IT Director at a retailer with 1-10 employees
Real User
Improved our organization by ensuring our data is secure during a disaster, but the UI needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Backup of the VMware server is the most valuable feature."
  • "Scheduling backups is challenging due to the poor quality of the UI."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for the backup and recovery of our VMware data.

How has it helped my organization?

BDRSuite's data protection policy is excellent. A trusted source recommended the solution to me, and I have confidence that my organization is in capable hands by using it.

It is important that BDRSuite provides multiple restore points for recovery data in a more granular manner. For instance, if we identify an injection in our file by examining our log for the relevant time frame, we can restore our system and import our data to a different aspect. Therefore, it is crucial for the engineers to understand how to use the backup system, as restoring the data guarantees that there is no malware present.

The incremental backup process works perfectly because the backup system checks file access, which helps us maintain a smaller disk size.

BDRSuite has improved our organization by ensuring our data is secure during a disaster.

What is most valuable?

Backup of the VMware server is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

The instructions are hard to follow and could be simplified.

Scheduling backups is challenging due to the poor quality of the UI. I would rate the UI a three out of ten, as it has significant room for improvement. The graphical interface, including its design, icons, layout, colors, and fonts, is not comparable to Google's. In my opinion, the design is the most significant feature that needs improvement.

The price has room for improvement.

The 15-day trial period for BDRSuite is insufficient to fully experience the solution and make an informed decision about its use.

Buyer's Guide
BDRSuite
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about BDRSuite. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can scale by adding additional licenses. 

Our server handles up to 10 million users.

How are customer service and support?

The individual with whom I have been in contact is competent, but the support team responsible for reading emails is inadequate. They are unable to comprehend the problem and as a result, there is a lot of unnecessary communication back and forth, which is a waste of time.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

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

Previously, I employed BASH Programming to export all the data daily, and I synchronized it on a server using a daily cron job to back up the system. However, BDRSuite is a more convenient option since it enables us to restore files at the file level. We can simply open the backup, choose the desired file, and send it to the server.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup should be more user-friendly. 

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

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

The license is per unit and is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a five out of ten because I have not had to deal with a disaster situation yet.

To ensure the security of their data, individuals using BDRSuite should obtain certification. Although I have not personally verified this, a friend of mine used BDRSuite for their data center and found it to be secure. BDRSuite is a competitor of Zoho which is comparable to Google in terms of functionality. However, some users may find issues with the user interface and design, particularly those who prioritize aesthetics and ease of use. While technical users like myself will have no issues, others may find BDRSuite to be somewhat complicated upon examination.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Senior Full Stack JavaScript Developer at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Encrypts traffic when transferring it to its destination
Pros and Cons
  • "There is an option to back up a specific folder from a specific source, not the whole virtual machine."
  • "They can work on their cloud solution. In these days, the data becomes too much and you have to back up a lot of data to the site. They could offer cheaper storage to their clients with the cloud, making this a single source of truth solution. In our project, we are using two service providers: One who offers our storage and another who offers the software. If they work on their cloud solution and can offer their clients lower prices for this type of storage, this would be a really good improvement."

What is our primary use case?

Currently, we use Vembu for weekly backups of our virtual infrastructure and monthly backups for separate, confidential data.

We use it only with VMware.

How has it helped my organization?

If our country is hit by a meteor, I have secured data in another country on the other side of the world. Then, I can start the restore process immediately with this solution.

What is most valuable?

There is an option to back up a specific folder from a specific source, not the whole virtual machine. 

The encryption is a must in these days. You can't do anything without encryption of your traffic or data.

What needs improvement?

The compression is unusable in every scenario because the data that we backup is too different, according to each type. Therefore, the compression is not applicable everywhere. So, we don't use the compression at all.

They can work on their cloud solution. In these days, the data becomes too much and you have to back up a lot of data to the site. They could offer cheaper storage to their clients with the cloud, making this a single source of truth solution. In our project, we are using two service providers: One who offers our storage and another who offers the software. If they work on their cloud solution and can offer their clients lower prices for this type of storage, this would be a really good improvement.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable. We haven't had any issues with the software, like crashing or freezing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't have any of the reservations about the scalability because we currently use it on a single machine. 

We have about three users who are part of the IT department, including two senior administrators and me, as IT manager.

How are customer service and technical support?

Our account manager has provided us with great information and support. He is always on time. I haven't needed to wait more than two hours to read the answers to my questions.

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

Three years ago, we started the project to duplicate our infrastructure in every single aspect and needed to create daily backups of our virtual machines.

We picked Vembu two years ago, but switched to another solution which comes with integrated backup for virtual machines. This year, we start another project, which is to create offsite backups somewhere in the world. There were some requirements: the backup storage to be encrypted, the transfer to be encrypted, and not be so expensive. So, I looked at Vembu and Vinchin again. We were only satisfied with this tool (Vembu) when we started talking about money, because it was cheaper and could easily encrypt our non-dedicated storage.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was as easy as one, two, three. I downloaded the software, then ran the application. They have a perfect documentation section on their website where you can find what you need: this tutorial.

Our deployment was about an hour.

We always start any project with a deployment strategy. This includes some type of testing. We go in with the result that we want and compare the software with our requirements. If it fits, then we start to reach the end result.

What was our ROI?

Currently, our whole offsite backup project, including Vembu, is about $500 per year to back up everything that we have. It is a lot of data, about 50 terabytes.

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

I find the licensing model to be valuable. The payment model is done with a set price or per virtual machine, and it is also done annually or on a permanent basis. You can choose whichever licensing model you prefer.

For our company, the current price of Vembu against Veeam is a few times cheaper. In our infrastructure, if we picked Veeam, we would have to pay about $20,000 per year. Now, we are currently paying about $2,000 per year for Vembu. You can do the math. The price is great.

Money always matters, so it could be cheaper, but this is not realistic for the market.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When we started to look for this type of software, we had to choose between Veeam, Vembu, or Vinchin. Vinchin is a new player on the market. 

We integrated a service provide into our own solution. This is why I picked Vembu at first, because it can be integrated with a third-party service provider and was the only software able to be integrated into our solution. Vembu offers a cloud offsite service, which is a type of Vembu storage where you can store your backups if you don't have other options.

Vinchin is easier to use with simpler interfaces. However, when you read the features, because it is new software in the market, there were not some functions built-in, like encryption. Vembu encrypts the traffic when it transfers it to its destination. According to our Vinchin and Vembu comparison, Vembu is pretty complicated against Vinchin, but Vembu is easier to install and update.

Reasons why we went with Vembu:

  1. The price. 
  2. The integration option. 
  3. They offered a lot of additional features that we don't use currently, but you never know what you will need in the future.

What other advice do I have?

The software is currently satisfying our needs for us. We aren't using all of Vembu features at the moment.

We use data reservation in our offsite data backup.

It is compatible with almost everything that exists on the market. It's compatible with VMware and Hyper-V. With VMware, it works very well. We haven't had any issues so far. 

I would advise to try it and not to look at the prices of the top players on the market, though do look at alternative software. Sometimes, you need to try more than one or two solutions, then switch to whichever one is better. Pretty often, we speak to some not-so famous product or company to complete our approach.

I would rate the solution as a 10 out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Thank you for your feedback.


We will forward your suggestion regarding cloud backup solutions to our management for consideration.


For any queries, please get in touch with our team through vembu-support@vembu.com.

Buyer's Guide
BDRSuite
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about BDRSuite. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Director at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Moving to cloud backups eliminated the need for clients to change USB drives or worry about drives being stored offsite
Pros and Cons
  • "Moving to cloud backups eliminated the need for clients to change USB drives or worry about drives being stored offsite."
  • "I have had issues with new client registrations. There are frequent connectivity issues to the cloud servers. Multiple times, I have had to prove to support that it wasn’t a problem on my end. It always works out in the end, but it is troubling to have the same issues repeated across different clients. Issues eventually get escalated to the cloud team and are mysteriously resolved with no changes on my end."

What is our primary use case?

Vembu has been a great solution for my smaller clients who don’t need a lot of storage. The entry price is excellent for small businesses who want to use cloud backups.

I have 8 clients currently using Vembu Cloud BDR.

How has it helped my organization?

Moving to cloud backups eliminated the need for clients to change USB drives or worry about drives being stored offsite.

I can restore through the Vembu client or pull the file from anywhere via the browser. So far, it has been adequate in meeting my clients' needs.

What is most valuable?

There are a lot of cloud backup solutions that can handle documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and pictures, but they are more limited for those who need cloud backups for applications like SQL. 

What needs improvement?

I have had issues with new client registrations. There are frequent connectivity issues to the cloud servers. Multiple times, I have had to prove to support that it wasn’t a problem on my end. It always works out in the end, but it is troubling to have the same issues repeated across different clients. Issues eventually get escalated to the cloud team and are mysteriously resolved with no changes on my end. I don’t know if it is an AWS issue, capacity issue, or something else. However, it is concerning for clients when they get several failure notices for their backups, though through retrying the job was eventually successful.

It can still mature in some ways. The agent interface can be improved and the portal could be more informative.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Vembu Cloud BDR with clients since 2019.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have had no issues doing restores. Throughput on restored data is an issue for some other cloud backup solutions. However, I have never had an issue with Vembu Cloud BDR.

How are customer service and support?

We have always gotten to a solution eventually. Sometimes, it takes some time though. 

I had an issue that had to be escalated to the cloud team that was only available 9 to 5 local India time. Having to stay up for a support call at 2 AM (my time) was frustrating. I had to pursue it to prove a new client registration issue was not a problem on my end. Not being believed by support and having to go to that extreme should not have been necessary. I was correct in the end, as they eventually found an issue on the Vembu client provisioning side. I think the whole situation could have been handled better.

Most of my issues were resolved, but there is rarely anything on my end that needs to be fixed. Most resolutions say something like, “We detected a problem on our servers and took steps to resolve the issue.” Then, things start working again. While we get a resolution, I don’t have much visibility into what was done. Since we generally get there eventually, I will rate the technical support as seven out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

Mozy used to be the major player in this market space. Mozy’s demise, with its purchase by Carbonite, left a void for a solution that could handle SQL cloud backups and meet small business needs. Vembu Cloud BDR has been filling this void for my small clients for a few years now.

I have clients that have used many solutions. For those who switched to Vembu Cloud BDR, most are coming from Carbonite (originally Mozy) or Backup Exec with local storage.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward when it works. I have had issues a couple times with new client registrations.

Deployment takes less than an hour.

My implementation strategy is to register the cloud account, install the client agent, configure the jobs, and then run.

What about the implementation team?

I deploy and maintain the solution.

What was our ROI?

Backups are like an insurance policy. You pay for the protection and hope you don’t need it. You don’t really expect a return, just security if needed.

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

The pricing is good. The tough part is estimating storage needs.

We used to be able to license regular PCs at no cost. We just paid for storage. The recent addition of the workstation license has changed that. For clients who use Vembu Cloud BDR for backup of remote user laptops, they now have licenses that they need to buy in addition to their server license.

The solution has excellent affordability for businesses with tight budgets.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I checked up on just about every cloud backup solution that I could find. This solution provides SQL application backups with a good entry point for small businesses.

What other advice do I have?

It is a good value. While there have been some issues, that happens with any solution. Vembu Cloud BDR is a good entry product for small clients and can also scale to larger environments. I have not seen anything that diminishes its value.

Restore speed has been fine. Luckily, I have not had to do a complete restore, only occasional files or an SQL database.

Most clients were using local USB drives for backup storage prior to moving to Vembu Cloud BDR. Speed of restores was not an issue coming from a local source. The only clients who have seen an increase were those that previously were using another cloud backup provider that has notoriously slow restore throughput.

I will increase usage as client needs dictate.

I would rate it as eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides the ability to map a drive and is helpful for backup, restoration, and license management
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to map a drive and restore a separate file is most valuable. The restoration activity is good."
  • "They need to improve their marketing because not many people are aware of it. People ask me what is Vembu, and I have to explain to them it is a good tool for backup and other things."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for the backup of our VMs and restoration activity. We are deploying some new technologies for which we would be able to use the features of Vembu.

How has it helped my organization?

It has been very helpful for data backup and restoration and license management. License management and everything else works smoothly, which is very useful for us.

Its restores are nice and reliable. They are fast and smooth. As compared to other tools, they are 80% faster. The speed of the restores also depends on my network. We have less than 10 gigs of speed.

It provides multiple options to recover data during hardware failures or accidental deletion of files. They have many options to restore the data. We tested them during the DR last December. Having multiple ways to restore the service and data is very useful.

Its download VM feature is useful in migrating physical machines to our VMware environment. There were no challenges in doing that through the GUI. It was user-friendly.

What is most valuable?

The ability to map a drive and restore a separate file is most valuable. The restoration activity is good.

The data integrity check features are useful during the restoration activity. At the time of restoration, we are also checking the DR plan.

What needs improvement?

We haven't yet checked its compatibility with the new technologies in the market, such as Nutanix. It would be good if any new technology can also accommodate Vembu.

They need to improve their marketing because not many people are aware of it. People ask me what is Vembu, and I have to explain to them it is a good tool for backup and other things. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is good. Its reliability is good when we have VMware and Linux VMs. It works smoothly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is dependent on the number of licenses that you purchase. Currently, we have 10 to 15 engineers and project managers who use this solution.

It is being used extensively. We are using only Vembu for the backup part. So, our core data depends on this solution. We have around 20 VMs, and we are taking backups of almost 100 GB of file server data. We might increase its usage in the future. Some of the people approached us to go for a new tool, but I explained to them the features that it offers. We don't have any plans to move to another solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Vembu team is giving excellent support to us. They provide 24/7 support. We can reach out to them at any point in time. They are able to address and give proper support for our queries. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

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

My organization was using another solution previously. I have used Symantec backup and other tools in my previous organization. All these tools are more or less the same.

How was the initial setup?

It was already installed when I joined this organization.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI in terms of reliability. When we invest in a backup solution for infrastructure backup, it should work at critical times. With Vembu, I am able to restore data quickly without any issues.

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

Its price is reasonable as compared to other solutions. There are no additional costs.

While increasing the count on the server-side, we have to take care of managing or optimizing the license.

What other advice do I have?

We have not used Vembu's instant boot VM feature for instant access to our VMs or physical machines after a crash. We have also not used Vembu for the backup for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or AWS.

I would rate Vembu BDR Suite a 10 out of 10. It is a good tool for backup, replication, and restoration. Everything is good in this solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Thank you for the review. We’ve taken your feedback to support backup for Nutanix, which will be available in any of our future versions.


For any updates or queries, you can reach our team through vembu-support@vembu.com.

Network Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Provides multiple options to recover data during hardware failures or accidental deletion of files
Pros and Cons
  • "We have seen ROI. The real return is when something bad happens. All the proof of concept work that we did, all the testing we did, it all panned out for us. We're already seeing a return on that."
  • "We do a lot of internal automation, so the Vembu API definitely has some gaps. The Vembu API could definitely use some improvement. We do rely a lot on automation outside of just the regular interface. We've noticed that the Vembu GUI is good, but we do leverage the APIs for a lot of stuff, and there's definitely some room for improvement there."

What is our primary use case?

We're deploying it to support the backup of some on-premise VMware vSphere workloads.

How has it helped my organization?

Vembu has been a great benefit to us and it's been very positive. I would definitely say it's been a good thing.

What is most valuable?

We're using some very specific components of it like the on-prem backup to back up some separate systems for DR.

The restores have been reliable. We went through testing validation and we haven't had any issues.

We just started to use Vembu's Data Integrity Check. We need to validate the backups to see that they're able to be restored. This feature is pretty important. It's a big deal.

The restores have performed very well but our infrastructure is highly connected. Our infrastructure is the way it was before. We have a 10-gigabit infrastructure. So the performance of our backups has occurred the same as it did before, and it's been very good. We haven't noticed any difference between what we were doing before and with Vembu now.

It's important to us that Vembu provides multiple options to recover data during hardware failures or accidental deletion of files. But it's not critical because we back up the entire environment. So if we had a problem, we pull back the entire system. There's only a couple of instances where we pull back individual files. Being able to recover the entire virtual machine is the most important piece.

We used the Instant Boot VM feature for instant access to our VMs when we did the testing, but it's not necessarily something that I think is going to be an absolute requirement for us. It would be important if we lost everything

What needs improvement?

We do a lot of internal automation, so the Vembu API definitely has some gaps. The Vembu API could definitely use some improvement. We do rely a lot on automation outside of just the regular interface. We've noticed that the Vembu GUI is good, but we do leverage the APIs for a lot of stuff, and there's definitely some room for improvement there.

When it comes to the GUI, it could use some UI modifications to make it a little bit easier to navigate, filter, and sort information.

For how long have I used the solution?

We just made the purchase. We just went through the evaluation and we purchased it in the last two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, it has been very stable for us. We haven't had any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're not a big shop. We don't scale to thousands and thousands of workloads, but it's scaled very well for the things that we've needed to do.

We're 100% into Vembu right now. I don't know that we'll be looking to do anything more. That all depends on what the infrastructure requires of us, but right now it's working very well. I don't think we're going to scale out and do Hyper-V, Office 365, or any of that stuff, at least not right now. If that does become a need, we'll be using Vembu for that because we know it can do that kind of work, but right now that's not in scope for us.

We have a little over 150-some odd workloads, virtual machines, and we have six hosts. Spread across six hosts, we have 150 workloads. It's not a big environment.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support was very good. We engaged them. They did respond very quickly. We were able to get them in and work through the issues that were there. They did have to go back to the team a couple of times to get some answers for us, but it was certainly no more than one business day between them going back, figuring out what's going on, and getting back with us. They were very good.

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

We did use another solution but it was for the exact same kind of thing that we're using Vembu for.

It worked fine for a while but the updates weren't happening on a regular basis and the product wasn't moving forward the way that we wanted it to. Vembu has a lot more time under its belt in terms of development and whatnot. It turned out to be a much better solution for us.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward.

Vembu has two options for deployment, Windows or Linux, and so we had looked at both options. Both options for setup and configuration were pretty straightforward. There were some bugs that needed to be worked out, so we had to engage the Vembu support team. That team engaged very quickly and worked diligently to get the issues resolved. There were two or three things that needed to be addressed. Ultimately, we chose to go down the path of Windows deployment for Vembu, not necessarily because there were problems with the Linux platform, but because the Windows platform seemed to work better for us for some of the automation that we're doing. Overall, it was very good. 

The initial proof of concept to deployment was about a two-month venture for us. It was not very long.

Three people were required for the deployment. We're all engineers and I have the decision-making ability.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI. The real return is when something bad happens. All the proof of concept work that we did, all the testing we did, it all panned out for us. We're already seeing a return on that.

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

They do have a pretty good breakdown online. Their product detail and data sheets and all that kind of stuff listed out pretty well what it does. So we knew right away that it was going to probably align with what we needed to do. It was pretty easy for us to understand how well it was going to be aligned.

I think it's priced well. Obviously, we're happy with the pricing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There were a number of different technologies we looked at. They were all the same basic feature functionality that we were looking for. In some cases, it was the price. A couple of the products that we were looking at are more than twice the cost of Vembu. We're not a big environment so to pay twice the amount of money for effectively the same solution just didn't make a lot of sense for us. There are some less expensive solutions too but they didn't offer some of the automation that we needed. They didn't offer an API. They didn't offer as easy a path to getting into Vembu as Vembu offered. Vembu wasn't the least expensive and they weren't the most expensive, but it did align with what we needed. And a lot of what we needed was VMware and vSphere backups, automation, those kinds of things, and we felt that Vembu was the way to go.

We do have a tight budget. We're not a big shop or environment. It was very affordable. The cost was a big deal but it was very affordable for us.

What other advice do I have?

Look at it to align it with what you need it to do. See if it is well aligned with the way your infrastructure operates and the needs that you have with what Vembu can offer. Obviously price and budget are concerns, but I think that initially, it has to meet your needs. You're not going to go out and buy something that only gives you half of what you need. It's really all about evaluating the business needs first.

I would rate Vembu an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Thank you for the feedback. Good to know that our product has met all your backup requirements. 


We have improved the Vembu BDR Suite user interface for the best user experience and added more APIs, which will be available in our next release v5.0. For any updates or queries, kindly get in touch with our team through vembu-support@vembu.com.

Forrest Wu - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Specialist, IT at 01 communique
Real User
Top 10
Improved our business continuity; it has helped us recover from a few incidences
Pros and Cons
  • "It has improved our business continuity."
  • "The support is a bit slow in resolving an issue. It takes a long time to recover."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to backup VMware virtual machines, so I'm backing up my VMware environment. My product is for Windows Server Backup.

We are a small business. We don't use the enterprise version of the solution.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved our business continuity.

We have used this solution to recover from a few incidences. 

What is most valuable?

The firewall backup is the most valuable feature. We need it sometimes when we recover a single file.

The compression is the most useful feature for me.

What needs improvement?

The product's stability needs some improvements. 

The support is a bit slow in resolving an issue. It takes a long time to recover.

For how long have I used the solution?

One year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is 90 percent stable. It is running well. The availability is good.

Two or three employees are needed for deployment and maintenance of the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I only have two servers. I don't test other servers.

We don't count our users for this solution as it is a backup service.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate the technical support as eight or nine (out of 10). I would like them to improve their response rate.

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

This was our first product.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was neither simple nor complex; it was intermediate. It took four hours to set up/deploy. We implemented it into a very simple environment (Windows Server Backup).

What about the implementation team?

We deployed it ourselves.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI with Vembu. The solution is worth it based on the few times that we used it for recovery.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We tested three products. One of the other products that we evaluated was Altaro.

We chose Vembu because the compatibility was better.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend Vembu. We have been mostly satisfied with the solution. We plan to keep using it.

Overall, I would rate the product as a nine (out of 10).

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Thank you for your feedback, Forrest. Glad to hear that Vembu BDR Suite works well for your environment.

We regret the inconvenience you had with technical support. We have taken this feedback to our Head of Support. Time taken to resolve an issue may sometimes be influenced because of environment-specific issues or based on the priority/severity of the issue. We will make sure we deliver a better support experience with faster responses.

For any queries, please get in touch with our team through vembu-support@vembu.com.

PeerSpot user
IT Director at Premier Technical Services Group PLC
Real User
The Universal Explorer and in-transit compression are key features for us
Pros and Cons
  • "The most important features are the backup and the availability of the Universal Explorer. The in-transit compression is great."
  • "The deduplication could be better. It doesn't give the level of deduplication that I would get with a product that's stored in a more standard file format. I would prefer to be able to use a non-deduplicated store on a third-party deduplicated medium."

What is our primary use case?

We use it purely for Hyper-V backup. It's used to protect our entire server estate.

How has it helped my organization?

Our previous backup solution was cloud-based rather than being on-premise, and quite often our backups could lag three or four days behind. We are now looking at having a restore point as low as 30 minutes, where the backup has never been more than an hour behind the live solution.

We use it to back up Hyper-V, and the key benefit of that is purely one of data security and dependability.

What is most valuable?

The most important features are the backup and the availability of the Universal Explorer.

The in-transit compression is great.

What needs improvement?

The deduplication could be better. It doesn't give the level of deduplication that I would get with a product that's stored in a more standard file format. I would prefer to be able to use a non-deduplicated store on a third-party deduplicated medium. But as far as the compression and the general structure go, I have no problems with them at all.

Having some flexibility for the backup to be stored in a non-deduplicated fashion so that we could store it on more high-efficiency storage would be helpful; either that or improvement to the data deduplication. The amount of storage it requires for the backup store is excessive, compared to other solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is absolutely stable. We've had no issues. It's never missed a backup and we've had no issues with data stores, even when we had an issue with the hardware which one of the data stores was on. That was very quickly recoverable and we didn't miss a backup. We've not missed a backup since installing it a year-and-a-half ago.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're a very small business. We've only got two Hyper-V hosts that it's covering. I imagine the scalability is probably quite good, but I have no other comment on it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is fantastic. Responses are normally received within about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Where something has required escalation, it's been completed within a few hours. We've had very little contact with support, but where we've needed it the response has pretty much been a fix the first time.

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

We used Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, backing up to Azure cloud and we switched for two reasons: 

  1. Vembu is less expensive.
  2. It gave us more control as to where we keep that data.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was absolutely straightforward. We had an issue, but that was caused by a problem in our Hyper-V environment, rather than Vembu itself. That was dealt with within a couple of days by Vembu support.

The deployment took about three days. It was really fast.

In terms of our implementation strategy, we were moving from Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager to Vembu. We are quite a small business so we only have two Hyper-V hosts to configure. The strategy was to install, test, and then remove the Microsoft product. It was a very straightforward plan, a very straightforward strategy. And the aim in doing so was to enable a more rapid recovery time.

What about the implementation team?

We did most of the work ourselves. We didn't use a reseller at all, it was so easy to deploy.

What was our ROI?

It's only saving us about £2,000 to £3,000 a year. But in our IT, that is a help. Our IT budget is only about £250,000 a year so it's saving us one to two percent of our IT budget.

Regarding return on investment, the value of a backup system comes up when you actually need to restore it, so up until the point of restoration a backup system is purely a cost on your P&L, rather than being of any asset value. We've not had the requirement to restore, so the only cost-benefit we've had is in the cost savings over our previous solution.

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

The pricing and licensing structure are spot on. I don't think there's anything out there in the market that does either the licensing structure or the pricing structure better.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Veeam but we selected Vembu because the feature set was what we needed. We didn't need to use Veeam's full recovery, full replication suite. Because of that, our costs are about a quarter of what they would have been with Veeam.

What other advice do I have?

Go ahead and give it a try. It's worth the evaluation and certainly, with the restore options and the Universal Explorer option, it's competitive with things like Trilead and Veeam in terms of backup. Personally, I don't think it's as good as Veeam if you are looking at replication and high-availability but, other than that, for straight backup, I don't think there's anything in the market that's better.

There are only six of us in our IT department who use it. Nobody else has any real comments on it. It's something that sits there and does its job, and does it well. In terms of deployment and maintenance, two of us are responsible for ensuring the backup is operational and maintained.

It's used to protect our entire server estate. It's not a very big server estate, but it is the entire estate. There are no plans to extend its usage. There's nothing to extend it to.

I would give Vembu a ten out of ten. I've evaluated other products. I don't think anybody else has any advantage, certainly in terms of backup, over what Vembu provides. If I were to mark it down to a nine, it would just be for the lack of flexibility on the backup storage option.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your review and we appreciate the good words about us.

Although our forte is Backup, we are working on major use cases involving Replication and High Availability. That would ideally make us as good as Veeam in upcoming releases.

Further, Vembu uses variable length block-level deduplication method and the process takes place at backup job level. The dedupe ratio depends on factors like the RAM size of the backup server. In case, you would like to achieve higher deduplication ratio you can attach deduplication storage appliance as your backup server repository.

Kindly get in touch with us through vembu-support@vembu.com for further updates or queries.

Director of Technology at a wholesaler/distributor with 201-500 employees
Real User
We use it to maintain critical data and save it. The licensing has us managing both an on-premise and cloud console.
Pros and Cons
  • "We use it to maintain critical data and save it."
  • "It suits our needs, is versatile, and the functionality is there."
  • "I would like to have a different set of products instead of having a single software which does everything."
  • "It is not a well-known software. People do not know about Vembu."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for backup and replication. 

How has it helped my organization?

We use it to maintain critical data and save it. It suits our needs, is versatile, and the functionality is there.

What is most valuable?

  • It is easy to use.
  • It is simple to deploy and maintain.

What needs improvement?

Vembu is presented more like a multi-platform tool, where you have paper features, VMware, and Hyper-V. I would like to have a different set of products instead of having a single software which does everything. This could be beneficial. 

Nowadays, I don't know of a lot of people who are using tapes anymore. If you are using tapes, you don't do backup to the cloud, for instance. Therefore, maybe have a legacy version, then a cloud plus application version.

It is not a well-known software. People do not know about Vembu.

This is not a high-end product.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were only two issues, which were minor, and the support was very fast. This is probably the top reason why we chose Vembu. They have a very good support team who are responsive. I like the way they handle their clients compared to big vendors on the market, like Veritas, formerly Symantec.

The two issues were fixed in a relatively short time. One was fixed within the same day, and the other one was fixed within  a couple days. These are the only two issues that we had for the whole year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't had a chance to experience scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give tech support a score of nine out of ten, which is almost perfect for me.

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

We were relying on Microsoft Backups, which are just basic backups. We were trying to find something simple to use and easy to deploy, and that is why did proof of concept with three different products. The short list came down to Vembu. 

Currently, we are using mass technology, so we store from mass seamlessly. Then, we use the replication feature from VMware to remote that. So, we do double backup. Local backup and remote backup plus replication, which is very accessory resilient.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty simple. The backup solution was running within two to three hours. We were maybe missing some technical help during the installation, but there were a couple of technicians who helped me during the setup and finalizing it. 

Overall, the setup is straightforward. When you choose the VM options, it is even faster.

What was our ROI?

We consolidated our infrastructure. We went from about 40 to 15 servers.

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

The licencing and pricing are good; it's a no-brainer. It is affordable. It has value with respect to the features included in the software.

There is a drawback in the whole approach about how the licenses are managed. There are two consoles: cloud and on-premise. It seems that on a daily basis we have to manage both consoles, which isn't user-friendly. Ideally, it should be either a single on-premise console or only a cloud console. A single platform approach is the better solution. For now, with full licensing, you have to manage your instances on the Vembu Portal, then reassign licenses, and go back to your on-premise management console to do the real management. It is a bit awkward.

I do remember that the pricing was based on a VMware or Hyper-V license, whereas on our end, it should be regarded as a VM-based license. I don't know why they make a difference at the Vembu level. We are currently on VMware migrating to Hyper-V, and we didn't want to buy licenses for VMware, but still have to buy them for Hyper-V. This the only thing which does not seem fully adequate. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We previously used Microsoft Backup, which is not reliable.

I have a lot of experience with Symantec Backup solutions, now Veritas. Compared to Veritas, Vembu is more corporate-oriented and the support is better on Vembu's side rather than Veritas.

We also tested Naviko, Veeam, and Unitrends.

What other advice do I have?

Go ahead and use it.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
BhavaniShanmugam - PeerSpot reviewer
BhavaniShanmugamProduct Analyst at Vembu Technologies
Vendor

Hi Hasni,
Thank you for your feedback. About the Tape & Cloud backups, we’ve made a similar decision in v3.9.1 by introducing multiple editions. You will now find features (like Tape and Cloud) distributed across editions so that it’s easier for customers to purchase only what’s needed. And regarding the licenses, Hyper-V is widely used by small businesses. In an effort to make VM backup affordable for them, we’ve designed separate licenses and have priced Hyper-V license less than that of VMware. Further, if you have any queries you can always reach us through vembu-support@vembu.com

Buyer's Guide
Download our free BDRSuite Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free BDRSuite Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.