Commvault Cloud Reviews

We primarily use the solution as a backup.

Our other solution deploys every agent on every single server, and then you back up that way. However, when you have to deploy to the APIs using the Commvault to their instance, due to the fact that we are a VMware shop, we are capable of leveraging the snapshot capability within the VPI. And then we back it up, the entire VM.

The license is counted as one VM. The other option is based on the capacity model. The cost on a capacity model is more expensive than the VM path model. That's why we switched. The functionality is very similar. 

The VSA, the virtual system agent backup, is the most useful aspect of the solution for our organization. Based on our use case, it cuts our costs significantly. Early on, when we had the software at one point, we were using the front-end data protection, the DPE model, with the licensing using an agent. Then, as the technology continued to evolve, they added additional features like the VSA path, VM path model and other things. We are switching from the DPE model to the VSA model. That helped us to eliminate some of the costs.

Once you get comfortable with the solution, it becomes pretty easy to use.

People are going to be very impressed with that kind of support that they get from Commvault. It's excellent. 

It's a comprehensive data management for all platforms. It works with multiple clouds and vendors.

They have a strong development team and are market leaders in the space.

With any product, there could be improvements made. 

I can't think of exact features that are lacking.

It's been a while, however, it's my understanding that they have new features coming out. 

Our cloud is still pretty old-school, I continue to use the console as the traditional admin tool for daily troubleshooting. In a newer version, they're using something called Command Center. I haven't played around with that yet. I heard that it's very sleek. At this point, the console is pretty dated, so it's good they're doing an update.

The Chargeback feature has recently changed as well. I haven't had a chance to explore it, however, I believe they've improved on it quite a bit.

The solution can be a bit complex for new users.

The solution needs better Office 365 data backup management.

I've been using the solution for six years now.

The product is very solid. They are the number one data management platform on the market. They are leading in that sense above the competition.

At this point, there are no plans for increasing usage right now. We are reducing our footprint on-prem and we've moved everything to Azure. Unfortunately, we leveraged some of the native protocols from Azure side. Commvault has gotten reduced. Due to that change,  the pricing or licensing that supports the functionality of it may be impacted a little bit.

While you can call support for anything, they have great online documentation that you can reference for assistance. It's easier to check out that before reaching out to them directly.

Their support is the best. They're worldwide, 24/7. I give credit for that. I deal with a lot of other vendors. Their support model is far superior. Once you open the ticket, if, after an hour, it's not resolved, you can click on it and another engineer will come online within the hour to assist, depending on the severity of the case. 

I'd rate them nine out of ten for sure.

At one point, we almost tried to switch to another vendor. However, due to the economic scale and other factors, we didn't move forward. We decided to stay with Commvault in order to leverage all the modeling and pricing, and we were able to accomplish what we needed.

Since I have worked here, the company has always used Commvault.

The initial implementation has a moderate amount of difficulty. It's complex at times, however, it depends on what it is. Once you know it, it's not that complex to set up. Overall, it is easy to use. It's not that difficult.

Deployment is probably just a couple of hours. In that time, you can spin up the environment and then you can set it up and deploy it and get a backup.

While we have a lot of users on the solution, I am the main person who handles the maintenance.

Most of the upgrades we do ourselves. In the cases where we have a major upgrade, we typically use a consultant. We did use a couple of consultants in the past for the upgrade. Early on, we didn't have the resource and personnel to handle everything. 

After using Commvault for six years now, I'm a bit more comfortable and confident in handling everything myself more and more.

We work directly with Commvault consultants.

The ROI comes from the fact that it's a solid product that works the way it is supposed to. When you need data recovery, it's perfect. That's your money's worth right there.

The licensing costs are determined on a yearly basis. It might be around $40,000 or $50,000. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

Originally, we were on a private cloud, however, we've since moved to a public cloud.

I'd advise others that the implementation depends on the skill level of those setting it up. It's best to consult with the technical manager or the technical team. They can give recommendations. The costs are very reasonable. It may be only $4,000 or $5,000 for three or four days worth of consultant work. They handle the consulting remotely, not on-premises. 

Of course, if you don't know the answer to something at any time, you can always call support. That's for break/fix scenarios. For most other things, the online documentation will get you through.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten. We've been very happy with the product.

How we implement this solution in a government institution is a little tricky; it's more closed. One of our most important use cases is how we protect and back up documents and files from users outside of our building because we must follow security standards. We use only HTTPS protocols, a special proxy server, etc.

The solution helps our admins minimize the time they spend on backup tasks and to spend that time on other projects. It's not easy to calculate in minutes, but we have found that it's approximately 80 percent faster to do a backup and restore if we need to.

Using Commvault, we have saved on infrastructure costs. Before, we had a few other solutions for backup. Each of them asked for a data store for storage space. Now, with one solution, we have reduced the amount of hard disk storage in our platform. And with Commvault, the file compression is much more efficient than with other solutions. We currently have 50 to 60 TB in our data set, for the entire ministry with 350 users. Before Commvault, we used much more. I would estimate we are saving 60 to 70 percent of the storage we used to need.

I have also cut more than 50 percent of my daily tasks as a result of Commvault. I don't need to worry too much about backups because I know the system will do everything by itself. Every morning I get reports from Commvault and, if there is a problem, I will get a notification in my email. So it allows me to work on other things.

For now, we are very lucky that we have only needed the solution to restore some clients' data. Only once in the three full years that we have been using it did we need to restore our main mail server. There was a problem with the Windows update where the machine would not patch the Windows update and everything crashed. With two clicks we were able to restore the machine live, so we did not have to reinstall the machine. And a few times, Commvault has enabled us to restore a user's data set.

The most valuable feature is sharing data sets like they're in a private cloud. We call it our "private cloud" because we can share anything that is inside our backup set with our colleagues or with other people, and yet, everything is still in Belgrade, in Serbia. It's not somewhere else on cloud servers. Everything is in our environment. For example, our inspectors exchange data between themselves, so they put everything in one folder and anyone with rights can see it. That is a feature that we use very often.

Another important feature is the protection against ransomware. If an employee gets a virus on their computer we will not worry about it, or if their computer is hit by ransomware, their data will be protected in the backup. That feature is very nice.

In addition, there is a new feature for GDPR regulations and protecting personal data. We don't use it fully because it's new and we are still experimenting and trying to make things easier for all of us. But we could say, "Okay, this database has some personal data in it so please do extra tracking, ask for more credentials, etc., to be sure that nobody can reach that info unless they're supposed to. That is a very nice feature.

The Commvault Command Center is good. Even when I'm not in the office, I can track and see that everything is okay with my system. The Commvault team uses it for protecting our make system and to make it better. They see the health of the system, what features we use often, or not, to help with right-sizing the software.

Overall, we like the fact that it's a single platform for everything. We have one console that has everything that we need. We can add or remove users, retire a user, add a new server, or even start a backup by itself. We don't need to go to the client's site to fix something. We can do everything from the console, wherever we are. If we need to restore a client's computer, we don't need to go there. It can be done from a local PC. We have 22 locations in Serbia, so it's not possible to visit all of them in one day. We can do everything from our console. The only requirement is that that computer is on, and we can do everything from one place. And with one click we can start a backup procedure for any server we want.

As a government office, we think about protecting personal data. Serbia is part of an open government partnership, which is a global project. Commvault should think about protecting open data, especially if there is personal data involved. Perhaps they could divide the data and say, "In this database is personal data and you cannot use it in an open data format."

And they can always improve the interface design to make it easier. Sometimes, you need to click two or three times to do something. They should look at what tabs are used most and make them more accessible, to cut the time it takes to get to that information.

I have been using Commvault since 2015.

We started by testing the solution with a local company, one of Commvault's local partners, here in Serbia. We first wanted to test how it would really work in our environment. After that, we procured it at the beginning of 2016. So in the summer 2016, we officially used it with our license. Before that it was just testing, tendering, procurement, etc.

Every type of software, even Microsoft, has some problems. It's not possible to make something without some patches or little bugs. But until now, over the years we have been using it, we haven't had any big problem where we said, "Oh, this is not working." We have had some problems and opened tickets and support has helped us very fast. 

We can say we are generally happy with Commvault. It's not possible to expect to buy something and never have a problem with it. That's especially true when you add something new; it depends on your hardware environment. It also depends on your network and your users' backup behavior. It's not possible that something will be perfect.

For our use, it scales well. They have many solutions, both on-premise and now, with this Metallic software as a service, you can use it on the cloud. So it's scalable. You can choose what you need and deploy it. 

As a government institution, we are not allowed to use public clouds. Everything must be in our data center. We can mix in a hybrid solution of private clouds and on-premise, but for now, we only use on-premise.

If we need something, if we have any problems, we can open a ticket and their support will help us, and they do very well. We must send an email to our local partner describing our problem and that we need Commvault support. They send it on our behalf to Commvault. Then Commvault opens a ticket. It's not possible for us to open a ticket directly. We need to go through our local partner. That path works for us.

We're happy with the support we receive from our partner. If it's something smaller, they try to fix it by themselves. But we usually open a ticket, in case something has happened or just to have the possibility of tracking all changes.

Commvault also has a very good portal where users, before opening a ticket, can try to find solutions. If others have had a similar problem, we may learn how to solve it.

Before Commvault we had other brands. We use Acronis Backup among others. We wanted to have just one solution for all our needs: for servers, for SQL Server, for laptops, etc. Our partner suggested we try Commvault and we saw that it was a good solution. It really helped us in dealing with backups, so we chose to buy it. Especially when you have public procurement, you cannot say I want to buy this particular solution. So it is tricky to do public procurement and get what you really need.

Our requirements included having one console for all systems. Before, we had Acronis for servers and we had Backup Exec for clients and we had Windows Backup for Windows servers, etc. So the main requirement was to have one place, one console, from which to manage everything: laptops, PCs, servers, databases, and everything. That was the main reason we wanted Commvault.

The second requirement was because we have employees who are outside of Belgrade; they are not sitting in our building. We needed the possibility of backing up their computers, computers that are not in our primary network. With Commvault we managed that very easily.

We now back up more than 70 PCs from our inspectors all around Serbia. With one solution we back up all of them. That was most important because people lose their computers and some computers crash. It was very necessary to have the possibility of protecting their data with a backup solution.

There were other factors as well, like having a partner in Serbia. Also, if we wanted to add new functionality we didn't want to have to buy other software or to experiment. We wanted to be able to just buy a license for the additional things that we needed.

For me, the initial setup was not so complicated, because I'm an IT guy. I understand what is needed. But if I look at it from the point of view of someone else, it's still not too complicated. The documentation is very well written and tells you what you need to do next. Of course, you need to know some rules about backups, but the installation is usually done by guys and girls who are in that field. A regular user will likely never install Commvault by him or herself. And even though I am not a technician and I am not a backup engineer, the setup was okay for me. I was able to understand what the system was asking and what I needed to do.

In terms of how long the deployment took, we tested it just to see if we could back up a part of our database. We have two networks. One is the primary, official, and public network, and the other has secret information. So we tested backing up both of them. Including testing, the deployment took around two months from zero to putting everything on. That also included deploying it on our system, connecting it with our storage, our databases, and installing it on some clients to see how the clients work.

Our implementation strategy for Commvault was very simple: Do it fast and secure all the information we need. We needed to back up everything we had. We just wanted to do it correctly, by the book, and to protect everything.

We used a local Commvault partner, Fractal Dimension, to deploy everything. They also provided some courses on administrating it in our institution. They did everything from the beginning to the end.

I have known Fractal Dimension for a very long time. We have worked with them on other projects here in the ministry. When we were looking for a backup solution they said, "Let's try Commvault."

I hope we have seen a return on our investment but it's not easy to measure in money, because we haven't had any big problems or lost any very important data. But generally, the ROI comes from not having to worry about these things. That may be the best return on our investment. I know that if there is a problem, I'll be able to restore without problems.

It's not cheap but it's not too expensive. We have a yearly contract for support from Commvault. Of course, even for that, we need to go through a public procurement process, because there are a few Commvault partners in our country. Our yearly cost is around €20,000.

There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees. If we want to add a new feature or to buy new licenses for new clients, of course we have to pay more. The cost is based on the number of users and the amount of data. They sell it per terabyte.

We have a contract with Commvault through our local partner so that every year we enter into a new contract for the coming year for updating, upgrading, and support. That enables us to download and deploy every new version, service pack, and hotfix. The latest one is service pack 18 so that is what we are using. That was part of our requirements for a solution: to have the possibility of continuing with it, rather than buy it once and then stop updating. Our goal was to always have the newest version and to have support for tickets.

Whether the licensing model is cost-efficient depends. Government has needs that are different from the private sector. Banks and financial institutions, for example, have other needs. It depends on how they work with backups. Do they need a backup restored in five minutes or in five hours? For my system, if a computer doesn't work one day, it's not a big deal. But in a bank, if you cannot get your money in five minutes you get mad. But overall, the pricing is okay. For what you get, it's a good price compared to the market.

We only tested Commvault because our partner explained to us that it would probably do everything we needed. We spoke with them, had three or four meetings to explain what we really need and what our system looks like. After some weeks they came to us and said, "Okay, we think we have a solution for you." We only tested that solution because we didn't have much time to test others. It was almost the end of 2015 and we needed to budget for the next year.

The biggest lesson I have learned from using Commvault is that if I set everything right, everything by book, I can solve any kind of problem that I may potentially get. I know some people using other backup solutions didn't set everything up very well or by the book. But that is why companies make documentation and say that if follow the book you will not have problems. If you try to escape that and to take some shortcuts, if problems come up, nobody will be able to help you. A good lesson is to just follow the rules, according to the vendor.

We not only use this solution to restore data, but when clients get a new computer we don't need to spend time transferring their data from the old computer to the new computer, because that data is already part of the backup set. First, we decide what we will back up.  We separate their private data from official work documents and we back up only what they need for work. So when they get a new computer, we don't transfer data. If they want to transfer their private data, they do that themselves. We just install the Commvault agent on the new computer and say, "Okay, this is that person's new computer. Copy their backup set to their computer. In a few minutes, depending on how much data they have, their data set will be in their computer. That is another good way for using the backup set in our system. Doing it this way, we save almost a whole day it would take to transfer the old data.

The time it takes to restore data, comparing Commvault and other solutions, is approximately the same. What does make it faster, in general, is that we don't need to install another application. We just install the agent and each user can log in to their account and can choose what they want to restore. If they don't want to restore everything, they can just select what folders they want to have on that computer. In that way, it's faster. Because the solution is user-friendly and we have created a user manual for our users with print-screen illustrations, even people who are not so familiar with IT can follow the manual. It's easy. We don't need to go there physically or explain on the phone to the person how to do it. They have the manual and they just click this and that and everything they want is restored as it was.

In our organization there are only two IT guys, me and another colleague, who work with Commvault daily, to see if that it's okay. Other people, once in a while, need to restore a file, if they deleted it by mistake. 

Clients only need to check things if they get an email notification that their computer didn't back up in a given period of time. We put that in place in case there is some problem. After 10 days they will get email notification that in the last 10 days their computer didn't back up and to check if their computer is turned on. When people go on vacation for more than 10 days, they will get that notification but they know it's because they are away that their computer is off. But if they are at work and get that notification, they call us so that we can track what's happened. But in general, nobody else uses it daily.

In terms of maintenance of the solution, I learned on my own what I need to know, for now. If I have a question, I call our local partner, or I will read through the Commvault forum to see if anybody has said something about the issue, to know in which direction I should look.

We use it on-premise because we are a government institution. In Serbia, by law, we cannot use public cloud for government institutions. We have servers and storage in our data center. For this year, we plan to expand it to create a disaster recovery location in another public institution. We will make a disaster location on their site and they will make their disaster location in our data center. We will buy Commvault HyperScale and, with our local partner, we will set it up so that in case our data center is offline, we will have another location where our data is available.

There is no reason for me to rate them other than a 10 out of 10. When you have support online, you really see what they do. They are fast. If you open a support ticket, they will call you within 24 hours to check and to organize a session. You share your screen and work together to solve the problem. They have good partners and they have good marketing. So Commvault is a 10, without any doubt.

Our clients use the solution for their emails.

The email archiving feature is very smooth and better than others.

The product must improve Oracle client configuration. It is difficult to configure clients of Oracle and SaaS. The solution must also improve bare metal restore for Oracle and Active Directory. Active Directory is not fully protected with bare metal restore. The tool must improve the 1-Touch recovery of Oracle and Active Directory.

The product must provide features for converting VM to physical and physical to VM.

I have been using the solution for six years.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The tool’s scalability is very high. It can be scaled in any environment. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. In a single organization, we have 4000 to 6000 users. Our clients are enterprise businesses.

Technical support is very good. The support personnel are very fast and helpful.

Positive

It is easy to configure the tool. I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten. The on-prem version is better than the cloud version. In the future, as the technology grows, the cloud version will be better. Our customers trust the on-prem version. It takes one day to deploy the product.

To deploy the solution, we must install Commvault’s master server and MediaAgent. Then, we must configure the email archiving solution and add storage.

The product is cheap. It is an integrated solution. I rate the pricing a two out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. We have to pay for the implementation services.

Our company has a partnership with Commvault. Overall, the solution is better than its competitors. I would advise people to use the solution again and again. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

The primary use case is as a backup and recovery solution. We have two data centers and we have a Commvault server for replication in both. We back up all our infrastructure with this solution, from Active Directory to SQL, web servers, file servers, databases, et cetera.

Commvault helps to ensure broad coverage with the discovery of unprotected workloads. The Discovery feature lists all the resources that we have, all the virtual servers and all the physical servers. You can also automatically deploy agents or set up schedules. At first, we did some manual tuning to customize it before deployment. Now, the virtual infrastructure administrator just has to add the VM tag on the virtual machine and that machine will automatically be backed up in the next schedule. It's a good automation feature.

It also helps by minimizing the time our admins spend on backup tasks so that they can spend time on other projects. Before Commvault, we had two backup administrators who were using a backup and restore application to restore every test that we had to do. It was a full-time job just monitoring the backups and doing the restores. With our new solution from Commvault, we have successfully implemented web-based backup and restore management for our different teams, including our file server, database, and Exchange teams. We split operations among those teams and each one has access to the backup Web Console. This console from Commvault is very useful for segmenting the restore options. That way, the database backup administrator only has access to the database servers and can only do backups and restores of databases and does not have access to Active Directory or file servers. The web-based backup and restore is a really great option.

Whereas before, we had one full-time engineer doing backups and restores, now that engineer is only working on it for two to four hours per week. Across our four teams, it's saving us about 10 to 12 hours a week.

The solution has helped to reduce storage costs as well. Commvault has an option to move data from primary storage. When you do a backup, it scans all the files from the file server and you can set a policy to remove all files that are more than, say, three years old from the primary storage. And on the primary storage, there is only a link that connects to the backup source. When a user needs a file on secondary storage, there is no problem because it only reads the file. When the user opens that old file, it's automatically restored and the user can access it. For our IT team, it has saved us between 5 and 10 percent of storage. It depends on how widely you implement the solution and the policies you set. You could save 50 percent if you have a broader policy.

We have also saved on infrastructure costs because Commvault takes less time to do the backup jobs, due to the deduplication. Also, the background tasks that are used to copy the backup jobs to tape are deduplicated. The full backup of our infrastructure can now be done in a couple of hours during the night. Before, some backup tasks would take more than a day, on the weekend. There has been a reduction of 80 or 90 percent in the backup window.

Commvault's most valuable features are its 

• deduplication
• encryption
• support for many OSs
• support for different infrastructures. 

We have VMware, Hyper-V, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL. We have a lot of different systems, and all of them are supported under one licensing agreement. That's one of the benefits.

We use two user interfaces on a regular basis. One is the Web Console, which is simple and has all the necessary functionality. You can add servers, back up servers, and restore. We also have a replication solution implemented and we use the Web Console for that as well. But for the initial configuration and for some deeper configurations, we also use the Commvault application. It's big and has all the fine-tuning options.

The solution's Command Center is very straightforward. It has an intuitive user interface with graphs, tables, alerts, as well as many options for alerting and messaging. Of course, you have to get used to the environment, but it's easy to use.

It is also important that Commvault provides a single platform to move, manage, and recover data across on-premises locations. That's because we have different storage and virtualization platforms. We have no problem if the file resides, say, on NetApp storage and we have to restore data to a workstation or some kind of Windows Server. Also, when we did some migrations from our old Hyper-V cluster to the new VMware cluster, those integrations between different infrastructures were successfully accomplished with the Commvault solution. We have no issues with different types of resources we need to back up.

In addition, the recovery options are pretty straightforward. For example, if you choose a virtual machine, you can restore the full virtual machine, you can restore the virtual machine on a different platform, you can restore just a virtual disk, or you can restore just a file within the virtual machine. You have all the options. In the web-based user interface, you can also restore using download options. You can browse through the files or virtual machines and download the file from the backup. They have a great range of restore options.

We had some small issues with the reporting, but that was just a matter of fine-tuning the kinds of messages we receive by email. It was a little overwhelming in the initial configuration. So we reviewed our configuration with our partner and customized the reports so that we only get the important reports. I haven't seen any big issues or things that the solution is missing.

We implemented Commvault at the start of 2021, so we have been using it for almost a year now.

We had one issue. The Commvault server is an Active-Passive cluster and the Active node had some hiccups. It wasn't something serious, but the Commvault server was unable to connect to one of the agents. I believe our partner discovered it because they also receive messages from our Commvault solution. They just informed us that the Commvault server had to be restarted. We did so during working hours because backups are done at night, and there were no issues. It was a standard procedure and we have had no other big issues.

At the start of the Commvault project, we put together a list of all the resources that we have. They counted our resources and gave us the exact number of clients we needed to buy to cover all of our infrastructure and we had no issue there. Of course, we also have some plans for the growth of our infrastructure. If we have any big upgrades, we will also upgrade the Commvault infrastructure.

We have a lot of Commvault's features implemented. We're also in the process of testing the backup of endpoints, such as laptops and devices from end-users. There are just a few features from Commvault that we don't use.

We use technical support through our partner because our partner has a lot of inside knowledge. For the majority of issues our partner gives us the solution, but they have had to report some small issues to Commvault support. They spoke directly with Commvault support and the solution was available in a few days. It was a very good troubleshooting experience.

Positive

We used NetWorker and Veeam. The NetWorker solution was the older solution and, in some very old clusters, we also used TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) from IBM. The TSM solution was no longer supported and the Dell EMC NetWorker solution, which we used for our physical servers, was difficult to maintain. Veeam was a good solution for our VMware infrastructure, but we needed a solution with support for a wider variety of infrastructure types. One of our major goals was to eliminate our multiple backup solutions by going with Commvault.

If we had to do the initial setup ourselves, it would be complex, of course, because we have a big infrastructure with different types of targets. But our partners helped and they managed to cover all the tests that we implemented at the start of the project. So, overall, the setup went really well. It took just a few days, maybe a week, to add our agents. After the initial configuration, it was really easy to roll out the solution to our entire infrastructure.

Our partners, called Our Space Appliances, are system integrators in backup and storage solutions. They know our infrastructure.

We had a process for choosing a vendor. We called a number of vendors and had proposals from the Veeam, NetWorker, Cohesity, and Commvault.

The big pro for Commvault was that it was a single solution for our entire infrastructure. The licensing model was also an advantage and the experience of the partner was also a big plus. Some of the other solutions we evaluated did not make it to the second round because they did not support all the infrastructure we have in our environment. In the last round, the battle came down to pricing, as well as some small features, and Commvault was the best in all the criteria.

Commvault is a pretty comprehensive but, maybe, complex solution when you first start with it. But that's why it is a perfect match for complex infrastructure, as it supports all types of infrastructure. Commvault is not appropriate for small businesses with just one type of virtual environment. There are different vendors that may be better for that use case. But when looking at enterprise backup and recovery options, Commvault is the easiest to use, and it has the widest range of features.

We are currently moving to Exchange Online. We have between 1,500 and 2,000 users. We have already deployed Teams on the cloud, and now we are migrating user mailboxes to cloud. Our next step, in the following month, will be a backup of Microsoft cloud solutions through Commvault.

In terms of the coverage of Commvault, we have a big Oracle Database and the Oracle administrators are a separate team. They do their own backups using RMAN. They then move the backup to the separate Sun ZFS  storage. We also tried that backup with Commvault, using the Commvault agent to run RMAN. The test went well, the backup was good, but the database team was used to their old solution. So we agreed to implement a backup of the ZFS file server.

Ours is an all-on-prem solution so we don't have any other networks being backed up. We do have a DMZ with different VLANs and so there were some problems. We had to install an agent on the DMZ zone, an agent that has access to resources in the demilitarized network. But it's a no-brainer. We just have to open a specific port so that the backup agent can communicate with the CommCell server, and the resources are backed up successfully.

In addition, to protect against ransomware we use Commvault's alert options because Commvault can predict big changes in the network with its AI solution. This is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is that we are now in the process of implementing secondary, offline storage to ensure an air gap between the primary backup, the replicated backup, and the offline backup storage. In case of a ransomware attack we will have off-site backup storage.

We have used Metallic to offer a package of services to some of our clients along with Nutanix. One of our clients just started using it for Mac agents. They purchased approximately 35 licenses.

One valuable feature is unlimited backup. You can back up existing users and folders. 

You can't change Metallic's retention policies without contacting the Commvault support team. We can only change the scheduling within a certain window, like four hours. Restoration also takes a long time. The hypervisor capabilities are also limited in terms of backing up across cloud platforms. For example, if we are taking a backup in Azure and want to switch the backup to AWS, it will take some time. 

I have worked with Metallic for about a year. 

I rate Metallic seven out of 10 for stability. The backup and restoration takes some time, and you get some errors when installing a package. 

Metallic is a scalable solution. Its primary benefit is unlimited backup for endpoint users. However, not all clients purchase that. 

Deploying Metallic isn't complex. You only need to install the onboarding agent. It took approximately half an hour the first time. You have to download the agent package from the console itself and deploy it on the endpoint. You need to put in the login credentials. It will ask for the email ID and password. 

I rate Metallic eight out of 10. I recommend using the console instead of the web interface. It's much easier to use. 

We use the Commvault for data optimization because it maintains enough data. We have implemented it to run two incremental backups per day and a full backup at the end of the week. We also perform the restoration of the database and DR servers, using it.

Commvault is a software-based solution that can manage backups to any storage and VMs. It integrates redundant storage and preserves jams in a storage area, providing up to 70% compression rate. Backups of large volumes do not take much time to complete. It also facilitates restoring Oracle data, which can be opened directly to a database after restoration without any user intervention.

There are still a lot of ways to improve the recruitment process. Commvault deployment is executed remotely, but managing their support on time is difficult. They reply to the support portal weekly, but there are some delays.

I have been using Commvault Backup & Recovery as a customer for around two years.

The stability is good. I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten.

There is some gap in technical support, but it is good. Restoration happens only when there is a disaster. In that case, customers always expect the solution providers to be present. They regularly go through the update process and release updates frequently.

Neutral

The initial setup is easy. Integrating the database and server for clients might be difficult. The deployment does not take much time. However, changing advanced features or integration may take some time. Once the software and backups are ready, it will take seven to ten days to complete. You may need more people involved in the deployment if you have many servers. A team of two to three people is usually sufficient, including a deployment engineer from Commvault and two to three executives on the client side. I rate the process a six or seven out of ten.

The product generates a good return on investment.

I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten.

They should decide to go for Commvault Backup & Recovery or another solution depending on the infrastructure requirement. 

I rate it a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution as a backup for databases, VMs, or servers. 

Not everyone has agents for everything and Commvault has agents for most products. It's the most complete.

It's easy to install. 

It is stable and reliable.

The solution can scale. 

I don't have any notes for improvements. 

The price could always be lower. 

We'd like to have local support in Germany.

The POC is only 30 days, and it really should be 90 days. 

I've been using the solution for ten years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. I'd rate the reliability nine out of ten. It doesn't crash or freeze. Based on what is possible, it is okay.

The solution is very scalable. I'd rate it ten out of ten in terms of the ability to extend.

Everyone uses the solution. We have 20 to 30 people using the product. That includes consultants. 

Technical support is currently based in India. I'd like to have more local support. 

We did not previously use a different solution. 

The solution is simple to set up. It is not complex. 

It takes approximately two weeks to deploy the solution.

You simply download the .EXE file and start the installation. 

We had one person that handled the setup. We had an engineer, myself, handle it. 

We handle the initial setup ourselves. We did not need any outside assistance. 

I have not really noticed any ROI.

Inside the 30-day trial period, you do not need a license. After that, you need to pay yearly.

The prices are pretty high. It's quite expensive. 

I'm an end-user.

We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd recommend potential new users talk to a proper consultant and do a proper POC. 

I would rate the solution nine out of ten. 

The solution is primarily used to protect against ransomware. It helps protect data and allows for data recovery and backup.

The data protection itself is very good compared to other products. 

The backup agents are helpful.

Its pricing is pretty competitive. 

The technical support is responsive. 

It is easy to set up.

I haven't had any challenges with the solution. 

The pricing could be more flexible in terms of licensing. It would help attract more customers. 

I've used the solution for three to four years. 

We have around customers using the product with 5,000 or more users.

The response in terms of support has been fine. Whenever they need help, the team can respond to the ticket. They do provide solutions to issues. That said, I don't really use customer care directly.

The vendor will offer support contracts. The customers can decide if they might need support or not. 

The initial setup is straightforward. There are basic steps to follow for the installation. That said, I do not handle the setup directly. From my team, I have not heard of any kinds of challenges. I'm not sure how long it takes to deploy the product.

We handle the implementation for clients. 

The solution's pricing is competitive. It depends on the number of users required and if any discounts are leveraged. Bigger volumes will lead to bigger discounts. 

We're provided the solution to clients. We are implementors. We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. I would rate the solution eight out of ten.