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Technical Consultant at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 12, 2020
Scalability, and the ability to back up on-prem and restore to the cloud and vice-versa, are key for us
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's interface is easy to use. For manageability, it doesn't matter where the resource is coming from or going to. That's the great power of the Control Panel: It's easy to use and does not matter if you manage on-prem or cloud resources."
  • "Commvault allows us to use one product for almost everything; it's better than the competitors."
  • "The solution's breadth and depth of cloud support are good, but could be better. Some cloud features that are common-sense, especially on AWS, are not completely integrated yet in the product. They are a work-in-progress."
  • "For end-users, sometimes Commvault is too complex and, while it's getting better and better with the latest versions, it is still not there."

What is our primary use case?

We use it in the most traditional way: for backup and restore. We don't use it for all the other things that are also possible with it because we are quite a big company. We have all the specific tools we need for specific purposes.

We tested Commvault in the past for archiving, but in those days it was not really stable yet. So we selected other solutions for that.

We use Commvault on everything. We are using it in our own data centers but also in the cloud. We use Azure for most things, but we also are working on testing some things on AWS.

How has it helped my organization?

The benefits to our company are the performance and scalability and the willingness of Commvault to connect to talk with us about any requests we have for changing the product, and to do understand what we're looking for. If possible they also implement these things in quite a short amount of time. If a new feature is needed, or it should be doing A instead of B, they're always willing to listen to requests and build them. That's great.

The fact that the solution is a single platform has enabled our company to accelerate growth and drive innovation. We're using it in a traditional way but our resources and services are moving to the cloud. It helps that the way the product works, what we are used to doing in the traditional way on-prem, can be done the same way in the cloud. That makes it easier overall and makes the transition easier.

There are ways the solution helps our admins to minimize the time they spend on backup tasks, but in some ways, the solution doesn't. But that's more related to our way of working and not related to Commvault. Using it saves us about 40 hours in a month, thanks to its automation features.

In terms of saving on infrastructure costs, in our environment that's not measurable because we have a dedicated platform and dedicated infrastructure for it. But we see the benefits of the deduplication. It's saving petabytes in our environment.

What is most valuable?

The backup and restore activities are valuable and being able to use it in a hybrid space. You can easily back up on-prem and restore to the cloud and vice-versa. The scalability is also good.

The solution's interface is easy to use. For manageability, it doesn't matter where the resource is coming from or going to. That's the great power of the Control Panel: It's easy to use and does not matter if you manage on-prem or cloud resources.

What needs improvement?

Commvault works quite well as it is. But we are an MSP, so for us it's fairly hard to customize it for branding it.

There is also room for improvement in the multi-tenancy and security. That's been a hard thing for us and for Commvault as a vendor. Sometimes it's hard to implement new features in multi-tenancy environments. The new features are great, and it's good that they are there, but they are not always usable in an MSP environment.

The solution's breadth and depth of cloud support are good but could be better. Some cloud features that are common-sense, especially on AWS, are not completely integrated yet in the product. They are a work-in-progress. Overall, cloud is moving and innovating also very fast. That also makes it very hard for Commvault to comply with all the new features. Sometimes a cloud provider like Microsoft changes something and a feature is broken in Commvault.

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Commvault Cloud
October 2026
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For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with Commvault as a backup product for about 12 years now. As an MSP, it's very hard to switch from vendor to vendor. But the solution also works great. We have no real reason to switch to another product at this moment. We are always looking at the competitors, but not all the competitors can comply with all the things that we need.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. We have some little issues with it, but when we have issues they're always related to the application we want to back up, not to the product itself. We ask a lot of the product; we use it in a fairly hard way on several things. Sometimes we hit the boundaries of the product and we encounter issues. But in day-to-day business, we don't see any real issues related to the infrastructure or the load we can give it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales very well. If we need more capacity or more power for performance, then we add additional nodes without needing to do a complete redesign of the product or the environment. We can easily add extra power.

We have about 10,000 clients running with approximately 2 petabytes of data being backed up. That will double in the upcoming year to two years. We also have about 1,000 end-users of the product and most of them are doing restore activities.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is very good.

But a hard thing for them is understanding how to work with an MSP. They assume, sometimes, that as an MSP, we have access to everything. But that's not the truth and it's not possible. That makes troubleshooting hard for us and for them as well. But they are quite fast in responding and try to help as quickly as possible. Still, most of the cases that we have with customer support need to be escalated directly to development.

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

We previously used an IBM solution. The main reasons we switched to Commvault were cost and complexity.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of Commvault was complex but that's related to our environment. As an MSP we have very high security guidelines, so that made it hard. But that's not related to Commvault, it's related to our security environment.

Our deployment took almost a year. We had to make sure our design was good before we did anything. Most time of the implementation time was in the design phase. The actual building-up of the solution was quite fast. We were done in a month, starting from scratch.

For deployment and maintenance we need four to five people who are backup system admins.

What about the implementation team?

We did it by ourselves.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI in several respects, but not as fast as we want.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We look at everything on the market. Every year to two years we do a new evaluation of the new techniques and products. We are always comparing it with Veeam, for example. We have Veeam running in several places. We test the two solutions and compare the results with each other.

Out-of-the-box, the manageability is one of the big differences. For end-users, sometimes Commvault is too complex and, while it's getting better and better with the latest versions, it is still not there. The most important thing is what my end-users say to me about using Veeam. It's very straightforward, easy-to-use, and does what it needs to do. Veeam and other competitors are point solutions. They are very good in specific situations and specific environments.

On the other hand, Commvault is a product that can manage a lot of things, and most competitors don't have the scalability and the large support-matrix for as many products, versions, and applications. Commvault allows us to use one product for almost everything. It's better than the competitors. We want to have everything in a single console, if possible, and that's what Commvault does for us.

What other advice do I have?

The biggest lesson I have learned from using Commvault is to take your time. Especially in complex environments, the design stage takes a lot of time, but you need to do it well. Otherwise, you will have trouble in your implementation. We learned that the hard way. We wanted it built fast but, when the design was ready, we needed to rebuild several times.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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reviewer1271601 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Analyst at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Jan 28, 2020
We save significantly on space through deduplication, but a lot of effort is required to keep it running
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover our data across on-premise locations. Some of the guys have been using it to move a virtual machine from VMware to the Microsoft solution, Hyper-V. They back it up and then they restore to the different virtual machine provider, and that works great."
  • "The deduplication in Commvault is great; we have 90-something percent savings using its deduplication technology."
  • "Just to keep it running is time-consuming. There are five people on my team. Commvault was supposed to be one of the less time-consuming solutions, but in reality it takes 60 percent of our time just to keep it running, and that's not even fine-tuning it; that's just to keep it running."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to back up NetApp shares, servers, and virtual servers. We also use it for Active Directory and databases. We used to use it to back up Exchange servers, but we're moving that to the cloud. It has a lot of features but we mostly use it to back up and recover stuff.

How has it helped my organization?

I can't really say how Commvault has improved the way our organization functions because, while I know there was use another product in use before Commvault, I came here way after the company started using Commvault. I wasn't in this role during the transition. When I've talked about this with the more senior guys, they say Commvault is supposed to be the best product available at this moment.

In general, it gives people confidence knowing that their data, on their servers and home shares on shared drives, is backed up. It gives our end-users confidence.

And the solution has helped us to optimize infrastructure usage. The deduplication in Commvault is great. We have 90-something percent savings using its deduplication technology. It's awesome. I love that aspect.

What is most valuable?

The solution provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover our data across on-premise locations. Some of the guys have been using it to move a virtual machine from VMware to the Microsoft solution, Hyper-V. They back it up and then they restore to the different virtual machine provider, and that works great.

What needs improvement?

We have never managed to use it to full potential because we don't have a dedicated team to take care of Commvault, so we barely keep it running. It takes a lot of our time when we have ten other systems to take care of. That's why I'm not the biggest fan of this. Just to keep it running is time-consuming. There are five people on my team. Commvault was supposed to be one of the less time-consuming solutions, but in reality it takes 60 percent of our time just to keep it running, and that's not even fine-tuning it; that's just to keep it running. It's a pain.

It constantly breaks and then we spend three or four days trying to fix the issue, working with support, going back and forth. When we finally resolve something, another issue pops up. Then we spend another three or four days trying to make it work. I'm not saying it's the product's fault. Maybe we didn't implement it correctly in the first place. I don't know, I wasn't here. But it takes a lot of time, and every issue is different so I cannot build experience. With another system, I know if I do this, this, and this then it breaks, and I know that I have to do this, this, and this to fix it. But every time Commvault breaks, it's something different, so it takes us a lot of time to fix it. It is frustrating.

Another thing I find frustrating is that when it fails and it says something like "Error code 19: etc., etc... Click here for more information," when I click I get an error page. Having the error codes documented in the Commvault Knowledge Base would help us a lot.

When I came to the role, they said, "Oh yeah, you're going to be doing this, this, and this, and maybe a little bit of Commvault. In reality, 60 to 70 percent of my day is just tinkering with Commvault.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Commvault for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's not very stable in our environment. Every day there is something weird going on. When we solve the "weird thing of the week," the next day something different goes on.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The issue of scalability isn't applicable to us because we're not trying to just grow, grow, grow. It's not that we're going to have 200 percent growth next year. Our environment is more or less stable. We have 800 servers. Next year we might have 850, but it's not doubling.

Pretty much everything we back up is done via Commvault, except for desktops or laptops.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their follow-up is great. If they send an email saying, "Hey, can you try this and this," if I'm busy with other stuff, the next day they follow up again and again and they harass me. But it's great because my experience with other companies' support is that you have to chase them instead of them chasing you.

Some of Commvault's people are better than others. That's normal. We're humans after all. I only had one case in which I could not agree with the guy, so I had to request another person. But most of the time they're okay or good. Once in a while, you get this really great person, someone who is really awesome. Overall, the support is good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There were a couple of guys from Cohesity trying to get business from us. We met with them, but it never went anywhere. We heard what they had to say and it looked cool, it looked promising, but of course they are much smaller than Commvault. We didn't try Cohesity. They only did a demo for us.

It's not easy for us to make those kinds of changes. If we have a contract with Commvault, we can't just say, "Okay, let's forget about this. Let's bring in somebody new." We are government, so we can't just do that. We need to go through a bid process so it's not as easy as in other companies.

What other advice do I have?

My advice is to have a dedicated team for Commvault, if possible. In our team we are dealing with DNS Exchange, antivirus, Active Directory, and Commvault. I feel I'm not successful enough in Commvault because I am always thinking about multiple things. If you really want to be successful with the product and use it to its full potential, a dedicated team just doing Commvault would be great. In reality it might not be easy to do, but if I had a magic wand, I would have two or three people just doing Commvault.

I think it's a great product that we are under-utilizing. The lesson I have learned from using it is that when I think I'm getting a handle on Commvault, when I think I'm learning it, something else happens that shows me that I know nothing about Commvault. It's a good product, but it's just it takes a lot of effort to support it. Sometimes we just don't have the time. When it works fine, it's awesome.

IT has the regular ComCell Console that looks ugly but is full of functionality. And it has another way to manage it called Command Center that is a nice-looking web interface but I find it doesn't have all the functionality, so I stick to the old interface because I can do everything there. I haven't used Command Center often. I don't find it's the best feature because there are some things that I cannot do in there. I got used to using the ComCell Console and have kept on using it.

The fact that the solution is a single platform hasn't really enabled our organization to accelerate growth or drive innovation. We're government, so we are not driven by growth or innovation. We prefer to have stability and reliability. We're not a company that is trying to quickly sell something. We don't care about that. We're not trying to grow; it's actually the opposite: The less impact that government has, the better.

In terms of the solution's breadth and depth of cloud support, we're not using cloud yet. In government, we don't want to have the latest and greatest and the shiniest thing. We have to be very careful. In a private company, somebody just says, "Okay, let's go cloud," and that's it. Next day everybody is in the cloud. But we have to be accountable to taxpayers and we usually have to justify the expense. Decisions are not made that fast, so we are not in the cloud yet.

We have not tried or simulated a disaster recovery scenario. It's something we have to test. We tried once and we killed the network and everybody complained, so we had to stop it. We have recovered the files here and there when people say, "Oops, I just deleted this file. Can you recover it?" But a whole disaster recovery is something we have never done, and I hope we never have to.

There are five administrators of it in our organization while a couple of more use it to move VMs from one place to another. There are three more on the SAP team who use it to push backups to us, and three more from the DBAs. We don't back up laptops or desktops. Our end-users don't have access to this, nor do our other IT teams such as the applications programmers. They have to come to us to restore something.

It works fine when it works. It's a good product but it takes a lot of effort to support it. I don't know if it's because we didn't implement it correctly or if it's our infrastructure or the product, but that's my general impression.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
Commvault Cloud
October 2026
Learn what your peers think about Commvault Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1273227 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Jan 28, 2020
Supports multiple platforms and applications, and the multi-tenancy is critical to our business
Pros and Cons
  • "The multi-tenancy is the most valuable feature for us because it's the only software that is fully multi-tenant and that has all the features we need to provide to all our tenants. It provides us with advanced features for MySQL and Oracle, among other platforms"
  • "Commvault has helped us to win some customers against our competitors because we have this solution and they don't have anything like it."
  • "There is room for improvement in its user interface and web console, called Command Center. They are improving it every year so if they continue in that direction, I think it will be a very reliable console."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for backup as a service for our tenants. We are service providers. We host Commvault partially on our cloud and we also use some physical servers for a part of the Commvault infrastructure.

How has it helped my organization?

We need the solution for our tenants. We need a reliable solution with as many platforms and applications supported as possible and a solution that is multi-tenant. Commvault has helped us to win some customers against our competitors because we have this solution and they don't have anything like it. They don't use Commvault.

It provides us with steady growth in our sales. It's a unique solution. In our region, we are the biggest provider with the Commvault solution. We're not so big compared to Europe or the US, but we are big here.

Commvault has helped us in some unusual cases when we needed to move a tenant's environment to our cloud or to migrate a tenant from one data center to another. Commvault has been the best solution for this. It has helped a lot.

It has also minimized admin tasks a lot because it has a very good number of settings and tools. You need to spend some time configuring it. After that, you click the start button and everything goes okay. Occasionally we have to check that everything is okay and that nothing is broken. But it's excellent in manageability. It saves us a significant amount of time.

In addition, we have managed to save some costs because the solution supports so many platforms and has so many supported applications. So we need one solution and not ten. It has reduced our costs in terms of infrastructure. If we didn't use Commvault, we would spend 50 percent more on several other software solutions similar to Commvault to replace it. And it has significantly reduced our storage. One of the categories that we measured when looking at software to use for our backup as a service was storage efficiency. Commvault was one of the few that has a deduplication engine and our storage is about one-eighth of what it would be.

What is most valuable?

The multi-tenancy is the most valuable feature for us because it's the only software that is fully multi-tenant and that has all the features we need to provide to all our tenants. It provides us with advanced features for MySQL and Oracle, among other platforms. Many backup solutions have support Oracle backup, but not many have as many features as Commvault for this kind of backup.

The user interface for managing multiple environments in one place is okay for our engineers. It has all the needed features, all the needed settings, available in both the old console and the new web console. I think our tenants are also happy with all the available features from the Commvault consoles.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in its user interface and web console, called Command Center. They are improving it every year so if they continue in that direction, I think it will be a very reliable console.

For how long have I used the solution?

As a company, we have been using Commvault since 2015. Personally, I have used Commvault for six or seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is okay. It's stable. We haven't had many problems with the solution. If you know the solution and know what you are doing, the stability will be okay. But you must have a deeper knowledge of the solution. For this, they have good Education Services on their site, and they will help you a lot. If you do it yourself you will make mistakes and encounter some problems with configuration. It will be much slower and more painful for you. Or you can use help from Commvault Education or Commvault Services.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have scaled out since our initial configuration. Our initial configuration was around 300 TB and now it's around 1.5 PB, if we measure it by backup size. If we measure it by servers, initially it was around 10 servers and now it's around 50. We have around 60 tenants. Some of them are smaller and some of them bigger.

How are customer service and technical support?

Commvault's technical support is very good. I have experience with other software products and their support so I can compare Commvault with the others. Commvault support is very good. We have had about 160 tickets and almost 99 percent of these tickets were resolved very efficiently and very quickly.

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

We have a second solution just for our virtualization platform.

We searched for a solution for other areas of protection, such as agent protection or protecting applications and virtualized cloud platforms that our previous solution could not handle. Our previous solution, EMC Avamar, was more restricted in terms of applications and platforms that it could protect.

How was the initial setup?

In both my current and my previous company, I was the one responsible for the initial setup and it is straightforward. But the next step is the initial configuration and that is difficult for a less experienced person. Now, I can say that I could set it up and configure it much more quickly.

From deployment to production, in my current company, took two to three weeks.

Our initial setup was one CommServe, so it was a simple deployment, without disaster recovery clusterization. In addition there were two MediaAgents. We are extensively using a firewall proxy setup as well. The setup has grown over the years and now, the infrastructure of Commvault is around 50 servers.

We're planning to deploy another one in another installation. The current one will be preserved as it is, and we will deploy a new one with some improvements from our side and perhaps with a different overall design.

What about the implementation team?

Because it was my second installation of Commvault, I did it mostly myself. After the installation, I had some questions about the initial configuration and they were resolved by Commvault's standard support. I opened an incident with Commvault and they helped me with this very quickly.

What was our ROI?

Its efficiency has returned our investments over the course of about two years. Mostly it was an investment in infrastructure.

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

Our cost is around $20,000 per month. The previous year, it was around $30,000 per month. It now costs less because Commvault changed the licensing type for providers. It's not that we are using Commvault less, but it's just due to a licensing change.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated EMC Avamar, Data Domain. And the second one was Symantec NetBackup, at that time, which is now Veritas NetBackup. Veritas NetBackup was the closest competitor when we decided on Commvault.

Commvault was slightly better in price and the licensing was simpler for us than on other platforms. Commvault was also better in terms of data deduplication. It's more efficient with storage.

What other advice do I have?

It's good software and you can create software that is diverse. It has just about every application platform and cloud platform you could need in one solution. You don't need several software programs to admin and to back up many solutions. It provides software efficiency. You can do what you need to do with one solution, not ten.

Use the Educational Services or Professional Services, if you don't have experience with this software. It will be a better experience if you have some background in the software. When I talk with people in my industry about Commvault, they complain that it is difficult, it's big, it's complicated, etc.. I say to them that we have no problems with it. Everything is fine. That is mostly because we read a lot about it through the documentation and watched some educational tutorials before we implemented it. And support is great. Support can help you to resolve questions, not only when something is not working, but also with configuration issues.

Commvault's breadth and depth of cloud support is okay. They continue to introduce new features and new ways to administrate, configure, and use cloud platforms. There may be some platforms that are better in certain areas, but Commvault is not bad and it's not excellent. It's good, it's in the middle. I can't say Commvault's cloud support has a major effect on our operations, but it has some effect. We have cases when Commvault is the only solution to move data from a given cloud to a private cloud or from a private cloud to on-premises. So for migration it's a great solution. But for cloud backup, we don't have a lot of tenants who use Amazon in our region. They mostly use private or regional providers, not global.

Everything is okay in Commvault and they're improving it by themselves. Every update brings new or updated features, which is great.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Data Storage and Protection Team Leader at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Jan 19, 2020
Flexible, stable, good cross-platform replication, and has a good management console
Pros and Cons
  • "We are using a KVM system in our cloud, and this solution works very well with it."
  • "With Commvault, we provided trusted environment to our customer and increased our incomes with new customers."
  • "This solution can be complex and difficult to administer because it supports all of the many platforms, so it would help if they could simplify it."
  • "Virtual machines backup window in GUI is not user friendly. Some improvements should be done to better user experience."

What is our primary use case?

We are using this solution to backup our public and private cloud data. It is very compatible with all backup types and environments. It backs up our databases, as well as other systems such as email and files.

We are using a KVM system in our cloud, and this solution works very well with it.

How has it helped my organization?

With Commvault, we provided trusted environment to our customer and increased our incomes with new customers.

What is most valuable?

The Commvault Console is very good, as it is capable of archive and backup in the same system.

This solution is very successful at cross-platform replication. 

What needs improvement?

Virtual machines backup window in GUI is not user friendly. Some improvements should be done to better user experience.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable product, and in fact, one of the reasons that we choose this solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable product.

We have been using it more frequently in the past three months, and we have ten companies as clients who are using it for their backups. I do not know how many users they have. We are planning to increase usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have been using technical support, and the response time is very acceptable. We have had no problem with support for this solution.

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

We previously used Acronis as our backup solution in this company, but it is not a stable product. It fails as we need to restore a backup, and we needed a stable product. We also needed support for many different platforms. I had worked with this solution at my previous company six years ago and was familiar with it, which is why we choose it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is not complex, and it was not hard for me.

The deployment takes between two and three hours.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed this solution in-house, with our experience. We have a backup team of five people who are in charge of deployment and maintenance, although the team consists of three main people. They are backup administrators and backup experts.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options before we switched to Commvault from Acronis.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I recommend because it is stable and has good support. However, it still has some limitations and can be improved.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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PeerSpot user
Pre-Sales at Arrow ECS Portugal
Real User
Nov 19, 2019
Protects all main applications, integrates well with NetApp
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a complete software that can protect all the main applications. Perhaps that's the feature I like most. The integration with the NetApp and other apps is also very nice."
  • "We evaluated other options, but Commvault is a very complete solution."
  • "I think the one thing that could be improved is the customer experience. The interface should be more user friendly."

What is our primary use case?

This solution is mainly used for virtualization and Oracle data protection. The customers I work with use it to protect their machines and active databases.

What is most valuable?

It's a complete software that can protect all the main applications. Perhaps that's the feature I like most. The integration with the NetApp and other apps is also very nice.

What needs improvement?

I think the one thing that could be improved is the customer experience. The interface should be more user friendly.

The price could perhaps be lower as well.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I believe it's very stable. That's why the customers who buy Commvault stay with Commvault.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, because you can add app features. It's very possible to scale.

We have four or five customers, so that's probably around 20 users. We are in a small country.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good. It was not very difficult. I had a bug and the Commvault supporter helped perfectly.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. We need one or two integrators to deploy and maintain this solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options, but Commvault is a very complete solution. In the end, it's a very useful tool. Our customers will already know Commvault. Their software always compares well with other vendors.

What other advice do I have?

Perhaps, my best advice is to look for an integrator with expertise in Commvault to help deploy this solution. It's not that easy to install. It's not even possible after they all installed it. Customers should have someone with good expertise with Commvault to supply it.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.
PeerSpot user
Chief System Engineer at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Sep 29, 2019
Offers good stability, scalability, technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very stable."
  • "Our primary use case is for backing up the .NES file system, and I backup VMware and Windows cloud servers."
  • "The back of virtual machines needs improvement. I know they're working on it. They're always doing new things but I think they still have a little bit more to do."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for backing up the .NES file system. I backup VMware and Windows cloud servers. It's deployed on-prem.

What needs improvement?

The back of virtual machines needs improvement. I know they're working on it. They're always doing new things but I think they still have a little bit more to do.

In the next release, I would like to see disaster recovery options for the cloud. It was always off the scope because they're not really meant to be a disaster recovery solution but now they're getting there. From what I see, that there's no reason why they can't do disaster recovery, they have everything they need for it. They're beginning to do things but I'd like to see them delve more into that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault for the last four years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The other customers that had some issues with technical support but I, personally, have not had issues with them. I get good support.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't install Commvault. It's not complex, but it demands optimization to do. An integrator did the implementation. It didn't look too complex, but there some things you need to take into consideration and there were configuration issues, fine-tuning, and things like that. 

The deployment took around two days. 

What other advice do I have?

One thing is the pricing. I think they're expensive. They're very good, but they're pretty expensive. It's a complex system that you have to sit on a little bit. You have to work on it. You have to be very aware of any backup program but here specifically, because it does so much, you have to always be conscious of what's happening.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Expert System Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Aug 16, 2019
A leader in backup and archiving, but the solution should have higher availability
Pros and Cons
  • "It's the leader in backup and archiving."
  • "Archiving and storage are very good."
  • "Its competitor, Veeam, includes backup and replication in the same product. I don't know if Commvault has it or not, but they should if they don't."
  • "The solution needs higher availability."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for Commvault is to archive our files. It allows us to move images from temporary storage to permanent storage. Commvault moves everything from the source to the destination, with categorization of the image archive.

What is most valuable?

Archiving and storage are very good.

It's the leader in backup and archiving.

What needs improvement?

The solution needs higher availability.

Its competitor, Veeam, includes backup and replication in the same product. I don't know if Commvault has it or not, but they should if they don't.

Also, they should have a module for reporting and supervising, like Veeam. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for about six months now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

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

The pricing for the solution used to be very expensive, but over the last year or so it's been lowered. 

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

Commvault is an industry leader. Also, the price is competitive with other solutions, like Veeam. In Morocco, all customers chose Veeam because it's very simple and also their price is not expensive. Now that Commvault has adjusted pricing, they are another solution that people should consider.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Enterprise Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Jul 4, 2019
A simple and unified backup solution that scales well and keeps our customers happy
Pros and Cons
  • "It is much more scalable and flexible than everything else in the market."
  • "In summary, this is a unified product that is simple to use and a good backup solution."
  • "Support for this product needs to be improved because I have seen a couple of cases where it is taking more than the required time to solve issues."
  • "We did a POC with one of our customers who is archiving more than fifty thousand email accounts, all over the world, on a daily basis, and Commvault failed miserably."

What is our primary use case?

We provide our clients with this solution. Most of my customers use Commvault as a backup solution only.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution solves a lot of issues for the customers. Other solutions, such as EMC, offer an entire set of software products as part of the solution, whereas Commvault offers everything in one software application. This makes it very easy to replace competing backup solutions.

Secondly, the solution does not restrict our customers in terms of backup infrastructure. They can go and buy appliances from different partners, such as NetApp. Competing solutions are more strict with respect to the backup infrastructure, and customers don't like it. With an enterprise-level customer, you can imagine how the backup infrastructure costs grow.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the backup functionality. This solution is very good for server application backup, backing up laptops, desktops, file shares, etc. The architecture is well suited for it.

The highlight of the solution is the licensing. This is a one-window solution where you don't need to purchase different products. If you compare this to Veritas, they have different solutions such as Backup Exec, and NetBackup for servers. In Commvault, it's single product management.

The backup appliance makes it very easy for the customer to plan for future growth.

The database architecture of Commvault does not require you to have a particular database for different kinds of workloads. For example, the server, desktop, and laptop use a single, global application database. You don't have to create a different database and don't need to expand your backup infrastructure altogether.

What needs improvement?

From the perspective of the enterprise cloud archiving software, it does not resolve all of the data solutions that the customers are expecting. It works, but it is not up to the mark. They still need some time to improve the archiving and offer it within the single console management. We do not pitch the Commvault archiving solution to our customers. If they ask for it due to reasons of legality or compliance then we can supply it, but we prefer not to offer the Commvault archiving solution.

We did a POC with one of our customers who is archiving more than fifty thousand email accounts, all over the world, on a daily basis, and Commvault failed miserably. It was not able to provide that kind of performance. It can be good for up to three hundred user mailboxes, but not more than that.

The stability of this product, as a whole, needs to be improved to compete with archiving solutions such as Enterprise Vault.

Support for this product needs to be improved because I have seen a couple of cases where it is taking more than the required time to solve issues.

The documentation is not up to the mark. They need to improve their support documentation because it is a little bit weak.

They need to expand more into private, hybrid, and public cloud systems. They need to be even more open than they are now with respect to integrating with public cloud systems. Cloud is the platform that system integrators are now selling, so it is important to have that support.

For how long have I used the solution?

Between two and three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The backup performance and management are ok. However, when something is not working, it is probably fifty percent due to product immaturity.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of this solution is fine. It is much more scalable and flexible than everything else in the market. It is the one thing that they are good at. There is no doubt that they have simplified the licensing and purchasing model.

One of our enterprise-level customers for this solution is a very large telecom. They have lots of users. There are different databases and applications including Oracle, their ERP solution, Financial Suite, Greenplum, their CRM, filesharing services, and others. They also have a heterogeneous environment that includes Linux, Unix, Solaris, and Windows. There is also virtualization using VMware and Oracle virtual machines. Commvault is the only software that they have for performing backups, so they are one hundred percent reliant on it.

How are customer service and technical support?

I do not have direct contact with technical support, so to be fair, my opinion is based on everything that I hear from the implementation team. In this context, I feel that the support for this solution, overall, needs improvement.

The documentation is weak, and they need to improve their support portal. They should be aware of the known issues in the market and address them. In general, their support needs improving.

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

Our large telecom client switched to the Commvault solution because of both cost and complexity. This product provides them with a simplified, unified solution. What they used previously was a set of several solutions. There were different backup solutions for the different platforms, desktops were backed up separately, there was different hardware to store it, and there was another tool for regulatory compliance. Each task used a different software application, and by implementing Commvault it brought everything into one solution and solved all of their problems.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. However, issues do not start at the initial setup stage. Once the environment is set up and you are going to take the backup job, pushing the enterprise policies, then problems can arise. It may be because of the backend infrastructure or the network, or something else. Whatever the issue, it is at this point where our customers sometimes need better support.

When it comes to the implementation and deployment, from day one until the backup process begins, it should not take more than one week. This is for a new system.

The deployment time for our enterprise-level, telecom customer was longer than average, in part because they already had an existing backup solution and they had to migrate to Commvault. It needed to be planned and implemented gradually, which required some cutoff dates. From start to finish, including streamlining the documentation and handing over everything, it took approximately one month.

What about the implementation team?

We normally handle the implementation of this solution for our customers. If we are having a problem, or the transition is not smooth, then we involve Commvault to assist with the implementation.

I do not have direct experience working with the Commvault support, but I have heard that they are fair. 

What was our ROI?

Without stating numbers that are confidential, I can say my understanding is that our clients have seen ROI.

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

The licensing is very simple, and one of the advantages of this solution. They have a subscription-based license, as well as a perpetual option, but that is all they have. It is easy to understand. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees.

The licensing fees depend on the size of the solution and the kinds of workloads. There are hardware costs, software costs, licensing, subscription, and support costs. Support contracts can be for one, two, or five years. All of this needs to be considered.

Overall, this solution provides value for the money. In my experience, compared to solutions like Veritas and Veeam, while they do have their technical pluses and minuses, Commvault can save you on average 40% initially, and then 20 to 25% annually.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are partners with several different vendors, and I evaluate solutions based upon the customer's needs. These include solutions from Veritas, Commvault, and others. Before I reach out to them, I know what their hardware costs will be, and how much it will cost to maintain each solution. I also know what the costs are to maintaining their existing solution, and can compare this for them. This is how I can show them, for example, that their ROI will be realized within a couple of years.

What other advice do I have?

I have been using backup technology for more than fifteen years.

Commvault claims that they are doing all kind of things with archiving and compliance, but I have discussed this with my implementation team and they have not been receiving good feedback. There are a lot of issues in managing it.

When it comes to a backup solution, however, I do not suggest anything other than Commvault. It gives me room so that I can meet the customer's requirements both in terms of budget and performance, and they are happy with it.

For anybody who is implementing this solution, I would suggest only doing a POC if absolutely necessary. It drags out the implementation, so it should be minimized if it is done at all. 

In summary, this is a unified product that is simple to use. It is a good backup solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user633354 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Apr 2, 2019
In the VM, we have Live Recovery, Live Mount, and Live Sync
Pros and Cons
  • "In the VM, we have Live Recovery, Live Mount, and Live Sync."
  • "We are very happy now with the technical support, as it is Indian."
  • "We previously had difficulty with the support being foreign."

What is our primary use case?

It's for the file system backup, reel backup, and databases.

We have been using the solution for four years.

How has it helped my organization?

We have a physical server with actual machines, applications, and databases running on it. We do a daily backup on these.

What is most valuable?

In the VM, we have Live Recovery, Live Mount, and Live Sync.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are happy with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are happy with the scalability. We have 30 to 40 physical servers with 100 VMs. With this product, it is not about users, but about the amount of nodes utilized.

We will probably increase by two or three nodes in six months, depending on the requirements of our project.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are very happy now with the technical support, as it is Indian. We previously had difficulty with the support being foreign.

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

We did not previously use another solution.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation should be done by a certified Commvault engineer to avoid issues in the future.

What other advice do I have?

We are waiting for the new version to come out.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Distributor.
PeerSpot user
Senior Presales Consultant at OFFTEC International
Consultant
Mar 28, 2019
Global deduplication and the indexing of the data object saves costs on the product side by doing compression and deduplication
Pros and Cons
  • "Global deduplication and the indexing of the data object are the most valuable features. It saves costs on the product side by doing compression and deduplication. It will help you and make your life easy to reach the data that you need within the minimum downtime when it's required."
  • "Commvault is unique in the backup and recovery category because if you are using Commvault as a backup, you don't need any additional software to have an archiving solution."
  • "The setup is not that straightforward or easy. Even the documentation is not generic or public like other products. You have to be a partner or you have to have a specific account and download it from the vendor themselves."

What is our primary use case?

For the past five years, I was part of a big team as a solution architect that was designing Commvault as a solution for different connector projects and enterprise sectors within the region: the Middle East, North Africa, and so on.

Commvault is unique in the backup and recovery category. It has many features. If you are using the Commvault as a backup, you don't need any additional software to have an archiving solution. While with other products, you do. We use Commvault for backup, recovery, and archiving.

How has it helped my organization?

From the cost perspective, it minimized the costs which reflected on the investment of the storage, even the investment on the network side. The algorithm and the technology that Commvault is using will be reflected in other parts of the IT components, like network, storage, etc. 

What is most valuable?

Global deduplication and the indexing of the data object are the most valuable features. It saves costs on the product side by doing compression and deduplication. It will help you and make it easier to reach the data that you need within the minimum downtime when it's required. 

What needs improvement?

The setup is not that straightforward or easy. Even the documentation is not generic or public like other products. You have to be a partner or you have to have a specific account and download it from the vendor themselves. 

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. The product setup went well. It was deployed without any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. Commvault has recently changed the licensing. The licensing methodology makes things much easier and easy to scale up and scale out. Usually, the rate of technology they are accomplishing with other partnerships with vendors like Fujitsu is using the scale appliances which are massively scalable. 

We have more than 11 customers over here, and in total, there are around 400 users. Some of them are in the financial sector and the government sector.

The amount of people we require for maintenance depends on the project. If it's a medium project, then it's around five. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support are very good. You can chat with the support engineers that are available 24/7 and can provide you with anything you need. I haven't had any major incidents that I've really needed them for.

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

We used Veritas. We switched because if I wanted to use a backup and recovery feature plus an archiving feature I would need to buy more software. With Commvault, I only need one license. It was not a centralized solution like Commvault is. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex. The company itself and technology do not have a market share here in the region. Compared to other software or solutions which have most of the market share in the Middle East, it might be that people could use on the other software or other solution better. From the Commvault perspective, the way to install this solution is totally different than others. The mentality of how the solution should work is totally different than other competitors. In the Middle East, we don't have many technical people to work on it. 

The time it takes to deploy will depend from sector to sector. If it is an enterprise with more than 1,000 users it can take around three weeks. If it's mid-range like SAP accounts it could take one week. Taking into account the features that you want to enable will not take that much time.

What about the implementation team?

We integrated it ourselves. 

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

It is not expensive. The prices are competitive. Other vendors are now adjusting their prices to compete with Commvault. Compared to other competitors and vendors the pricing is fair. 

What other advice do I have?

The advice that I would give someone considering this solution is that you need to have the right people and the right team to implement Commvault. Other than that it's a good tool. From the backup and recovery processes aspect, there's a feature currently they are working with us to enhance it. It does what it says it'll do. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten. Not a ten because there is a little complexity of the overall product. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user1004244 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user1004244software support at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User

There is no doubt that Commvault is nice software. However, when you look at TSM (New name is Spectrum Protect) which comes as a FULL license, including all types of agents (SQL/Exchange / Oracle) and is free of charge for 82 years, which include at the software. All vendors are using HASH algorithm for Dedup and LZ for compression.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.