FalconStor VTL [EOL] Reviews

Deduplication, Integration with Falconstor Product Suite (NSS, RecoverTrac, HyperTrac), Tape Shipping

Falconstor VTL has enabled our business to decrease our reliance on tape for long term storage, while retaining extensive compatibility with existing backup software as it emulates the tape as a virtual device. Restore times are much faster from “tape” due to the disk based media.

Certification is required for servers. Falconstor is a software package that will only be supported on certified devices – this limits the range of servers and storage that are supported. Although certification is available, the product matrix is limited to specific devices that have achieved their storage or server certification.

Version 7.0 - 1.5 years

With the assistance of our local Falconstor Partner, we were able to achieve our goals of product delivery on time and with minimal effort.

The product is extremely reliable and stable. Product releases are frequent, as well as patches to address issues.

No issues.

Good

Excellent – although the times are odd. Support comes from Long Island, NY, and when 6:00 pm EST comes, the support area shifts to another location. This can be frustrating if working with the engineers in the US as the cross continent collaboration seems lacking.

ExaGrid – The reason for the switch was due to switch from local storage on servers / san to storage virtualization infrastructures built on Falconstor’s NSS Network Storage Server line of Storage Virtualization.

Installation was not difficult, as we contracted a certified Falconstor Partner to install. Configuration of the settings to get the optimal configuration and the training necessary to maintain the solution was comprehensive, and complex.

The installing Falconstor team was very knowledgeable in the product. They were able to quickly and thoroughly answer the questions we had in regard to the product matrices, their integration, functionality, and management.

If the solution is architected around existing storage infrastructure, it’s possible to run into issues with compatibility. Check Falconstor’s supported infrastructures and servers/storage – verify that the storage and servers are compatible as support will not be offered to non-certified devices.

LTO tape emulation and de-duplication. It similar to other products but priced decently.

We used our existing infrastructure (server's storage and network). Eg IBM server's and IBM storage. Storage is presented from IBM storage to IBM server's where Falconstor is installed. Instead of buying data domain or exagrid comes with it's own hardware. So we saved money using Falconstor.

2 year ago we had a problem replicating a large amount of data. For example, we had installed falconstor at a new location and needed to back up the data (eg 50 TB) and replicate it to a DR site. It would take a lot of time. So we used mules (a server on which falconstor is installed). We then shipped the mule to the location backed the data and shipped the data back to the DR site and backed up. We encountered this problem at a few locations.

1 year.

No.

Yes. We had some issues as with all vendors. But nothing critical.

Not sure about it as we had Falconstor is installed at each location. So we didn't have a business case to scale up much.

We had a field engineer onsite so he knew his stuff.

Same as customer support.

No, Falcostor was the only VTL solution used ... We later used Data Domain which is the best product in the market but too expensive for us initially.

Straight forward. Carve LUN's from Storage array present to a server which as Falconstor running and then emulates the LUN's as VTL's.

In house, but we had a field engineer. It was wash rinse and repeat. I was a storage engineer, but worked on Backup and VTL. So I have a good understanding of the product.

It's good as we used over our own blade server and presented part of space from storage array.

Not sure about the cost of the product but I heard that it was priced less than its competitor's.

I was not involved in the evaluating process. But taking to my team they have evaluated other solutions but Falconstor was the best among for the particular business case because the client had medium sized 150 location's so data domain, quantum were out of our scope at the time.