Dell Networker vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dell Networker
Score 5.7 out of 10
N/A
Dell NetWorker is an enterprise-level data protection software product that unifies and automates backup to tape, disk-based, and flash-based storage media across physical and virtual environments for granular and disaster recovery.N/A
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Nutanix in San Jose, California offers their software-defined Enterprise Cloud as a hyper-converged infrastructure solution. The Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure solution combines the Nutanix Acropolis virtualization solution, Nutanix AHV hypervisor (though Acropolis works with other hypervisors), Prism cluster manager, Nutanix Calm and Nutanix Flow server management, and is available on the Nutanix NX series of server hardware appliances, as well as third-party OEM appliances.N/A
Pricing
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Considered Both Products
Dell Networker
Chose Dell Networker
EMC and Unitrends are equal at the file level and SQL backups. What makes Unitrends the better product is the ability to backup VMs as a whole. They both have the ability to email reports about failures and hardware issues. Unitrends has superior support and knowledge base and …
Chose Dell Networker
Our trust in DataDomain as a premier deduplication technology naturally leads to [Dell EMC] Networker being the appropriate backup application to integrate with. Networker provides the most favorable dedup with DataDomain when compared to other backup technologies, and provides …
Chose Dell Networker
We've been actively looking at other products such as Rubrik or Cohesity in order to get a better experience as well as lower our overall time invested in running backups. Dell EMC Networker fails to stand up to these products in most ways. In our evaluations it was both …
Chose Dell Networker
I've used many DR platforms over the years: HP Data Protector, Veritas (formerly Symantec) Backup Exec, Acronis Backup Advanced, AppAssure (another Dell product), CommVault, and a few others. We selected Networker based on its integration with the Data Domain hardware we wanted …
Chose Dell Networker
Networker appears to be decent against NetBackup and Backup Exec as far as policy-based backup solutions are concerned and for stability. But it isn't as close to the virtualization layer as Veeam is and is not as feature rich as Commvault is, especially as it relates to …
Chose Dell Networker
Previously I have used MS DPM and Symantec Backup Exec. I think they all have similar strengths and drawbacks actually. In general, BE/DPN have slightly better interfaces and terminology but slightly worse backup and recovery reliability. I would recommend Networker over them …
Chose Dell Networker
NetWorker and CommVault are both rated in the top quadrant of Gartner's assessment of backup/recovery applications. We have used both for a number of years, and CommVault was the winner without any significant opposition technically from NetWorker. We moved from CommVault to …
Chose Dell Networker
Avamar is better but expensive
Veeam, most suited for VM backup, doesn't work too well with the rest of backups\applications
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Dell PowerEdge
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Storage - I no need to worry about buying separate products like in VMware LCM - Separate appliance in VMware GPU - Nightmare in updating these software's Planning - Need to have a separate license in ESXI vROPS; I can use cost analysis and capacity runaway in Nutanix 3-Tier - …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
The HPe solution we looked at was not as good, this was only introduced as one of the aquired companies used it and we. after we took over and looked under the hood, we felt that it was not a very ideal solution for use and that is what prompted use to abandon that infra and …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
vSAN on VXrail and a Cisco Flashstack was our two existing systems before bringing in a Nutanix cluster. The performance of Nutanix HCI was far better than vSAN's performance (hybrid vs. hybrid and AF vs. AF.) However, Pure does deliver on its claim of being the fastest storage …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
We've decided to go for both VxRail and Nutanix AOS to make sure we can get the best deals from both sides. I appreciate this may not be a path most companies can go down, but always good to have a bit of healthy competition between vendors to ensure you're getting the best …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Hyperconverged infrastructure
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Enterprise Cloud (EC) is made of three core components: Prism, Acropolis, and Calm. Prism is the management plane that provides a unified management interface that generates actionable insights for optimizing virtualization, infrastructure management, and everyday operations. …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
The only other hyper-converged I have used is Rubrik so my comparison here won't be very good I am afraid.

The two products seem comparable in terms of them just being a service in a box but of course one of them is a very good backup solution and the other is a very good …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Simply put Nutanix AOS is in another class. It is so much better, faster, easier to use, train, etc. I would recommend Nutanix every time.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
I've been a big Nimble fan and would consider it if I was deploying in a green field site (it always comes down to price of course).
Nutanix are an existing supplier so for now it makes the choice easier.
We did look at VxRail but again for the VDI solution Nutanix won out.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Unlimited VM without extra licensing. The AOS is based on KVM.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
We used UCS before, which is a little complicated to setup. There are multiple devices need to connect together (for example two FIs and main process chassis needs to cross-connected first), and there is no storage built-in. But once all setup and configured, it is good. The …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
VxRail would have incurred extra costs that were not apparent in the original presentations from suppliers.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
We really haven't done much with the other modules. Our organization is small enough that implementing most of them would have been overkill and rarely utilized. It doesn't mean we never will, but it wasn't a need as we stand today. With our next refresh, I would like to look …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
We made benchmarks and evaluated other storage solutions. But the HCI component and the integration from storage, computer, virtualization are what mostly made the choice clear for us.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix is not as a mature product but the ability to automate through using their API is one of the strongest reasons for choosing this platform. Automation helps remove human error and this leads to more time for deployment teams to spend on other activities. Their feature …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix is the most user-friendly with rich web UI and features. Nutanix is the easiest to do upgrades and updates with.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix AOS provides simplified, stable, fast deployment, security, and easy operations.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix AOS is a hands-down much better thought-out and more robust solution than vSAN.
Better priced than SimpliVity.
Simpler HCI solution than Pure.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Other HCI products used or evaluated have been Acuity, HC3, Hyperflex, Maxta, Overt, Proxmox, Simplivity, Symphony, VXRack. Nutanix was really first to market and has had many first features available in their product, familiarity with the product, and our organization's track …
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
They're on par with each other but it seems like management prefers Nutanix.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
We were looking at Simplivity before they were bought out by HP. We liked Nutanix because of the included hypervisor and file services - we were paying way too much for VMware licensing to continue using it.
Chose Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Other vendors were proposing big solutions involving switches/SAN/servers. We want to reduce our hardware footprint.
Features
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Dell Networker
5.0
Ratings
52% below category average
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
-
Ratings
Universal recovery5.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant recovery6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Recovery verification6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Business application protection4.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations3.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Incremental backup identification4.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Backup to the cloud5.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Snapshots6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Flexible deployment2.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Management dashboard4.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform support3.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Retention options4.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Encryption7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Small Businesses
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.9 out of 10
StarWind HCA
StarWind HCA
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
StarWind HCA
StarWind HCA
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.2 out of 10
VMware vSAN
VMware vSAN
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Likelihood to Recommend
7.1
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Usability
3.0
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.2
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
5.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
5.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell NetworkerNutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Likelihood to Recommend
For users with a basic backup system that does not provide advanced data protection this is a life saver in the age we live in where hackers are looking to encrypt and ruin your important backups. I would recommend [Dell EMC Networker] based on its features, price, and ease of use. If you have a similar product already it does not offer many unique features however.
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For an organization that requires top-notch performance HCI, Nutanix is the best. You may start with 3 nodes and expand the cluster as required. The management through Nutanix Prism Central and Element was so easy that even a Junior Engineer was able to handle it. The Nutanix platform is not suitable for organizations with a small budget and fewer requirements for high-performance infrastructure, as the Nutanix solution itself is suited for enterprises.
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Pros
  • Networker has a UI and set that is relatively easy to use. It has a policy-based backup system that is straightforward as far as configuration.
  • Networker has fairly robust reporting on current save sets and easily exportable pdfs and spreadsheets of statistics and metrics
  • Networker has a monitoring dialogue which allows you to find out quickly what has succeeded or failed.
Read full review
  • "Nutanix is an operating system playing inside an existing, rich IT ecosystem." Listen to Wendy M. Pfeiffer, CIO of Nutanix, as she shares game-changing results with the implementation of infrastructure-as-code.
  • With one-click simplicity, Nutanix AOS streamlines IT operations and relieves budget pressures by integrating storage, networking, and compute services into a single solution managed by IT generalists. Start small and scale without limit to meet business demands.
  • Deliver applications with the highest possible performance throughout the full lifecycle, not just day one. Provide reliable performance SLAs without worrying about workload changes or growth in application demands.
Read full review
Cons
  • Networker terminology is awful. My favorite example is that many required-to-function configuration changes need to occur with the advanced configuration enabled. To make this worse, the 'advanced configuration' I am speaking of is actually called 'Debug Mode'. That's right, you must use debug mode in order to have a functional administrator interface.
  • Errors are common and to resolve you often must go to support. You really need to be an expert to fix many errors, the steps usually involve being really knowledgeable in the CLI tools, which I am getting good at, but the public documentation is seriously lacking for troubleshooting these issues. That said, support (through emc) is really good at handling the common issues, friendly, generally knowledgeable, and quick to respond.
  • It runs on Java, and sometimes I need to clear java cache to fix interface bugs. Generally this isn't an issue, but it is additional software you must worry about.
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  • Can be priced high at times.
  • The one downside I have working with Nutanix is the sales team. They seem to try to add in extra goodies to sales quotes or push for extras that you don't really need and you have to tell them to take them out. Don't be afraid to push back on them.
  • Need to analyze sizing with sales team to ensure right sizing.
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Likelihood to Renew
There are three reasons for not renewing our use of NetWorker: 1) the rising and extremely high cost of support and proprietary hardware needed for deduplication, 2) the complete unreliability of the product (we couldn't recover from a true disaster if we wanted to), and 3) the horrible support from EMC for the product
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AOS definitely make our dev/test virtual environment management much easier than before. And the consolidation the test/dev environment from Azure and Cisco UCS, we have less need to transfer large amount of data between different hardware platforms which was very big challenge. To expand the capacity is very easy to archive as well.
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Usability
NetWorker has the clunkiest interface and unfriendliest CLI with which I have ever had to work. I spent three years hating this application because it took ALL of my time just to keep it running. Even then, I had no confidence in our ability to recover from a disaster because of its unreliability.
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It's not out of the box easy, but once you get the fundamentals the steep learning curve flattens out and the processes to get things done and how it works becomes very apparent. It's wrapping the slight change in workflow from prior VM management methods took time to unbox and apply the Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure way
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
We have not had any Nutanix availability issues over the years.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Nutanix AOS performance is light years ahead of HPE. We were nervous about using Nutanix AHV but it has been a vast improvement and saves on cost. Applications has been much improved and end users have commented. It has also freed up time for our Network Administrators and made their lives easier.
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Support Rating
The support team has always been good, and there is never an issue that can't be resolved. The techs are competent and know the product. The slightly less than perfect rating I'm giving is because Support shouldn't carry the burden themselves. We hear from Dell sales people all the time, but they never call and ask about this product, nor do they offer to upsell it or make it better. That lack of sales support and coherence hurts the overall rating a bit. When I spend my company's money on your product, I expect you to at least ACT like you care, if not actually care for real. It influences my opinion and future purchasing habits.
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Nutanix provide top tier support - their only rival in this field in my experience is Rubrik. Their sales and the aftersales team really put the effort in to make the initial install an easy process to complete and support we've required post that has been expertly handled. Their support's first point of contact is the equivalent of 3rd line at other vendors and they're always more than willing to explain concepts to help us better understand the issue/solution provided.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
We requested more training than typical which was very in depth
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
A lot of online training courses, most of them are free.
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Implementation Rating
How can anyone build a house without a blueprint? NetWorker was ramrodded into place here without a design or implementation plan. The result was a setup that was doomed from the start and never worked reliable over the full three years of our contract obligation.
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IPv6 is needed for link local discovery. We do not have IPv6 configured on our network so the easiest way to get our nodes configured and discovered by foundation was to configure the IPv4 addressing within the node prior to trying to discover with foundation.
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Alternatives Considered
Our trust in DataDomain as a premier deduplication technology naturally leads to [Dell EMC] Networker being the appropriate backup application to integrate with. Networker provides the most favorable dedup with DataDomain when compared to other backup technologies, and provides the highest combination of protection flexibility and performance that most other applications cannot provide. For example, Veeam provides excellent VM backup capability, but is unable to protect Meditech. If you go down the list of backup applications, you'll find that Networker is unique in what it is able to protect and in its backup performance.
Read full review
vSAN on VXrail and a Cisco Flashstack was our two existing systems before bringing in a Nutanix cluster. The performance of Nutanix HCI was far better than vSAN's performance (hybrid vs. hybrid and AF vs. AF.) However, Pure does deliver on its claim of being the fastest storage possible, which is true. However, the flashstacks management and complex setup do not compare to the ease of using Nutanix HCI.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
Can add on new cluster and join it to existing cluster
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Return on Investment
  • Now that it's been implemented and the many kinks worked out, we have far less exposure to downtime, but that's only because we didn't have an adequate backup solution in the target environment initially. We used native tools to protect SQL data and a few other tricks, but really didn't have anything proper. In other words, the bar was low.
  • We have reduced the load on some of our application servers through the use of Networker's agent for Microsoft. However, compare that with Veeam, which just has a checkbox and no agent required to properly back up a SQL box.
  • Agent-based backups require monitoring and periodic updates. This adds complexity and additional staff time to manage.
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  • Found an immediate reclamation of time. SAN's are a pain to manage and update - Nutanix made turned a couple hours of work into one click.
  • They are a software company. Every Time they come out with an update I find my performance improving, or a new feature added. Soon I'll be able to give my developers controlled self-service capabilities. I originally bought hardware and it's evolving on me into a private cloud in a box.
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