Dell Avamar vs ExaGrid EX Series comparison

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Dell Technologies and ExaGrid are both solutions in the Deduplication Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.0, while ExaGrid is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0. Dell Technologies holds a 10.9% mindshare in DS, compared to ExaGrid’s 5.0% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of ExaGrid users who would recommend it.

Dell Avamar

Read 90 Dell Avamar reviews

10,519 Views
4,102 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

ExaGrid EX Series

Read 7 ExaGrid EX Series reviews

2,197 Views
2,153 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell Avamar

ExaGrid EX Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

Dell Avamar and ExaGrid EX Series compete in the data backup and recovery market. Dell Avamar often holds an edge in pricing and support, while ExaGrid EX Series stands out for its advanced features and rapid recovery capabilities, appealing to businesses with significant data volume needs.

Features: Dell Avamar offers source-side deduplication, integration with VMware, and efficient data protection, reducing network bandwidth requirements. ExaGrid's features include a landing zone technology for faster backups, an adaptive deduplication for optimal storage use, and scalability that grows with the organization.

Room for Improvement: Dell Avamar can improve by expanding its plugin support, enhancing performance in non-VM environments, and refining its user interface for more intuitive navigation. ExaGrid could enhance its dashboard functionality, improve data deduplication for long-term storage, and streamline processes for even faster initial deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Avamar is praised for its smooth integration into existing environments and responsive customer support. ExaGrid boasts a straightforward deployment process, facilitated by pre-configured appliances, with customer service noted for its proactive and hands-on approach, ensuring efficient implementation and support.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Avamar is attractive for its lower initial costs, appealing to budget-conscious buyers, with ROI enhanced by storage efficiency and deduplication. Conversely, ExaGrid, with a higher initial investment, justifies its ROI through significantly reduced backup times and enhanced scalability, suitable for businesses focused on long-term growth and performance optimization.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Avamar vs. ExaGrid EX Series Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. ExaGrid EX Series

September 2026

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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

Dell Avamar

Ranking in Deduplication Software

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Backup and Recovery (22nd)

ExaGrid EX Series

Ranking in Deduplication Software

8th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Deduplication Software category, the mindshare of Dell Avamar is 10.9%, up from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExaGrid EX Series is 5.0%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Deduplication Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Dell Avamar	10.9%
ExaGrid EX Series	5.0%
Other	84.1%

Deduplication Software

Featured Reviews

SamuelThomas

Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.

Have supported critical environments despite room for improvement in legacy backup options

It is very efficient in cyber resilience. Deduplication, automation, and everything is very efficient. It is multi-cloud enabled and has broad protections. The software delivers flexible and efficient backup and recovery options through its cyber resiliency features. Dell PowerProtect Manager provides insights in managing backup processes. Its encryption mechanisms are very efficient, helping to secure sensitive data. Its integration with Dell EMC Data Domain is very good. It is easy to integrate with Data Domain. Multi-cloud options are enabled, and backup in cloud options exist in Dell Avamar.

Read full review

Daniel Gillber

Information Technology advisor at Lotus Consulting

Improvements in data storage efficiency and customer support experience

ExaGrid EX Series and Veeam was easy to set up, and it worked seamlessly. It was very simple to use. We rarely needed to touch the ExaGrid boxes, except for upgrades. With the systems engineer from ExaGrid, and with our common knowledge of backup software, it was very easy to use. The performance was good, the interface was good, and the GUI was good. When ExaGrid introduced the air gapped feature, it was almost complete. Almost every hardware vendor has an air gapped feature, but they were significantly ahead of other vendors. The air gapped and immutable storage are very nice features. The price compared to other competitors was good with better features. It is not a cheap product, but compared to the features, it is a good competitor.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It works quickly and is very stable."

"Compared to the solution we are looking at now, it seems pretty straightforward to implement."

"Its stability and deduplication capabilities are most valuable."

"The product has a proven track record of good backups without much of a failure ratio. It also has a good backup in terms of the compression ratio."

"Centralization is Avamar's biggest advantage. It moves data to a central location from various geographical locations."

"The solution's ease of use simplifies the disaster recovery processes in our company"

"Dell Avamar has helped our organization by allowing us to do backups."

"Both backup and recovery work well for all three types of data."

More Dell Avamar pros

"One of the most valuable aspects of the ExaGrid EX Series is the support."

"One of the main features is the landing zone, it is a particular space where the information is not duplicated."

"The most valuable features of the solution are deduplication and landing zone."

"ExaGrid EX Series and Veeam was easy to set up, and it worked seamlessly."

"The solution easily integrates with the backup targets, such as Veeam."

"ExaGrid has improved my organization in the way that we get reliable backups with very little administration."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use and data deduplication. It's extremely easy to use and does a very good job of data deduplication and compression."

"The tool has improved backup and recovery times. One of the key features contributing to this improvement is the landing zone and deduplication retention zone. When data is in the landing zone, the process is fast, ensuring smooth backup and recovery operations at high speeds. However, the process becomes slower for long-term backups moved to the retention zone due to fragmentation. So, if the data is older than a few days, the speed may be limited, especially for non-deduplicated data in the landing zone."

More ExaGrid EX Series pros

Cons

"It's an expensive solution."

"What would make Dell Avamar better is if it can do faster backups because right now, PowerProtect Data Manager is better in this area with its new UI and a new way to implement backups. Customers nowadays also expect more up-to-date solutions, and this is another area for improvement in Dell Avamar. It's not as up-to-date, so I'm counting on PowerProtect Data Manager, but customers who have Dell Avamar don't want to switch because you don't have as many backup problems in Dell Avamar compared to other solutions. What I'd like to see in the next release of Dell Avamar is an updated UI and a different way to manage backups because currently, backup management is a bit heavy for customers using Dell Avamar."

"We have had issues with performing backups in our hybrid environment."

"In my opinion, they should destroy all of their products and create them from scratch."

"Compared with Cohesity or Rubrik, which have some continuous data protection for backup and replication, this solution tends to lack in this area."

"There are two areas for improvement I would suggest. First, some integrations are not in place, such as the email alerts, which are not compatible with Office 365 SMTP gateway."

"The management of this solution is a little bit difficult for IT administrators. They have to be trained before going through the system."

"There also needs to be single sign-on support."

More Dell Avamar cons

"When speaking about a scale-out, you want to have better equipment. You cannot just add a disc to the foreign equipment. You have to buy another one and put it together, like parallel."

"The tool reduces storage footprint. However, clients are now storing data for longer durations with increasing requirements to retain backups for longer periods, particularly as a defense against ransomware attacks. As a result, the retention zone with duplicated data is experiencing more demand, leading to space constraints. This necessitates using higher-end, more expensive models to address the issue."

"The product's documentation can be made more precise."

"The one place where we are sometimes losing the opportunity with ExaGrid is that a few customers still require a fiber channel connectivity, which is not always possible."

"The solution could improve by switching to a flash-type solution rather than the spinning drives that they currently use. However, we have not had any failure with the spinning drives. The flash-type drives are more up-to-date and are something that is in their roadmap."

"I would like for them to develop direct cloud integration with a third-party cloud. Direct integration with AWS and other cloud providers."

"The support is not that fast to deal with our concerns. It is next day support, they could improve on the speed."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was very expensive before, but after integrating it with Dell EMC Avamar Data Protection suite licensing, we are getting better discounts."

"It is expensive. Its cost is the main thing."

"It might not be beneficial to smaller businesses due to its high cost."

"I'm not sure, but perhaps the pricing could be done better at the moment."

"Dell Avamar is a moderately priced solution."

"When it comes to competition the price is not what is important, it's not the problem."

"Dell EMC needs to lower Avamar's price and add more features to stay competitive."

"This is a fairly expensive solution. It cost approximately 21,000 each year."

More Dell Avamar pricing and cost advice

"I rate ExaGrid EX Series' pricing eight to nine out of ten."

"The current agreement has 21 terabytes of free space and it cost approximately $35,000."

"The previous solutions I have used both included the Backup Software and the Appliance making it hard to compare to this solution. However, overall the solution is reasonably priced for the features you receive. ExaGrid EX Series is priced better than HP, Dell, and possibly Commvault which I have compared in the past."

"My company had to pay 1,60,000 EUR for the system we use, and the payment was made just once for the system and five years of full support."

"In comparison to other solutions, it's affordable. They're all too expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	47

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?

From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC Avamar?

The cost is very significant, and it could be lower.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell Avamar?

It is a very good product. My only concern is that there is no tape backup. For tape backup, we have to use Dell NetWorker. They could add more features for cyber resilience and multi-cloud options...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ExaGrid EX Series?

Everything can always be better, so I would give it a nine.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ExaGrid EX Series?

We used ExaGrid EX Series as a landing zone for Veeam software. Initially they did not have immutable storage, but when they released that feature, we implemented it. We used it with Veeam software...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering ExaGrid EX Series?

I was a customer. My overall rating for ExaGrid EX Series is 9 out of 10.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell Avamar

Compared 28% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell Avamar

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell Avamar

Compared 4% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs Dell Avamar

Compared 3% of the time

Dell NetWorker vs Dell Avamar

Compared 3% of the time

More Dell Avamar Competitors

HPE StoreOnce vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 22% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 21% of the time

Quantum DXi Series vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 14% of the time

BridgeSTOR Microsoft DPM Appliance vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 8% of the time

DD Boost vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 4% of the time

More ExaGrid EX Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar

September 2026

Download Dell Avamar product report

Buyer's Guide

ExaGrid EX Series

September 2026

Download ExaGrid EX Series product report

Also Known As

Avamar

EX Series

Overview

Dell Avamar offers advanced deduplication, efficient data compression, and high backup and recovery speed, enhancing backup management and operations optimization for virtual environments and data protection needs.

Known for its seamless integration with VMware, Dell Avamar provides a user-friendly interface and robust performance. Its centralized data handling and minimal bandwidth requirements make it effective for different backup scenarios. While Avamar efficiently supports virtual environments and provides broad protection capabilities, users often report challenges with the interface and backup speed. There can be complexities in training and management, and integration with cloud and external platforms can be troublesome. Additional complaints include high pricing, scalability issues, and challenging transitions that complicate data migration.

What are the standout features of Dell Avamar?

Advanced Deduplication: Significantly reduces data size.
Efficient Data Compression: Optimizes storage use.
High Backup and Recovery Speed: Enhances operational efficiency.
VMware Integration: Facilitates smooth virtual environment operations.
Centralized Data Management: Simplifies data handling.

What benefits and ROI should users seek?

Improved Backup Management: Streamlines processes and enhances efficiency.
Optimal Storage Usage: Through data deduplication and compression.
Reliable Disaster Recovery: Ensures business continuity and data security.
Enhanced Cyber Resilience: Protects against data loss and security threats.
Scalable Operations: Grows with business needs while reducing overhead.

In industries focusing on virtual machine protections, Dell Avamar is widely used for VMware environments, endpoint, server, and database backups. Often integrated with Dell Data Domain for storage efficiency, it supports diverse environments, including remote office backups. Companies also leverage Avamar for compliance with geographical data retention regulations, adapting for on-premises and cloud deployments.

Dell Technologies

ExaGrid EX Series provides ease of use, strong data deduplication and compression, and a fast recovery landing zone. It integrates seamlessly with backup environments and is known for competitive pricing, particularly in the Czech market, despite requiring higher investment.

ExaGrid EX Series is highly valued for onsite backup and recovery, often paired with Veeam software, specifically for virtual machine backups. It offers improved backup and recovery speeds, excellent scale-out capacity, and an innovative air-gapped feature that enhances data protection. The system's integration with Veeam, Oracle Storage, and VMware allows efficient data management. Feedback highlights the need for direct cloud integration and better next-day support parts. There's a call for fiber channel connectivity and enhanced documentation. Transitioning to flash drives is a consideration for more modern infrastructure, although the current technology remains effective.

What are the Key Features of ExaGrid EX Series?

Data Deduplication and Compression: Minimizes storage needs and reduces costs.
Fast Recovery Landing Zone: Ensures quick and reliable data retrieval.
Scale-Out Architecture: Facilitates expansion by adding appliances, optimizing capacity.
Seamless Backup Integration: Works effectively with Veeam, Oracle Storage, VMware.
Air-Gapped Feature: Adds an extra layer of protection against data breaches.

What Benefits Should Users Consider in Reviews?

Improved Backup and Recovery Times: Enhances operational efficiency.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing, especially in certain markets.
Reliable Performance: Delivers high-quality data management and protection.
Simplicity of Use: Reduces complexity in data operations.

ExaGrid EX Series excels in sectors requiring robust data protection, such as finance and healthcare. Its compatibility with Veeam and VMware suits organizations with extensive virtual environments. Industries with stringent data integrity requirements benefit from its air-gapped feature and high deduplication efficiency, ensuring secure operations.

ExaGrid

Sample Customers

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions

NCI Group, North Attleborough Public School, North Kingstown School Department, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Rathbone Brothers PLC, Rio Hondo College, Ruder Finn, Sarah Lawrence College

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. ExaGrid EX Series

September 2026

Free Report: Dell Avamar vs. ExaGrid EX Series

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