However, this should not be the case. When a customer confirms, 'Please go and take an EOD backup and retain it for 10 years,' Veeam Data Platform does not support this sort of customization. I even raised a case with Veeam Data Platform and they clearly stated that Veeam Data Platform only accepts the GFS policy according to the retention defined, and there is no customization available. This is a significant limitation.

I should have the customization to go and take a backup of a specific date, month, or year, but Veeam Data Platform does not allow this and restricts me to only the policy supported.

For example, if I take any backup, I do not have an option to extend the retention. If a customer asks, 'Please take a backup,' and later requests, 'No, it is very critical. Can you please extend the retention for 15 years?' Veeam Data Platform does not support this. Veeam Data Platform does not allow me to extend the retention in the way other tools do. These are limitations I came across in my experience, and I feel these are minimal requirements. The same features are offered by other third-party backup tools available in the market.

From the analytics point of view, I personally feel some challenges. Veeam Data Platform has two different products: VBR and Veeam Backup for Azure. As we are running on cloud platforms, if we are in Azure, we must go for Veeam Backup for Azure. If we need to create copy jobs, I must again come to VBR. However, Veeam ONE is not capable enough to integrate both platforms. For instance, if I am taking backup of workloads through Veeam Backup for Azure, I could not find an option to integrate it into Veeam ONE for reports and analytics. It is only limited to VBR. Whatever jobs we created in VBR are displayed there, but Veeam Backup for Azure does not integrate, at least from what I have explored, and it should not be this way. Veeam ONE should support all Veeam Data Platform products.

I have been working with Veeam Data Platform for close to three years.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the tech support lower. In my personal experience, whatever cases I raised were escalated to the next level. I did not get direct support. It is very rare that I received direct support from the assigned engineer. Most cases got escalated to the next level. They also came up with an answer that whatever is defined in the documentation must be reviewed. However, it does not provide a concrete solution in one single link. I really have to redirect to multiple links, even if the request pertains to one particular application such as VMs, Oracle, or databases. I must go through numerous links. There is no consolidated view of the limitations, features, and only the options available. I really must go through several KB articles to understand the respective functionality.

I have experience with Commvault primarily, and I also worked with NetBackup. Recently, I worked on Networker. Along with Veeam Data Platform, I am responsible for cloud-native backups such as Azure backup, AWS, OCI, and GCP native backup solutions as well.

When it comes to VBR, the initial setup is very straightforward. However, for Veeam Backup for Azure, dealing with cloud requires full control on RBAC and networking concepts. Although it is straightforward, some knowledge about networking, security, and RBAC is necessary, particularly with cloud technologies.

I do not feel that Veeam Data Platform's license is that expensive. It is affordable for enterprise customers. I think we are good in that aspect. However, I noticed that some licensing in other enterprise backup solutions available in the market is somewhat more expensive.

Regarding the pricing aspect, setup cost, and licensing part of Veeam Data Platform, I think we are good on the licensing part, regardless of whether you choose a point-based or capacity-based model. Veeam Data Platform is good in this regard. Whatever workloads you need to enable, you should ensure that the licenses are available before enabling protection for those specific workloads.

The key differences between Veeam Data Platform and other technologies depend on the requirement. As I mentioned earlier, the minimal customization aspects in Veeam Data Platform such as alerting, report configuration, or extending backups to define monthly and yearly backups per customer need are significant. These basic features are critical and supported by other tools. If a customer requests, 'Can you please extend the retention for this backup job?' Veeam Data Platform does not allow me to choose this option directly, though alternatives exist but involve complex procedures. From a security standpoint, most tools are at a similar level now, especially with cloud technologies. Everyone is focusing more on security, whether in enabling encryption, immutability, malware detection, or air-gap technology, such as having backup copies in isolated locations.

Given my experience with Veeam Data Platform, I would recommend that especially in the cloud era, Veeam Data Platform should support backups for all cloud workloads. Currently, I am dealing with a project where we have Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL, and HANA, but Veeam Backup for Azure is limited solely to MS SQL and Cosmos DB. None of the other databases are supported. From the customer standpoint, I would prefer a unified backup solution for all workloads. However, since some workloads are not supported by Veeam Data Platform, we must resort to other third-party tools or choose native cloud backup features if available.