The tool's performance is very good. DD Boost can improve its performance and backup.
Dell PowerProtect Data Domain Virtual Edition for AWS
Dell TechnologiesExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Has good performance but pricing is expensive
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
The tool's DD Boost is expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for ten years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is scalable. I rate it a six out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the product a six out of ten.
A highly reliable and scalable product that comes with a lot of storage packed into one rack
What is our primary use case?
The solution is mainly used for backups and archiving.
What is most valuable?
DD's deduplication technology is valuable because it partially offloads deduplication on the client and backup server while the rest happens on the data domain. The deduplication is 65 times more than other products.
What needs improvement?
DD doesn't have Intel's air gap technology. Regarding the cyber technology area, we have to purchase another data domain to use CyberSense or other software packages, and that's a complex process. On ExaGrid, they do have a built-in air gap, so it's more secure. That's the only part DD has to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Dell PowerProtect DD for two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
DD is a stable product, and we can trust it. There won't be any long downtime with it. It's always on.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't think any infrastructure requires more than one database of data backup. 9900 has around 1.5 petabits of capacity in a single rack, and that's huge.
My organization is small. We support other customers, with more than ten customers using the product.
How are customer service and support?
I always contact Dell's technical support team for help with Data Domain. Their services are always excellent. You receive parts the next business day.
How was the initial setup?
Our certified field engineers must do DD's initial setup because it's complicated. However, the initial setup is not complicated; everyone can do it. They just have to follow the procedure. It's always recommended to perform by engineers who are experienced.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Based on price, I can say you won't get 24/7 support from any other product like what Dell EMC provides. The price may be a bit higher than other products in the market, but you will receive ten out of ten support with next-business-day delivery on parts' availability. And on a product basis, DD is a good product. The product comes with a support contract, so DD will be a better option on that basis.
It's worth the money somebody is spending to use Data Domain.
What other advice do I have?
I suggest people use DD because it depends on the requirement. If it's for backup purposes, you should go for it. It is the best product in the market.
I would like to implement Data Domain's virtual edition and take backups to the cloud at the cloud facility.
I rate Dell PowerProtect DD a ten out of ten because it meets all our requirements.
Helps us store data backups and has a valuable deduplication feature
What is our primary use case?
We use the product to store data backups of instruments.
What is most valuable?
Dell PowerProtect DD’s most valuable feature is data deduplication.
What needs improvement?
We encountered data loss during the configuration process. We were not able to restore the information later. This particular area needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have encountered stability issues only twice or thrice in the last year. It suddenly crashed the operating system, and we had to restart it.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team takes time to respond.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment process is difficult from a configuration perspective. We can always connect with the support team. It requires two executives to work on the implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We took help from a service provider for installation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Dell PowerProtect DD an eight out of ten.
A stable tool that offers good technical support
What is our primary use case?
We use Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for various projects, which is basically associated with the current project work. We procured it for an EHR activity.
What needs improvement?
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is expensive. Also, it has a sort of a big physical footprint that data domains have, and that's part of the problem. If we move one of the DR locations to the new project into a data center or Cylance facility, the footprint of the data domain is quite expensive, as well as the unit being expensive. That is the reason why I am looking at options in that area.
Apart from the pricing, there is also room for improvement in the speed of recovery. With the data domains, there is a limit to how much data I can recover and the visibility from a cyber perspective. The discovery at the time when your malware impact may have occurred is quite tricky to pinpoint what, where, and when it is potentially damaged. So, the recovery is harder to define because you don't want to recover more encrypted stuff. For example, there is a piece of work associated with that, which with ease, Rubrik can do quite well.
In addition, there is also some room for improvement with technical support.
I would also like it to be a little bit smaller. It is quite a large footprint. Also, a better interface would be good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) for probably two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I would rate the stability of the solution a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is scalable. It is fine. In our company, indirectly, everybody uses the data domain. But it's probably two to three people regularly interacting with it.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has always been good. No fault with that. However, there is always room for improvement. I would rate its support a nine out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
It is complex to set that up, and we have had trouble with that. It is not as straightforward as you necessarily hope it to be.
We have got it involved with the cyber vault as well, and that took a month or two to get up and running. But some of that was associated with delivery issues with parts and stuff.
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is not as intuitive as some other products. Other things out there provide better capabilities. The data domain has got a bit of catching up to do with Cohesity and Rubrik as well.
What was our ROI?
It is not an area that you necessarily see an ROI. You get recoveries in that, but it's not, like, something that you know. I wouldn't say it is a necessity as opposed to seeing any return on it. So, I don't think you ever would see any ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The approximate license cost for Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is around 5,00,000. It is a physical license for the term of the product. Veeam has an annual license, and the rest are all tied together.
As for the maintenance costing, I have included that in the capital expenditure on the data domain for the Veeam support maintenance contract associated with that as well. But for the hardware, we purchased., a five-year block as a one-off capital cost, whereas Veeam has a shorter lifetime. This is because it's more revenue-based expenditure. Although we normally buy that for three years. But it's sort of rolling. Whereas we replace the physical hardware for up to five or seven years, depending on limitations on that.
What other advice do I have?
The recovery speed is the most important one for me. The data domain has a bit of a bottleneck on it, including its AI functionality. The data domain is sort of a target. It does not really have much intelligence. So, it depends on Veeam or another solution to do all the backup intelligence around it. It does have different kinds of functionalities to help speed up a backup from Dell SANs and storage and stuff. However, I think that it's not necessarily flexible with all their options for scanning the data that's being ingested and reporting on it.
Another piece of advice that I would give the users who want to use Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is to do your homework, I think. Making sure you look at all the alternatives and validate the speed with which you can recover is quite important, and knowing what you need to recover.
I would rate Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) an eight out of ten.
The deduplication and compression are the most valuable, and the processing capabilities (version DD670) could be improved
What is our primary use case?
The Data Domain serves as our primary backup device used with Veeam. It is used for all service backups and restores.
How has it helped my organization?
This allows our organization to send more data to this device compared to others. It also allows us a fast recovery of files or Virtual Machines if needed being on-premise.
What is most valuable?
I would rate it at 5/5 as the deduplication and compression of the device for backups are outstanding. We have about 55TB of total space in the Data Domain which we send Veeam backups to, and we have sent over 200TB to the array.
The Deduplication and Compression are the most valuable as they allow us to back up a lot more data to the device knowing it will compress it well.
What needs improvement?
The processing capabilities I believe could be improved, however, we have an older unit DD670 and newer units may have already improved upon this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues were encountered as we added a second shelf of disks without bringing the head unit down.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
Customer service for this unit is top notch and they are fast to get back to you with a Support issue.
Technical Support:
Technical Support is also top notch and are quick to respond to queries or tickets.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup of the array.
What about the implementation team?
It was implemented through a vendor as well as in-house personnel.
What was our ROI?
It has been very good especially with the expansion shelf added.
What other advice do I have?
Review the newer versions of the device and evaluate them if possible. You will get great benefits for backups.