Our company integrates Commvault Cloud, a backup and recovery software solution, for customers. While Commvault Cloud itself resides in the cloud, each customer has the flexibility to choose their preferred cloud provider.

Commvault Cloud has been reliable for our customer's data backups – I haven't encountered any problems, and restorations have consistently been stable.

Commvault Cloud streamlines operations with its built-in scheduler, but we can also leverage external scheduling tools through its Bay REST API. This allows for comprehensive disaster recovery processes, including source and replication monitoring, for both backups to the cloud and failovers back from the cloud, ultimately optimizing our disaster recovery workflows.

Commvault Cloud cuts operational expenses by eliminating the need for on-premise software installations, and its integration with multiple cloud storage providers allows us to leverage the most cost-effective options for our backups.

Commvault Cloud's deduplication technology and compression capabilities solved our challenge of backing up massive data volumes by eliminating redundant data and significantly reducing storage requirements.

Commvault Cloud stands out for its ease of use and reliable backups, along with its ability to handle large data volumes for VMs, servers, and applications. It offers flexibility with disaster recovery features, efficient storage management, and strong compliance capabilities for governance.

Commvault Cloud currently lacks support for backing up Proxmox environments, which limits its functionality. This is an area where the software could be improved.

I have been using Commvault Cloud for three years.

I would rate the stability of Commvault Cloud ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Commvault Cloud nine out of ten.

While technical support offers a quick response time in English, French-language assistance comes with a wait due to limited availability.

The initial deployment of Commvault Cloud is straightforward. The cloud version is much easier than the on-prem one because Commvault has reduced the product to the primary use for end users.

Commvault Cloud deployment time varies depending on what you're backing up. Simple setups, like backing up Microsoft Mailbox or SharePoint, can be done in one to two hours, while more complex on-premises installations for VMs or servers might take half a day up to one day.

Two to three people are required for the deployments. This includes one person from the customer's IT department and an end user of the application.

We implement Commvault Cloud for our customers.

I would rate the price of Commvault Cloud seven out of ten with ten being the cheapest.

I would rate Commvault Cloud nine out of ten. Commvault Cloud is one of the best backup products I have used. When I install Commvault Cloud in a customer's organization, I never worry about it not working. It helps me sleep at night.

We handle Commvault Cloud maintenance for our customers, ensuring smooth operation. While issues are rare, we often assist customers with restoring data, as infrequent use can lead to forgetting the process. Additionally, we perform biannual agent upgrades to maintain optimal performance.

I recommend Commvault Cloud to others.

We use the deception piece of Commvault, not the backup solution.

We use deception decoys across our corporate networks and across our OT networks to emulate vulnerable systems so that if a threat actor were to get inside and start scanning the network, the hope is they would bump into one of these, and we would get the alert, and we would be able to react and know some of these inside. Most of what we deploy in terms of decoys have some level of vulnerabilities that threat actors would be interested in, such as an old version of an operating system.

Building and deploying a decoy is fairly straightforward. If there is any work involved, it is just tuning the noise in terms of what happens inside your network. Most people probably do not realize how many times they are scanning their own network internally, and that decoy is going to feel like it is getting scanned, but that scan is being done by a dedicated device that you want to scan. You then build your exception rules in to not trigger on that and trigger on other devices when it is scanning. We have built the alerts back into our automation platform, so if we get alerts, our automation platform will do some runbook evaluation that is automated and then hand it off to an analyst if they think it is a real event.

They do a good job of building the decoys and deploying them, and then giving you good insights. When something happens, you can look at how the decoy was connected or attached to a scan and figure out if that is a real threat or not.

I like the coverage. We have 250 locations across the US, and we deploy decoys across every one of those networks.

We saw its benefits immediately. The first time we got it and deployed it into one of our operating plant environments, the plant engineer noticed right away that there was a foreign device on his network that he did not really realize was out there. It was a support vendor coming in, and that vendor was scanning parts of his network that he did not realize. They were not necessarily doing it maliciously, but it gave him great insight, so he was sold on the product right away as we were. Shortly after implementation, we did our regular PAN and Red Team testing. I can say with 100% confidence that every time we do one of those, those teams come in and they tip over one of the decoys, and we see them fairly quickly.

The decoy side protects my data because I get early insight into if there is a threat actor in my environment and it is moving laterally because they typically will hit one of these decoys, so it gives me quick access. If a ransomware threat actor was in my environment, they would be moving laterally trying to get to a vulnerable system, so before they ever get to the point of deploying the ransomware payload, they are going to hit a decoy. I am going to get early insight, and hopefully, I can get them out of there.

In terms of its effect on the total cost of ownership (TCO), as with almost any security product, we are mitigating risk and protecting revenue. The total cost of ownership is an overhead when it comes to security. You want to spend as much as you think is necessary to mitigate high-risk areas. Otherwise, it is just money out the door. You are protecting revenue, but I would not put a TCO on it.

It has helped our organization reduce or avoid downtime a great deal. It has avoided a potential downtime because the decoy typically gets the threat actor. My threat actors are PAN Test and Red Team people. They are identified before they can get too far and cause a scenario where I have downtime because of whatever they are doing in the environment.

The expanse of the decoys that they have is valuable. They cover everything on the corporate side that you would think of, such as Windows, Linux, and even applications like SAP. They also go into the OT environment and emulate OT devices as well.

If I were to ask them to work on something, it would be the fidelity of the alerts that occur. They should tell me if it is a real event or not. It is easy for it to identify that something hit it but give me more information. They can build AI into the engine so that I get better output from an alert to tell me if I should really be interested in that or not.

We bought TrapX before Commvault acquired them, so we have been a customer of the deception technology, and a specific one, for over seven years.

It is very stable. We do not have a problem with availability or uptime on the product.

It is very scalable. We started with hundreds, and now, we have got thousands of decoys. The only thing that you have to be careful about is the more decoys, the more alerts. Can you handle them, tune them, and get them cleaned up so that you are effectively looking at real alerts when they come in?

I am the CISO here. I do not contact them, but my team certainly has used their support organization before.

We have not used any other solution. We have been a TrapX customer from early on when they were just coming out.

It was originally on-premises. They have since come out with the cloud version, and we are migrating to it right now. It should be done by the fifteenth of March, which will make it a lot easier because before, I had to buy hardware and deploy assets across my environment. Having a cloud solution is a much better model for me.

The deployment for the cloud one has been good so far. It has been going fairly well. We are on-prem, and we are moving to the cloud. I do not know if it would be different if I was deploying the cloud only and I had never deployed it before. I would imagine it would be easier than what I did in the past with on-premise equipment. I was building servers and VMs and allocating those types of resources to run this environment.

When we started, we did get help. We had professional services included. They were early to the market, so it kind of made sense. For this deployment in the cloud, we are just doing it ourselves.

I have one person doing the migration, and that one person does other things too. The lab time is going to be about 15 days, but he is not working a hundred percent on that. He has got other responsibilities. It is not difficult.

All the time, we have only had one engineer dedicated to this platform. Our SOC uses the output, but the person who manages it day to day takes upgrades, performs the upgrades, and does those types of things. There is just one person, and that is a part-time person, not a full-time person.

The maintenance is largely around what decoys you have deployed and the tuning of those decoys. Some of the maintenance is just internal processes, such as when the decoy gets tipped over, what exactly did that? Did somebody start up a new engine or a new scan internally that we did not know about? We have to manage that change process to make sure that we put an exception on the decoy so that it does not get alerted when it is not necessary.

Originally, it was really attractive when we were deployed on-prem. They have since built and moved it to the cloud, which I am a big fan of. I have all my security tools in the cloud, but it came with a significant increase in pricing. We ended up negotiating a better price because we have been a long-term customer, and I have also spoken on their behalf quite a few times, but if I have to buy it at its current rate, I am not sure if I would be a customer. It is expensive.

We did look at a couple, but I cannot say what they were because it was a while ago.

To those evaluating this solution, I would advise looking at the maturity of their security organization. Do they have a SOC and are they going to be able to address the alerts that they are going to get on the decoys? If it is just more noise on top of the noise they are already dealing with, they probably should not put this type of technology in until they clean up their environment and have a good handle on the alerts they are getting. That is because you cannot put it in and ignore it. It is a decoy. Something is hitting it, and that something might be real, and you need to take action on it.

I would recommend Commvault to others. They have been an easy organization to work with. They have good technical support, and I still like their technology.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Commvault's primary use case centers around comprehensive data management and protection, particularly in cloud environments. Organizations leverage Commvault for its robust capabilities in backup and recovery, safeguarding data across both on-premises and cloud-based infrastructures.

The solution excels in facilitating the efficient management of data in hybrid and multi-cloud setups, enabling seamless movement, copying, and overall control of information stored on platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Commvault plays a pivotal role in disaster recovery planning, ensuring swift data retrieval and business continuity in the face of unexpected events.

Additionally, the platform often extends its functionality to include archiving solutions, aiding organizations in meeting compliance requirements and optimizing long-term data storage. With a focus on security and compliance, Commvault provides features to protect data and align with regulatory standards.

Moreover, it may contribute to cloud cost optimization by offering insights into data usage and implementing strategies for cost-effective storage. It's essential to consult the latest documentation or contact Commvault directly for the most current information on their cloud solutions as of 2024.

Commvault Cloud has proven instrumental in enhancing organizational operations through its robust data management and protection features. By providing efficient backup and recovery solutions, it ensures the safeguarding of critical data, reducing the risk of data loss due to various unforeseen events.

The platform's adept handling of hybrid and multi-cloud environments enables organizations to streamline data management across diverse infrastructures, optimizing resources and harnessing the benefits of various cloud platforms seamlessly.

Commvault Cloud's disaster recovery capabilities contribute significantly to minimizing downtime, facilitating quick system and data restoration in the face of disruptions. Moreover, the solution aids in implementing effective data archiving strategies, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and reducing the likelihood of compliance-related issues.

The integration of enhanced security measures further fortifies data protection, mitigating risks associated with unauthorized access or breaches. Commvault Cloud's potential to optimize cloud costs by providing insights into data usage and recommending cost-effective storage strategies contributes to overall operational efficiency.

While the success of implementation hinges on factors such as planning and training, ongoing assessments and communication with Commvault support are crucial for addressing any challenges and ensuring continued alignment with organizational needs.

Commvault Cloud offers a suite of features, each contributing distinct value to organizations based on their unique needs.

The backbone of its utility lies in robust backup and recovery capabilities, ensuring data resilience and swift recovery in the face of unforeseen events. The ability to seamlessly manage data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments stands out as a pivotal feature, allowing for flexibility, resource optimization, and scalability as organizations navigate diverse cloud infrastructures.

Disaster Recovery features further enhance business continuity by minimizing downtime and facilitating rapid system and data restoration. The effectiveness of Commvault Cloud extends to archiving and compliance functionalities, crucial for industries with stringent regulatory requirements, mitigating the risk of compliance-related issues.

Security measures, including encryption and threat detection, contribute significantly to data protection, safeguarding against unauthorized access and cyber threats. Additionally, the platform's Cloud Cost Optimization features provide insights into data usage, aiding in the implementation of cost-effective storage strategies and contributing to overall operational efficiency.

The value of these features ultimately depends on an organization's specific goals, industry context, and IT infrastructure, emphasizing the need for regular assessments to ensure ongoing alignment with evolving business requirements.

Commvault Cloud, while offering a robust suite of features, could potentially benefit from improvements in certain areas. One area for consideration is user interface and user experience enhancements, aiming to streamline navigation and make the platform more intuitive for users with varying levels of technical expertise.

Improved documentation and user training resources could also contribute to a smoother onboarding process and more effective utilization of the platform's capabilities. Additionally, ongoing efforts to optimize resource utilization and minimize any potential impact on system performance would be valuable. As for potential features in the next release, integration with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence for more intelligent data management and analytics could provide valuable insights for organizations.

Enhanced automation capabilities, including more sophisticated policy-driven automation for data workflows, could further streamline processes and reduce manual intervention. Integration with additional cloud services and platforms, keeping pace with the evolving cloud landscape, would broaden the platform's compatibility and usefulness.

Lastly, advanced security features, including continuous monitoring, threat intelligence integration, and proactive threat response capabilities, would fortify the product's defense against evolving cyber threats.

Regular feedback mechanisms from users and staying attuned to industry trends would help guide the development of features that align closely with the evolving needs of organizations in the dynamic landscape of data management and cloud services.

I've been using this solution for two years.

We are using it for large data center backups, remote office backups, and cloud backups and restorations across all our environments.

We have implemented Threat Scan, and we have had several catches with it. The activity was not malicious, but it did allow us to know that somebody would do something.

It provides us with whatever we define. We have used some of their other tools in the past to tell us how old our data is and the things that we should be able to archive. It gives us a clear picture of our data when we need it.

Commvault has a platform that offers recovery across cloud, on-prem, and SaaS workloads. For it to have all those features is very important because it completely supports our environment.

We are very satisfied with how it protects our data from the endpoint and to its final resting destination, whatever that may be. It could be local storage. It could be cloud storage. We are very satisfied with what it does for us.

There are some features that have significantly reduced our RTOs. It has helped reduce RPOs too. The reduction in RTOs and RPOs has been wonderful.

Commvault has helped our organization reduce its threat detection time. It has helped us identify some possibilities of threats. We have a full scope of different tools for threats across our enterprise, but it has helped isolate a possible threat.

Commvault has helped our organization reduce or avoid downtime. There were several cases where we were able to have a short downtime as compared to having a multi-hour downtime. It could turn a multi-hour downtime into less than 15 minutes.

The VM backups and the recovery from cloud infrastructure are valuable.

It is very easy to use for administrators for monitoring, analyzing, and managing our organization’s data environment. The instructions are pretty straightforward. It is very easy to monitor.

They can improve the VMware recovery and VMware backup. There is an improvement area on the VMware infrastructure. They can make available what they call a VSA proxy. They can have an appliance-type setup to deploy VSA backups and help recover quicker. They can have an appliance ready. Instead of having to have a server dedicated to that and installing software on a server, they can just provide an actual appliance for that.

Personally, I have been using it for over 15 years.

I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of stability. We have had a few incidents over the years due to certain revisions of the software. We were hit by some of the known bugs, so we had to go back and patch.

It can probably improve on scalability. We have the typical Windows Server deployment. There can be easier automation when deploying new clients and agents.

I love their tech support. As compared to other products we have used, Commvault's tech support is 100% one of the best. They let you know everything, and there is no mystery. They let you know what is happening in the background. I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

In the past, we have had an IBM solution. We have also used Micro Focus Data Protector. I personally also used NetBackup. It was called something else earlier, but it is NetBackup now.

Our deployment model is hybrid. We have a small cloud, but it is largely on-prem. I have been involved in its deployment multiple times in both scenarios. It is straightforward.

In terms of maintenance, it requires standard patching updates or application updates. It does require that periodically.

We do it all in-house. We have a team for deployment. For deployments, we have four people. We also have a dedicated recovery team due to the size of our organization.

It has helped us with our total cost of ownership with some of the newest features such as live recovery. It has caused our RTOs and RTOs to drop, so it has helped with our total cost of ownership.

It is a little too high. I would like to get more of a consumption model or more of a periodic true-up type of model that is more friendly to the ups and downs that you may have in your data instead of locking into multi-year agreements.

To those evaluating this solution, I would advise understanding the infrastructure that is needed to support the product. Understand what you need and dig into the details of what you have to purchase. That would be my recommendation.

We have not enabled Commvault’s automated policies. We have also not utilized the risk analysis tool.

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Backup and recovery is our primary use case, but we use it to back up all our laptops and help with our computer switch-out process. When somebody receives a new computer, we use Commvault to migrate their data from their old computer to their new one which has eliminated one of the most time-consuming pieces of that process.

We also use Commvault Activate for e-discovery and to help with lawsuits and claims at the end of our projects. It helps provide our outside counsel with the data they need.

We are able to sleep at night knowing that all of our data is protected and we can recover it very quickly. Instead of trying to do a recovery and hoping things are going to work, I'm fairly confident that within just a couple of minutes, we can have any of our machines restored wherever we need it.

We used to have daily RPOs on almost everything, but Commvault has given us the flexibility to create RPOs daily, every four hours, hourly, etc. For the most part, any request a data owner may have for their system, we can accommodate without difficult changes to our overall data protection strategy.

As for RTO, doing recoveries with Commvault for our virtual machines means we can have them running in under five minutes in most cases. Previously, that would have taken hours.

Having everything in one place is one of the biggest advantages, rather than having to go to individual products or different pieces to complete tasks.

We do offsite backups for all of our servers, but we also do onsite hourly backups for any location with important data. That has benefited us several times when we had a need to recover files but did not want to roll back to the previous day's offsite backup. We were able to just roll back certain data for an hour or two to resolve the issue.

When it comes to monitoring and managing our data environment, it's easy for our admins to use Commvault. Most of the time, through their documentation, our primary admin can find everything he needs. We utilize a value-added reseller to handle our first-line support and when we have to escalate something to them, they're usually able to resolve it without having to involve Commvault.

The fact that Commvault offers recovery across cloud, on-prem, and SaaS workloads is growing in importance for our company. We use it to protect some SaaS data today and it has set us up for when we are ready for that jump to the cloud. We know data protection is not going to be an issue and Commvault will actually help facilitate that move for us when the time comes.

As a long-time Commvault customer, we still use the Java console heavily because it is how we learned to do everything. The web-based Command Center is coming along and has most of what we need, but it is a learning process to change our knowledge to the new way of doing things.

As Commvault continues to grow SaaS data protection options, there are some that are on my wish list that have not yet made their roadmap. Knowing what is being worked on for future support would be great we can keep that in mind as we are looking at future technologies to adopt.

I've been using Commvault Backup & Recovery since 2006.

Commvault is very stable and I cannot think of any major downtime we have had in the last decade.

It's scalable, absolutely. I imagine we are small in the world of Commvault. I can't imagine any point that we would get to that Commvault couldn't handle and manage well. But even for significantly larger companies than us, Commvault is going to be one of the best partners to grow with you.

Whenever we do have to talk to Commvault directly, they engage the resources we need pretty quickly. That may be, in part, because we escalate through our VAR and they know that we've attempted all of the basic solutions first.

When we've had issues with some portion of the product, they will bring product managers, developers, or whomever we need on the phone pretty quickly to work with us until it's resolved. Sometimes that means a custom patch because we've discovered something new that somebody hadn't run into yet. But they're good at working with us through that, rolling it into a future update, and keeping us up and running.

We were using Veritas Backup Exec. It was very inconsistent in completing backups and made our servers very unstable. We used to restart servers on a weekly basis when we were running Backup Exec. Once we centralized those backups off the file servers, we had servers that could run for nearly a year if we wanted them to. Typically, we'd have to reboot them for updates, but they ran rock-solid after we took the backup software off.

Implementation could be complex if you don't use some professional services to help. It's a big tool with a lot of features, and without some additional assistance with the installation, I'm not sure you'll get the full benefits out of it. Still, it's not an overwhelming engagement to undertake.

We brought in our value-added reseller, and their engineering team brought one person onsite for two to three weeks. He sat with us to teach us about the system. It was a much more complex protection method than we were used to, so they had to teach us about the Commvault methodology a little bit first. Then we had to pull large amounts of data—this was years ago, so the internet wasn't nearly as fast as it is today—and we were sending out hard drives, pulling back large amounts of data, and then doing incremental backups to catch up on the differences. It was interesting to tackle different locations with different approaches to get the data into the system, and then catch up after the fact. Our VAR helped with that significantly by planning it all out. We were fully off our old system in two to three months, so it was not a long ramp-up time.

Two people from our side were involved directly, my manager and me. My manager was mostly there to give business-related advice and do business decision-making. I was the admin, and we had one engineer from our VAR.

I was the day-to-day admin for about eight years, but I have now handed that over to one of my admins. He does most of the work under the guidance of our value-added reseller. If we're adding new features or functionality from Commvault, the reseller will guide us through it, but we do the work. That way, we make sure we're well-trained on it.

Our Commvault is a combination where we're primarily on-prem, but there is one service in the cloud that we use that will not allow on-prem data protection partners. We use Commvault Metallic for that one SaaS application.

Our environment for the backups is mostly centralized in one data center, and it's backing up about 40 locations. Our admin who works on Commvault spends about 10 percent of his time on it protecting about 1,200 laptops and 150 servers.

It's not difficult to maintain Commvault. When our admin needs to do an update, he might dedicate a half day to do so, because it's fairly easy to roll out updates to everything and monitor how that's going. It's very easy to maintain once everything is set the way you want it.

The reseller we are working with is Eagle Technologies and it is worth a call to them if you're considering a partnership with Commvault.

We have never run the numbers, but I know intuitively that what we spend is well offset by the time we save on restores and admin time. It's money well spent.

It's valuable to us because we are confident that we can get the data back when we need it. There are definitely business savings from not having to struggle to return services to normal. Whenever somebody comes to us and needs data, we always have it for them.

Commvault has greatly reduced our downtime. If we have a server that has an issue, we're not opposed to rolling back to a previous backup point after a couple of minutes of discussion about our options. Usually, the decision is to just restore that virtual machine, and we'll have you back up and running in five to 10 minutes.

The pricing is fairly in line with the other products we've compared it with recently. We do spend more on it than we did in our Backup Exec days, but it's competitive with the other best-in-class data protection platforms. There are other systems that are less expensive that just do basic backup, but when you're talking about full data management, Commvault is hard to beat. Remember that low price doesn't mean low cost, a cheaper product may end up costing you valuable person hours or slower recovery times.

The licensing model changes can sometimes be confusing. Our value-added reseller does a great job of explaining the changes to us and preparing us for what's good and bad and what we need to be aware of during those changes. If we were dealing directly with Commvault, it might be a little more confusing than it needed to be.

We looked into several other solutions (Avamar, Backup Exec, Syncsort) back when originally choosing Commvault and they were a clear leader in the market, especially given some of the unique data protection needs we had. As we have kept an eye on the new up-and-comers in the space, Commvault always feels like they're steps ahead of the competition.

Commvault has helped us reduce our threat detection time to some degree, although we have other tools more specifically focused on security. We have been alerted at times when something has been acting strangely on a file server and we were able to start investigating quickly. Instead of an employee having to tell us that something doesn't look right, our hourly backups have triggered and said, "Hey, something is different here. You need to take a look at it."

My advice is: don't let how big it is scare you off. Commvault is definitely one of the biggest players out there, but you can get in and get started in a small way. Even if you don't bite off everything to begin with, you can get started and have a much better solution than you may have today.