Synology Active Backup Suite vs. Dell Avamar

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Synology Active Backup Suite
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Synology Active Backup Suite is software that allows users to consolidate backup tasks for physical servers, file shares, virtual machines, and SaaS applications. It also allows users to replicate and archive data to remote servers or public cloud and can rapidly restore files, entire machines, or VMs. Active Backup Suite is license-free and available on compatible Synology NAS models. Data Backup Integrated backup solution for personal computers, physical…N/A
Dell Avamar
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
Dell Avamar is a hardware and software data backup and deduplication product. It provides protection and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution when paired with Dell Data Domain for virtual environments, remote offices, enterprise apps, NAS servers, and desktops/laptops.N/A
Pricing
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Considered Both Products
Synology Active Backup Suite
Chose Synology Active Backup Suite
Synology Active Backup Suite is more user friendly than TrueNas and setting up all the environment for a Raspberry Pi system, its plug and play makes all the setup less complicated and the configuration more manageable. While TrueNas is a great enterprise solution with a great …
Chose Synology Active Backup Suite
Synology is a great and simple solution to backup physical or virtual infrastructure, it does what it provides very well.
Chose Synology Active Backup Suite
Centralized system for multiples systems
Dell Avamar
Chose Dell Avamar
Avamar has a light and simple management interface. Backup operations can be configured easliy. Job tracking is detailed and descriptive. Platform-independent working flexibility is a big advantage.
Chose Dell Avamar
I would say that Dell EMC Avamar is really nice for an on-premise proposal, so it's hard to compare against another tool.
Chose Dell Avamar
We had an agreement with Dell so we got a good deal on the IDPA appliance. Unfortunately we didn't review other solutions, which was a horrible mistake.
Chose Dell Avamar
The upside to Avamar versus Veeam is that Avamar has a machine tied to the software. Veeam is good software but it is only as good as the back-end storage.
Chose Dell Avamar
EMC Avamar is always incremental and deduplication rate is higher for variable block-level deduplication, restoration is faster as compared to other tools, backups cannot be accidentally deleted as there is an option for retiring the backups, retention is straightforward. EMC …
Chose Dell Avamar
Avamar has simplied the back up approach in their VE edition and is much easier to use than Data Protector. Backing up multiple VMs takes minutes instead of hours now. Creating policies, retentions, and schedules, is vastly improved and much easier.
Chose Dell Avamar
EMC Avamar offers backup and recovery for desktops and laptops, allowing users to extend the power of Avamar "deduplication" backup software with the aim of eliminating the risk of data loss. Backup processes are performed automatically and in the background to ensure …
Chose Dell Avamar
Each one of these products did one thing well. Avamar was able to backup all of the different OS types and different types of data. Also, the reliability and support of Avamar are so much better.
Chose Dell Avamar
I personally would put Dell EMC Avamar at the top of the list for backup/restore data protection. Given the size of the deployment and the technical expertise of the engineers the implementation was flawless and timely. We vetted other companies backup solutions against Dell …
Chose Dell Avamar
Unfortunately, Avamar has stayed behind solutions like Solarwinds Backup and Datto in many different things, like the management of the applications being only desktop, the old fashion interfaces and configurations and specially the fact that it doesn't work as a business …
Chose Dell Avamar
I have evaluated ComVault, Cohiesity, and Rubrik. All three were better choices based on:
  • VMWare support: Live mounts, instant recovery, and file-based recovery from VM snapshots
Chose Dell Avamar
Avamar was already implemented in the organization when I started so I am unfamiliar what other solutions were evaluated.
Chose Dell Avamar
Reliability. Avamar is hands down more reliable than any other backup solution I have used.
Chose Dell Avamar
Avamar was selected for me to use by our corporate office. The user interface of Backup Exec was easier to use, but as far as reliability, Avamar was much better. I always had failures with Backup Exec backups and restores. That is one thing I never had to worry about with …
Chose Dell Avamar
BackupExec and NetBackup both would choke on data that was being replicated by
DFSR. I needed a product that could handle that data, as well as do client side deduplication and compression.
Chose Dell Avamar
Avamar is just overall easier to use and seems to be more versatile. And user-friendly is key when training new team members here at the organization.
Chose Dell Avamar
Originally, we evaluated CommVault with Avamar and due to some differences at the time we decided to go with Avamar. Some of those reasons against CommVault no longer exist, but we have been satisfied with Avamar. Other more current products have been reviewed such as Rubrik …
Chose Dell Avamar
We were considering going with the newer version of the tape backup method we have been using for years. However tapes deteriorate and off site storage adds up. Backups are slow, recovery from incremental backups is slow and unreliable.

FireEye backup to the cloud was cost …
Chose Dell Avamar
We had different backup system before. We used 2 different ones the last 2 years but we ended up with Avamar. Since then we never really change our backup system because we got the result we wanted from Avamar.
Chose Dell Avamar
I started with Avamar as a tape backup replacement. I had drives at each location and a tape robot at the central data center. Moving to disk backup with no tape switch out was incredible. With tech today, almost all backup is disk backup. Avamar's quality hardware and …
Features
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Synology Active Backup Suite
7.8
Ratings
6% below category average
Dell Avamar
7.8
Ratings
8% below category average
Universal recovery6.00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Instant recovery5.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Recovery verification10.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Incremental backup identification10.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression10.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Flexible deployment5.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Management dashboard10.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Platform support8.00 Ratings4.70 Ratings
Retention options6.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Encryption8.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Business application protection00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Backup to the cloud00 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Snapshots00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Enterprise Backup
Comparison of Enterprise Backup features of Product A and Product B
Synology Active Backup Suite
7.6
Ratings
7% below category average
Dell Avamar
-
Ratings
Continuous data protection8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Replication8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Operational reporting and analytics7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-location capabilities9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ransomware Recovery6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Small Businesses
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.9 out of 10
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Synology Active Backup SuiteDell Avamar
Likelihood to Recommend
1 - Great as a backup device, as part of an overall backup strategy. 2 - Really good for small businesses as it's a very capable box and can be a DHCP server, VPN server, File Server and more.
Read full review
It's well suited when you are looking for something to keep your on-premise environment safe and you don't want to spend a lot of time doing the setup. It's easy to scale and a very reliable solution. I think it is not a really nice solution in terms of pricing, so the challenge here is to check if the value [is] worth it.
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Pros
  • intuitive UI for both managing backups and restore jobs.
  • Compression and deduplication, to reduce to storage needs and costs.
  • Easy to install and setup backup agent on windows, linux and of course synology
Read full review
  • New and improved interface no longer requires separate program to run on a management server.
  • The avamar interacts with the data domain device to allow for cloud storage.
  • The Avamar AVE footprint is much easier to install and use, given the new GUI.
Read full review
Cons
  • Can't think of any currently.
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  • The technology is stagnant. It's had the same basic interface and feature set over all of the years we used it.
  • A clunky java based management GUI.
  • It only supports RedHat for the management console under Linux.
  • Meta-data continues to grow even when backup sets do not cause nodes to fill, requiring professional services to clean it up.
  • Fork-lift upgrades.
  • It requires a lot of care and feeding with a lot of time on the phone with support.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
I have been using the product for over five years. This has performed so well that with the current system reaching its End-of-Life with EMC next year, I have proposed replacing it with the latest version of the product. Now that it integrates with Data Domain, the cost has been greatly reduced. Instead of the need to purchase many nodes, one Data Domain can replace them creating a significant cost savings.
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Usability
Synology Active Backup Suite is easy to use, has great documentation, has video tutorials for a fast integration, it integrates well with Mac OS and Windows. You can have two different NAS machines backing up each other and keeping duplications in separate physical places and with no outside access, just login in from each other.
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The system overall is easy to monitor and see your backup/restore status. The user interface could use updating as it relies on Java and any updates to Java cause the interface to stop working need to be reinstalled
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Support is very convincing, always eager to solve issues from the root rather than workaround, don't hesitate to take webex, describe the issues to the core and recommend configuration to avoid further issues. We can ask few questions other than the main issue. They don't hesitate to answer.
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Alternatives Considered
Synology is
a great and simple solution to backup physical or virtual infrastructure, it
does what it provides very well.

It’s
lacking a lot of advanced features from the more established solutions on the
market such as Veeam but if budget is an issue you can’t beat the cost and an
all in one solution that can back up your on prem infrastructure and your
Microsoft 365 tenant as well.
Read full review
Unfortunately, Avamar has stayed behind solutions like Solarwinds Backup and Datto in many different things, like the management of the applications being only desktop, the old fashion interfaces and configurations and specially the fact that it doesn't work as a business continuity tool, which makes it mostly and out-dated application when you compare it with how the market is evolving.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • I was able to store more data for less money
  • I was able to keep more backup versions
  • I was abe to cut costs from cloud backup by keeping only the newest backup online instead of several versions
Read full review
  • Absolute Zero ROI
  • This appliance does not work in its current state and to update we need to wait 2-3 months
  • Can't wait to get rid of it and replace it with something else. (not even sure if we will be able to get it running before that)
  • [I think] this is one of the worst mistakes we made
Read full review
ScreenShots

Synology Active Backup Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Active Backup for Business PC interface