We compared IBM Spectrum Protect and Rubrik based on user reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: IBM Spectrum Protect is highly regarded for its ability to integrate with tape libraries and its customization options. Users also like Spectrum Protect's compatibility with various products, scalability, and stability. Rubrik is praised for its automated policy enforcement and efficient ransomware detection. Spectrum Protect could improve its integration with cloud services and make its interface more user-friendly. Rubrik could expand compatibility with open-source databases, improve documentation, and strengthen its ability to back up remote sites.
Service and Support: IBM’s customer service is described as high quality, friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive. At the same time, some said the support process can be lengthy. Rubrik customers appreciate the support team's expertise and fast response.
Ease of Deployment: IBM Spectrum Protect's initial setup is challenging and demands skilled professionals to configure multiple parameters and features. This process can be time-consuming. Rubrik's setup is simple, and users say the support team was available to assist as needed.
Pricing: IBM Spectrum Protect is considered expensive. The pricing model is complex, taking into account factors like processor type and volume. Some users find Rubrik's pricing expensive, but many say it’s justified by its encryption and security features. Rubrik's license includes both software and hardware without any additional costs.
ROI: Users have realized benefits from IBM Spectrum Protect’s data protection and retrieval. They appreciate its ability to reduce storage requirements with larger tape sizes. Rubrik provides peace of mind and some cost savings, but users say that quantifying the ROI is difficult.
Comparison Results: IBM Spectrum Protect is a reliable, customizable solution that allows smooth integration with tape libraries. At the same time, some say that the user interface could be more intuitive and Spectrum Protect could integrate better with the cloud. Users like Rubrik’s advanced ransomware features, excellent support, and automated policy enforcement. However, some had issues with its remote backup abilities and high price tag.
"Data reduction definitely reduces costs, not only software costs, but from the infrastructure needed."
"It's a very stable product, and we've never had any downtime with it."
"The solution is really scalable."
"For initial setup, we started with the blueprints, which were great. The blueprints allowed us to be able to decide if we needed to use small, medium,k or large. Because we are a large environment, we used a large blueprint. Once we followed everything in the blueprint, it was a smooth transition from there."
"It is also a product that has been maturing for a long time. This is good because customers need reliability in their enterprise initiatives."
"The most valuable feature is the backup speed."
"It is pretty easy to use and maintain."
"Good deduplication and compression features."
"Rubrik is stable and easy to use."
"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The management and ease of installation are the most valuable features."
"What I like about Rubrik is its strong focus on security, particularly in combating ransomware threats."
"The file search feature across all backups has been helpful."
"Features we have requested are typically added to the next product release."
"The most valuable features of Rubrik are the restoration and ease of use."
"Rubrik simplifies our data backup and recovery processes significantly. It's very straightforward to use. We start by tagging through VMware, and everything tagged for Rubrik is backed up automatically. Backups are much better and faster because Rubrik takes a full snapshot of the virtual machine. We recently conducted a verification by performing a restore, and even during the restore process, we could bring up the server in less than 10-15 minutes. Additionally, we have set up alerts for sensitive data, which helps us track data."
"Ease of use. That has got to be the one thing that I routinely hear from clients and customers, that it's a little bit more difficult than it should be. What I'm finding is that IBM has heard that and they're responding with updated interfaces and things like that."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
"There is room for improvement in the service aspect."
"RTO is a huge gap for us. If we had a disaster scenario and had to recover a bunch of stuff from tape, the RTO would be too long for us."
"We recently had a situation where we quickly got code, and the number of tapes exceeded the library capacity so we were waiting a while to change. We got a fix for this right away."
"The solution's initial setup process wasn't easy...The solution is overly complicated in terms of architecture, especially compared to other tools in the market."
"They can include more cloud-enriching features. I would like IBM Spectrum Protect to have the functionality for backing up a VM directly in Azure. I would like to be able to back up a VM directly in Azure without spinning up a Hyper-V cluster and backing up the virtual server."
"Their support is lacking. I've talked to their developers and stuff in the last couple of weeks and they reassure me that some people have retired, and they're working on getting that bumped back up. But the support lacks a lot to be desired at this point."
"I would like to see Rubrik better integrate with Microsoft Active Directory. Instead of just backing up a full domain controller, I would like the solution to have Active Directory object knowledge so we can restore specific objects in Active Directory versus restoring the whole domain controller."
"The dashboard and user interface could be improved to make them more user-friendly."
"I would like to see more openness for partners to access and assist in system management. Currently, access is limited, often handled by Rubrik personnel, likely due to security concerns."
"Rubrik needs to continue to listen to their customers and what they want/need, not just care about money and the bottom line."
"The reporting, in particular the customization of reports, needs to be improved."
"It needs to keep innovating to stay relevant in the data management field."
"With multiple Rubrik clusters setup in an environment, it becomes painfully obvious that this product needs a central management console."
"They have what's called an organization which means different groups of access to Rubrik, but the alerting only goes to the admins. My suggestion to Rubrik is to make sure that the separate organizations or groups of users get the appropriate alerting."
IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked 17th in Backup and Recovery with 146 reviews while Rubrik is ranked 4th in Backup and Recovery with 86 reviews. IBM Spectrum Protect is rated 8.0, while Rubrik is rated 9.2. The top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Protect writes "Performance and recoveries are better, and customers are happier with performance". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Rubrik writes "Automates the backup and recovery process, reducing manual human errors and global search allows for granular recoveries". IBM Spectrum Protect is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, Commvault Cloud, Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and Cohesity DataProtect, whereas Rubrik is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Cohesity DataProtect, Commvault Cloud, Zerto and Dell NetWorker. See our IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Rubrik report.
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