Dell currently has two different backup and disaster solutions to choose from, AppAssure and NetVault. Although Dell plans on merging the two together eventually, right now if you’re looking for a Dell solution for a larger enterprise, than NetVault is the one you want to choose.

NetVault is a comprehensive backup and recovery software solution that allows enterprises to protect data in diverse IT environments from one single console. It’s scalable and supports multiple server and application platforms across an organization. A single interface requires minimal experience, simplifying the data backup and recovery operations.

NetVault Backup offers advanced data protection for Oracle, SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, MySQL, DB2, PostgreSQL, Domino, Informix, SAP and Sybase. No scripting is requires to run online backup and recovery jobs.

Key Features:

• Global Data Deduplication- enables full advantage of the appliances’ powerful deduplication, compression and replication capabilities. Shrink backup windows and improve restore times, use source-side recovery deduplication to reduce network traffic and efficiently send copies of backup data offsite for disaster recovery.
• Network-Attached Storage- Advanced data protection for information stores on NAS devices. Reduce traffic over the LAN and maximize performance by backing up over the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP). NetVault backup supports different storage topologies and configurations.
• Virtualization Support- Gives consistent, reliable, point-and-click backup and restore for virtual environments without requiring an expert.
• Enterprise–Wide Control– uses NetVault’s web-based user interface to configure, manage and monitor backup and recovery operations. Wizards guide through the common tasks, like creating backup jobs, assigning policies, configuring storage devices and generating reports.
• Backup to Disk and Tape– Supports disk and tape-based backup to a wide range of storage targets, including disk-based devices, tape libraries, and third-party deduplication appliances. Allows the power to move data from one storage target to another for disaster recovery purposes.
• Flexible Storage Attachment– Avoid data transfers over the network by attaching a target storage device directly to a source server. With LAN-free backups, it’s easy to distribute the workload throughout the backup domain.

Bottom Line:

Dell AppAssure and NetVault are two solid backup and recovery solutions that cater to two different kinds of enterprises. AppAssure offers virtual standby and Universal recovery which are two things that NetVault does not have, but AppAssure is better suited for small to medium enterprises. NetVault has client-side deduplication and has better scalability than AppAssure; this makes it better suited for medium to large enterprises. They are both predominantly targeting physical and virtual Windows environments.