Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs ExaGrid EX Series comparison

Dell Technologies and ExaGrid are both solutions in the Deduplication Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while ExaGrid is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0. Dell Technologies holds a 24.7% mindshare in DS, compared to ExaGrid’s 6.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of ExaGrid users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Read 87 Dell PowerProtect Data Domain reviews

10,864 Views
6,192 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

ExaGrid EX Series

Read 7 ExaGrid EX Series reviews

1,721 Views
1,687 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

ExaGrid EX Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain and ExaGrid EX Series compete in the data backup and recovery space. Dell has the upper hand due to its efficiency in deduplication and user satisfaction in support and pricing, whereas ExaGrid offers a superior technology platform that supports scalability and fast backup performance.

Features: Dell PowerProtect Data Domain offers efficient deduplication, robust data protection, and a comprehensive data management system with recovery options. ExaGrid EX Series showcases a scalable architecture, allowing for quick recovery times with fast backup speeds and innovative technology for data protection.

Room for Improvement: Dell could enhance its scalability and speed, possibly optimizing better for large-scale data environments. It might also benefit from expanding its technology to further improve backup performance. ExaGrid could work on providing better support and competitive pricing models. Additionally, the interface and customer experience might be areas for future enhancement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerProtect Data Domain offers smooth deployment and excellent support services, making integration easy for existing systems. ExaGrid EX Series is simple to deploy, known for its customer service that prioritizes simplicity and ease, appealing to those who prioritize performance.

Pricing and ROI: Dell offers competitive setup costs and promising ROI with its advanced deduplication techniques, reducing storage expenses. ExaGrid requires a higher initial investment but promises significant long-term savings through faster backups and reduced management costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs. ExaGrid EX Series Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs. ExaGrid EX Series

February 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 PowerProtect Data Domain

Ranking in Deduplication Software

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Disk Based Backup Systems (1st)

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 February 2026, in the Deduplication Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerProtect Data Domain is 24.7%, down from 28.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExaGrid EX Series is 6.1%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Deduplication Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerProtect Data Domain	24.7%
ExaGrid EX Series	6.1%
Other	69.2%

Deduplication Software

Featured Reviews

Branko Cirovic

Storage Engineer at Comtrade Group

Provides seamless backup integration and long-term reliability for enterprise data protection

The price is quite high; this product is not considered cheap. Additionally, if you use higher availability boxes, they also come at a premium price. However, they provide business continuity, which is the main reason why companies invest in this solution. Tape is slow; when restoring several virtual machines or databases amounting to several terabytes, Dell PowerProtect Data Domain represents the fastest and most reliable solution, ensuring great integration with backup software. If a customer has limited budget constraints, they may opt for cheaper external storage comprised of just a bunch of disks and utilize it for backup, as backup is not a business-critical service. However, I see great value in Dell PowerProtect Data Domain because it is fully automated, features great integration with backup software, and provides good value for money. I would rate software support as a ten, while I would give hardware support a seven. I never give any product a perfect score; I think Dell PowerProtect Data Domain deserves a nine. The only minor problems are the certificate issue and the price. These certificate issues are quite rare and mainly arise when we forget to restart and upgrade the box for several years.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We see data reduction by up to 60 times with Dell PowerProtect Data Domain, but it depends on the backup application the customers use."

"The solution is very stable."

"My advice about Dell PowerProtect Data Domain is straightforward: I recommend this product to all clients, because it provides the best deduplication, compression, and security."

"The solution is very scalable."

"The solution syncs immediately."

"This solution has a feature called Domain Boost, which allows for source deduplication and compression."

"The most valuable features are the deduplication and compression and the Data Domain Boost."

"PowerProtect is a flexible solution that you can cover various cloud and on-premise environments."

More Dell PowerProtect Data Domain pros

"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."

"It is a solid and a quite simple solution, which is a good combination. The customers like the simplicity and its scale-out capacity. They like the support pricing, and even the extension capacity pricing, a fixed price, which the executive is offering in Czech market."

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

"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."

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

"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."

Cons

"I would appreciate improvements primarily in the PPDM backup software because I still feel it's lacking the features of a proper backup solution and is a bit simplistic."

"The initial setup is complex."

"If we lose the admin password, Dell always asks for separate charges."

"Improvement is needed in terms of telemetry and high availability as the high availability feature is only present in the higher models of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)."

"We have some problems with backing up on the Power Platform. PowerServer is an IBM product, and it forces us to back up over LAN, which is not suitable for us."

"The price for PowerProtect DD is not suitable for my customers. It is very high."

"I would like to see integration with public cloud."

"The Dell PowerProtect DD architecture offers several significant features. One is DD Boost, which is utilized at both the source and destination sites for application processing."

More Dell PowerProtect Data Domain 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."

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

"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."

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

"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 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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price may be a bit higher than other products in the market, but you will receive ten out of ten support with next-business-day delivery on parts' availability."

"The pricing is cost-effective for the solution"

"The price of the solution and support for Dell PowerProtect DD is expensive. We have customers that cannot upgrade to a newer version of the solution because the support is too expensive."

"Its price is reasonable."

"On a scale where one represents high price, and ten represents low price, I rate the solution a five, which means that the solution is of medium pricing."

"Dell PowerProtect DD's pricing is expensive, and there is no option for perpetual licensing."

"There are many options in the pricing structure which can cause some confusion and necessitate the purchase of additional licensing."

"I can't remember what the license costs are. They might be paid monthly or every two months."

More Dell PowerProtect Data Domain pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

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

"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

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)?

I work as an implementer of Dell PowerProtect Data Domain systems, storage, and backup systems, serving as an administrator and support specialist. I have 15 years of experience implementing Data D...

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What do you like most about Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)?

The product, a disk backup solution, improves our data application tasks. We used tape libraries with Dev drives in legacy architectures, resulting in slow backups compared to modern drives like NV...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain)?

Regarding the pricing for Dell PowerProtect Data Domain, it is expensive. For small clients, it is very expensive. Large clients find it not expensive, but it depends on the solution in the environ...

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What do you like most about ExaGrid EX Series?

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExaGrid EX Series?

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

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

Comparisons

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Compared 29% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Compared 5% of the time

ExaGrid EX vs Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerProtect Data Domain Competitors

HPE StoreOnce vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 17% of the time

Quantum DXi Series vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 15% of the time

Veritas NetBackup Appliance vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 6% 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 PowerProtect Data Domain

February 2026

Download Dell PowerProtect Data Domain product report

Buyer's Guide

ExaGrid EX Series

February 2026

Download ExaGrid EX Series product report

Also Known As

DataDomain, Dell EMC Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain

EX Series

Overview

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain is the leading backup appliance built for powerful cyber resilience and seamless integration into on-premises environments. It supports both traditional and modern workloads, simplifying operations while reducing risks and costs.

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain offers scalable storage capabilities that integrate smoothly with backup systems. Its deduplication and compression technologies enhance storage efficiency by significantly reducing data volumes. Users appreciate its secure data protection, excellent deduplication and compression, efficient data replication, and the DD Boost protocol for faster data transfer. However, feedback suggests improvements are needed in areas like complex VTL tape addition, high pricing, and challenging cloud integration. The implementation may benefit from boosted processing power and enhanced ransomware protection.

What are the key features of Dell PowerProtect Data Domain?

Deduplication and Compression: Significantly reduces data volumes, optimizing storage usage.
Efficient Data Replication: Enhances data protection by securely transferring data across locations.
DD Boost Protocol: Promotes faster data transfer, streamlining backup processes.
Scalable Storage: Adapts to varying data capacities, ensuring growth accommodation.
Secure Data Protection: Safeguards data with robust encryption and protection features.

What benefits should be expected from Dell PowerProtect Data Domain?

Space and Cost Savings: Achieves reductions in data footprint, lowering storage expenses.
Reliable Backup and Recovery: Provides consistent and fast data backup and restoration capabilities.
Seamless Integration: Operates smoothly with existing backup software and environments.
Data Security: Offers comprehensive data protection to ensure business continuity.

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain is widely employed across various sectors like banking, finance, and government for its backup, deduplication, and archiving functions. Organizations utilize it with software like Veeam and NetWorker to optimize bandwidth, manage large data capacities, and deliver secure, reliable backup features, supporting both on-premises and hybrid deployments.

Dell Technologies

The ExaGrid EX Series hyper-converged secondary storage for backup product line consists of eight appliance models. Each appliance is sized for a full backup and for long-term retention. Any ExaGrid appliance can be mixed and matched in the same scale-out system with any other size or age appliance, allowing customers to buy what they need as they need it. This pay-as-you-grow model allows up to 25 appliances in a single scale-out system.

ExaGrid

Sample Customers

The US Army, City of Houston, Lloyds TSB, TiVo, Teck, Ingram Entertainment, The New York Mets

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 PowerProtect Data Domain vs. ExaGrid EX Series

February 2026

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