Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Reviews

We primarily used this product as a solution for backups.

This product improved our system of backup by reducing the time and effort required to manage the system.

The reliability of Data Domain was the most useful feature to me. Every piece of data is recorded multiple times in several devices in a cluster. If any hardware failure occurs, it does not impact the data and does not result in any data loss. Resilience and reliability under any circumstances are important to data security.

Spanning the time I worked with EMC Data Domain, I had no issues that suggested to me that it needed improvement. It was working fine, and anything I wanted to do with Data Domain, I could do it. So I had no idea that it might have needed improvement. That is just thinking from a technical perspective as a user. It did what it needed to do for backup.

In hindsight, I am aware that there is a feature that does not exist in Data Domain related to the security of the product and the data. A friend who works in another organization had a problem when his organization was infected with ransomware. The ransomware locked up the data in the Data Domain and disrupted the data system asking for something in return or it would delete all the data. The ransom was not submitted and the hack successfully deleted all the data. This is a big concern and no small issue where data is critical.

So I believe security measures are not strict enough in Data Domain. I would like to see something in place for better security.

In addition to this — which is related to security as well — there are regulations from the central bank that mandates that we need to keep backup copies that are not connected to the network. They must be completely isolated from the network. Data Domain does not have any arrangements to satisfy this requirement. For compliance, we need to use a secondary solution.

The only other issue is that the prices seem high in comparison to other products and they should consider restructuring their pricing plans.

It's very stable and reliable. I have never had an issue with stability.

This is a very scalable solution. Whenever we needed to we could add new nodes with minimal effort and keep the same data structure.

Defining the number of users for the system is a little tricky because only the backup administrators actually use the Data Domain solution to do the backup procedures for the whole bank as a company. So the actual number of users of the product — hands-on — is around three people. But these three people are doing backups for many systems that are centrally connected to Data Domain. These many systems have around 300 total servers which go through the backup process. Each one of those 300 servers contains data from many users and transactions. In a way, our implementation of this product is serving many thousands of customers, and it can serve many thousands more.

So, yes, I think it is very scalable.

Our experience with customer and technical support has been very good. For example, in one instance we had a problem with the hardware and technical support guy came and replaced the failed component. This was seamless from our operations because the system is highly available and redundant. So everything continued working even with some part failing. But the technical support people were knowledgeable, quick and on-premises.

Before using Data Domain, I was using a tape library. It was IBM Tape Library with LTO (Linear Tape-Open). We switched to EMC Data Domain because of the speed. Backing up data to a tape library is much, much slower than backup to Data Domain, which is based on hard disks. it's much faster in backup.

The system we switched to is actually EMC Data Domain as the hardware device for backup, while Veritas is the software backup. Veritas has its own hardware device. However, EMC Data Domain hardware is much better than Veritas. The golden combination as I see it is EMC Data Domain hardware with Veritas software. Going that way, I get the best of each in our backup solution.

The initial setup is straightforward. For the deployment, it took one day for the hardware implementation and a couple of days for integration with the software. For several days, I worked with IBM TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) or Veritas. All of the parts came together well and I had no real issues.

The implementation was carried out by my team and myself with some input from EMC as well. That was a team was a total of two persons from EMC, one person from my team and myself. I just managed the team and oversaw the process. I think normally that a technical team of about three people can handle the deployment.

As far as having a return on investment, I see investing in Data Domain as having a positive return. It is reliable and it does a very good job when it comes to data compression and deduplication. It makes the backup size much smaller, which saves the company a lot of money because you are not buying tape cartridges for the tape library or even hard discs for temporary backup to store redundant information.

Another ROI which is less tangible is the time for recovery. If I have a problem and I would like to recover something, it is a much faster procedure working with hardware than with tape.

One thing that anyone considering this solution has to realize is that it is expensive. It is expensive for a reason, but it is expensive.

Anyone considering using this solution will first need to make a proper assessment of their need for the data storage because this is misleading. Sometimes managers just make a simple assumption that an organization has about 50 terabytes of data and that they don't need more than this for backup. This is not correct.

If you look into the whole backup strategy, you will see how frequently you will do backups, how many copies we will need to retain, and the period of days that the data is retained — It will be a specific period of days and the backups will rotate. There should be a retention strategy and a rate of change of the data backups. All of these are parameters that affect the sizing of the data domain device. It could be many times the initial size depending on the strategy and how critical the data is. So assessing the proper sizing is very important and key for the success of the backup strategy.

It is important, as well, to assure that the software and the hardware work seamlessly together because you can mix and match software and hardware solutions to come to the ultimate package. Making sure that every feature in the software would work with the hardware is really imperative before making any decision.

On a scale from one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate EMC Data Domain as 7.5. The reason why it is not higher than 7.5 is mostly because of the cost. It is a very expensive solution. The lack of better security features to protect the data is really another big issue.

The backup is very secure. The deduplication using EMC is very good. We are able to make systems and handle random cloning. EMC is a very stable solution for making backups.

The solution needs to improve its platform, especially backup features like DB2 and other system backups. 

They should reduce the CPC cost to customers. The product is becoming very expensive.

In the next release, EMC should support stable level listings at restoration and stable space level in the database. Sometimes if I want to take the stable level restoration, EMC is not available. Only this one part is lacking in the current version. 

The solution is very stable.

The solution is easy to scale. We have nine people on it and they are all system admins. We are planning to increase usage and to increase the license.

Technical support is excellent. I would rate it eight out of ten.

We previously used HP Data Protector. The HP Data Protector backup was not secure. We used to do a backup, but at the time of restoration, it would give us some issues on the restored data.  We were not able to access and stream data on HP. EMC is much easier in terms of restoring the backup properly. 

The initial setup is very easy. Any person can handle the initial setup of the solution.

I handled the implementation myself.

I would recommend the solution. I'd rate them nine out of ten.

Primarily we use the solution as data storage and as a backup solution.

The solution's most valuable feature is the integrated deduplication function. Another valuable feature is the possibility for replication between two devices on different occasions.

The pricing could be better but it's still not too expensive. We haven't used the solution for long enough to really know what might be useful in a new release. We haven't used the full functionality yet and I'm not sure if all the functions are working as expected. We are using it, but it's not fully implemented.

We don't use technical support from EMC, but we do get it from our reseller, and they have been just fine in terms of offering assistance.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We had a reseller assist us with the implementation. We're very satisfied with the experience we had with them.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I would recommend the solution to someone considering it. 

I would rate the solution seven or eight out of ten.

We've primarily been using the solution as a backup. What we understand is that we can create it with Veeam where Veeam backs up the network into Data Domain.

It's very easy to use Data Domain once it's been set up. The interface is also user-friendly.

The firmware upgrades could be simplified. I'm in the process of struggling to upgrade right now.

The dashboard could be more interactive.

The solution is very stable.

The solution isn't very scalable from what I understand, but I haven't attempted to scale the solution myself. We only have about ten IT personnel on it.

Technical support is good. I'm satisfied with them.

The initial setup was straightforward. I was finished with the setup after two to three hours.

We implemented the solution ourselves.

We are using the on-premises deployment model.

I would recommend the solution. I would rate it eight out of ten.

We use the on-prem deployment model of this solution and sometimes the public cloud. Our primary use case is for on-prem backup and for replication servers. 

The most valuable features are the deduplication and compression and the Data Domain Boost feature. It's compatible with other backup software. 

We have had deduplication and replication issues. When we used another backup software we noticed that it didn't have the same issues. 

Our customers would like to enhanced deduplication and compression features with Veeam software. 

It's stable. 

In terms of the scalability, I would rate it a ten out of ten. It's better than average. 

Their technical support is good. I would give it an eight out of ten. It could use enhancements. 

The initial setup was straightforward. It only takes around fifteen minutes or less. We required five staff members for the implementation. 

We used a service team for the implementation. 

There are a lot of different models and each one has a different price. Some models require spending more on additional fees. 

I would rate it 9.5 out of ten. 

The primary use is as a company backup.

The most valuable features are the DD Boost and the multiple applications and model platforms.

The solution needs a better cloud version. We need a solution that has a better understanding of the cloud.

The pricing model needs to be improved.

The stability is very good.

Scalability isn't the best.

The solution has excellent technical support.

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment takes about two weeks with migration. You only need a few people for deployment and two or three people for maintenance.

We used an integrator to assist with the implementation.

I don't know the exact pricing, but I believe the solution is costly. You may also need to pay for extra features above the standard licensing.

We use the on-premises version of the solution. 

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Our customers have a lot of big data that they work with. The solution allows them to decrease the amount of data which can appear over the network and optimizes the bandwidth of the network itself.

The deduplication feature is the most valuable part of the solution.

The backup storage is also very good.

The solution could adjust the size of the discs. The processor or the cache on the Data Domain could be better.

Technical support is very good.

The initial setup is very straightforward. Deployment takes about a week. We needed two engineers to handle the initial setup.

EMC is very expensive for small customers. For enterprise-level companies, like banks, it offers a good price. 

We use the on-premises deployment model.

We're a reseller; we offer this solution to our clients.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

The primary use of the solution is inline deduplication.

The solution offers good storage. Also, deduplication and completion are the best features, in my opinion.

The pricing should be adjusted. Customers continuously talk about the price. They know it is a good solution and they really need the type of storage the solution offers, but it costs somewhere around $100,000 and up for enterprises. It's not cheap, but it's very important for data vendors. My customers are banks and petroleum sectors, so they need the backup and archiving systems. They can't leave a data center without it, even if the cost is high.

The solution is very stable. My customers have been very pleased with the solution so far.

The solution can scale up to one petabyte right now. It's very good for enterprise-level organizations.

I think this level of scale is still only for cloud providers. It's not for every customer. If I am a cloud provider or internet service provider, I can use it, as my scale is very, very, large. With any other company, you will not need more than 200 kilobytes. 

The level of technical support depends on your SLA. You have, for example, next business day, full support, full support plus, full support in four hours, onsite service, etc. 

EMC is under the Dell technologies portfolio. You've got one of the best technical support teams looking out for you. 

Pricing is related to size. A lower range solution might be about $33,000. My customers use higher range versions with a price of around $100,000. That's the price for both the hardware and the software.

I'm using the solution as a technical case professional. I'm selling it to my customers.

I sell the on-premises deployment model.

It's the best solution for deduplication and compression of storage, but the pricing is a little high. 

The solution works with any backup software. You might use it as a standalone or use it with VM, or solutions like Symantec, CMC software, etc. 

For those considering implementing the solution, I would say that they need to know their data gross and they need to allow for architecting. They need an understanding of their current backup situation and what they will need. They will need to remember to back up every day if their data is very, very important. 

When you are buying a backup solution, the Dell EMC team has an architecture team. They can be used to study the environment, so they can advise on what you need. A new user won't have to worry about it. Dell EMC will take care of everything.

Also, a user will still need to do data protection. They need to buy security devices for their environment. They should make a backup outside of their environment and make sure the backup is not connected to any internet connection to avoid hacking. 

I would rate the solution ten out of ten.