We have ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage bundled with Veeam backup.
A competitive and balanced solution that offers solid performance at a reasonable price
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like the performance of the restore feature. Regarding backups, ExaGrid is almost the same as Data Domain or StoreOnce.But when you restore, ExaGrid is the better choice for its performance.
The advantage of ExaGrid is that Veeam's Data Mover is bundled into its hardware.
What needs improvement?
ExaGrid is a new player in the Vietnamese market. Most people go with Dell or HPE. When we bring ExaGrid to the customer, we have to do a lot of POC to show why ExaGrid is good. And some customers have a policy to only use HPE or Dell, so they cannot choose a new brand.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ExaGrid is a one-time investment. It comes with a three-year warranty. You can order five years of service, but the three-year warranty is the most popular in Vietnam, and it's enough. After three years, you can sell the extra warranty and make money. The same goes with HPE StoreOnce and Data Domain. The most popular model they sell in Vietnam comes with a three-year warranty.
With the same capacity of 80 terabytes, the cheapest one is HPE StoreOnce. ExaGrid is slightly higher, and Dell Data Domain is the most expensive. Suppose you order that together with the DD Boost license. Standalone, DD's performance will be slower, but ExaGrid would be the most expensive, though it will have the highest performance.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've evaluated the Data Domain. If you use Data Domain and want high performance, you must buy the DD Boost license. That makes the cost much higher. By contrast, you don't need to buy an additional license with ExaGrid.
Another alternative, HPE StoreOnce, is kept as a lower model; the lowest model is only 80 terabytes. If you want a smaller one, like a 20 to 30-terabyte backup, that's not an option. You need to choose 80 terabytes or more. We just won a big tender for a famous school in Vietnam, and they ordered two large HPE StoreOnce appliances of 200 terabytes. HPE still has a market in Vietnam, but they don't have a small model, and Vietnam has a lot of SMB customers, so we cannot bring HPE StoreOnce products to the market.
What other advice do I have?
I worked very closely with ExaGrid in Singapore. We are trying to build up the market for ExaGrid in Vietnam. We hope to be a big distributor for ExaGrid and that the picture will improve next year.
Regarding the technology of ExaGrid, they have a landing zone, and now it's a very exhaustive solution, especially compared with Dell Data Domain and HPE. HPE offers normal storage without any special solution. Dell has DD Boost, and so the performance is high. On that basis, I rate the ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage number with an overall score of eight out of ten.
People might be more familiar with Data Domain or StoreOnce. And if people want a professional solution, there are only three brands.
