Dell Avamar vs. Macrium Reflect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Macrium Reflect
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Macrium Reflect is an endpoint and server backup and cloning solution from Macrium Software (aka Paramount Software UK), available in personal and professional editions.N/A
Pricing
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Considered Both Products
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 …
Macrium Reflect
Chose Macrium Reflect
I am with Macrium Reflect for many years and even don’t remember what I prior to this program.
Chose Macrium Reflect
Previously, I used Acronis as my company purchased licensing for years. It's great, but I found Macrium Reflect more straightforward, and the free version has been perfect for personal use.
Chose Macrium Reflect
Veeam offers Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, a product we also install and use. It compares favorably with Macrium Reflect; however, for small firms and individual wanting an added cloud backup of their full hard drive, Macrium wins out in requiring less cloud storage space …
Chose Macrium Reflect
We used IBM and Freesync, but all other software had file differences. Architecture kind of backups take a long time for our 10tb storage. We compared times and it's x5 faster because Macrium is a block-based backup system instead of file comparison, and won't affect …
Features
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Dell Avamar
7.8
Ratings
9% below category average
Macrium Reflect
8.6
Ratings
3% above category average
Universal recovery8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant recovery8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Recovery verification9.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Business application protection8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Incremental backup identification9.40 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Backup to the cloud3.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression8.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Snapshots8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Flexible deployment7.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Management dashboard8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform support4.70 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Retention options8.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Encryption8.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Enterprise Backup
Comparison of Enterprise Backup features of Product A and Product B
Dell Avamar
-
Ratings
Macrium Reflect
8.8
Ratings
7% above category average
Continuous data protection00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Replication00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Multi-location capabilities00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Ransomware Recovery00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
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
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell AvamarMacrium Reflect
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Macrium Reflect is one of the best partition backup applications available in the market. It can also clone drives in addition to making images of partitions and has a very useful feature of creating a bootable recovery drive for restoring partition(s) in case the OS is not booting. There are also different products for varying needs of the end user- Macrium Reflect Server, Workstation, etc. I have restored my system without any errors many times with Macrium.
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Pros
  • 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.
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  • Macrium Reflect ist easily manageable.
  • Macrium Reflect backs up fast.
  • Macrium Reflect accurately handles scheduled backups.
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Cons
  • 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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  • I can't think of anything which needs improvement at the moment.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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No answers on this topic
Usability
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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There is a small learning curve in the beginning, but altogether a great tool for my purpose.
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Support Rating
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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We have not been opening tickets for support from Macrium at the moment, only for licencing issues, but good attention and fast response by the support team. They respond pretty fast to our emails and fixed our issues giving us a good explanation of our case without any complications. Due to the good functionality of the software we have not opened a ticket for support in years.
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Alternatives Considered
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
Veeam offers Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, a product we also install and use. It compares favorably with Macrium Reflect; however, for small firms and individual wanting an added cloud backup of their full hard drive, Macrium wins out in requiring less cloud storage space by a significant margin. ShadowProtect is a rock solid competitor with a higher price and no free version. It is highly dependable, but more complicated to install and set up. The number of technical issues and quality of technical support have ruled out Acronis products. MSP360 Backup has impressive technology, but we encountered issues with restore times and full drive image restores.
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Return on Investment
  • 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
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  • Improved our time on backups
  • More secure backups of our databases
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ScreenShots