EmilPenkov - PeerSpot reviewer
Azure Architect at KPMG ITC
Real User
Reasonably priced, simple to install, and the technical support is helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "It's useful, it works, and it's fairly reliable."
  • "The length of time it takes to restore is our main source of frustration. It would be beneficial to shorten the time it takes."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Backup to backup and restore virtual machines as well as SQL Databases.

What needs improvement?

The only issue we have right now is the amount of time it takes to restore. When we attempt to restore a virtual machine, it can take hours. This is an area that could be improved.

The length of time it takes to restore is our main source of frustration. It would be beneficial to shorten the time it takes.

We had issues with shared storage in the past where it couldn't be included in the backup. Shared storage, or shared disc, wasn't available. I believe Microsoft promised to put it in their pipeline for improvement in order to add this, but I haven't double-checked. This was the issue with shared managed discs, and not being included in this backup scope.

If the shared managed disc could be included with the backup, it would be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Backup for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Backup is very stable.

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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Backup is a scalable solution.

We work with it all of the time.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is very helpful. I would rate them a four out of five.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It was something that was easy for us.

It was completed within a few minutes. It can depend on the environment, but usually, it is fast.

The number of staff required for maintenance depends on the automation. We require more staff now, but we are working on the automation. Generally, it is relatively low. For the most part, it works by itself.

What about the implementation team?

We operate in our own environment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis.

It's not an expensive solution. I am more than happy with the price.

What other advice do I have?

We are working in our own environment, assisting KPMG users and firm members. We also have internal companies.

I am an Azure Architect.

It's useful, it works, and it's fairly reliable. The only issue right now isn't a big one, but our users sometimes need faster recovery, faster restoring of services, and faster restoring of data.

I would rate Azure Backup a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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SyedAbid Hussain - PeerSpot reviewer
Snr. Cloud Infrastructure Architect at LogicEra
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
The solution protects the infrastructure of an organization, but it should be made more application-aware
Pros and Cons
  • "Our client’s infrastructure is protected by the tool."
  • "The product must improve on a database level."

What is our primary use case?

Azure Backup is a mandatory service. We have recommended every client to use Azure Backup. Many resources and databases are being backed up on Azure in different zones and regions.

How has it helped my organization?

We have multiple clients. Some of them have data centers. They have 100 to 200 virtual machines. We have set backups, snapshots, and replication for every machine in different zones.

What is most valuable?

Our client’s infrastructure is protected by the tool.

What needs improvement?

The product must improve on a database level. It should be made more application-aware.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

If we have zone-redundant architecture, the stability is ten out of ten. If not, then it will be an eight out of ten. Overall, I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten. Our clients are small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses.

How are customer service and support?

Sometimes, we meet technically sound people. Sometimes, we don’t. The support team calls within 30 minutes if we launch a ticket. The support team should contain more highly technical people. Overall, the support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The tool is very easy to deploy and configure. A person who understands networks can deploy and configure the product very easily. If a person has a clear concept of networks, they can work on any cloud solution. I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten. We have many clients.

We have replicated our clients’ resources from on-premise to cloud and from cloud to cloud. The time taken for deployment varies for every client. If a company has 100 VMs, the tool can be deployed in two days. We can configure the tool with Azure CLI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is a very cheap cloud solution.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is improving day by day. New features are introduced, and existing features are updated regularly. Oracle and Azure have some partnerships. They have signed an agreement. Some of our clients have data centers, and we configure their applications on Azure cloud. Azure clients also want to configure their applications in different zones and regions. Azure Backup is good. It can protect the resources of a company. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Technical Manager at Synnex
MSP
Top 20
Simple to scale, integrates well, but limited on-premises services
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is its ease of use and good integration with other Azure services."
  • "The Azure Backup support for on-premises service is limited."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Backup to backup VMs.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is its ease of use and good integration with other Azure services.

What needs improvement?

The Azure Backup support for on-premises service is limited.

The file-level restore procedure should be more straightforward.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Backup for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Backup is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Backup can scale and it is easy to do.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Azure Backup is straightforward. It took 15 minutes to do the deployment.

I rate the initial setup of Azure Backup a four out of five.

What about the implementation team?

I did the implementation of the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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Head of IT-Infrastructure at a construction company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Included in Azure, with good technical support and good reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability has been good."
  • "Technical support can be slow to respond at times."

What is our primary use case?

The main use case is to back up the virtual machines.

What is most valuable?

It's part of the Azure cloud service. The solution is included in the overall price. 

The solution is stable.

The scalability has been good.

Technical support is okay. They do help you when you need them.

What needs improvement?

As I don't work directly with the solution (my team does), I don't have any notes for improvement.

Technical support can be slow to respond at times.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've only been using the solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it's possible to do so.

Only the IT backups use the solution. That's just two people. No one else does. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is okay. They are helpful, however, they are not always fast.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we only used Micro Focus Data Protector. We were on our data center on-premise. After the migration, to save, the machines to the Azure cloud, we switched from the VM backups to Azure Backup. The other backups are still running on Micro Focus Data Protector.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is done by our cloud solution provider. While I'm not aware of the details. my understanding is that the deployment was quick and did not take long.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is part of the greater Microsoft service. I am not sure if there is a separate license just for this. It's not an additional price. There may be more costs according to how much storage is needed. You have to do the backup to a storage account and the storage account costs a price per terabytes.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer with an enterprise agreement.

I do not backups myself. I don't know the versions we are using.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Systems Operation Manager at Compupaul
Real User
Top 20
Has helped our organization prevent data loss and has great integration features
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution helped us use R2 RBO to back up frequently."
  • "It can be further improved by continuously meeting its compliance requirements."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for backups.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution helped us use R2 RBO to back up frequently and avoid losing data if we had system issues.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the integrations because we are using Azure Cloud, which backs it up with all the Azure components.

What needs improvement?

Azure Backup is constantly improving its features. However, it can be further improved by continuously meeting its compliance requirements.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Managing Director/CIO at Shield Technology Programs
Real User
Offers multiple layers of security with a user-friendly ability to add features
Pros and Cons
  • "The hardware is always updated and it's saved us a lot of money."
  • "Lacks an AI system that would enable easier upgrading of the hardware."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of Azure Backup is for data on our application servers. We host our ERP systems with SQL for backend software. 

We've been in partnership with Microsoft for more than 15 years. I'm the CEO and the CIO. 

How has it helped my organization?

Before we started using Azure we spent a lot of money at our various sites, setting one up as the main physical site and a second for disaster recovery. We had to invest a lot of money to buy hardware that needed replacing every two or three years. Switching to Azure has saved us thousands. The hardware is always updated and we're now able to invest more in our staff which is highly beneficial because it translates to satisfied clients.  

What is most valuable?

As a security setting, Azure is very detailed. We can add features on retentions and retain the backup for several days. The retention policies are very good. I like the notifications and multiple layers of security that the solution offers. It enables us and our clients to feel secure and you can install and connect your systems wherever you are. 

What needs improvement?

We're hoping the price of the solution won't increase in the coming months when Azure is due to review all its products. I think that what the product lacks now is an AI system; if we had that, we'd be able to more easily upgrade the hardware system.  

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for about seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any stability issues. If the initial setup is done properly there won't be any issues with stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. We have around 12 users in the department. Some of them provide techno support and others do testing on the system to check its abilities because sometimes it has too much load. 

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is very good. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment time depends on the size of the data.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay over $8 million per year in licensing fees for 365 and Azure usage. There is no additional cost for hardware but we train our employees and that is an added cost for us. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had a look at Amazon before going with Azure but we decided to go the whole way with Microsoft. These days, I'm not sure there's much difference between the two.   

What other advice do I have?

It's important to know what you'll be getting from whoever provides you with the solution because it's important that support is included. This product has really helped me in scaling up my company. We love this solution and think everyone should have it. 

As a provider and a user, I rate this solution 10 out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at NOMAC
Real User
You can sort the data in many ways and at anytime but it is not user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "First of all, you can schedule a backup for the client. You can schedule it as you like. You can also control the bandwidth, so the backup will not utilize. The internet will depend on the bandwidth."
  • "It doesn't have the option to have a backup from the database. It has backup for the files, folders, and backup only the whole virtual machine. But if I need to do a backup from the Oracle database, from an Exchange server or from SharePoint, this ability isn't there. There is no application backup."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to backup on-premise data to Azure. We can backup the whole virtual machine to Azure if we need offsite backup. If you don't have any backup solution on-premise data center, you can rely on Azure Backup to do a backup to Azure, to the cloud. That means from on-premise to cloud backup, for data and virtual machines. 

What is most valuable?

It has many features. First of all, you can schedule a backup for the client as you like. You can also control the bandwidth so the backup will not utilize. The internet will depend on the bandwidth. You can also configure the retention period as you like and monitor everything from the cloud. You can monitor it from anywhere and you can log on and see. Doing a restore is also easy. It's easy to use.

The second thing is that if you have multiple computers and you need to utilize the bandwidth, you can install a dedicated server on the data center and let this backup server communicate with Azure and the local servers will only communicate with the local computers and the server only will communicate with Azure.

You can do a backup from the whole virtual machine as an image. You can do a backup only from files and folders. It has every option. All options are available for the backup, for the restore, for the bandwidth utilization to do backups even virtual machines or a physical machine. If you need to do a backup from the whole image from the virtual machine, all these options are there.

What needs improvement?

It doesn't have the option to have a backup from the database. It has a backup for the files, folders, and backup only the whole virtual machine. But if I need to do a backup from the Oracle database, from an Exchange server or from SharePoint, this ability isn't there. There is no application backup. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Azure Backup for around three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability depends on the bandwidth. It's very stable. If you have a good bandwidth, it's fine. If you don't have a good bandwidth, you can have a problem. If you have limited bandwidth, you will pay the cost. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

With cloud there is no limit. The limit is the sky and so for Microsoft infrastructure, there are two options. If you have a small data center, small servers or small computers and you need to do a backup, this is fine. You only need to install the agent. 

But if you have big servers or it's a number of servers, Microsoft also offers the ability to do a local Azure Backup and this Azure Backup will communicate with the local server and these servers can be communicated to the cloud and you can often install multiple servers. It will distribute different loads. 

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't needed to contact the support or get a ticket with the support team because the document and the tutorials were available and even when we try to do a main backup, Microsoft guides you in steps and will not go to the next step until you finish the first one. For each and every step there is a guideline, and even if you didn't read the tutorial, just you go to the steps and follow the steps.

I didn't raise any requests or get any support from Microsoft but I got other support from Microsoft and raised other support tickets but not for this particular project.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In addition to Azure Backup we used Azure Backup as an off-site backup because we have on-site backup. We also use EMC NetWorker which backups up to a disk. It's backup to disk software which we then do a backup from our local data and local servers to the local backup device. We use Azure because it is off-site backup so it helps us a lot in case of a disaster, in case of any problems so we can still have data be off-site so we can restore it from anywhere.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. I did it myself. It is not very complicated at all. This is another one of its valuable features, that it is easy to set up. Microsoft has guidelines, documentation, instructions, procedures, and tutorials available.

Because it's a Microsoft product, admin guidelines and instructions are available. It's not that complicated. You can have any infrastructure on the cloud or on-premise. If you want to install a server you will need to install maybe a virtual machine. But if you don't need to install it, you can install only an agent on the computers. That's it.

The deployment took around two days. I have experience with other backup solutions so I understand the concept. It's like a car. You have a car, you know how to drive a car. But this is Rolls Royce or a Porsche or whatever, but it is the same concept. You can still own the car and you can go. It is the same. So for us, it doesn't take that much time to understand the concept of backup and then implement it. 

The deployment required two people, myself and a colleague. 

It requires three people for maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

From a cost perspective, it is a very good solution because it doesn't need a lot of costs because it's only a matter of storage on the cloud. You don't need any license at all, and on the cloud, you only need bandwidth. Bandwidth utilization will have various calculations of bandwidth utilization or bandwidth utilization and storage.

You don't need a license. There's only a subscription with Azure, that's it. Azure will calculate the bandwidth which you are utilizing and the storage. The worst thing at Azure is software allocations. That is not required, even in Azure, to implement a server or install backup software. From Azure itself, it's a matter of configuration. No need to have infrastructure. You don't need to have a server and install the software in the cloud. It's only a matter of some steps you need to follow. It's only a platform and a service. 

What other advice do I have?

It is easy to configure a solution at any time, from anywhere. I can also restore the data, easily, without any complication. You can implement it in a very short time. The lesson learned in the beginning is that you can implement a solution in a very short time. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten. It has some good features. You can sort the data in many ways and at anytime. But it is not user-friendly. To be frank, it is not a software and a service. Software and service is easier and not complicated but infrastructure is more complicated. A platform lies somewhere in between. It's a platform and service.  

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chief Executive at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
Real User
Useful native backup capabilities, quick setup, but lacking immutability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is the native backup capabilities."
  • "Azure Backup could improve the backup data copies because they are not immutable."

What is our primary use case?

I use Azure Backup VM backups.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is the native backup capabilities.

What needs improvement?

Azure Backup could improve the backup data copies because they are not immutable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Backup for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have two engineers that are using the solution in my organization.

Azure Backup has a medium scalability level.

I rate the scalability of Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I have not needed to use the support from the vendor.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Dell Avamar prior to Azure Backup. We switched to Azure Backup because we were having to pull data back down to an on-premise hardware infrastructure and Azure Backup meant we didn't have to pull the data down through our express route.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Azure Backup took a couple of hours to complete. It was quick and straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We completed the implementation of the solution in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a cost per terabyte for using this solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Azure Backup a seven out of ten.

My rating was because the absence of immutability, a critical feature in our current backup system, is a limitation of its monitoring and reporting capabilities.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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