NAKIVO Backup & Replication Reviews

We have used Nakivo to provide a fully automated backup solution without user intervention with on-site backup and copy to the cloud. 

We provide support and consulting services to SME businesses in the UK, and simplicity and a lower cost are paramount. 

We have implemented Nakivo for these clients, installed to a stand-alone NAS device. This can sit on the network alongside the existing systems and simply be pointed at the servers and workstations targeted for backup. It can manage the backup externally and the backed-up resources will run without any staff intervention. 

This has allowed us to move our clients to an automated solution that simply plugs into their existing infrastructure, removing the need for manual media handling. We have seen an increase in resistance to clients using staff resources to manage manual media handling. 

Nakivo's solution based upon a discrete NAS has provided a very neat "plug-in" solution that connects to their networks and targets their existing servers and creates a local disc-based backup resource. To this is added a simple AWS EC2 resource, which is an automatically configured host for cloud copies of the local backups for DR and archive. 

The ability to install a solution to a stand-alone, low-cost NAS and run and manage from there has been a very helpful facet of the projects. The ability to eschew manual media handling is an essential change in SME environments, where the staffing overheads for media handling and storage in the age of cloud backups was becoming onerous. 

The main advantage from our perspective is the ability to plug this solution into an existing infrastructure on a cheap device and point the backup at the server targets and configure the backup options in a simple menu; linking to a cheap cloud resource for a simple solution for off-site storage.

There has been a slight tendency to bloat, where each new feature uses slightly more resources. It would be helpful to be able to have a custom footprint so that only the required features are installed.

We have been using Nakivo for approximately two years.

It has proved very stable on the whole.

As it can be run from different platforms, it is very scalable.

Nakivo support has been very flexible and responsive. 

Previously, we used Veritas BackupExec and we changed due to the ease of use of Nakivo and the LCO.

Very simple to set up, including automatic installation of agents and build of AWS resource. 

This is a product that we set up and manage for our clients.

Cost is very appropriate for SMEs.

We evaluated Acronis before choosing Nakivo.

Support has been very good and product development and enhancement very active.

We are using Nakivo internally for backup/replication and cloud backup of our little datacenter, in a server farm.

Our customers use Nakivo Backup & Replication on a daily basis for backup and recovery of VMs and files. These environments are heterogeneous, as we have many Linux VMs, Windows VMs, and dedicated virtual appliances. This is no issue with the backup and recovery of entire VMs or single files, granularly.

We also appreciate the easy-to-use web interface, and our customers are completely independent in the management of Nakivo.

Nakivo Backup & Replication reduces the time to set up and configure a backup solution in a VMware environment with many types of backup destination.

Before Nakivo, our technicians spent a lot of time every day assisting end-users or our customers' IT departments. Now, all is very clear and simple.

We really appreciate the simplicity of the solution. Every tab in the web interface has a simple target, and everything is structured such that it can be found in a few seconds.

Another great feature of Nakivo Backup & Replication is support for backup to the Wasabi cloud infrastructure. This allows us to offer a complete solution to our customers.

Setup on a NAS device helps us to have a distributed backup solution, in case the customer has many remote offices. We can install a little NAS on the remote site and have a bandwidth-optimized offsite backup.

What must be improved is the response time to technical support requests.

We have been using Nakivo for five years.

This product has great stability.

Generally, I don't have issues with Nakivo. The sales department is very responsive to every request and they reply in a few hours. However, technical support could be faster.

Often, as a reply to my email, I receive a message that says "We have received your message and the second level of support will reply to you soon". When they reply fast, at least two days pass!

In case of emergency, where we must recover something and it does not work as we expect, 48 hours to have a reply is too much time.

Nakivo Backup & Replication also have another great value, which is that it is one of the lowest prices on the market. The customer does not need to spend many thousands of Euros, and in the sales phase, we have fewer issues with the CFO or management.

Prior to Nakivo, we tested Acronis, Veeam, and Anexia.

Nakivo software is available on a white-label basis. The DimenXional Cloud product with our enhancements is called WatchDog-BaaS for Backup as a Service. DimenXional Cloud has also developed WatchDog-DRaaS, which is Disaster Recovery as a Service. The white-label solution provides the API capabilities that DimenXional Cloud not get from other suppliers of this type of software. The finished solutions are bundled with the tasks for our market. The DimenXional Cloud (Very Small Business) market doesn't care what name is on it. They care about if it works or not and if it is reliable. Above all, our markets want to know that the software is easy to use and it has the right price.

1. Most valuable for DimenXional Cloud is the API provided by Nakivo which allows us to implement the software in all types of solutions.

2. It has all the features we need for our customer base.

3. The solution is very competitively priced.

While the solution provides mostly what we need, it would be ideal if there were some additional feature capabilities for the API.

I can't really specify which features are missing, as they've done everything that we've asked for so far. Our plate is full of getting what they've done into the marketplace. It's going to take us another two, three months to do that, including engineering work and testing and that type of stuff. I wouldn't be able to answer the question of if there are missing features for at least another three to six months.

We haven't been using the solution for too long.

DimenXional Cloud started our programs with Nakivo in the past year.

We used Veeam, and we still have legacy systems that use Veeam. We are switching because of the price advantage Nakivo provides.

If we're talking about Veeam, it costs us 30% more to do what we are doing. That 30% made us uncompetitive. Nakivo has allowed us to price the product about 10-15% below the competition, and that's significant when you are talking about small dollars. With COVID-19 and the current market conditions, it's important to be very competitive.

We're part of the RESA MSP program. It's basically a partnership with the solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine or a ten. They've been a very good product so far. It's basically everything we need.

I use it for my VM (Virtual Machine) backups. I logged into it, created myself an account, and then I created my backup jobs. Then I can run the jobs to do the backups when I want. I can schedule it to run when it is convenient — say at 10 o'clock at night — or I can say run it right now, or whatever. It is pretty intuitive in that sense. Pretty easy to set up and use.  

What I like most about it is their solution runs either on Windows or Linux or even on something like Synology. Nakivo is versatile and able to work with other systems.  

The lack of that capability is one of the big reasons that I do not like Veeam. Veeam is strictly a Windows solution. That is a big negative in my opinion. Plus Veeam is good — it is not that it is not good, it works great — but it is also expensive.  

I do not know that I see a lot that needs to be improved with Nakivo. It seems maybe that the interface could be a little bit better, but it is what it is. You can always improve on the interface on anything.  

For me, I just work with the product in a simple way. For instance, I have not even looked into whether you can hook it up with Active Directory which may be helpful if you are going to add different users and give them the capability to back up or do certain other tasks. You might be able to do that already now. I just have not had the need or opportunity to look into it. If it is not there it is the type of thing that might be added.  

I have been using Nakivo for a couple of years on-and-off.  

The stability and performance can depend on how many VMs you have and the volume of what you are backing up. I think I set it up for one customer in their lab and they had 50 or 60 VMs running and set it up to kickoff at say at 10 o'clock at night and do the backup. Nakivo just does its thing on schedule. Here when I back it up, when I back up my Atlassian tools, I will back up three of those VMs at one time. 

So it is pretty stable when it comes to carrying out what it is supposed to do. Again, it depends on how fast your network is, how many transporters you have, and where you are backing it up to. Although I do not do it myself, Nakivo has the capability to back up directly to Amazon S3 if you choose to do that. The flexibility for working in various environments is really valuable, and in my case it saves money.  

I think the scalability of the product is good. All you have to do is basically just install more transporters. If you only got one transporter installed and you are trying to back up 100 VMs at the same time, you are pushing everything through one little teeny pipe, but if you have more transporters, then it will actually use all of those and the backups and restores can happen faster.  

I have not really used technical support because I have not had any issues or problems with the product. It is very easy to set up and very straightforward to use. I can not vouch for that fact on Windows because I have never tried it on Windows. I choose not to do that. I run everything on Linux and I like that better.  

I have used other solutions and I wound up sticking with Nakivo because it is more versatile and it is able to work with systems other than Microsoft. You can get it running in many different ways. I am just running the previous build VM, but I also have a 12 terabytes Synology NAS unit here. I can actually install it directly on that and not even have to create a virtual machine. It runs great without any extra setup. So I am using Nakivo for versatility, mostly.  

The initial setup and installation are very straightforward. It depends on how many transporters you want to install. You can install more than one transporter. If you are doing lots of backups, multiple transporters will make it go faster. In my case, I do not need that. I have actually tried using multiple transporters at customer sites and it is a functional solution.  

I just use the free version — if you will — it is kind of free. You can buy a one-time perpetual license, or you can do subscription-based leasing, or you can do it based on how many VMs you want to back up. If you want to only buy it for 50 VMs, then you only buy it for 50 VMs. You have a lot of different options when it comes to pricing and the pricing models are pretty flexible and affordable.  

I have tried Veeam and I have tried a few others. I forget their names. Nakivo just seems simpler to me. It is simple to use. I like the fact that I do not have to have a Windows license to run it like I would with other products like Veeam. That is just another something that I have to pay for and maintain on top of what I already have. Nakivo is a work-around for that situation.  

I like the product because it is doing exactly what I need it to do, and that is reliably backing up my VM. I have actually had to restore some VMs. Sometimes the power just goes off here and something will get corrupted and it works well for that. It has been reliable in restoring exactly what I needed to restore.  

Based on my experience, the advice I would give to people considering it is to go for it. I think it is a great product. But there is a problem with customers — especially government customers — resisting adopting anything new. They get hung up on one thing and they like to stick with it. They buy a license and they just have it set in their minds that they do not want to try anything else, even though the solution they have might be costing them a fortune. Getting them to adopt a change can be difficult.  

It is like when someone is committed to Cisco. I tell government customers not to buy Cisco under any circumstances. I tell them just to never get involved with it. Then they will complain and say that Cisco is all that they know. Arista beats the hell out of Cisco and it uses the same interface. Guys who know how to use Cisco already will not have to go to school at all to learn how to use Arista, and it ends up being half the price. My complaint about Cisco is not that it does not work. It depends on what you are doing. But in my opinion, Cisco solutions just do not have the necessary throughput for certain situations.  

I have tried to get a lot of clients to buy this and show them the advantages. Some of them just say they already have a license for something else and they want to stick with it. People need to be open to the advantages of considering other products and how that can make a change in their efficiency and their bottom line.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate Nakivo as a nine-out-of-ten. I would never give anything a ten.  

We have a new VMware vSphere Cluster with several Virtual Machines (Windows-based and Linux-based). We needed a new backup solution for those new workloads. I deployed in a second site, a new backup server with a storage SAN directly attached. I deploy NAKIVO B&R in a virtual appliance and with it, I protect all of the inventory of the VMs and save the backups and data in a backup repository with an immutability feature.

At the moment, we don't use Replication, however, I studied this feature. Maybe I will deploy this feature in the future on some new vSphere hosts in a DRP site.

Nakivo's replication feature can permit configuration replicas in a different hardware platform with VMware vSphere. We protect all of our virtual machines in VMware vSphere and secure our data with the immutability feature; our virtual machines are Windows-based and Linux-based. We have SQL Server, IIS, Active Directory Instances, PACS, and File Servers.

The virtual appliance for VMware vSphere is easy to deploy, easy to manage, and we have no need for additional Windows licenses. NAKIVO has an immutability feature that protects our backup data. Nakivo is a backup solution good for the first steps in backup and replication uses cases. It offers low license costs and is very easy to deploy. 

I recommend the Virtual Machine Appliance for all VMware vSphere Infrastructures.

I deployed it to a second site with a new backup server with a storage SAN directly attached. I deploy edNAKIVO B&R in a virtual appliance and with it, I protect all the inventory of the VMs.

They need a better knowledge base with more information about support issues. 

I would like new recovery methods for my VM and live full VM restore overwriting and the ability to restore individual files on the VM (like VMDK, VMX).

I would like it if Nakivo could protect virtual machines with WSFC deployed on VMware (usually SQL Server clusters virtualized). 

I would like to restore my data on a cloud site. I would like a new replication method with zero RTO (better than snapshot replication). 

I would like new features for the backup agent for physical machines.

I've used the solution for one year.

We did previously use a different solution.

Nakivo is good for the first steps in backup and replication. If comes at a low license cost and is very easy to deploy.

We did evaluate other options. 

We use the solution as a VM backup with our VMware and Hyper-V environments.  

We can back up our file server with an extra layer of security due to the ransomware protection that Nakivo offers. 

The solution is low-cost, easy to use, and has web-based management. These are some of the major advantages. The addition of apps for NAS (like Synology and QNAP) has made it much easier to back up and protect the servers.

We'd like to see a legacy environment backup, like AIX, etc.  

I've used the solution for four years.

The stability of the solution is good.

The scalability of the solution is good.

We did not previously use a different solution. 

This product provides cost-efficient and reliable backups.

Before choosing this solution, we also evaluated Veeam, Altaro, Vembu, and Acronis.

We have a VMware environment that needed backup and replication. We run Nakvio on a QNAP NAS and replicate it to another VMware Server.                      

The speed and security of backups have improved my organization.     

The ability to restore in the case of a catastrophic event is priceless since every company must use a backup solution of some sort.

• Instantly recovers entire VMs, individual files, or application objects (Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Active Directory)
• Deployable in one minute.                                                                       

In the next release, I would like for them to add restore in physical machines.

They should also improve the speed of "Reclaim unused space" in the repository.  

I have been using Nakvio for two years. 

The stability is good. 

It is good for small or medium businesses, we use it for 2 VMware hosts with about 15 virtual machines.

Support is always very available for any request.

Positive

There are plenty of options these days, but Nakivo is a strong contender.

It is easy for basic configuration, it is of medium difficulty for more advanced configuration.

We implemented in-house.

They have competitive prices.

We had a customer that had a Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization infrastructure and wanted the most simplified solution that can be immediately installed, configured, and backed up. So, we installed Nakivo and trained their administrators on the solution.

This is a user-friendly solution that has a lot of certifications and documentation for the Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructure.

I would like to see some additional models in the next release to make backups more functional.

Nakivo is stable, we have not had any issues for one year.

Nakivo's infrastructure is very scalable.

The initial setup was quick and easy. It took us about a week to install and configure.

Nakivo is cheaper per machine and per backup.

Acronis has more functionalities but is also more expensive.

The central console is very native making it easy for the end user to understand.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use it for backup purposes - virtualization backup and virtual service backup.

The features that I have found most valuable are that it is a cheaper price and user-friendly.

They have improved some documentation to simplify technical issues. But still some licenses are not clear. For example, when you are reading the Pro Essential license features they don't identify the differences between Pro and the Pro Essential license types, or between Enterprise and Enterprise Essential license types. This is important.

In terms of what could be improved for the next release, I would probably answer better documentation and licensing models.

I have been using Nakivo for nearly one year.

Nakivo is reliable and stable.

I didn't try it but I think it's scalable. I can add some storage for backup, so it is scalable in that way.

Technical support is very good.

I have experience with Veeam from about four or five years ago when I used it. These two backup solutions are working well and there is no problem between them. I don't know the differences.

The initial setup is very easy.

I am a Nakivo partner. I buy it for my customers.

The pricing depends on the competition because some competitors are cheaper and some are not. I can say Nakivo is cheap.

I also have experience with other backup solutions, but I implemented Nakivo for my customers and I didn't look at other solutions. I just researched Veeam, Acronis and Commvault a little.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give Nakivo a 9. Generally I'm satisfied.