Commvault Cloud Reviews

We are a part of a global team for data protection. We have multiple regions around the globe that we are supporting 24/7. This is our presence with respect to the data protection environment.

We are backing up around eight petabytes of data in our organization. We have multiple platforms that are being backed up. We have OS servers, and we are also backing up multiple applications such as Exchange. We are using different databases such as Oracle and SQL Server. We also have NAS shares originating from NAS devices.

We have a hybrid environment, and we also have on-prem. We are backing up on-prem, and we also have a cloud for which we are using Azure Backup. Currently, I'm using version 11 and service pack 22. I started with version 7, and I have worked on versions 8, 9, and 10.

We have a global presence, and we are backing up a lot of remote sites. We have integrated a couple of cloud services by using Commvault. For the cloud environment, for a few regions, we have not directly backed up. We have implemented the Commvault solution inside the cloud. So, we are using it as a normal backup application rather than using the native backup solutions in the cloud, but for on-prem, we are completely using Commvault. 

Commvault has a concept of workflows. It has a lot of default workflows, and it also allows you to customize your workflows, which minimizes the manual intervention of the admins. If these workflows were not in place, the admins would spend a lot of time in manual intervention. On average, we save 25% to 30% of workload with the automation of tasks.

Commvault is helpful in reducing storage costs. There is a concept called deduplication, and Commvault has extensive technology and a lot of features when it comes to deduplication. It is one of the backbone features of Commvault that helps in reducing the space consumed on storage devices, which reduces the storage cost. On average, we can reduce up to 80% of the storage costs by implementing the deduplication technology by Commvault. 

IntelliSnap for snapshot collection is one of the most efficient and easiest ways to back up large amounts of data.

It is user-friendly. Commvault offers all kinds of solutions to integrate with multi-cloud, and it is very easy to deploy and integrate.

Commvault’s coverage for applications, databases, and virtual workloads is very good. I've been working with Commvault for the last 12 years. Commvault can support any workload that you have in your environment. They are also evolving with new technologies. They are being able to adapt to the upcoming and emerging new technologies. You can back up anything by using Commvault. When MongoDB was quite new in the market, Commvault was already supporting backup for MongoDB. Commvault is evolving at a very good pace.

Commvault offers a lot of solutions for disaster recovery. Previously, they had only native or legacy disaster recovery for standalone backup services. Then, they came up with something SQL Log Shipping where you can have two servers, primary and secondary, and you can do SQL Log Shipping between the two. So. when a primary server goes down, it can bring up to the secondary server by restarting the SQL instances. Commvault also offers high availability. It offers global DNS, and there wouldn't be any manual intervention when one of the backup services goes down. So, it supports the cluster mode. These are the three options right now that Commvault is offering with respect to disaster recovery. They are also offering some cloud-based solutions for disaster recovery.

Commvault can adapt to multiple storage platforms. There is a vast list of storage arrays that are supported by Commvault. The software drivers are provided with Commvault. It has the IntelliSnap feature, and Commvault is doing well to support multiple storage arrays from different storage platforms.

We do not use Command Center, but we are using CommCell Console. We're navigating and manipulating the entire environment by using CommCell Console, and we are comfortable with it. We didn't find Command Center user-friendly. We found it a bit difficult to use. It decreases the efficiency of the tasks to be performed. It was probably implemented as a centralized application to manage all environments, but it was probably not a good idea. I and my colleagues across the globe are comfortable with using CommCell Console rather than Command Center.

Commvault is doing releases very often. The services packs and maintenance releases come quite often. They should slow down a little bit because quite often, when we implement a feature release or a bug-fix release, it causes some issues, and some of the options do not work.

It is more expensive than other solutions.

I've been working with Commvault for the last 12 years.

The frequent releases from Commvault impact the stability. When we implement a feature release or a bug-fix release, quite often, it causes some issues, and some of the options do not work. This is one of the cons that we have related to the stability of the Commvault application.

It is very flexible. We did not find any issues with regard to scalability. We are backing up eight petabytes of data. 

In terms of users, we are a team of six people providing 24/7 support. We are a part of the Global Data Protection team in our organization. In our team, we have Data Protection Engineer 1, Data Protection Engineer 2, and Data Protection Engineer 3. Apart from that, we have Architect 1 and Architect 2. These are the standard roles in any team across the organization.

We have very well-versed and capable engineers in our team. Our team is capable of planning, designing architecture, and managing operations. We have distributed these roles across the team. There is no dedicated person. Recently, we implemented Metallic in our environment, and as a senior member of the team, my role in that project involved planning, designing, and coordinating with the vendor. I also had to coordinate with different internal teams. We have something called Architecture Review Board. We plan and come up with a solution, and then we propose it to the management and get all the approvals. I have been a part of that. In addition to this, I do the regular normal BAU activities. I spend around 40 hours a week working with Commvault because I am from the core backup and the core data protection team. 

Commvault is the only enterprise application that we have for this purpose. It is being used in our organization for protecting data, and we plan to continue with Commvault. We don't have any plans to switch.

To my knowledge, over the last five years, we have used their professional services only once, and that was to upgrade our Commvault environment from version 9 to version 10. We don't use their technical support much. We haven't had any major issues for which we had to contact them, but we are quite satisfied with their technical support. I would rate them an eight out of 10.

I have worked on Veritas NetBackup and Dell Networker. Commvault was offering more options and solutions. We also found it to be very user-friendly and easy to deploy. 

Its initial setup was straightforward. It didn't take much time.

After the planning is done, if all approvals are there for the budget and other things, the implementation takes at least two to three months. When the hardware is in place, the deployment of Commvault is not that difficult. Within a day, you can complete all Commvault configurations. It is quite easy to deploy. Only the hardware part consumes a lot of time in terms of approvals, budget, etc.

Until now, we haven't reached out to the vendor or Commvault professional services. Commvault has an implementation team that offers services to deploy the solutions in our environment, but we haven't opted for these services. However, a couple of years ago, when we were upgrading our environment from version 9 to version 10, we did opt for their professional services. We required only one staff member from our end and one staff member from their end.

I do not have the exact number. Its return on investment is probably more than 50%.

It is quite expensive when compared to other applications in the market.

Its license is completely based on workload capacity. If I buy a license for 100 terabytes, I can back up anything. I can back up any platform, technology, or application, which is an advantage. Previously, we had to buy an agent for a particular application, and the cost was different for each agent. Now, the cost is completely based on the storage capacity. The license for one terabyte can cost around $1,700 for backing up anything from your environment.

We evaluated EMC Avamar and TSM, but we stuck with Commvault.

I have recommended this solution to a lot of people based on the experience I had. It is very easy to use and deploy, and it is not that complex. The only con is that it is a bit expensive as compared to other solutions.

I have been working with Commvault for the last 12 years. They are constantly evolving and coming out with a lot of innovative ideas, which is quite inspiring. The biggest lesson that I have learned by using this solution is that we have to adapt and evolve along with the changes.

Commvault provides multiple solutions, not only to back up on-prem but also to the cloud. Commvault has a cloud-based SaaS solution called Metallic. We have Office 365 in our environment, and for its backup, we have implemented Metallic. Commvault is playing a huge role in backing up different kinds of environments, such as on-prem, cloud, or hybrid.

Commvault HyperScale X helps to minimize not only the OpEx cost but also the CapEx cost. Commvault HyperScale X offers a lot of hardware solutions. It is easy to manage. It is just plug-and-play.

For storing the data on tapes, we have hardware encryptions in place. We have software and hardware encryption, but we do not use Commvault's encryption solution. Commvault does ensure that encryptions are in place for sending the data to the public domain or outside the environment, but we are using third-party encryption tools. Similarly, Commvault provides security solutions that have a lot of things, but we are not using any Commvault-based cybersecurity solution. We have our own solutions that are managed by our cybersecurity team. We have been using them for a couple of years, and we are good with them.

I would rate Commvault an eight out of 10.

The product is used purely for backup and restoration of data. A company can use the product if it needs to keep the sensitive data in its disk and cloud safe.

The 1-Touch recovery feature is helpful for all customers. If anything happens in the environment and a server shuts down, we can bring it back using the 1-Touch recovery feature. Commvault Backup & Recovery is simple compared to other products.

The stability of the tool could be improved. We were not able to take a secondary copy in Metallic on-premise. Some pharmaceutical customers keep their data on-premise so that they can maintain a copy on-premise if something happens to the cloud. Metallic does not provide an option to save a copy of data on-premises.

I have been using the solution for four years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

I rate the stability an eight and a half or nine out of ten.

It is scalable. We are providing services for 30 to 45 customers in our organization.

The support team is good. Whenever we raise tickets, the support team is available 24/7.

The initial setup is straightforward. As a beginner, I learned the entire deployment process in an hour. The entire configuration takes three to four hours to complete. The download takes 30 minutes. The installation is purely based on the network strength. If everything is good and we download the right package, the console can be deployed in three to four hours.

We need to download Media Kit from the console to deploy the solution. Then, we must extract it and download the entire software package. After that, we run a set of files from the downloaded package.

The solution is expensive, but it is worth the money. When we choose a good quality product, we must pay for it. We should not expect a good quality product at a lower price.

I have used versions 11.28 to 11.30. I have four years of experience in technical support. We should not think that the solution is expensive. It is worth the money. It is a worthy product. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We have used Metallic to offer a package of services to some of our clients along with Nutanix. One of our clients just started using it for Mac agents. They purchased approximately 35 licenses.

One valuable feature is unlimited backup. You can back up existing users and folders. 

You can't change Metallic's retention policies without contacting the Commvault support team. We can only change the scheduling within a certain window, like four hours. Restoration also takes a long time. The hypervisor capabilities are also limited in terms of backing up across cloud platforms. For example, if we are taking a backup in Azure and want to switch the backup to AWS, it will take some time. 

I have worked with Metallic for about a year. 

I rate Metallic seven out of 10 for stability. The backup and restoration takes some time, and you get some errors when installing a package. 

Metallic is a scalable solution. Its primary benefit is unlimited backup for endpoint users. However, not all clients purchase that. 

Deploying Metallic isn't complex. You only need to install the onboarding agent. It took approximately half an hour the first time. You have to download the agent package from the console itself and deploy it on the endpoint. You need to put in the login credentials. It will ask for the email ID and password. 

I rate Metallic eight out of 10. I recommend using the console instead of the web interface. It's much easier to use. 

We use the Commvault for data optimization because it maintains enough data. We have implemented it to run two incremental backups per day and a full backup at the end of the week. We also perform the restoration of the database and DR servers, using it.

Commvault is a software-based solution that can manage backups to any storage and VMs. It integrates redundant storage and preserves jams in a storage area, providing up to 70% compression rate. Backups of large volumes do not take much time to complete. It also facilitates restoring Oracle data, which can be opened directly to a database after restoration without any user intervention.

There are still a lot of ways to improve the recruitment process. Commvault deployment is executed remotely, but managing their support on time is difficult. They reply to the support portal weekly, but there are some delays.

I have been using Commvault Backup & Recovery as a customer for around two years.

The stability is good. I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten.

There is some gap in technical support, but it is good. Restoration happens only when there is a disaster. In that case, customers always expect the solution providers to be present. They regularly go through the update process and release updates frequently.

Neutral

The initial setup is easy. Integrating the database and server for clients might be difficult. The deployment does not take much time. However, changing advanced features or integration may take some time. Once the software and backups are ready, it will take seven to ten days to complete. You may need more people involved in the deployment if you have many servers. A team of two to three people is usually sufficient, including a deployment engineer from Commvault and two to three executives on the client side. I rate the process a six or seven out of ten.

The product generates a good return on investment.

I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten.

They should decide to go for Commvault Backup & Recovery or another solution depending on the infrastructure requirement. 

I rate it a seven out of ten.

We use the solution for file system backup, Linux OS system backup, and Domino backup. Our data center team uses the solution for testing servers and database-level backups. In my company, we are not using the end-point features.

Earlier, it would take us a long time to create a backup. After implementing Commvault, the time needed for creating a backup has been reduced.

IntelliSnap and file system backups are valuable features. There are multiple functions, but we are currently using these two functions.

Data center backup must be improved. We also want the product to provide us with a cloud-based backup. If we use Microsoft Exchange Online for email services, we want to know how to get a backup in Commvault.

I have been using the solution for the last three years.

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution is really good in terms of scalability. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten. We have deployed the product in three factories. We are centrally managing the solution from the head office. Three people in our organization currently use the solution 24/7 to its maximum potential.

We have faced a little bit of delay in support. The support team is not available during the night. The product must improve support.

Neutral

Previously, we were using EMC NetWorker. It had some limitations. We compared it with Commvault to determine which solution would fulfill our requirements. We switched to Commvault because it had certain features that were not available in EMC NetWorker.

The initial setup was easy. I would rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. Currently, we are using the solution on-premises. We are also checking whether we can take backups on the cloud. It took us almost three to four months to deploy the product.

Commvault Professional Services helped us with the deployment. We required two or three professional team engineers for the deployment. We have two to three engineers to manage the solution in the data center.

The tool is affordable. I rate the pricing a six out of ten. Implementation requires additional costs because we need Commvault Professional Services.

We evaluated other options, like EMC Networker and Veeam.

People considering using the solution must consider their budget and requirements. They must also consider the quality of support. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The solution is primarily used to protect against ransomware. It helps protect data and allows for data recovery and backup.

The data protection itself is very good compared to other products. 

The backup agents are helpful.

Its pricing is pretty competitive. 

The technical support is responsive. 

It is easy to set up.

I haven't had any challenges with the solution. 

The pricing could be more flexible in terms of licensing. It would help attract more customers. 

I've used the solution for three to four years. 

We have around customers using the product with 5,000 or more users.

The response in terms of support has been fine. Whenever they need help, the team can respond to the ticket. They do provide solutions to issues. That said, I don't really use customer care directly.

The vendor will offer support contracts. The customers can decide if they might need support or not. 

The initial setup is straightforward. There are basic steps to follow for the installation. That said, I do not handle the setup directly. From my team, I have not heard of any kinds of challenges. I'm not sure how long it takes to deploy the product.

We handle the implementation for clients. 

The solution's pricing is competitive. It depends on the number of users required and if any discounts are leveraged. Bigger volumes will lead to bigger discounts. 

We're provided the solution to clients. We are implementors. We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

We provide backup services to our customers and we implement Commvault for most of our backups. This includes cloud with VMware, cloud with IBM, cloud with Azure, SAP applications like HANA or traditional SAP, for databases including Oracle and DB2, and across several operating systems including AIX, Solaris, Windows, and Linux.

We have a separate, private backup network. It has its own appliances from different vendors and the information on it is not visible to our main network. This is to help protect against ransomware and other threats.

Commvault provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover data across our on-premises and cloud locations, which is something that is very important for us. We have data centers in Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, and we need to administer all of the environments from a single location in Mexico.

The administrators connect to all of the environments on-premises. We have two flavors; the multitenant environment and the dedicated environment. We manage all of these from Mexico.

Commvault is very good in terms of coverage for applications and databases. This is important because we don't only administrate backups. We have managed services that include the database, application, operating system, and storage. We talk with the administrators for the database and operating system to create a policy that ensures all of the data that we need to recover the environment is complete.

The recovery process is consistent across platforms and this is important to us because clients give us the information, and we need to back it up and to ensure that we can recover it if they have a problem.

The recovery options are good because we offer our clients a complete recovery of their information, as well as an option for partial recovery, based on their needs. For example, we can offer the recovery of a single table in a database, depending on what the scenario is.

The most valuable feature is the compatibility with our entire environment.

The embedded deduplication engine is really good because we use a Near Line SAS disk as a repository for our backups, and we don't need to pay for another appliance such as a Data Domain or Quantum so that we can have hardware-based deduplication.

One of the benefits of using Commvault over the years has been that all of our administrators have the ability to perform admin functions. They haven't had any complaints about the interface.

Commvault has support for multiple storage platforms, which is helpful for us. We use block storage for some backups, and we use appliances that have duplication capabilities for other backups. The method in which Commvault fits in depends on how much money the client spends. For example, if they have a higher budget then we use PCI-compliant appliances, or snapshots in the backups to ensure that we don't have ransomware. Other clients pay only for the amount of storage that they use. In some cases, we use replication at the host level, whereas in other cases, it is at the hardware level. The console that we have with Commvault can manage all of the environments and hardware that we have.

I would like to have a manager-level dashboard to review the backups. This is not from an administrative perspective where you can see the details of the execution. Rather, it would only show the percentage of completeness for each one.

I have been working with Commvault for more than eight years.

We have not had any problems with stability. 

We have more than 10 implementations in all of our data centers.

Using Commvault helps to minimize the amount of time that we spend on backups. I am not exactly sure how long it would take otherwise, but we back up approximately four petabytes of information each day.

Scaling is not a problem for us. If we need to, we can install more servers and install a new console.

We use Commvault support on a daily basis. People from the database teams need help restoring data, so they contact Commault for assistance.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

Prior to Commvault, we used Veritas NetBackup for five years.

A lot of our environment is currently backed up using Commvault but we are planning to use Veeam and Commvault together. Veeam is priced better than Commvault and right now, we use Veeam to back up our virtual machines. As we split more of the information between the two different applications, we may use Veeam for cloud environments, and for traditional environments, Commvault.

There are some applications like SAP HANA that are not compatible with the Veeam software. In cases like this, we use Commvault.

This product is very easy to set up. The reason is that we do everything. We implement, we operate, and we migrate. One of the reasons that we continue with Commvault is that we have spent a lot of time training people. This means that the people in the company can do everything without the need for third-party persons.

It takes between two and three hours to install a new console.

Over the years that we have had this same software, people on the admin team have become certified by Commvault. This ensures that they are doing things properly and doing them well.

We charge our customers on a per-gigabyte basis.

Using Commvault has helped us to reduce storage costs because, in some cases, we changed to block storage. Using block storage and software-based deduplication is cheaper than the appliances that have deduplication embedded in them. In some cases, we have reduced our hardware cost by 50%, whereas in other cases, it has been reduced by more than 75%. It depends on the technology that we compare. For example, the Data Domain appliance is perhaps four times the cost of the Near Line SAS disk in traditional block storage.

Reducing the hardware that we have in the data center, also reduces our costs in terms of energy and space. I do not have an estimate as to how much we save.

Commvault is more expensive than Veeam, which is the reason that we are changing to Veeam for cloud environments.

We had been running Veritas NetBackup and did an RFP to change the backup software. We tested Veritas, Commvault, TSM from IBM, and Dell NetWorker. The finalists were Veritas and Commvault. We found that there were more advantages to using Commvault. For example, it has deduplication embedded into the software and if we wanted this with Veritas, we needed to pay an additional fee. This is why we changed and we have maintained it for several years.

In comparing solutions, I think that generally, today, all software solutions are the same. We have the same compatibility using Veritas, TSM, NetWorker, and Commvault. The main reason for us to maintain Commvault is the expertise that we have with the tool. All of them have deduplication capabilities and can use different repositories, so I don't have a problem with the other brands.

Commvault has the capability to discover unprotected workloads, although we don't use this because we only work with policies. Our clients tell us the policy that they want to apply to their environment, and we don't analyze their environment beyond the scope that they specify.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our current use case is for storage backup of large Veritas Clusters. We have around 350 TB of storage backup and we use Commvault's HyperScale X with unlimited data backup.

With Commvault, our backup performance is way better, compared to what we had, because we have a disk-to-disk backup.

It also helps to ensure broad coverage with the discovery of unprotected workloads. That is always helpful for us. Our environment is very dynamic. We often have high data-demand spikes.

In terms of time saved, because the backups are automated, our team generally spends 30 to 45 minutes reviewing the logs and any errors, and it saves us two to three hours per week.

The deduplication and compression have helped to reduce my backup costs. This year, I haven't had to purchase any expansion for my backup storage, thanks to Commvault. Otherwise, I would likely have had to spend around $150,000. And next year, I can add one more node to HyperScale X before expanding it. So it has saved 20 percent of my backup budget.

The main solution from Commvault is the HyperScale X backup. Instead of a dedicated appliance, we have a three-node HPE Apollo cluster for backing up. That gives us the best value regarding speed.

Another valuable feature is that, in general, recovery is faster than any other solution we have reviewed. That is especially the case for small, micro files, 2 or 3 KB research files.

The Commvault user interface is very nice and intuitive. It's perfect compared with other products I have used. It's in a completely different world. When running a backup, the display is very clear about the estimated time.

And using Command Center, we know exactly how many backups are running and it gives us clarity on our backup state. It gives us a report and can just send a screenshot of it to the team.

In addition, Commvault gives us a single platform to manage and recover our data. Since we are a research organization, backup is one of the most critical parts of our IT operations and services. Internally, we run it as a managed service, and there is a single console that makes it easy for management to see the performance.

The majority of our file servers are backed up by Commvault. They provide protection against ransomware with their intelligent methods. We haven't experienced a ransomware attack, but I know they have good coverage. They will make sure they recover a backup at any cost.

They need to improve when it comes to large, video file archiving. They're good, but they have not met my expectations as a customer in this area.

Also, HyperScale X does not back up NDMP, or they only use a native file share backup.

I have been using Commvault for three years.

The stability means our team can relax. On average, we used to get six backup failure errors a week, and that has been reduced to two.

The scalability is good and we plan to increase our usage of Commvault in the future.

From the time that our deployment was successfully completed, we have hardly reported any errors.

During deployment we had a couple of issues. Commvault provided us with excellent support to make sure all the issues were fixed. Customer satisfaction is a priority. The local sales and consulting team also extended support to us. They made sure we had a clean installation and a clean operation. Initially, when we had problems, I thought things were not good, but my impression of them changed. I see the real value that they bring, and I appreciate them. I'm a very tough customer, but Commvault's support made sure that I achieved my goals and I respect them. They are patient.

Often, once the sale of a product is done, the salespeople run away. But here, the entire team was involved to make sure they delivered and deployed. After that, they extended support for anything that might require it. They said if anything happens, if there are any issues, here is a number to call to make sure that it is resolved.

After the deployment, both the sales guys and a technical guy came to meet with us to understand our future plans. They listened patiently and they did not try to sell me anything. They just added value. That is the reason they are number one.

They do a quarterly review and explain the latest improvements with Commvault's technical experts. There is also training and certification to help us use the latest features to our benefit.

Positive

Initially, our Commvault was configured for a particular use case. After that, we had a detailed discussion in which they listened to our complete concerns and architecture. From that point, the deployment of HyperScale X was very fast and clean. So when they know the environment, the setup is very good.

For our 350 TB deployment, it took seven days to complete, including networking, installation, updating, and getting a full backup to run. QoS took another few days, making the total time about 10 to 12 days.

Commvault support helped us to deploy the solution. I would especially recommend their professional services.

We look at return of value because as a backup solution, we cannot say it gives us ROI. We have a clear ROV due to the reduced efforts for our team, as well as manpower reductions and fewer failures. And technically, we have a faster backup. We have seen a high return of value, and management is also happy.

The pricing is very competitive. When Commvault knows you are comparing it with the other leading providers, they are ready to compromise on pricing. But you have to make sure you get a long-term commitment on the pricing. Otherwise, when you have a future expansion, they will take advantage of it.

Our company evaluated other solutions, but that process was done by another team. But I read a document that reviewed the evaluation, and they evaluated Veeam as well as Micro Focus Data Protector and NetBackup. They looked at industry reviews and at our specific use case for archiving and backup, and Commvault had the best score.

Pricing is the one area where you have to focus. You need to have a clear plan. HyperScale X is one option and it's nice to use when you have third-party hardware, if you want to have disk-to-disk. 

Make sure you convey your use cases to Commvault's professional services. They will listen to you and they will advise on the options. Also, have an assessment done by Commvault professional services to make sure you have a long-term plan in place. 

Other than the large file archiving that needs improvement, VM is good, cloud backup is good, file server is amazing, and they do a good job when it comes to physical server backup. SQL backup is also good, and Linux back is also amazing.