BDRSuite Backup & Replication Reviews

We back up servers and workstations.

One of the things that Vembu does for us is, of course, create high-availability for backups, which, if we came to a worst-case scenario, is one of the reasons we selected it, with the high incidence of ransomware. Should we be hit with ransomware, optimally it would allow us to be back up and running pretty quickly.

The solution helps us deliver an enterprise-level data protection solution and reduce budgets. It's difficult to estimate how much we have saved, although I know we have saved. We did do a cost analysis up-front and we saved money compared to our prior solution.

The most valuable feature is the ability, from a console, to manage the different computers to be backed up.

In addition, I use the encryption regularly, and the deduplication as well, but not extensively. The deduplication is very handy. It reduces the size of the backups, which we can then upload to an online storage platform. That's one of the reasons I selected it.

We've been using Vembu for about nine months.

I have had issues where it was working and then it stopped and I had to diagnose what had changed or gone wrong to get it back up. While it is generally stable, I've had issues with stability. The last time we had this issue was about six weeks ago.

It's very scalable. As we add workstations, as we grow, we'll generally use the solution on those new workstations.

Customer service could be improved. There seems to be a delay when trying to get to someone for customer service issues. Usually they'll tell me to send an email. That is one area that I would like to see improved.

I had pretty good technical support while we were evaluating the product. Since then, it has not been so good.

We had a solution before Vembu. We switched because of the cost factor and the deduplication.

It was not particularly straightforward. I had to contact customer service in order to complete the initial set up. The deployment took us the better part of a day to complete everything, because we had to reach out to customer service.

We started out by testing it on a workstation and, once we were satisfied that it met our needs, we deployed it to the servers and to the other workstations.

We did it in-house.

The pricing is pretty reasonable.

We looked at Macrium Reflect. That was another solution that we used.

It's a robust solution. Evaluate it first in the environment and ensure that it actually satisfies your needs. It's a fairly cost-effective solution. For us, it has assisted in developing a robust backup strategy of keeping a backup in-house. We back up to a NAS in-house, and then we try to do an online backup off the in-house backup, so that we always have a remote copy of our backup. So it's been a pretty robust solution.

We have about 25 workstations that we're backing up. There are two of us, my IT person and me, who handle the deployment and management of the backup solution.

I would rate the solution at nine out of ten because customer service could be improved. I don't have a specific problem with the product. In our experience, the initial implementation could be easier. The product itself, once implemented, gets the job done. If it was divided up, I would give the working product a ten. But the initial implementation, from our experience, because we needed to have customer service log in to our system and walk us through, I would give a seven. And I would give customer service a seven.

Backup and replication.

If we have any issues with servers having been corrupted or damaged, we are able to restore our backups. We are also able to store our backups offsite, in case of fire. Right now I'm using it with VMware. The benefit is being able to replicate the information to a different offsite building where I can store it. We're an FQHC and we have to have an offsite backup in case of a fire.

If we were to lose all of our data we wouldn't be able to operate. We run a 24-hour clinic, we have an ER department, and the data needs to be safe. If we didn't have that information stored safely, our patient information, we would not be able to run the business. So it's very valuable for us.

It also saves us time being able to do backups automatically instead of manually.

Finally, for reporting purposes, it's safer for us to have multiple places where backups are stored. We feel safe that the information is backed up more than once.

The most important feature is the Restore, to be able to restore in a disaster recovery situation.

If the English accent of the support agents was a little better, so that we, as the users, could understand it better, that would be nice. It's very hard to understand the support people when we talk to them because of the accent.

We haven't encountered any issues with the stability so far. It's been working fine.

It can handle a lot because it's doing a whole data center, so it's handling everything.

Tech support is good.

I purchased Veeam but my local reseller sold me only a minimal number of licenses and I was not told that I needed to purchase many licenses. So it was not cost-effective for us to have that solution installed here.

The initial setup was not complex at all. It was easy.

It's very hard to estimate ROI. If I have a disaster issue here, my whole company is down, so I cannot put a value on it. It's really the value of the whole company. If we don't have that data we aren't able to run. It's a very valuable tool for us.

The pricing is good. 

Veeam was one of the options we looked at.

Test it first. Make sure it works in your environment. But I will also say that it's an immediate investment that needs to be done.

We aren't using the compression or encryption features. We don't need them.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. It's not a ten because the accent of the customer support agents is very difficult to understand. You have to ask a few times when speaking to them. That's the only issue, the rest of it is good. It's a good product. It's working.

We have, in-house, around 70 end-users and around 30 branches. Currently, We are using Vembu to do the daily backup of our in-house end points. 

As data is increasing day by day, taking and managing backup is a hard job. As IT personnel, we were looking for a solution where we could do auto backups for all our machines and restore them at any point in time as required. 

Vembu came to us and solved our problems in the backup space. In the next phase, we are looking to deploy it for our remote branch users. It's a great solution.

It made it easy for us to handle the daily backup of endpoints. Earlier, we had to manually do everything, and that was also not in real-time and involved engagement of one IT person's time. 

Vembu saved us time and manpower. It helped our organization to secure valuable data within the organization. 

Concern related to the data of individuals has been resolved as personal data is removed from the backup. Only data related to the company is taken. This also has reduced the storage space required.

The auto-scheduling of incremental backups and multiple retention points features has helped us to get the backups of endpoints without any intervention. Multiple retention points help us to restore data from multiple points and states. 

The reporting is great for noting the success and failure. If it fails it gives the reason why it failed and we can take action accordingly and resolve the issues. 

Mail notification helps us in monitoring the backups daily. All failures are sent through to us so that we can check and take action as required.

The backup and restoration should be faster in newer releases. 

The dashboard should more interactive. 

Responsiveness to any command has to improve. Currently, it takes some time to respond the commands like abort or suspend.

They need to centralize the configuration and management features for File folder backups from endpoints. This should be in the next releases.

The reporting feature is good, however, it can still be improved upon.

We are eagerly awaiting these features in the next releases. We hope we will get them soon. 

I've used the solution for the last two years.

The stability of the solution is good.

The scalability is great.

Technical support is great.

Positive

No, we were not using any backup solution earlier.

The initial setup is very simple.

We had help from the vendor team for the installation process.

Our ROI has been very good.

Vembu is a good value for money solution.

Yes, we evaluated Retrospect.

They need to keep improving the solution so that we can reduce the time taken for backups and restorations.

The primary use case is to be able to back up data outside of on-premise with the ability to restore as fast as possible. We also use Vembu NetworkBackup to selectively back up files on the file share along with our virtual machines. It gives us more control over what we can backup and restore, especially in the files.

We use this solution to back up our virtual environments. 

All the features are valuable for different reasons. 

The restoring of virtual machines and deduplication features are good. We save time by recreating or deduplicating a machine, as it done automatically. With one or two clicks, we can get something done. We are then pretty sure it is the same as it was before; it is a real duplicate. The deduplication features are useful for accelerating the transfers and when we have more than one version of a virtual machine or backup without taking up X time or space.

If we do a backup of a machine at some point and the server crashes, then we can restore this machine to a different server with the same settings and setup. We will just have to tweak one or two things, like the IP. Then, it is ready to go. This is not quite high availability. However, if we use the replication feature to make an exact copy of the machine, then we can tweak them to work together as active-active or active-passive. This can help us to save time because the deduplication is done automatically without errors and we have minimal changes to do.

I like also the feature where you back up a virtual machine, then it will run a startup and you can take a screenshot of the first few seconds of the bootup. This way, at a quick glance, we can determine the backup is bootable and whether the backup of the virtual machine will be functional or not. Sometimes testing the backup is something that we don't always do on a regular basis until we find out that something is broken. Then, we didn't know until it's too late. So, this feature is appreciated.

With the configuration of backups, there are a few things I would change with the UI. 

One thing that I reported with the backups: When there are accentuated characters in a path, then we can't restore documents into a folder. There is a bug with the restoration and restoring files with accentuated characters in the path. Hopefully, they have repaired this because otherwise we will restore files and find out that they are not there.

A little over a year.

It is pretty stable.

I have just two physical machines with five or six VMs each. It is not that big of a setup. From a scalability perspective, I don't know if it will be good or not, but I believe it will be.

There are three users of the solution: a VP of operations, someone who is a jack-of-all-trades, and myself. There is no one with a specific skill set for this. It is really easy to figure out.

The technical support has been good. They have been dedicated to resolving issues.

Vembu was the first solution of this type. This solution was recommended to us.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy to install. There are not too many options and it was ready to go almost out-of-the-box. We have a really simple setup so the deployment took an hour or two. 

We have seen ROI based on confidence and time saved. We save a few hundred dollars a year.

We have the enterprise version with two server licenses.

Take a look at the pricing and licensing closely. When we installed the BDR disaster recovery server, which is the duplication of the backup data on one server onto a second one where the backup data resides, it was not clear that this DR server needed two other licenses. These licenses were to back up the copy of the first backup server that had two licenses for the two physical host that it was backing up in the first place. Moving files around to a second DR server, why would I need an extra two licenses? I don't know if it's to make money, but it was not very obvious and I had to abort the project from there because I didn't plan to pay for extra licenses to copy data of the first two physical servers. I also didn't understand why it was needed. Hopefully, they will improve the explanation in the documentation for this.

I compared different vendors' functionalities, our requirements, and price. We chose this solution because it was cheaper and easier to use than Veeam and other solutions of this type. Though they are not easy to compare as they all have different licensing models.

Make sure you have a clear view of your architecture and how you will be implementing it. Decide upfront which site will receive the backup and which site will do the deduplication of the backup's redundancy. As mentioned, I started to do some backups on the second office site and wanted to move the backups on to third site for disaster recovery, but I figured out that it would be better to install the backup server on the third site and the deduplication on the second site. However, just exchanging their roles was not that easy because I was missing licensing and backups were already running. I would recommend to ask questions, figure out the licensing model, what needs to be installed where, and their best practices. For example, if I have to do things again, I would do things differently.

I would give the product a seven (out of 10).

We use it for backup copies of key virtual servers in our company.

Fortunately, we have not had to recover lost data. However, it is reassuring to know that we can recover lost data, if needed.

The most valuable features are ease of setup and configuration.

I have not been impressed by the data compression of the backup images. They seem to take up nearly as much space on the backup drive as they do on the server.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not faced any challenges with its ability to  scale.

Their technical support is very good to work with, as they are able to propose alternate solutions to problems that work well for us.

We did not previously use a different solution. Vembu was selected after reviewing, then trying several different products.

The initial setup was straightforward and well-documented.

We were able to take advantage of a promotional pricing campaign. 

I do not know how often Vembu offers the promotional pricing campaign, but it can be cost advantageous.

In addition to Vembu, we evaluated Veeam, Unitrends, and Virten as alternative solutions.

Verify that you can restore a virtual machine (VM) from its backup and ensure the notification of backup results (success or fail) is readily available.

Primary use is for vSphere or VMware.

• Ease of use
• Configuration
• Support

Live support would be helpful. I've communicated with them via email and through incidents. It might be better if you could have a chat or phone call because backups are important. You don't want to wait for an email. I know of other vendors that have a number you can call; they have people around the clock. It would be good to have a number you can call and your call is answered and taken care of, because backups normally occur at night, not during the day.

I would also like to see more documentation or videos. They have some videos out there on how to do steps, or for training, or to help you know more about their product.

Another leftover issue is that when you get notifications via email on an iPhone, there is only a certain amount of space to view it without having to open the email itself. I have four backup jobs. Their subject line shows "Vembu backup software..." and at the very end they put the server name and whether it succeeded or failed. I asked them if they could put the server name, and whether it succeeded or failed, first. That way, when I look through my emails it tells me whether it's succeeded or failed, and which server. Currently what I have to do is open up each email, and then scroll through to the very end, because it's a very long subject line. They say it's not customizable, and that they are going to look at improving on that in the future.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

I have enjoyed the support. They're very quick in turning around solutions for the issues and problems that I have had. You get a good turnaround. It takes a little while, but they document it. You can log in to their website and create a ticket, and see in real-time if it has been updated. It's really nice.

We went from a physical server to a virtual server. Vembu is cost-effective versus using VMware Essentials.

The setup wasn't altogether straightforward. There were a lot of items. It took me about two weeks before I could finally get things the way I needed them to be.

The product's pricing is a good value. Regarding licensing, make sure you find the right workstation or server that you're going to install it on, and know the number of sockets it has, since the price depends on that.

VMware Essentials, it has backup and restores capabilities. We also used BackupAssist.

Try it with the trial version. You get free rein of everything there. Test it out and make sure everything works right. You'll find it's easy to use and there is good support, as far as emails back and forth. That gives you plenty of time to try it, and then you can implement it once you've figured out all the items and how to get to things, as well as its limitations. That's pretty much what I did. I got a server and installed the full license and went to town. I put some backups on there and got familiar with it. It was pretty much straightforward.

Also, look at some of the training videos. They make it much clearer.

I like Vembu because of the price point, the ease of use, the support, and it being full-featured backup software for the needs that I have. I would rate it 10, but the one thing is the email notifications, that I mentioned above, that aren't customizable. Maybe adding more customization for the end-user, in the settings, some additional options, would help.

We use it for replication to our disaster recovery sites for the storage we have on-prem. We needed our critical infrastructure and our critical applications backed up. We needed to have something we can restore from when we have an issue.

Our environment is hybrid. We have some of our servers on-prem, some on Azure, and some on AWS.

With Hyper-V it helps to ensure high availability. Before I started using Vembu, if I wanted to back up my Hyper-V what I would normally do is go to the folder where I have the VM and copy the hard disk, the VM image. With that I would be able to restore easily. With Vembu, with just the click of a button, it does my backup. I've done a series of restores to test what I'm backing up because that's the essence of a backup — to see how it comes back — and it comes out fine. In VMware you don't just copy your image, but for VMware Vembu also does a perfect job.

Vembu has also ensured that the disaster recovery aspect of our business is well taken care of. It is very critical to the business to have a tested backup. Vembu has helped us a lot in that way. We have restored from Vembu backups several times.

It has saved us a lot of money, but it's not quantifiable. If you have an issue that would cost a whole lot of money but you have a proper backup solution so you don't have to spend that money, you just restore. It might have saved us millions, in Nigerian money.

It saves us time because I just schedule the backups the way I want them and that's it. I don't have to worry about my backups. I'm certain that my data has been backed up. It saves a whole lot of man-hours.

The backup is very reliable for both VMware and Hyper-V.

In terms of the compression, Vembu's product is quite good compared to what I've seen from other products. 

The encryption is okay. That security feature is fine. You have the option of either encrypting the backup or not. I don't use it in all cases, but I will use it if I'm backing up something and it will be taken outside of our environment. For example, if I'm backing up a VM to an external tape drive or hard drive, I will use that option, to give it another level of security.

They keep on improving and I can't see anything that they need to add for now.

We have been using Vembu for the past four years.

This year was the first time I had an issue with it. I don't know how the issue started. I called their support team and they told me what to do. I tried it but I then decided to simply do a fresh installation.

Vembu is very scalable because it gives you everything you could want. Our environment is medium-sized.

We definitely have plans to expand our usage of it. When you get value from a product you love to do more with it.

I love Vembu's customer care. If you have any issues or questions, they respond and their response time is quick. Their technical support is good. I would rate it at eight out of 10. I had a conversation with them last night. I sent them an email and they immediately responded.

Prior to using Vembu I tried Acronis. That is what we were using before we dropped it for Vembu. The main difference I see between Vembu and the other solutions we've tried is that with Vembu, you don't need anybody to tell you what to do. Once you have done the installation you just look at the user interface — it's very friendly — and you can do things yourself without resorting to help from anybody.

If I want to back up a VM or all the servers I have in vSphere, I just drop the password of vSphere and it will do everything automatically for you. You just tell it what you want to back up. Acronis doesn't work that way. The guys on my team found Acronis difficult to use. In terms of user-friendliness, Vembu does a better job. With the click of a button, you know what you need to do.

Acronis would time out most of the time. If you have a slight network-connectivity issue, it causes a problem.

I found Vembu by searching online for free backup solutions. I saw a lot of solutions but that is how I started with Vembu, with their free version. I saw that it solved my problems.

To install Vembu, the only thing that takes time is the download. But once you have downloaded it, within 30 minutes you are up and running. You schedule your backups and you go to sleep.

I was the only one involved in the setup.

There are two guys on my team who maintain it. They have administrative rights on Vembu, like me. They also have many other responsibilities besides Vembu. It doesn't take a lot of effort to maintain it. Once you're up and running you just check your backups and the status to make sure that everything is running. And if there is an issue, you check the log to see why you are having that issue.

I did not need a third-party to deploy Vembu. But when I used Acronis, I had to call their support. Acronis has a partner here in Nigeria that I worked with. The fact that I had to work with a partner with Acronis, and I didn't have to with Vembu, is a major difference.

The overall return on investment is quite good. It's good for the business. The margin is on the positive side.

The pricing of Vembu could be better. They have a good product, and I know good products cost money, but they need to find a balance.

I also looked at Veeam. I used Veeam for a while before Acronis. Veeam is a fantastic product. I think it is one of the best. It is in the same class with Vembu. I went with Vembu because it is very easy to use. It is easy to install. With the click of a button you can manage everything: add a VM and do your backup.

It gives me peace of mind. If your infrastructure backup is up and running and trusted, it gives you peace of mind.

I have recommended it to a number of people.

It's important to note that most backup solutions will tell you that you can download and use their solution for free. But the truth is that that is not the case for almost all of them. After some time, you will have to pay for a license to backup critical sources.

We use it for our file server and database backups.

It hasn't improved the way our company functions that much because we were using a backup which is about the same as Vembu.

The restore feature is the most valuable. It's easy to restore.

We've been using Vembu for less than a year.

It's not that stable yet. Every two weeks, my backup will stop and I have to check it. Sometimes it can be fixed by a restart and sometimes I need support to make it work.

It's scalable. It is being used extensively in our environment, but there are no plans to increase usage. During the season, we're around 200 employees and we back up about 4 TBs.

Support is very important. But sometimes they respond to me four hours after I contact them, maybe more. I would like them to improve their response time. Also, their time zone is different from US/Canada.

Overall, support is very good, but their reaction takes a while.

We were using Zenith ARCA. We switched to Vembu because of the licensing cost. Vembu is cheaper.

The initial setup was straightforward. It's just "click" and "okay."

The deployment took an hour or two. The installation plan was to store things locally. We have an online license for the offsite service, but we don't have the proper device installed yet. It requires a more sophisticated machine.

Initially, I worked on it myself. But, due to some errors, I asked support to reinstall it, to fix it. They were good.

We have seen a return on investment from going with Vembu.

The pricing is pretty normal. It's not too hard to license a server. It's pretty straightforward. If you need four servers, you just acquire four.

We evaluated Ipirius. We went with Vembu because of its features. It's similar to what we were using previously.

If you're looking for a not-too-expensive solution, use the Vembu BDR Suite.

There are three people on our team who can access the server, who can actually operate it: an IT associate, supervisor, and system admin. In terms of maintenance, I ask their support to do it.

Overall, I would rate Vembu at seven out of 10. It's not perfect yet. It doesn't give me confidence that it will run 24/7.