Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Barracuda Backup vs Dell PowerProtect Data Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.6
Barracuda Backup enhances data protection, reduces downtime, lowers costs, and boosts ROI with efficient, user-friendly, and reliable features.
Sentiment score
3.5
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager improves ROI with automation, efficient recovery, and deduplication but lags behind Cohesity and Veeam.
It not only saves time but also protects data.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Previously they had somewhere around 100 TB of capacity for the backup for a few VMs on one side. Now, the overall setup is hardly 80 TB, where they use almost 240 TB of production data into that 80 TB.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would recommend Dell PowerProtect Data Manager to other organizations because it is cost-effective and delivers good performance compared to alternative solutions.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I do find that with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, the ROI is good when compared to other Dell products, but when compared to others in the current market, such as Cohesity or Veeam, it is not as good.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Barracuda Backup support's efficiency varies; it resolves issues quickly or slowly depending on staff experience and timezone availability.
Sentiment score
6.2
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager's customer service is adequate, with appreciated 24/7 support but inconsistent response times and regional presence.
Other times I may have to wait longer for solutions if the technical support is less familiar with the product.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
From my experience, the technical support from Barracuda receives an eight out of ten.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sometimes the engineers allocated to our cases appear to be inexperienced as they ask about basic queries we have already tested.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Dell provides reliable support for PowerProtect Data Manager, with 24/7 availability and a qualified support team.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
My experience with the technical support team of Dell is that they are actually great.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
When we had the compliances and any of the backups were getting failed or we identified that some of the backups were frequently failing, the system would alert us.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Barracuda Backup offers scalable solutions for businesses, with unlimited space and flexible options, though provider limitations may occur.
Sentiment score
6.1
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is scalable, easily customizable, well-supported, and aligns licensing with capacity needs, though cloud improvements are suggested.
Opting for a virtual appliance model provides easier scalability without requiring much licensing or configuration work.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
The scalability is sufficient for my clients' use cases.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its capability to back up existing environments can be improved, particularly when it comes to disaster recovery in the cloud.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
As per the documentation, that is an easy process, whether you need to scale up or scale out.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
If you are okay to purchase the license, they have the feasibility to increase the capacity as well.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
Barracuda Backup is rated highly for stability, though connectivity issues can affect virtual machines and cause isolated problems.
Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is stable, reliable, user-friendly, with minor upgrade issues; overall a dependable data management solution.
Latency issues only occur due to physical connectivity problems, but with good connectivity, it works well.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In using Barracuda Backup, sometimes the VM has issues and becomes non-functional, requiring support tickets to resolve.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
It is extremely reliable and I have never experienced a crash.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Making sure the system is properly understood before deployment and handling upgrades efficiently would improve stability.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
I would assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager as quite stable; there are no issues with the workloads I am using.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Backup requires better integration, UI updates, improved support, more device compatibility, and AI-driven security features.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager needs improved installation, support, cost-effectiveness, user interface, and additional features like desktop backup and SaaS protection.
The main area for improvement is integration and support for databases.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Integration with vendors other than VMware and Hyper-V would make it more competitive.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
Adding AI features for security would also be beneficial as artificial intelligence is always helpful from a security perspective.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would like to see improvements that include bare metal restore capabilities and enhanced data restore features in Dell PowerProtect Data Manager.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhancements for microservices and container backups would be beneficial, enabling a more consolidated management platform for modern architectures.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Backup offers budget-friendly pricing with per-terabyte licensing and free device replacement after three years.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager offers flexible pricing options, often viewed as affordable, with discounts available and additional feature costs.
Makes it cheaper compared to other solutions.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
Barracuda even provides replacements after three years if a device reaches end of life, without any extra charges.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is cost-effective, as it is licensed per socket rather than by workload.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Overall, pricing does not significantly impact our decision.
Business Development Manager at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
compared to some other products, it is a bit more costly.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Backup excels with cloud functionality, fast restoration, effective email security, and reliable support, surpassing competitors in data protection.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager provides efficient management, high deduplication, and seamless integration, enhancing data protection and operational cost savings.
The most valuable feature of Barracuda Backup is that it's on the cloud, so there is no need for hardware.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Barracuda email security works effectively with O365, and we have been able to achieve many use cases that other competitive products such as Micro, Fortinet, Trellix, or Forcepoint could not accomplish.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
One valuable feature of Barracuda Backup is that it can be used as thin VMware storage.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
It provides a seamless backup solution integrated with a dashboard full of capabilities, enhancing recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
It satisfies my customers' scalability needs and provides interactive features, allowing efficient integration.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
Compared to other products such as Veritas, Dell offers more competitive pricing while other vendors charge significantly more.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
46th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (44th)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Barracuda Backup is 1.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is 2.4%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager2.4%
Barracuda Backup1.1%
Other96.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

GANESAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Rating shows fast restoration and reliable support with scope for improved integration and database backup options
The product needs improvement to become better. For example, we attempted to integrate with Postgres SQL server to backup the database alone, which was not supported. For this reason, we required a separate solution for database backups. While other SQL servers are supported, Barracuda Backup has limitations with database backups. The main area for improvement is integration and support for databases.
reviewer2767527 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized backups have simplified hybrid protection and improved ransomware recovery and compliance
The majorly needed improvement is that the product should easily simplify the upgrade and installation process. Sometimes Dell support should be more active. They take time for P1 issues. Sometimes it is not a P1 for Dell, but it is P1 for the customer, and the support needs to be very mature. That is a major drawback I see. Otherwise, the product is quite well. This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard. In that way, it makes their backup management easier and they can get detected anomalies as soon as possible. This is one of the solutions I would recommend. However, if it is a very small company, they really need to think about the cost, as it is very costlier for them. But as an enterprise solution and a mid-enterprise solution, this is the solution where companies think their data is very critical, in sectors such as financial, banking, and health. This kind of sector should go with that solution because it always gives the compliances of HIPAA, GDPR, and all those things that are really required for them. From management perspectives and consolidation solution perspective, the integration is quite easy. With respect to the backup administrator and everything, it is quite straightforward. There are some layers that need to be improved and should have the internal feature instead of creating the additional VMs for the NAS backup. It should be internal and directly have the agent base or something that can communicate easily with Dell storage. If it is third-party, I would understand, but it should be able to communicate. The benefit of it is that it is easily understood and you can do knowledge transfer with a lot of documents available. The drawback of it is that when it comes to the installation, Dell always takes a lot of time for all these things with third-party involvement in between Dell and the customer. Support is the major part of it. People need to understand that when a customer raises their ticket for P1, they should treat it as a P1. Instead of by their book being P3 or P2, sometimes they only treat it as such when the complete backup server is down. However, for the customer, if it is not happening with the critical system of backup, then it is a P1 for them. From Dell support, they do not treat it as a P1, or they treat it as a P3 or P2. That kind of understanding and some agreements need to be done between the customer and Dell. It is a costlier solution. Comparatively, other backup solutions make this one of the costlier solutions. However, someone who has their enterprise data or needs protection in a good way can go for it. I could say it is a mid-enterprise or enterprise level solution. Otherwise, people do have the same solution but with differentiated features. However, it is costlier compared to the other.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Backup?
The pricing is very competitive. Licensing is on a yearly basis, and Barracuda even provides replacements after three years if a device reaches end of life, without any extra charges.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Backup?
The product needs improvement to become better. For example, we attempted to integrate with Postgres SQL server to backup the database alone, which was not supported. For this reason, we required a...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Backup?
We are partners with Trellix Move Antivirus and we have sold it previously. That particular bundle has changed as Trellix has moved to Complete Protection and the DLP comes under another bundle. We...
What do you like most about Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
One notable feature is its robust backup support for Kubernetes and container environments. Additionally, PPDM stands out for its ease of deployment and management compared to other backup solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
Regarding the pricing aspect of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, I am not very happy with that; compared to some other products, it is a bit more costly, and there are definitely areas for improvement.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I apologize, but I'm not in a position to answer what areas of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager I would like to see improved or enhanced. There is still a lot of features that we haven't tried yet. I...
 

Also Known As

LiveVault, Barracuda Virtual Backup, Barracuda Backup Appliance
PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ochsner Health System
National Bank of Greece, USC Australia, PCS Publishing, Dell Digital IT, Rushmore Electric, Melanson Health, Arrow Electronics
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Backup vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.