Netbackup, Networker and CommVault Simpana

I works with a hosting company and we are using both Symantec Netbackup and EMC Networker in our company, I have been working with these backup products for almost 5 yrs.

We recently did a POC of CommVault Simpana, I am very much impressed with simpana.

Both Netbackup and Networker has it’s on advantages and disadvantages, Below are the con’s of these products which I am experiencing.

Con’s of EMC Networker

• Seems they lost their focus on Networker,still they don't have an agent for Exchange 2010 and Domino 8.x!!!!.
• Frequent changes in the licenses, no more Exchange server module and domino module, EMC says Exchange 2010 will be supported by NMM and domino by NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications. Still no response from licensing team for my queries on how I can convert my exiting Exchange and Lotus domino license.
• Poor reporting, advanced reporting(EBA) is expensive.
• De-duplication is so expensive.
• Customer support is very bad(Networker Support).

Con’s of Symantec Netbackup

• Message level backup in Exchange 2010 is possible but only via GRT.
• Poor reporting features, advanced reporting (Ops center Analytics)is expensive also so complex.
• Archiving required enterprise vault and it is very expensive.
• Backup selection is based on Policy not for each client level.
• Licenses are expensive, in active/passive cluster, the passive node also required a license, for ex: if you have an MSSQL active/passive cluster you need to buy 2 SQL agent licenses.

I am so happy with Netbackup other than above issues I am facing, being hosting company all above are so important for us probably it’s not for others.

Our POC was mainly focused on these areas..

1. Exchange Server Message Level Backup.
2. Tight integration with Cloud computing & VMs.
3. De-Duplication support.
4. Easy deployments of backup agents.
5. Backup over WAN link.
6. User friendliness.
7. Ability to Archive Mails, SPS Docs and File servers.
8. Legal holds & other governance policies is in backup.
9. Powerful reporting.

Simpana works awesome on above areas, some of the interesting features I have noticed:-

• MYSQL support, Networker and Netbackup doesn't support this yet.
• De-duplication is works very well, very good compressing mechanism.
• Exchange  Server Message level backup possible, Netbackup support this only via GRT which  required disk storage.
• Remote deployment of agent is so easy compared to others.
• Built in SRM(Storage Resource manager), this is great feature.
• VM monitoring and utilization reports along with Simpana.
• Built in Archiving solutions for Exchange, SPS & File systems.
• Possible to restore only File Permissions.
• Powerful reporting features, a variety of reports.
• Very user friendly backup and recovery GUI for OS and Applications, Oracle,SQL, SAP, Exchange, VMs, and SPS backup and recovery is so easy.

Con’s of CommVault Simpana

I am very happy with this product after the POC but still I cannot judge simpana, we decided to replace EMC Networker with Simpana probably I will be able to tell you more about it in 2 months time.