We are using Zerto for disaster recovery. By implementing Zerto, we wanted fast recovery time.
HPE Zerto In-Cloud Software for AWS
Hewlett Packard EnterpriseExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Fast, cost-effective, and easy to manage
What is our primary use case?
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.
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.
A user-friendly UI, helps reduce recovery time, and DR testing
What is our primary use case?
Our environment primarily integrates Zerto with VMware. This includes offering Zerto's self-service portal, which integrates seamlessly with Cloud Director. Additionally, we have Zerto integration at the vCenter level in situations where we don't use Zerto Cloud Manager and its self-service portal. This variety reflects the different use cases within our current processes. Since Zerto is our primary offering for disaster recovery solutions, we tailor the implementation based on customer needs.
We implemented Zerto to safeguard our private cloud infrastructure workloads. While disaster recovery is its primary function, we also leverage Zerto for data migration.
How has it helped my organization?
Our RPO with Zerto is under five minutes. The RPO time is dependent on the bandwidth.
We have asynchronous replication with Zerto.
Zerto integrates well with Asynchronous Continuous Delivery tools. However, unlike SRM, Zerto offers protection during workflow rollbacks. This rollback functionality, along with its centralized reporting and UI management, makes Zerto an attractive solution.
Zerto offers a cloud-based disaster recovery solution, eliminating the need for physical data centers. In this instance, we leveraged Zerto to protect a private cloud workload running VMware and ensure its seamless recovery in Microsoft Azure. Disaster recovery in the cloud is crucial. As part of the private and hybrid cloud infrastructure team, I'm involved with a service in our catalog that runs workloads in a private cloud but configures disaster recovery primarily for the public cloud, Azure in our case. This is important for both the customer and the organization that provides the service.
Zerto offers significantly faster recovery times compared to SRM. SRM's recovery process involves multiple steps, requiring a detailed checklist to ensure the correct sequence is followed within protection groups and recovery plans. This complexity is a common issue with other data recovery products. Ideally, any product, not just from a design perspective but also from implementation and operation, should be user-friendly. It should be intuitive and easy to operate to achieve its intended purpose. This is a key reason we chose Zerto over other data recovery solutions.
Migrating data with Zerto is incredibly easy. It performs a continuous replication of our data in the background, even while our primary server is running. This live replication ensures all changes are captured before the server is shut down. In other words, it includes everything, resulting in a seamless migration process. Triggering the migration is also straightforward. We simply need to choose whether it's a move operation or a scale-over operation.
It helps reduce downtime during migrations. While there might be a brief interruption when workloads are shut down, there's no data loss. However, downtime for disaster recovery depends on the specific application's RPO. RPO isn't a fixed value; it varies based on how much data loss an application can tolerate.
It helps to reduce our overall DR testing. The solution is designed so that we can trigger the app or a move operation within three steps. Making it easier and quicker for the administrator or customer that is working on it.
Zerto's user-friendly interface simplifies operation and management, allowing us to minimize the number of people involved in overall backup and DR management.
What is most valuable?
The user interface is very user-friendly. Additionally, the journaling feature allows users to restore their progress to any point in time. This is a valuable feature, especially since similar products, like SRM and SCX, don't offer this functionality. In my opinion, this journaling capability makes Zerto unique.
What needs improvement?
Zerto integrates with vCloud Director to protect workloads deployed there. However, it would be beneficial if Zerto also offered integration with other cloud management platforms, such as VMware Aria Automation. For example, Site Recovery Manager recently introduced integration with VMware Aria Automation, allowing the protection of workloads deployed through Aria Automation. This functionality, including site recovery management, is currently not available in Zerto. Zerto's strength seems to lie specifically in its VMware capabilities, which could be an area for improvement.
Another point to consider is the potential for Zerto drivers to cause issues in ESXi environments. In some cases, users have reported problems and discovered that the Zerto drivers are not verified by VMware. While HPE is a technical alliance partner for Zerto, improved collaboration between VMware and Zerto regarding driver validation would be valuable. This information seems to be missing at the moment. We are currently in touch with our technical account manager to clarify this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Most Zerto issues we experience are at the ESXi level, likely due to the Zerto drivers. However, these issues are not currently impacting our work.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zerto is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is quick.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use SRM but I believe Zerto is better because it's easier to integrate with other systems. While SRM also offers integration for workload protection through VMware Aria Automation and a SIM connection application similar to replication, it may have some limitations. For instance, Zerto might require an agent to communicate with the source system, which could be a disadvantage. This suggests that there might be features offered by other vendors that Zerto could incorporate to improve its functionality.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward. Zerto has introduced an appliance, making deployment even easier by removing the need for patching and object installation.
One member of our deployment team is needed for the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
As a Zerto partner, we do all the deployments for our customers and provide comprehensive training.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto nine out of ten.
I recommend that new users take advantage of any training videos and documentation offered by Zerto to familiarize themselves with all the features and how to use them.
Helps block unknown threats, ensures minimal downtime, and fast recovery times
What is our primary use case?
We use Zerto for replication.
We implemented Zerto to help with the high bandwidth required for the live application replication.
How has it helped my organization?
In my minimal experience with Zerto, the near synchronization replication is good.
Zerto does a good job of blocking unknown threats and attacks.
Its easy-to-use application server has helped our organization improve its bandwidth.
Zerto has made disaster recovery in the cloud much easier for us than in physical data centers.
We've seen significantly faster recovery times compared to other recovery tools we've used, like Carbonite.
Zerto makes it much easier for us to conduct and manage our DR testing.
The replication feature ensures minimal downtime during disaster scenarios.
Zerto's failback capability automatically recovered one of our live applications after it disconnected.
Zerto helps us monitor our disaster recovery.
What is most valuable?
Zerto's user-friendliness is valuable. It's easy to use.
What needs improvement?
It would be great if Zerto could automate replication more.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for four months. I joined the company when they were already using it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Zerto ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use Carbonite but Zerto offers faster speeds.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Zerto took a few weeks.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto nine out of ten.
We have over 300 clients using our web applications.
Provides an extra layer of security, real-time notifications, and granular reports
What is our primary use case?
We rely on Zerto for data recovery and cloud migration as our primary disaster recovery solution, especially since we lack a dedicated backup data center. Zerto's ability to block ransomware attacks and facilitate rapid server recovery provides us with significant peace of mind.
This comprehensive solution extends beyond processor recovery and data center capabilities. It also encompasses application testing and on-site data protection, ensuring comprehensive coverage in the event of any incident, including ransomware attacks.
We implemented Zerto to mitigate concerns about cyberattacks and data breaches. Zerto functions as a robust multi-layered defense, safeguarding our data. Even if an attack breaches the initial layers, Zerto allows for rapid recovery, ensuring minimal downtime and continuous synchronization with the production server.
How has it helped my organization?
In terms of data protection, Zerto enhances business continuity by promptly reporting any encountered cyberattacks. This allows for timely notifications and, critically, prevents the disruption of running production VMs. This real-time monitoring and reporting prove invaluable in the event of threats, facilitating swift recovery efforts.
Our recovery time now is less than 30 minutes.
Zerto's CDP has had a positive impact on our overall data recovery.
Zerto's near-synchronous replication operates in near real-time, enabling data replication with minimal to no data loss.
Our repeated use of Zerto's immutable data copies has significantly enhanced our trust in our backup and recovery procedures.
Zerto provides real-time notifications and reports, which help us prevent unknown threats.
While cloud platforms offer their own security and backup features, Zerto provides an additional layer of protection for our data in the cloud.
Google Cloud Platform provides primary security for our virtual machines. Additionally, Zerto provides us with granular reports that help us focus on specific areas to ensure further protection.
While I haven't had extensive experience with other DR solutions, Zerto offers impressive recovery speeds.
The migration is not complex.
Zerto has helped reduce downtime by over 50 percent.
Zerto has sped up our recovery time by over 20 percent.
We have been able to reduce the number of employees involved in data recovery situations by five.
What is most valuable?
I like the ease of recovery and backup the most.
Disaster recovery is the most valuable for ensuring minimal downtime during a disaster scenario.
What needs improvement?
The technical support response needs improvement. They need to treat us more as a partner.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Zerto nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of Zerto eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We contacted the support team by email and tickets during the data migration but received limited response.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we relied on backups from GCP, AWS, and Azure. We transitioned to Zerto because it offers granular reporting capabilities, which helps us keep our managers and non-technical personnel informed.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment took a few weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto eight out of ten.
We have 500 people in our organization that use Zerto and it is used in multiple regions.
Zerto requires moderate maintenance, handled by a team of five.
We use our custom dashboards to manage and monitor our disaster recovery plans. These dashboards receive emails automatically, allowing us to take necessary actions as needed.
I recommend Zerto for data backup and recovery, as it also helps mitigate the impact of data corruption or deletion.
Fast duplication, good ROI, and timely support
What is our primary use case?
Zerto is our main application for curbing risks. We use it to protect our workflows on applications from threats that can come from the cloud and on-premises.
How has it helped my organization?
Before Zerto, our organization kept experiencing some attacks. Our data was not safe. There were frequent attacks on our data, and that is why we decided to deploy Zerto.
It helps to ensure that our organization's data is safe from any latest threats.
It ensures that our applications are protected. We have high-security firewalls that cannot be attacked or broken by ransomware attacks.
Zerto can block unknown threats and attacks. It has security measures in place to stop any threats that can harm our data.
When it comes to data capacity, Zerto provides an assessment of data replication that can be orchestrated to feed the data protection models.
We used to mostly have on-premises applications, but after the deployment of Zerto, we are able to move to the cloud and ensure that our data is secure from both sides.
When it comes to cloud recovery, Zerto ensures that data transfer from the cloud to our organization is safe. It cannot be easily attacked with malware or by cybercriminals. It is very important to us that our database is safe and the data on our cloud servers cannot be interfered with by external or anonymous users. It ensures that the data for the organization is channeled for the right purpose and through the right infrastructure.
We use Zerto to support DR on the AWS platform. The support has been very good, and I would recommend it. The performance has been good, and our data has always been safe.
I have not had any difficulties with data migration. Since we deployed Zerto, data migration has not been a challenge.
Zerto helps our organization to be in the right direction when it comes to data protection and recovery from both on-premise and cloud servers. When there is anything crucial or any challenge, their customer support team provides a timely solution, which helps with performance.
The recovery management has been efficient. We can use the tools to accommodate any form of data for future retrieval. Our data is safe.
Zerto has been excellent for our RPOs. When it comes to disaster recovery, the company makes sure that we have the right tools at the right time to ensure that we do not have any data recovery challenges across the enterprise.
Zerto has saved a lot of time. We used to take eight hours, but now, it takes us six hours to accomplish most tasks and projects based on the data flow.
Zerto has reduced the number of staff involved in a data recovery situation. We have 20% less staff.
Zerto has also reduced the number of staff involved in overall backup and DR management.
What is most valuable?
Its user interface is excellent, and when it comes to data duplication, Zerto is very fast.
Their customer support team ensures that we get timely updates and provides status or data on threats to help us ensure that our applications are safe.
The cost of deploying and running this platform is also good as compared to other platforms.
What needs improvement?
Overall, Zerto is doing a very good job. We have experienced a few downtimes on networking. Most of the time, they come up with a solution immediately to sort out any challenge that may affect data flow or data migration. It does not happen frequently. We might experience it once in two months, but when we face any downtime, it does not impact the data.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for the last six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good. Their technical support team has been doing well. I would rate them a nine 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 not using a similar solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
It was not complex. It was simple. The deployment was simple and clear. It took a few hours.
What about the implementation team?
We had four people involved in its deployment. Overall, we have eight people who work with this solution.
What was our ROI?
We have seen positive returns on investment. We have achieved a lot, and our performance keeps on improving. We have seen an 80% ROI in the past six months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price can be better, but it is not bad. Most small-scale organizations can afford it, but they can come up with more customer-friendly packages.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options. For now, we are okay with Zerto.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, its performance has been good, and I would recommend it to other organizations. It is a good solution that can help any organization to achieve projects based on data management.
Overall, I would rate Zerto a nine out of ten.
Helps our organization block threats, is user-friendly, and effective in storage
What is our primary use case?
I use Zerto to store and protect my files. Whether I'm working on a project or just need to access old files, Zerto ensures everything is safe. This makes it very convenient, as I can easily access any information I need with just a single click.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto is effective at blocking unknown threats and attacks. We might consider using it on the business website as well, but it's important to understand how it might impact our operations. It helps with blocking threats, which is certainly valuable. So, in terms of its effectiveness, I'd say it's close to 99% guaranteed.
Zerto has helped our organization block threats, is user-friendly, is effective in storage, and inspires users.
Zerto's Cloud disaster recovery is impressive, and recovering most of our data can be relatively straightforward. However, it requires careful planning and understanding. Navigating the recovery site is crucial, so ensure we read and comprehend the instructions thoroughly before clicking anything. This way, we'll know which box to choose and where to click to achieve our desired outcome.
It is easy to migrate data using Zerto.
It helps reduce downtime.
It has helped reduce our disaster recovery time. Before Zerto, we needed ten people for disaster recovery and now with Zerto, we are down to three.
What is most valuable?
Zerto is truly inspiring. Sometimes, when I provide information and receive it back, it can be remarkably refreshing and motivate me to get the most out of it. There might be instances where I initially think something isn't applicable, but then I try it out and say "wow" as I realize I am getting something positive from it. it becomes quite inspiring and brings out my best creative potential. Witnessing these features makes me naturally want to explore and create more.
What needs improvement?
The performance was generally good, but occasional lag disrupted the flow, leaving room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for four months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
While Zerto is stable, it can sometimes be slow to retrieve the data we need.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zerto is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to complete tasks manually, which consumed a lot of manpower, before adopting Zerto.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Zerto is affordable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto a nine out of ten.
No matter what we choose to do, there will always be potential positives and negatives. When aiming for the best outcome, focus on visualizing success and avoid dwelling on negativity. However, even while striving for the positive, acknowledge that occasional setbacks like technology issues or unexpected problems might occur. Don't get discouraged in the present; trust that Zerto will ultimately lead to something beneficial and fulfilling.
Application-agnostic, easy to use, and helpful for improving RPO
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for disaster recovery.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto provides near-synchronous replication, but more importantly, we can see the status at seven seconds, six seconds, five seconds, and four seconds when we log in to the Zerto console. I found that amazing. There is probably no other disaster recovery solution available in the market that is providing this functionality. It is great and definitely a huge plus point for Zerto.
We do get alerts if suspicious activity is detected on a VPG, but we did not get an actual case where there was ransomware or any other kind of attack and we had to prevent that. I have not come across that with either of my clients, but we do get alerts when Zerto finds something suspicious. We go in and look at it. In some instances, because the application was writing more files, Zerto marked it as suspicious, but we never had to do recovery for security reasons.
We use Zerto with AWS as the target. We do the failover of the on-premises VMware virtual machines to the AWS cloud. I do not deal with the implementation. I only do the administration of the tool, but whatever I did as part of AWS administration in Zerto, it was pretty seamless and straightforward. I did not get any issues there. The documentation is helpful in identifying any issues.
We have about 70 virtual machines that are being protected by using Zerto. Zerto has drastically improved our RPO. It was 15 minutes previously, whereas now, it is in seconds.
Zerto has not had much impact on our RTO. RPO has changed, but RTO has been the same for us.
Zerto has not helped to reduce downtime in any situation. We have only done tests. We have not done any actual production failover because there was no need. Similarly, Zerto has not saved us any recovery time because we never had a requirement to do a recovery since we implemented the tool. It is a pretty new environment for us, so we have not had time.
Zerto has not reduced the number of staff involved in overall backup and DR management. It has remained the same for us.
What is most valuable?
The simplicity of use is valuable. It is easy. We just click Failover and do it. It is pretty straightforward. If someone wants to do a test failover, they log in to the console and do a test failover.
What needs improvement?
As a power user, I find the customization lacking. I feel it could be customized a little bit more, but Zerto is simple to use. It is easy to use. That is my main reason for using Zerto.
I would like to request better reporting in Zerto. I can see the data that I need in the console, but if I need to put the data or the history into a report, it is difficult. It is something that auditors might require, so reporting is something that needs to be improved.
The UI does crash a lot, and that is something that can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
It has been about a year. I support multiple clients with multiple backup and disaster recovery products. I was a Storage and Backup engineer, but now, I am covering the solutions for the entire infrastructure. I work on Zerto for multiple clients. We have two clients who are using Zerto as a disaster recovery solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The UI does crash, but it does not affect the functionality of the software.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. There could be 10 machines or 100 machines. I did not find any issues. It is pretty scalable.
How are customer service and support?
There were some issues for which we had to get responses from them. They were pretty much on the point. There were no issues. The response time was a bit slow, but their support was pretty good. I would rate them an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to use Azure Site Recovery to protect all of the production instances, SAP databases, some file servers, and some basic application servers. We used to first replicate to Azure and then do a test failover and a production failover. It was a bit slow. The RPOs and RTOs were not that great, and the rate of change that Azure Site Recovery supported was not completely meeting the business requirements. The third part was that Azure Site Recovery was not application-agnostic. What we loved about Zerto was that it was application-agnostic. It did not matter to Zerto what was running behind the application. It will replicate everything across any cloud. That was our main point for going for Zerto.
Zerto was also much easier. Azure Site Recovery was a little bit hard to set up and maintain, but Zerto is pretty straightforward and easy.
I did not find much difference between Zerto and other solutions in terms of the speed of recovery. The RPO is great, but when we do a failover, it is basically the same as any other solution.
Zerto has not replaced our legacy backup solutions. Our legacy backup solution is in the same place. We are only using Zerto for DR.
How was the initial setup?
Our environment is hybrid. We are using Zerto to protect our on-prem as well as the cloud environment, but I was not involved in its deployment.
In terms of maintenance, I never had any requirements to maintain it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Evaluation was done by someone else in the organization.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto an eight out of ten. Simplicity is an advantage, but customization and reporting can be better.
Helpful for capacity planning, quick restoration, and security
What is our primary use case?
A lot of our focus area has been around capacity planning that includes virtual machine rightsizing and then construction for failover and resiliency-type models. The other area that is important to us is looking at data in motion, data at rest, and data in transit.
By implementing Zerto, we wanted to be able to go ahead and focus a lot on workload migration and disaster recovery.
How has it helped my organization?
I can quickly restore data by reverting anything with more or less a nightly backup. I can pretty much have the data through recovery checkpoints, and each of the checkpoints can only be around five seconds apart.
When I need to work a lot with VPGs, it has a lot of capabilities for that. Monitoring is also very important for us. We do work with Splunk, and I am looking a lot around for logs, metrics, and traces. The capabilities that I get are system throughput, and CPU and RAM input/output.
I have used Zerto for immutable data copies. I have pretty much followed a 3-2-1 strategy. We have three copies of production data and two backup copies. We have two different media and then one off-site copy. It has this offering there.
It's helping very much in terms of the malware. They have a ransomware protection capability.
I have used other solutions jointly with Zerto. What is happening is that they have a focus on isolating and locking with a cyber resiliency vault, and what I have been doing more or less around the vault is working with the Delinea Privileged Access Manager solution. So, some areas have intersections with other tools in our stack. I would love to continue seeing more use cases out of Zerto so that I do not have to defer this anywhere else.
It has enabled us to do disaster recovery (DR) in the cloud, rather than in a physical data center. I think of it as a cloud migration tool. Having DR in the cloud is very important for our organization. I use it with Microsoft Azure.
With Zerto, I have seen five-second near-synchronous replication, so there are thousands of checkpoints in one day, and then afterward, I can have a periodic backup. I can space it out between twelve-hour snapshots. We can have one to three checkpoints per day. I can recover to the state seconds before any sort of attack, and I can utilize Zerto's in-built orchestration and automation. I could easily fail over the entire site without any sort of disruption. Those are the things I see very much in terms of positives. There is a lot of information that it can gather with synchronous replication. The other thing is that I have seen other disaster and backup service offerings, and they very much focus on getting a container image installed or some sort of binary file and then deployment from there afterward.
I find it easy to migrate the data. Once somebody understands how Zerto works, particularly around areas for analytics and automation, with the reference architecture, they will be able to quickly deploy it.
I see a lot of visibility in terms of proactive management with SLA monitoring, run metrics, and other things. We are able to test infrastructure using live and personalized data. It, in turn, becomes very much of a team effort.
Zerto provides complete visibility in terms of storage and consumption data. We get to know the capacity and application volumes. I can also address compliance aspects, such as PCI DSS which is important for us as part of the RPO.
They have an intelligent, predictive infrastructure, so I can just pretty much determine the required compute storage and other server networking resources, whether it is on-premises or in the cloud.
It also saves recovery time. We pretty much monitor that information. In terms of time savings, we are able to ensure that we can set up a backup quickly, figure out the integration details with the use of APIs, and meet our requirements around client security. Afterward, there is the cost consideration. Better documentation on the restoration process would be helpful.
Ransomware is one area where we are using Zerto. If we were utilizing another solution, that might have only been AWS-specific, and we might have not gotten much assistance in proceeding with their public cloud vendor as a result. We might have to figure out what we can do around working with an XDR or another mode of ingesting that data for any vulnerabilities and how to focus on encryption thereafter. If we were to consider another vendor, some of them may not have support for Azure. They might be AWS-focused.
Zerto has helped to reduce our organization's DR testing. We can create failover tests seamlessly, and we can do this routinely. We are able to save time and look at how we can discern between RTO and RPO.
Zerto has not reduced the number of staff involved in overall backup and DR management. Our team size is still roughly the same. We have not seen our headcount change as a result, but we do not need to hire external consultants to support a project.
If I wanted to focus on operational recovery, which may be recovering instances in the database with a 15-second data loss, there are systems administrators designed to take care of that. With Zerto's offering, someone can utilize the Zerto solution as opposed to depending on any sort of manual human intervention.
What is most valuable?
The continuation to the public cloud has been especially helpful where I can pretty much work with things like hosts and clusters as part of the data center.
Zerto has near-synchronous replication. I like it very much. They had an acquisition and are now a part of HPE. I see it very much as a robust solution.
What needs improvement?
A slight disadvantage of Zerto is that it requires the Windows Server operating system as the base OS. Over time, I would like to see more offerings in that regard. There should be more deployment options other than just the Windows operating system.
The implementation is very quick and painless, but it would be good to have more information that is not case-sensitive. In the server portal, some fields are case-sensitive. It took some time for me to understand initially.
If a VPG goes down and an application host is not responding, I want to have a little bit more flexibility to automatically point the recovery to other hosts. I would like to see a little bit more flexibility to automatically sustain two applications in their most optimal state. If the VPG is going down and any of the recovery hosts are in maintenance mode, there should be a way for maximum flexibility so that it can automatically utilize Zerto to point that recovery to other hosts.
I want some more information about how to work with bare metal drives. I have been doing some work in capacity planning for using MDM and FormFactor cable and then looking at system throughput, App latency, and a lot of scripts in Linux. I would like to have a little bit more information for anybody needing to work with bare metal drives.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for several years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not seen any service disruption that impacted us. If anything like that were to occur, they would communicate it ahead of time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We have more than 20,000 endpoints.
How are customer service and support?
I do reach out to Zerto, and if there are any questions, we have a ticket in-house, so everyone is working on reviewing it at the same time. I would rate their support a nine out of ten. There are no negatives.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using a similar solution.
By bringing in Zerto, some legacy work has been discontinued. There is operational recovery, application migration, and application cloning. These are the three areas where Zerto has helped us.
How was the initial setup?
We have a cloud version. It is a public cloud.
Its initial deployment was straightforward. I have been trying to focus on capabilities and encryption and how a long-term retention repository works, at least looking at the data capture. Another thing is utilizing some information with APIs and cloud scaling. I have broken down a lot of my use cases, and we have Zerto on the public cloud. Based on that, I was able to figure out how to work with features like compute as well as storage.
Its implementation took about two to three months. In terms of maintenance, it requires maintenance. We focus a lot on metrics such as RTO and RPO monitoring. Somebody can also put it in maintenance mode operation.
What about the implementation team?
We had Zerto representatives, and we also had work done in-house.
I work with a team. Other colleagues are also involved in the effort. We have a team of around ten employees.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did look at a few other vendors' offerings, but we decided on Zerto. Our organization has a partnership with them, and the other thing was that there were a few industry events, and they were able to effectively make a pitch. Their demonstration was very effective. It was also something in which the client was interested in.
What other advice do I have?
To those looking to implement Zerto in their organization, I would advise creating use cases of their own and then trying to see how Zerto effectively helps them. A few areas where they can work are gathering information with the virtual machine rightsizing and being able to go ahead and create resiliency models. Afterward, they can look at compliance. For us, PCI DSS and locating the public cloud environment being used, which in our case was Microsoft Azure, were important. After they have created use cases on their own, they can come to Zerto and see how they are able to effectively handle it. If they are able to think through what they need, they can come up with specific questions and then get Zerto to effectively deliver.
I would rate Zerto a nine out of ten.
Provides near-synchronous replication, immutable data copies, and impressive recovery speed
What is our primary use case?
We use Zerto for our application data recovery.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto's near-synchronous replication delivers exceptional results. The data at our recovery site is kept nearly identical to production in real-time, minimizing data loss to near zero.
By utilizing Zerto's immutable data copies and adhering to the three-two-one rule, we have established a highly effective recovery strategy.
While Zerto doesn't inherently block unknown threats or attacks, its detailed history logs enable us to revert to a pre-attack state, essentially restoring a clean system.
Our production machine experienced changes that caused the application to crash. To resolve this quickly, we restored the machine to its previous state using a recovery copy located at the recovery site that was made by Zerto. After powering on the restored machine, we changed its IP address, making it accessible again.
Zerto has a positive effect on our RPOs.
It boasts impressive recovery speed. As a customer, all we need to do is power on the machines at the recovery site - that's how simple and fast it is. Even if the recovered state isn't ideal, we can easily rewind to a specific point in time and power up another instance of the machine at that moment.
Zerto makes it easy to migrate data. The total configuration is user-friendly.
While our current RTO is three hours, Zerto can significantly reduce it to just five minutes.
Zerto helps us significantly reduce downtime during hardware failures, software updates, and natural disasters.
While we haven't experienced a ransomware attack, we have a recovery plan in place. If one were to occur, we could quickly restore production to a previous point in time, minimizing downtime and data loss.
Zerto helps us reduce the amount of disaster recovery testing we need to perform, which also allows us to reduce the number of staff required for the testing down to two.
The Zerto application is licensed per VM. However, the amount of data stored on each VM does not affect the licensing cost. Whether we have terabytes or just a few bytes on each VM, the licensing fee remains the same. This means we only pay for the machines we are replicating, which can lead to significant cost savings.
What is most valuable?
Real-time replication is a valuable feature, ensuring that changes made to the production site are immediately reflected at the recovery site.
Another feature I appreciate in Zerto is its detailed logging. This functionality allows us to easily access past data and reconstruct the machine's state at any given point in time.
We can recover the replicated machine at the recovery site by simply clicking it back up from the replicated machine. This allows us to keep the original machine running while the recovered machine is active. It's also vendor-agnostic, meaning it works with different hardware vendors like HP or NetApp. In other words, Zerto adapts to the specific hardware we have regardless of the vendor.
What needs improvement?
Zerto's solution could benefit from additional security features, such as malware scanning tools at the recovery site.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zerto is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zerto is scalable. We just need to add a license and they provide a new key.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team offers an excellent service. They empower customers by providing comprehensive documentation and guidance, helping them resolve future issues independently.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was straightforward, and I handled it independently. My only reference was the provided documentation; I required no further assistance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Zerto's pricing doesn't depend on the number of virtual applications. Even if we have a server with 200 terabytes of data, we'll only pay for protecting that single server, not for the total size of the replicated data. This simplifies our cost structure.
The licensing cost is fair.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Veeam and SIM before choosing Zerto. Zerto's interface is much easier to use than the other solutions I tested. Integrating into our environment is also seamless.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Zerto a ten out of ten.
No maintenance is required.
You can save a lot of time researching solutions by choosing Zerto. It's efficient, easy to deploy, and easy to maintain. Additionally, Zerto offers excellent support, including comprehensive documentation, breach and RCM coverage information, and a knowledgeable customer support team.
Enhances resilience and data protection capabilities with real-time replication
What is our primary use case?
Implementing failover to a secondary data center is crucial for ensuring business continuity in the event of primary data center loss. This strategy involves automatically redirecting operations and services to the secondary data center when the primary one becomes unavailable. This not only minimizes downtime but also enhances overall system reliability.
The failover process requires robust synchronization mechanisms to ensure data consistency between the primary and secondary data centers. Regular testing and monitoring are essential to validate the effectiveness of the failover mechanism and identify and address any potential issues proactively.
In summary, failover to a secondary data center is a strategic measure to safeguard against disruptions, offering a resilient solution for maintaining seamless operations in dynamic and challenging environments.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto has significantly enhanced our organization's resilience and data protection capabilities. Its real-time replication and failover features have played a pivotal role in minimizing downtime during unexpected events, ensuring business continuity.
The platform's automation and orchestration capabilities have streamlined our disaster recovery processes, reducing manual intervention and accelerating recovery times.
The point-in-time recovery options provided by Zerto have proven invaluable in mitigating the impact of data corruption or accidental deletions. This has bolstered our data integrity and provided a safety net against unforeseen data-related issues.
What is most valuable?
The live failover tests and point-in-time recovery options have been exceptionally valuable features of Zerto for our organization. Conducting live failover tests allows us to validate the effectiveness of our disaster recovery setup in a controlled environment. This feature ensures that all components are in place and functioning as expected, providing confidence in our ability to respond to real-world disruptions.
Additionally, the ability to choose a specific point in time for recovery down to the seconds is crucial for data integrity. This granular control allows us to roll back to a precise moment, mitigating the impact of data corruption, accidental deletions, or other unforeseen issues. It adds a layer of precision to our recovery process, minimizing potential data loss and enhancing overall resilience.
What needs improvement?
The product could benefit from improvements in automation, specifically in the area of failovers. Currently, the process is largely manual, and introducing automated failovers after a certain time threshold would enhance efficiency and responsiveness. Automated failovers can reduce the dependency on manual intervention, allowing for quicker and more proactive responses to disruptions. In the next release, the inclusion of scheduled or automated failovers would be a valuable addition. This feature would empower organizations to set predefined parameters and triggers for failovers, ensuring a timely and automated response to potential issues. It not only streamlines operations but also adds an extra layer of reliability to the overall disaster recovery strategy.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six months.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have a solution before.
How was the initial setup?
We had great help from the company in terms of setting up our environment.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented through a vendor; I'd rate the experience ten out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Anything is the worth the cost for virtually no downtime. Time is money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
It is a great solution overall, however, it could use some upgrades with automation.