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Carbonite Server vs Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Carbonite Server
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
57th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (45th)
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
34th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Carbonite Server is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)0.7%
Carbonite Server1.0%
Other98.3%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

CP
Backup, storage and disaster recovery technical specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
A reliable backup product which needs little management
For most technical users the setup and initial deployment are fairly straightforward and once deployed it 99% of the time looks after itself. Installation of the agents is similar to most other products in that it has an install wizard to guide you, the accompanying documentation is also very useful to assist wherever you are in the agent install and policy setup process. Normally our customers' IT team does the deployment of agents, however, this isn't a daunting task unless you are dealing with multiple servers to protect the product. On a server-by-server basis, the deployment doesn't take long. From the MSP side of things, the infrastructure sitting behind the scenes doesn't take too much to install, configure and maintain.
NimitPuvar - PeerSpot reviewer
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Centralized backup has improved data protection and simplifies secure, compliant restores
The biggest advantage of the product is that it is basically a single appliance which comes with a bundle of backup software and the appliance, as we have a single console to manage it. It also provides other features such as data encryption at rest, along with data deduplication and compression in backup which is very useful. From the centralized dashboard, we can manage the backup job and determine if the backup job is happening appropriately or not. If any backup job fails, we can find out the root cause for the failures. Because it is a hardware-based appliance, we can restore the data immediately, and it provides genuine restore capabilities. In terms of data availability compliance, we are looking for data availability and data security in terms of encryption, data deduplication and compression. It provides data availability as each appliance comes with RAID. If one or two disks fail, then our data appliance is still available for backup. It also provides encryption, so our data is also ransomware protected.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It seems reliable and easy to use."
"The solution is very stable."
"I find the BMR/image and the recovery pieces are valuable."
"It does not slow down your computer or use a lot of resources as it works."
"Easy verification of things is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is a free engine to help work with the container."
"The Granular Restore of SQL feature has been a lifesaver more times than I can count. One of the main reasons for looking at Carbonite was their support for platforms like AIX and AS/400 Series."
"The advice that I have for people looking into using Carbonite Server is that it seems reliable and easy to use."
"The product is easy to troubleshoot and store data."
"Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is versatile because I can use it for any type of use case, as it is an all-in-one box."
"The solution is strong."
"Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) was positioned as an appliance concept for clients, providing faster go-to-market strategies by having everything pre-integrated, which gives customers advantages so that within two to three hours, I am ready to deploy my policy."
"Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) offers a backup, recovery, and management tool that is very easy to use."
"Personally, I feel that this is a robust solution and one that I can always recommend."
"The biggest advantages of Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) that really stand out for me are that it is very easy to interact with, easy to implement, and then easy to manage."
"It is a good, stable product with good reliability and performance."
 

Cons

"I would like to see an improvement on the management user interface, as well as Kellion integrations."
"The support for object storage isn't quite there yet. Its public cloud support can be improved. I would love to see the public cloud support for object storage, and it would be great, but what I always hear from the folks at Carbonite is that in a lot of cases, it directly competes with their cloud offering. So, I don't know when or where that will go or if that will go anywhere, but we are hopeful to see something. The dashboard is a little outdated. If they gave it a facelift and put some better design around their dashboard, that would be tremendous. I generally care less about the visual aesthetics of an application as long as it does what it needed to do, which is true in the case of this solution. We also have the Microsoft 365 platform. Because they're two separate platforms, I have to log in to my Microsoft platform to manage it, and I have to log into my Carbonite server backup platform to manage it. Having these two coexist together in one management console is really what we're looking for, but we went for it knowing this. We also knew that there would be some integration coming down the road. So, we're again hoping to see some of that coming in 2021."
"They do not yet have USB recovery but they are adding it in coming releases."
"In the next release I would like to see an improvement in the auto failover option."
"The support for object storage isn't quite there yet; its public cloud support can be improved."
"It could be a little bit easier or faster to be able to access data files without having to download anything."
"When you have to restore it, Carbonite takes a lot of time."
"The stability has room for improvement."
"After resizing and compression, the system continuously runs out of space. Dell EMC doesn't do automatic cleanup or other things, so we constantly have to manually go in there or work with Dell support on this. The solution has not been working as advertised."
"The two-factor authentication is missing from Dell products."
"The solution has not been working as advertised."
"Managing the product is a little bit complicated."
"I would like to see more options and features about Recovery from Dell EMC Cloud Tier"
"Basically, the protection solution, when it comes to BMC, is not the modern provider."
"The only disadvantage I can see with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is the cost."
"I would like to see integration with Dell EMC's Cloud Tier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay 9,000 dollars per year for our license."
"The pricing is between $120 and $150 per year."
"Its price is reasonable."
"The solution is open source."
"The licensing is billed on a monthly basis. Dell is bundled so that when you order IDPA, you get everything together with the license."
"We have a perpetual license. It is a capacity-based license."
"Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) has a yearly subscription fee."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
The pricing for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is quite expensive, but I would say, compared to the work that has been put into the appliance itself, we all know Dell is the most expensive product on ...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
I find it difficult to identify faults with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA). The only initial issues we had were with bare-metal restores, but their support was absolutely excellent, and we worked thro...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is used to back up Dell VX Rails, as we have six Dell VX Rail nodes or clusters in our current company, and to have an off-site backup. We have two Dell PowerProtect DP ...
 

Also Known As

Carbonite Recover Backup
Dell EMC IDPA, Dell IDPA, EMC IDPA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

INLINE Commercial Construction, Hamilton County
Under Armour, Christian Brothers University, Presidio
Find out what your peers are saying about Carbonite Server vs. Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.