Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs ExaGrid EX Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and ExaGrid EX Series based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

Overall, Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is praised for its high data storage capacity, efficient data deduplication, and excellent customer service. On the other hand, ExaGrid EX Series stands out for its seamless integration with backup applications, scalability, and stellar customer support. Dell is known for its reliability and ease of use, while ExaGrid's data deduplication capabilities and user-friendly interface are highly regarded. Dell is considered to have reasonable pricing and excellent return on investment, whereas ExaGrid's positive ROI is highlighted along with its cost-effective pricing. Dell may need to focus on improving performance and scalability, while ExaGrid could enhance its deduplication capabilities and backup speed. Ultimately, both products have their own strengths and areas for improvement based on user reviews.

Features: Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) excels in high data storage capacity, reliable data protection and recovery, and compatibility with backup applications. In contrast, ExaGrid EX Series stands out for its efficient data deduplication, seamless integration with backup applications, easy setup and management, scalability, and excellent customer support.

Pricing and ROI: The setup cost of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is reported to be straightforward and user-friendly, while the ExaGrid EX Series has a relatively low upfront setup cost. Additionally, Dell PowerProtect DD offers a smooth and hassle-free licensing process, whereas ExaGrid EX Series has a transparent and flexible licensing process., Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) showed positive ROI, while users praised its benefits. ExaGrid EX Series delivered value through improved backup processes, efficiency, cost savings, enhanced data protection, scalability, and reduced backup times. The solution was praised for reliability, ease of use, and integration, reducing storage requirements.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) can improve in areas such as performance, scalability options, user interface, support for different operating systems, and data deduplication capabilities. In comparison, ExaGrid EX Series can enhance data deduplication, backup speed, user interface, scalability, and customer support.

Deployment and customer support: Users have reported varying durations for deploying and setting up the Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) solution, ranging from three days to a few hours. User reviews about the ExaGrid EX Series' establishment time cannot be directly referenced., When comparing customer service, both Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and ExaGrid EX Series receive positive feedback. Dell's support is highly praised for its prompt assistance and expertise, while ExaGrid's support is commended for its helpfulness and responsiveness.

The summary above is based on 26 interviews we conducted recently with Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and ExaGrid EX Series users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs. ExaGrid EX Series Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It is very fast as compared to the other competitors. Its simplicity and bit rate are also valuable. It takes less time if we compare it with the old solution that we have.""The product, a disk backup solution, improves our data application tasks. We used tape libraries with Dev drives in legacy architectures, resulting in slow backups compared to modern drives like NVMe and SSDs. By transitioning to NVMe and SSDs, backups have become much faster. The tool's backup restoration is faster compared to other tools.""I like the different features. We work closely with Dell on different products and features, which is why we use them all.""The most valuable feature is the inline data deduplication.""It is stable. I would rate the stability of the solution a nine out of ten.""It is a stable solution.""Data Domain is an excellent repository that's compatible with a lot of different solutions. Even Veeam Backup recommends sending backup to Data Domain. Space optimization is great. Currently, it guarantees 50-to-1 compression of the application in the same device. In all these years, I never had a client who was unsatisfied with Data Domain. It is a solid appliance with VMware integration, instant access to restore and search, and analytics.""The tool's performance is very good. DD Boost can improve its performance and backup."

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"It is a solid and a quite simple solution, which is a good combination. The customers like the simplicity and its scale-out capacity. They like the support pricing, and even the extension capacity pricing, a fixed price, which the executive is offering in Czech market.""The tool has improved backup and recovery times. One of the key features contributing to this improvement is the landing zone and deduplication retention zone. When data is in the landing zone, the process is fast, ensuring smooth backup and recovery operations at high speeds. However, the process becomes slower for long-term backups moved to the retention zone due to fragmentation. So, if the data is older than a few days, the speed may be limited, especially for non-deduplicated data in the landing zone.""The most valuable feature is the ease of use and data deduplication. It's extremely easy to use and does a very good job of data deduplication and compression.""One of the main features is the landing zone, it is a particular space where the information is not duplicated.""The most valuable features of the solution are deduplication and landing zone.""The solution easily integrates with the backup targets, such as Veeam."

More ExaGrid EX Series Pros →

Cons
"I would like to see better integration and support for backing up to cloud providers such as Alibaba Cloud.""They still have hardware different from the software.""DD doesn't have Intel's air gap technology.""The software from Dell that can be used to operate Data Domain needs to have enhancements made to the user interface. It is too complex.""The firmware upgrades could be simplified. I'm in the process of struggling to upgrade right now.""Its management can be improved.""The size and scale of the product are limited and could be improved.""The tool's pricing could be cheaper."

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"When speaking about a scale-out, you want to have better equipment. You cannot just add a disc to the foreign equipment. You have to buy another one and put it together, like parallel.""The solution could improve by switching to a flash-type solution rather than the spinning drives that they currently use. However, we have not had any failure with the spinning drives. The flash-type drives are more up-to-date and are something that is in their roadmap.""The product's documentation can be made more precise.""The tool reduces storage footprint. However, clients are now storing data for longer durations with increasing requirements to retain backups for longer periods, particularly as a defense against ransomware attacks. As a result, the retention zone with duplicated data is experiencing more demand, leading to space constraints. This necessitates using higher-end, more expensive models to address the issue.""The one place where we are sometimes losing the opportunity with ExaGrid is that a few customers still require a fiber channel connectivity, which is not always possible.""I would like for them to develop direct cloud integration with a third-party cloud. Direct integration with AWS and other cloud providers."

More ExaGrid EX Series Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is expensive, but the performance and deduplication cover for the cost."
  • "Pricing is related to size. A lower range solution might be about $33,000. My customers use higher range versions with a price of around $100,000. That's the price for both the hardware and software."
  • "In Naira it was twenty-five or twenty-seven million (approximately $75,000 USD) for the implementation and maintenance cost for three years."
  • "There are many options in the pricing structure which can cause some confusion and necessitate the purchase of additional licensing."
  • "This is one of the more expensive backup solutions on the market."
  • "Its price is reasonable."
  • "It could be more competitively priced. Its licensing was for five years. Obviously, the support will get renewed at some stage, but that's it."
  • "The price is on the high side."
  • More Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "In comparison to other solutions, it's affordable. They're all too expensive."
  • "The current agreement has 21 terabytes of free space and it cost approximately $35,000."
  • "The previous solutions I have used both included the Backup Software and the Appliance making it hard to compare to this solution. However, overall the solution is reasonably priced for the features you receive. ExaGrid EX Series is priced better than HP, Dell, and possibly Commvault which I have compared in the past."
  • "My company had to pay 1,60,000 EUR for the system we use, and the payment was made just once for the system and five years of full support."
  • "I rate ExaGrid EX Series' pricing eight to nine out of ten."
  • More ExaGrid EX Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:There are many different licenses, so you pay for what you need. There are various aspects you can add on, like extra speed, or something just for reading data. There are licenses to do replication as… more »
    Top Answer:Nothing comes to mind in terms of improvement. It serves its purpose. That said, if they could develop higher algorithms to make it more efficient, that would be great. Usually, with the backup, the… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution are deduplication and landing zone.
    Top Answer:Initially, a person might consider the product expensive, but if you look at the larger picture, all deduplication appliances are generally expensive. My company had to pay 1,60,000 EUR for the system… more »
    Top Answer:The product's documentation can be made more precise. The good thing is you can access the appliance when you go to the online documentation, which is always up-to-date. There needs to be a proper… more »
    Ranking
    1st
    Views
    11,351
    Comparisons
    7,395
    Reviews
    21
    Average Words per Review
    413
    Rating
    8.2
    7th
    Views
    3,253
    Comparisons
    2,434
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    702
    Rating
    9.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    DataDomain, Dell EMC Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain
    EX Series
    Learn More
    Dell Technologies
    Video Not Available
    ExaGrid
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    DD series enables your organization to protect, manage and recover data at scale. As the next generation of Dell Data Domain appliances, DD series sets the bar for efficient data management from edge to core to cloud and includes the ecosystem support and comprehensive data protection that customers have come to appreciate from Data Domain. The DD series offers a super-fast, secure, and an efficient solution that is built for multi-cloud data protection and to keep up with future demands. The DD series consists of the DD9900, DD9400, DD6900, DD6400, DD3300, and a software-defined option, PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE).

    DD series empowers organizations to protect, manage and recover data at scale across their entire diverse ecosystems. DD series provides broad ecosystem support, efficiency, powerful data protection, cloud-enabled capabilities, and the cyber resiliency that our customers demand.

    The DD Operating System (DDOS) is the brilliance that drives the DD series. DDOS contributes the agility, security, and reliability that pushes DD series to deliver high-speed, scalable, and standard-setting protection storage for backup, archive, and disaster recovery. DDOS integrates seamlessly with many existing infrastructures, permitting ease-of-use with leading backup and archiving applications, and provides superior performance in conjunction with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and Data Protection Suite. When you decide to purchase a new DD series appliance you can easily consume DDOS as a subscription providing greater flexibility for deployment while minimizing your overall upfront costs.

    DD series does a great job to minimize the threat of data loss and adds to the value of protected data while meeting ever-increasing demands of SLAs and increasing ROI. DDOS drives DD series to deliver up to 38% faster backups and up to 45% faster restores at significantly higher compression levels.

    DD series supports high availability within the single rack. Additionally, DD series can greatly reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by minimizing downtime in the unlikely event of a hardware failure. DD series delivers amazing high-speed networking connectivity with support for 25GbE and 100GbE network adapters.

    Benefits of Dell PowerProtect DD

    Fast, secure, efficient data protection:

    • Provide 1.5PB usable capacity in a single rack
    • Allow for Up to 3PB capacity for long-term retention
    • Logical capacity is increased by up to 30% per TB when compared to the previous generation
    • Allow for instant access and instant restore of up to 64VMs and 100k IOPS
    • High-speed network connectivity – 10GbE, 25GbE and 100GbE
    • Seamless fast integration and outstanding performance with PowerProtect Data Manager and Data Protection Suite
    • Supports many of the leading enterprise backup and archive applications

    Industry-leading multi-cloud protection:

    • Provides software-defined protection storage on-premises and in-cloud with PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE).
    • DDVE scales up to 256TB in-cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others).
    • Greatly improves in-cloud restore performance by as much as 10x when compared to previous versions.
    • Cloud Tier delivers super simple and value-added long-term retention to public, private, or hybrid clouds
    • Cost-efficient disaster recovery to the cloud

    Operational simplicity:

    • Enhanced DD System Manager supports a complete chassis view
    • Significantly lower administrative costs
    • Grants a single point of management for all DD series by PowerProtect DD Management Center
    • Deploy Smart Scale for PowerProtect appliances directly from PowerProtect DD Management Center. Smart Scale helps drive down management complexities while increasing storage efficiencies. 

    Reviews from Real Users

    One user, who is an enterprise IT architect at a tech service company, says that “Dell PowerProtect DD is highly stable and reliable. I have not had a time when the system did not work and in an emergency this is critical.” He rates the ROI it has brought his company a five out of five.

    A pre-sales and technical manager at a tech services company says that "The features that I have found most valuable with Dell PowerProtect DD are its deduplication feature and its DD Boost protocol for fast transfer, which is amazing."

    Chris C., lead infrastructure architect at ThinkON, relates that Dell PowerProtect DD “allows our organization to send more data to this device compared to others. It also allows us a fast recovery of files or Virtual Machines if needed being on-premise.”

    The ExaGrid EX Series hyper-converged secondary storage for backup product line consists of eight appliance models. Each appliance is sized for a full backup and for long-term retention. Any ExaGrid appliance can be mixed and matched in the same scale-out system with any other size or age appliance, allowing customers to buy what they need as they need it. This pay-as-you-grow model allows up to 25 appliances in a single scale-out system.
    Sample Customers
    The US Army, City of Houston, Lloyds TSB, TiVo, Teck, Ingram Entertainment, The New York Mets
    NCI Group, North Attleborough Public School, North Kingstown School Department, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Rathbone Brothers PLC, Rio Hondo College, Ruder Finn, Sarah Lawrence College
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Insurance Company14%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business71%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise57%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs. ExaGrid EX Series
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs. ExaGrid EX Series and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is ranked 1st in Deduplication Software with 61 reviews while ExaGrid EX Series is ranked 7th in Deduplication Software with 6 reviews. Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is rated 8.4, while ExaGrid EX Series is rated 9.4. The top reviewer of Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) writes "Supports business continuity process but needs improvement in pricing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ExaGrid EX Series writes "Integrates well, reasonably priced, and provides high level support ". Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) is most compared with HPE StoreOnce, Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, Rubrik, Veeam Backup & Replication and Veritas NetBackup Appliance, whereas ExaGrid EX Series is most compared with HPE StoreOnce, Quantum DXi Series, Veritas NetBackup Appliance, NetApp FAS Series and DD Boost. See our Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs. ExaGrid EX Series report.

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    We monitor all Deduplication Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.