PeerSpot user
Systems Architect at The University of Auckland
Real User
Good support and stable, but it is overly complex to use
Pros and Cons
  • "Scalability, as well as stability, are a couple of important parts of this solution."
  • "This product is overly complex to operate and run."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Commvault to protect some of our workloads in the public cloud. We are using it in AWS SAM and Office 365. 

What is most valuable?

Scalability, as well as stability, are a couple of important parts of this solution.

What needs improvement?

This product is overly complex to operate and run.

The price of this solution could be lower.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with Commvault for about 18 months.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From a stability point of view, it is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's extremely scalable. It's used across the coalition control team and the cloud team, so there are a couple of dozen administrators. We are running a great deal more than that in the backend systems.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is pretty good.

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

We used Spectrum Protect or Tivoli Storage Manager for quite a few years.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup looked complex so we contracted Commvault to do it.

What about the implementation team?

Commault completed the deployment but even they had issues, particularly with getting Office 365 operating correctly. Their professional services were the ones who deployed it.

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

One of the issues with backup vendors is that they overprice, or overvalue their products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are looking at Metallic as an alternative because Commvault is a good product but it is a bit complex.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a good product and very capable. That said, my advice for anybody who is considering it is to make sure that it fits your purpose. If you can make do with a simpler product then choose a simpler product.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user670536 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage Architect for Datacenter Proximus at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Stable, enterprise product, it has almost all databases in scope
Pros and Cons
  • "It's an enterprise product. It's a stable product. We have good support. Almost all databases are in the scope."
  • "You need quite a lot of human resources to maintain a Commvault environment, to keep it operational. Also, it would be nice to if there were an easier way set up some Commvault components."
  • "The HTML interface is a remarkable improvement. However, there are still some features that are not available in that interface that are available in the Java console, but I'm sure that will come with time."

What is our primary use case?

We have it in our data center, and it's primarily used for our servers. We take backups of the data to protect ourselves. If by mistake we delete some data from the primary storage, we can restore the data from the backup.

For the last six months, we have been providing a graphical user interface for our customers for Commvault so they can, themselves, restore files and folders.

How has it helped my organization?

They are evolving. Any time we encounter a problem, an issue, we have a good relation with the development of Commvault, and they work tightly with us together to solve the problem. The fix then becomes available in the new service pack.

What is most valuable?

It's an enterprise product. It's a stable product. We have good support. Almost all databases are in the scope. I can't really say anything bad about it. It’s a good, stable product.

What needs improvement?

You need quite a lot of human resources to maintain a Commvault environment, to keep it operational. Also, it would be nice to if there were an easier way set up some Commvault components.

I don't know exactly when they came out with the new HTML interface because, until then, the interface was a based on Java. The HTML interface is a remarkable improvement. However, there are still some features that are not available in that interface that are available in the Java console, but I'm sure that will come with time.

Another issue that comes to mind, that we have to pay attention to is, when a new service pack or hotfix comes out, it can happen that something that was working before does not work anymore. We really have to test it in our lab, before we are 100 percent sure we can introduce it in production and be 100 percent sure that everything still works that was working before.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is okay.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The new HyperScale solution from Commvault is a scale-out solution. We are not using it yet. One month ago, we did a book with the scale-out solution, so we do not have much experience with it. I expect a lot from it.

How is customer service and technical support?

I'm not on the operational team, but what I hear from colleagues is that they are quite happy with the support. We have a good relationship with them.

What other advice do I have?

Commvault is certainly a vendor that you have to take into consideration if you are looking into a backup solution. It’s worthwhile to have a look at it.

The most important criteria when selecting a vendor are cost and, perhaps, new features that Commvault maybe doesn't have, like backups to public clouds, for instance. But the primary factor is the cost.

I would rate Commvault at eight out of 10 due to the stability, our relationship with the development team, and the quality of their backup of their solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Commvault Cloud
May 2024
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Karabo  Molema - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and Director at BMBE SOLUTIONS
Real User
Top 10
Flexible, affordable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Metallic is its flexibility and user-friendly."
  • "The integration of Metallic could improve. It would be a benefit if Metallic could integrate with multiple applications or platforms."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Metallic for backing up Microsoft 365.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has helped our business.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Metallic is its flexibility and user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

The integration of Metallic could improve. It would be a benefit if Metallic could integrate with multiple applications or platforms.

In the future, the solution could add more features to help end-users be efficient.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Metallic for a few weeks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Metallic is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found the scalability of Metallic to be good.

I found the solution best suited for small businesses.

How was the initial setup?

I found the implementation of Metallic to be simple, I come from a technical background.

What about the implementation team?

I had some assistance from our local reseller for the implementation of the solution.

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

Metallic is an affordable solution.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Metallic an eight out of ten.

I have not used the solution enough to give it a higher rating.

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
PeerSpot user
Sr. IT Administrator at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
DR site setup is good and backups and restores are fast
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution’s user interface for managing the on-prem environment is good."
  • "Suppose I am restoring a particular file. If I want to restore the permissions only from that particular folder, that is not possible. I have to restore all the data for that particular folder. If there was an option to just restore the permissions, that would be better."

What is our primary use case?

So far we have tested the backups, add-on based backups and VM-based backups, as well as snapshot-based backups. We have done restores, file-server backups, and object-based restoring. We have done database backups as well.

DR is the most important thing. For other things it seems comparable to other backup solutions, but right now, we do not have any DR site. Using this, we are planning to set up DR.

What is most valuable?

Restores and backups seem very fast.

The site setup also seems good. We have only done one or two servers in two locations and it seems fine. This is important for DR, so that if anything happens on one side of the system, at least we have another site that we can make available for our service.

The solution’s user interface for managing the on-prem environment is good. 

What needs improvement?

The Command Center is pretty good. It provides us with a view of the main features and main areas, but they might be able to do things better. For example, are there any particular issues on a backup — to get everything on one tab. At the moment, we have to go to different tabs. It would be helpful to get the main notifications in a single dashboard.

Also, in the restore field, I couldn't find a separate option to restore the permissions only. I have to restore the complete data. Suppose I am restoring a particular file. If I want to restore the permissions only from that particular folder, that is not possible. I have to restore all the data for that particular folder. If there was an option to just restore the permissions, that would be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

Right now we are testing this solution in a PoC. We have been testing it for around one month. We have done most of the test cases, but we still have some test cases to finish.

We have not done cloud-based testing yet. Perhaps after we finish the failover testing, we will start with that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. Compared to Veritas it is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution seems compatible with almost every platform, including VM Hyper-V, and most databases, including SQL, MongoDB, and Postgres.

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

Currently, we are using Veritas, and I have also used Veeam in the past. Veeam is a good product but I prefer Commvault for backup and DR.

The DR setup is a little better with Commvault, with the failover features that are available. Also, we have been having many issues with Veritas and their technical team has not been able to solve most of them. They have not found what the issues are and they are taking too much time.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex because we are going to set up a DR and cloud. There are different networks in our site as well.

The deployment didn't take much time. Within a day to two days we had configured everything. But the test cases are taking time because right now we are working from home. We are connecting our systems remotely so there are some connection issues, due to our internet connectivity.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have checked some other products, but we are not testing them because price-wise, Commvault is better than the other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

If you need a better DR solution, this one is good. We will do failover testing: Where one site is down, the other site should automatically take over, so that everything will be available. If that works well, then this would be the main thing that I would highlight.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chief System Engineer at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Offers good stability, scalability, technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very stable."
  • "The back of virtual machines needs improvement. I know they're working on it. They're always doing new things but I think they still have a little bit more to do."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for backing up the .NES file system. I backup VMware and Windows cloud servers. It's deployed on-prem.

What needs improvement?

The back of virtual machines needs improvement. I know they're working on it. They're always doing new things but I think they still have a little bit more to do.

In the next release, I would like to see disaster recovery options for the cloud. It was always off the scope because they're not really meant to be a disaster recovery solution but now they're getting there. From what I see, that there's no reason why they can't do disaster recovery, they have everything they need for it. They're beginning to do things but I'd like to see them delve more into that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault for the last four years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The other customers that had some issues with technical support but I, personally, have not had issues with them. I get good support.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't install Commvault. It's not complex, but it demands optimization to do. An integrator did the implementation. It didn't look too complex, but there some things you need to take into consideration and there were configuration issues, fine-tuning, and things like that. 

The deployment took around two days. 

What other advice do I have?

One thing is the pricing. I think they're expensive. They're very good, but they're pretty expensive. It's a complex system that you have to sit on a little bit. You have to work on it. You have to be very aware of any backup program but here specifically, because it does so much, you have to always be conscious of what's happening.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Commvault & EMC Networker, Avamar Backup Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Provides helpful documentation and has good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "Commvault provides the status of a backup or restore operation."
  • "The product's migration process and stability need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use Commvault Complete Data Protection backup and recovery.

What is most valuable?

Commvault is easy for auto-upload, auto-download, and push install and update capability. Also, It saves a lot of time by allowing us to restart the agent. We can do it all from a single console. The documentation on the portal is also beneficial. As we type in a search, hundreds of documents pop up without having a Google search.

Commvault provides the status of a backup or restore operation. It is a great way to troubleshoot problems and ensure that data is always protected.


What needs improvement?

The product's migration process and stability need improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault Complete Data Protection for a year since June last year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product's stability could be better.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Commvault Complete Data Protection is scalable. We are using a socket-based license.

How are customer service and support?

We communicate with our support partner regarding product-related issues.

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

Compared to Dell,  the push installations are much easier with Commvault. I used to have to log on to every server to install and deploy new clients, but with Commvault, I can do it all remotely. It saves me a lot of time and hassle.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. The implementation took a few weeks for the distribution center. The agent installation is easy for clients and takes about 15 minutes. It requires one engineer and one architect to execute the process.

It is an easy-to-maintain product. From a backup failure perspective, backups are almost always almost successful. We have an issue with one of our distribution centers. For example, we have a command center and a Java console. When we perform a task on one of these consoles, it does not always reflect on the command center. It should be synchronized at all times. Our engineer has logged a ticket with this concern. It could be because we are using an older software version, but that shouldn't be the case. If I switch from plan A to plan B on one console, it should reflect on both consoles.

Commvault only needs one person who travels to different sites to provide support services. Each site has 14-15 services. So, the web push screen is assigned to one person per site.

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

The tool is cost-effective.

What other advice do I have?

The tool has the most difficult migration process compared to other products. The migration from our previous network to Commvault was a challenge.

Once the tool is set up, it works well. For example, recovering data from Oracle is much easier with Commvault. I don't have to manually search through every backup file to find the file I need. I can search for the file name or other information, and Commvault will find it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Diego Torres - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at AT Vault
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
Multiple backup source capabilities, good support, and flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Commvault Complete Data Protection are the complete feature sets it provides in one platform. You are able to backup many different types of data, such as virtual machines, servers, cloud, endpoints, Microsoft Office365, and Gmail. The usage of the solution is flexible."
  • "In an upcoming release, the reports could be better."

What is our primary use case?

I have used this solution within the past 12 months.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Commvault Complete Data Protection are the complete feature sets it provides in one platform. You are able to backup many different types of data, such as virtual machines, servers, cloud, endpoints, Microsoft Office365, and Gmail. The usage of the solution is flexible.

What needs improvement?

In an upcoming release, the reports could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault Complete Data Protection for approximately 

How are customer service and support?

The support from Commvault Complete Data Protection is very good.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of Commvault Complete Data Protection is easy. The deployment took us approximately three days because we have a small environment. If the environment is larger it could take approximately one and a half months to complete.

What other advice do I have?

Commvault Complete Data Protection is the number one solution in its category.

We use one to two backup specialists for the maintenance of the solution.

I would recommend this solution to others. It has worked well.

I rate Commvault Complete Data Protection a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Systems Consultant | Virtualization at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Top 10
Integrates with many cloud providers and with any technology we bring on, and can be implemented on any hardware
Pros and Cons
  • "All workloads can be integrated with Commvault. If we use a new technology, Commvault integrates with it. Commvault is a data management solution with support for building the DR side of things. With Commvault we can rapidly back up and restore any application we add to our environment."
  • "One issue we face is the complexity of the console. That could be improved on. It takes users time to get familiar with Commvault. On average, it takes our customers between one and three months to learn it. The console and the way you configure Commvault have very advanced settings. It takes time to understand how it works."

What is our primary use case?

We are a partner for Commvault and our role is to implement the solution for our customers. Our customers in Egypt are in the banking and financial sector. They use Commvault to back up their data. We help in sizing the workload of the customer, designing the solution and implementing it. We also support the customer if they face any issues.

We have a hybrid implementation. The first target for the backup is on-premises and the offsite backup is on Azure cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution provides us with a single platform to move, manage, and recover our data across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud locations. We completely depend on Commvault for managing our data, from backup to restore to replication.

Commvault saves significant time for administrators. It also saves on infrastructure costs by being able to manage what were disparate data management solutions in one place. It saves us on a monthly basis. It also has embedded deduplication which works well. It saves about 90 percent of the front-end data.

In terms of recovery, it depends on the teams that we restore for. Sometimes we restore for the database team, and other times for the application team when they add a new feature or change something and they need to roll back. Also, sometimes our users are attacked by ransomware or by a virus or trojan, and their data is encrypted or deleted. Commvault has helped us in these scenarios. It has always been successful in restoring the backup. 

What is most valuable?

Commvault's compatibility matrix is tops. It supports almost any workload and technology our customers have.

It provides fast backup and fast restore. The amount of time it takes depends on the size of the restored data, but Commvault has a good feature through which you can add many streams when restoring. That helps us in restoring rapidly. In my opinion, Commvault is one of the fastest solutions when it comes to restoring. I use competitive solutions, such as Veeam and Rubrik, and Commvault is the fastest among them, in both backup and restore.

It integrates with many cloud providers, like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform. Also, all workloads can be integrated with Commvault. If we use a new technology, Commvault integrates with it. Commvault is a data management solution with support for building the DR side of things. With Commvault we can rapidly back up and restore any application we add to our environment.

Commvault software can be implemented on any hardware. This helps when we are competing against another backup solution. It helps win customers.

The Command Center is good. It has a good dashboard and it's very easy to use. It gives us a view of about 85 percent of the environment, because something like tape configuration and monitoring are needed. In the new version they have added good features and they have worked on improving the documentation.

The dashboard provides a good view into any issues so that users can address them. It provides understandable messages when there are errors, telling you where the issue is, and you can research the error code or send it to Commvault for help.

What needs improvement?

One issue we face is the complexity of the console. That could be improved on. It takes users time to get familiar with Commvault. On average, it takes our customers between one and three months to learn it. The console and the way you configure Commvault have very advanced settings. It takes time to understand how it works. 

After a customer understands it, he can improve and add to the configuration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Commvault for around three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is also scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The efficiency of Commvault's support is something that, it seems, the vendor needs to pay attention to. At times, when we open a support case, it can take two to four days to find a solution and close the case. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup process is complex. The person who implements it has to pay close attention to certain things. The index cache must be in SSD storage, and the same is true for the deduplication database. The sizing of the CommServe must be done well. In terms of agents, and other features, everything must be calculated very well. All these things will affect the performance in the future.

It can take hours or days to implement, depending on the project. The administrative part of the deployment takes about a day, but the integration part can take from three days to a couple of months, depending on the size of the project.

After we do the first implementation, the customer can do future implementations. 

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

Commvault has advanced its licensing in the last year with its complete licensing solution. The complete license gives us options for all the features. Commvault does not license based on storage or the management components. It can integrate with any storage vendor. That means that when we are out of storage and need more, we can integrate without additional licensing.

In my opinion, Commvault needs to reduce the licensing cost by 20 to 40 percent to make it cost-efficient.

What other advice do I have?

You need to size the CommServe and the agents very well because it will help the performance.

Overall, Commvault is a good solution for midsize and enterprise companies.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Commvault Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.