Veritas NetBackup Reviews

We use Veritas NetBackup for our backups.

Most of our requirements have been met. It was especially useful with the appliances we use on a daily basis.

They are discontinuing the support for IBM AIX operating system in the latest version. I would like to see them continue with this service.

I would like to have support enabled for cloud backups. 

There are several services that are not available that would make it more compatible with cloud technologies.

The majority of the features you require are deduplication, compression, and there is a dependency on the geo-clusters from a DRN standpoint. They should concentrate more on removing the dependency because preparing your DRN architecture for backup is very complex.

I have been working with Veritas NetBackup for the last 13 years.

We are using version 9.

It can be deployed both on-premises and on our cloud.

So far Veritas NetBackup has been stable.

Scalability is a challenge because it is only available in a fixed capacity of, at least 48 terabytes, which makes it difficult to manage.

Previously, we used IBM Tivoli.

While I was not a part of the initial setup, I understand that it is fairly simple. 

I was involved in the product version upgrade. We were able to finish it and begin using the built-in appliance.

We completed the implementation in three weeks and have been using the appliances on a daily basis since then.

It is currently managed by a team of three people.

The price is reasonable.

We purchased a perpetual license and perform SMS renewals.

Before you decide, I would advise going for the right model because there are different types of licensing available. It is available on a Platform-based which is a capacity-based model, by the number of clients who are using it, and a Tradition model. 

Managing the server becomes very complex, and you should do the software compliance. 

Also, once the backup for the databases is configured, enable data compression at the source to reduce the amount of data that travels across the network.

I would rate Veritas NetBackup a nine out of ten.

I'm using it in our company. We're a government-owned entity.

In terms of version, it would be N minus two. We are probably two versions off the latest one.

The feature that is most useful for us is that it backs up every application that we own.

Within their product lineup, they need to consolidate down to one product. Veritas doesn't have one product that does everything. So, Veritas can do everything, but you basically need to run two products. I would like them to combine all the capabilities into one release.

I have been using this solution for at least seven years.

The stability of the product has been excellent over the years. In the last three years, the product has been very stable.

Its scalability is fine. It is an enterprise solution. It is for large data centers or large deployments. So, it scales quite well.

We have six people in the infrastructure team who work with this product.

Their technical support is very good.

I have worked with Commvault and Arcserve, and when compared to these products, Veritas is better.

Its initial setup was straightforward.

It is slightly more expensive than Commvault, but it is pretty much the same. It is an enterprise solution, so it scales quite well. It has a lot of features. So, you pay for what you get. It is not cheap, but it is fit for the purpose.

If you are a pure cloud place or if you are running a pure cloud enterprise where you have no on-premise solutions, I would advise other products. If you are running hybrid, like many of the data centers are still running hybrid, and you have a lot of on-premise workloads or very large Oracle workloads like we do, you can run Veritas. You will have no issue. If you're a new green site or you're a startup or a green site, I would run Veeam or Rubrik because it is all-new.

I would rate Veritas NetBackup an eight out of 10.

The primary use case of Veritas is generally for protecting data and storing it at a secondary site. Use of the solution is sometimes dependent on compliance requirements. Depending on the client, the solution can be deployed on-prem, on cloud, and sometimes using a hybrid option. I'm a solutions architect and a reseller of Veritas.

I like the NetBackup Appliance form factor, where your data is 99.9% safe because unauthorized people cannot log in and execute commands. It requires an admin password and includes IDS and IPS features. I also like the integration with third parties and third party applications, like instant recovery and instant access of the VMs and SQL data.

I'd like to see some simplification in the solution. They currently have the Java concept and it should be less intensive and take less load. The integration should be simple, not a script-based backup with minimum input and maximum output. The solution also needs more integration, even the infrastructure has become more complex. They currently have integrated containers and Kubernetes for backup but they could include backup of SQL or Oracle, or performance in the visualization process. All those things could be improved. 

I've been using this solution for six years. 

There are no issues with the stability. I haven't had any problems with it. 

As a cloud structure, the solution is scalable. The only issue is that data size is more than 20 PBR and requires multiple media servers and an increase in LAN or CPU, to absorb the load on the master media servers.

The technical support has improved and is much better than it used to be. 

I've also used CloudPoint which is integrated with NetBackup in the 9.1 version. With NetBackup, I can take a VM level backup and file level backups; in CloudPoint you can take  volume level backups. Currently there is no file level backups in the cloud whereas with NetBackup you can do that. In comparing NetBackup with a backup platform service controller, the PSC is great because it's simple to use, simple to install and the integration is very easy. NetBackup is for enterprise clients and therefore takes longer to learn. 

The initial setup is very easy and there's no similar service. 

NetBackup is a little costlier compared to other products and backup PSC.

I rate the solution nine out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution for backup and recovery.

Overall the solution is very good. It's a lovely appliance.

They are among the top in the world for backup and recovery. 

The solution is very robust. It covers most of the features that I need and it's able to back up legacy items efficiently.

Technically, it's quite good.

We've found the scalability to be very good.

The stability and performance are excellent.

The solution costs too much. They should work to make it less.

The licensing needs to be improved.

I've been using the solution for ten or 12 years or so. It's been about a decade. We've used it for a long time.

The stability of the solution is very good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable and the performance has been excellent.

The scalability is okay. It covers a lot of areas that other backup solutions are not covering - such as Unix.

We're using the appliance. It's based on size and not on users.

Support wise, we have local support and it is quite strong. We've very satisfied with them overall. They are helpful and responsive.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's not overly complex. We have a PC. We are familiar with everything as we have 10 years of experience using it. It's not an issue. A company shouldn't have too much trouble with the process either.

The solution is quite expensive. It's like buying a normal car for the price of a Rolls Royce.

I'm a customer and an end-user. I don't have a business relationship with Veritas.

If you have money to spend, I would recommend the solution. If you have a unique environment, it's the best option.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. Aside from the high cost, it's an excellent solution.

Veritas is one of the leaders in terms of backing up any type of server. We have been using it for backing up our AIX servers, Windows servers, VMs running on VMware, and even our Linux servers. Everything is backed up using Veritas.

This is a product that has been on the market for a while and they have mastered the backup process, especially when backing up to tape, for most environments.

You cannot tell what your costs are going to be by using the dashboard, which is something that should be improved. If you overuse based on your FETB licensing, you run the risk of getting fined.

I have been using Veritas NetBackup for the past 10 years, starting prior to the company that I am working for now.

This is a scalable solution. We are using it to back up approximately 30 servers.

We have not needed to use technical support.

I have some experience with different backup systems including Commvault, as well. The installation of Commvault is somewhat easier to do.

The initial installation is more complex than that of Commvault.

We did not complete the installation in-house. Instead, it is was done by a company with which we work. The deployment was done by two people and there is one person to maintain it.

Our primary complaint about this product is that it is too expensive.

There are some issues with the product and the Front-End Terabyte (FETB) licensing model that have changed, and we are considering changing products in part because of this. Once the current license expires, we may be phasing it out.

The problem is that previously, we had licensing for our processes, whereas now it is only FETB. It means that we are now forcing our clients to go to the cloud.

We are using an older version of Veritas, so we have been looking at the market to see if there is a cheaper alternative.

In summary, this is a good product but we do have a complaint about the price. They are very good at what they do but they are very expensive, and it can get even more expensive if you are fined for overuse.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We use it for pretty much all of our backups.

It allows us to back up our data. That's really the only feature we really use. I like that it's enterprise-capable. It can handle multiple operating systems. It can handle multiple database types. It can handle a lot of different backup use cases. It's flexible.

The database integration could be better. That would probably be a feature we look for the most.

I have been using Veritas NetBackup for at least 15 years.

NetBackup is very stable. It's a very mature product. It's probably been around for 25 years or more.

NetBackup is very scalable. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward, but it's just very, very detailed. There's a lot of different things you have to do to set it up. It's not difficult. It's just a lot of steps, but that's how it should be because NetBackup is so flexible. You do have to go in and select your different options based on your environment.

I think a complete license costs some $70,0000 a year. I wouldn't know the breakdown of what each feature costs.

We're currently looking at other solutions that could replace it. We have some additional needs that NetBackup can fill, but it may not be the cheapest option, so we're looking at other solutions.

We are looking at Dell and also at maybe build our own solution. If we chose the later route, we would keep what we have with NetBackup but our own addition to it.

We are a solution provider and Veritas NetBackup is one of the backup and recovery solutions that we implement for our customers.

This is a product that I recommend for enterprise environments with mixed servers.

It supports Unix, Linux, Solaris, and AIX servers very well. It supports multiple, heterogeneous platforms.

This is a good product for backing up Oracle databases.

The interface is very easy to navigate. I could step away from the product and not use it for two years, then return and find that I can easily navigate all of the features.

The deployment time is longer than it is with other products.

I have been using Veritas NetBackup since 1998.

This is a very stable product.

This is a scalable product and it is the one that I recommend for large environments. I like the combination of Veritas and Data Domain.

In my new company, where I am now, I have three or four customers who are using this product.

The technical support from Veritas is good.

I have experience with several backup and recovery solutions, including products by Veritas, Commvault, and Veeam.

Installing Veritas is okay and I find it easy. It can be deployed by one engineer.

Deploying Veritas will take longer than other products, such as Veeam. The length of time it takes depends on how big the environment is, and how many servers there are.

The licensing fees are expensive. It is a capacity-based license that is billed on a yearly basis. I renew it every year.

I know this product well and it is very good. I definitely recommend it for others if they have a very heterogeneous environment. This is not a product for smaller customers. I have other recommendations, such as Backup Exec, which is very cheap and good for SMB-level customers.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are an IT company that provides solutions to end users. Most of our end users come from the banking sector, the government sector, and other government-linked companies. When I say that we use Veritas NetBackup, I don't mean to say that we use it internally, but rather that we propose it and use it in solutions that we offer to clients.

Most of our clients use Veritas NetBackup to protect their highly critical workloads, which are often situated in virtual machines with Hyper-V or VMware. The primary workloads are databases ranging from Exchange, Oracle, MS SQL, and IBM Db2. And then it goes on to the application sites such as with SharePoint, NFS data, and all those things. Our users require this type of workload data protection on a full-time basis.

For backups, we use Veritas NetBackup and Veeam, and for virtualization we mostly use VMware. This covers our environment for all disaster recovery and replication scenarios. At times, we also rely on the default replication tools from either Veeam or VMware.

About 70% of our customers come from government agencies, and there are regulations from the Malaysian government that don't allow any data to be transferred to the public cloud. However, that doesn't stop the cloud backup initiatives in Malaysia because the regulation only states that it's not allowed when it goes to a cloud of which they don't know the location. Thus, many of the backup vendors work with local cloud providers to enable cloud backups.

We are quite satisfied with the performance and reliability of the NetBackup product. When it comes to specific features, the most valuable is the Instant Recovery feature, which we call "short-term IR". Instant Recovery allows users to spin up backup images and bring back any VM instantly.

It is called a short-term recovery option because once the backup image has been spun up, the end user can extract whatever data is needed from the image and bring it back into production. This is definitely the most-valued feature for our customers.

Veritas NetBackup has been in the backup and recovery market for quite a long time, but somehow, from my own observations and from feedback from end users, its user interface is lagging behind other comparable solutions such as Veeam.

Our end users are more accustomed to better user interfaces and NetBackup still has a way to go in this regard. The features are great, but the user interface needs improvement, especially when you're looking at the web-based user interface. Most of the operations in NetBackup must be done using their base client user interface, and the feedback from our end users is that it isn't the most user-friendly interface.

Another area where we hope to see improvements is on the integration side. Nowadays, people aren't just looking at strictly backups and recovery features alone. They're now expecting more integration features along the lines of enhanced visibility, dashboard integrations, AI integrations, and so on. The users desire these integrations so that they can make the whole process of backup and recovery less complex, without having to perform any level of scripting.

We've been using Veritas NetBackup for almost 12 years. 

I believe NetBackup is very stable. The only drawback is the subpar operation of the user interface, but apart from that we are very happy with the stability and reliability of the product.

It's quite easy to scale. For every additional workload that you want to protect, you just add it on top of your server as needed. So it's easy to understand how to scale it, and it's easy to actually do so.

I think their technical support is very good. Everything from their level 1 support up to their engineering support is on point.

The complexity of the initial setup largely depends on the client's infrastructure. If they want to protect VMware workloads, then it's quite straightforward because we just integrate it directly with their workloads. In this case, the implementation is simple.

However, if we are required to protect SAP HANA or some Oracle cluster, for instance, that requires a lot more work. It's much more complicated because it's not based on a user interface, and we need to have a high level of perspective and understanding. So, ultimately, it depends on what needs to be protected.

At our company we normally provide end-to-end solutions in terms of the product, for better product absorption. So we'll start early by going to the customer, preaching the positives about the product and the technology, talking about how it will solve their problems, and how it will protect their data. And then from there, our team provides installation and configuration services, as well as after-sales service comprising support and warranties.

When you compare NetBackup's software licensing system with Veeam's, which is simpler and based on instances (or how many physical machines or virtual machines you want to protect), NetBackup isn't that competitive for smaller scale companies. However, if you're running many large workloads, then NetBackup may be the better option.

About seven or eight years back, Veritas and Commvault were considered the de facto leaders in the backup landscape. During that time, there were no major alternatives such as Veeam, and many customers relied solely on Veritas and were loyal to the product.

But nowadays, new customers have options, especially when it comes to smaller scale backup solutions for the small-medium type of companies. With us, we now see a multitude of different clients, from small companies to the enterprise.

The average company that is using multiple virtualization platforms, or physical platforms running Unix systems, will typically go with Veritas NetBackup rather than Veeam because Veeam is still in its infancy period when it comes to supporting these kinds of platforms. However, it does depend on the environment. Some of the smaller clients that we see will only have 4-5 VMs, and in that situation NetBackup typically won't be a good match because it's oriented towards a more sophisticated environment, especially concerning licensing.

When we do pre-sales with our customers, we tell them that they need to have back-to-back support from their executives, and we always teach them to allocate their reports to the OPEX budget, because they will need to have at least the latest supported version at all times running alongside their production servers. Unfortunately, somehow, there are always one or two customers who are still using unsupported machines.

I would rate Veritas NetBackup an eight out of ten.