We compared Commvault Complete Data Protection and IBM Spectrum Protect based on user reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data, and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: Commvault Complete Data Protection is highly regarded for its extensive recovery options and compatibility with diverse storage systems. IBM Spectrum Protect is praised for its ability to integrate with tape libraries and its customization options. Users suggest that Commvault Complete Data Protection could offer more Windows security features and a unified console. They said Commvault should expand support for container-based systems and improve its ability to archive large video files. Users also praised Spectrum Protect for its compatibility with various products, scalability, and stability. IBM Spectrum Protect could improve its integration with cloud services and make its interface more user-friendly.
Service and Support: Commvault Complete Data Protection earned mostly positive feedback for its customer service, but some Commvault customers mentioned concerns about network-related support and the need for more direct access during emergencies. 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.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Commvault Complete Data Protection is complex, time-consuming, and may require outside help. The lack of sufficient documentation and online resources adds to the difficulty. IBM Spectrum Protect's initial setup is challenging and demands skilled professionals to configure multiple parameters and features. This process can be time-consuming.
Pricing: Commvault may need to lower its price to attract customers in certain regions and customer segments. IBM Spectrum Protect is considered expensive. The pricing model is complex, taking into account factors like processor type and volume.
ROI: Commvault Complete Data Protection offers significant cost savings. Some enterprise customers estimated that they saved between $100,000 to $300,000 by reducing labor costs, speeding up backup and recovery, and implementing remote access. 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.
Comparison Results: Commvault Complete Data Protection is a robust and flexible solution with the potential to save customers money, but users say the setup is too complex and it needs better support for container-based systems. 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.
"The most valuable feature is the ability it gives me to automate backups well and consistently, and to follow up on them as well. It also provides consistent recovery processes. Whenever we have needed to do a restore, it has worked quickly and efficiently."
"It's very easy to set up the storage across all platforms. This allows us to be dynamic and change on-the-fly."
"Commvault gives us a single platform to manage and recover our data. Since we are a research organization, backup is one of the most critical parts of our IT operations and services. Internally, we run it as a managed service, and there is a single console that makes it easy for management to see the performance."
"They have a strong development team and are market leaders in the space."
"The data is well-protected. It doesn't age off until it's copied. That's a big feature right there. When you reach the end of your retention, it does not expire until the secondary copy is completed. That allows you to hold onto data that otherwise would have aged off by retention. I like that feature. It's hard to just delete or lose data using the Commvault platform."
"It's very stable."
"This product has allowed us to recover data when we've had issues."
"Integration with Active Directory and the Azure platform make it a complete solution."
"It has a lot more capabilities and functions than a lot of other products. Even though it is more complex, the reason is because it gives you a lot more features. This is what I prefer, especially for a long retention."
"It is also a product that has been maturing for a long time. This is good because customers need reliability in their enterprise initiatives."
"From a tech perspective, utilizing deduplication is one of the most valuable features."
"We can use it with any storage for the back-end to save data."
"Our customers have come to trust IBM."
"The most valuable features of Spectrum Protect would be the compression and the deduplication."
"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."
"What I found most valuable in IBM Spectrum Protect is that it allows you to back up physical machines, and its proxy feature lets you back up virtual machines."
"Endpoint backup."
"The main area for improvement is that we sometimes experience negative effects from their updates. If they had a larger test area for their updates, that would help."
"Our customers complain that this is a difficult product to manage."
"My customers are not satisfied with the tool because there is a little trouble with the throughput of Metallic."
"In an upcoming release, the reports could be better."
"Commvault should keep and continue to develop the Java GUI."
"It would be a bit unfair to say that it's complex, due to the fact that it supports so many different workloads, however, if there's anything that is a bit of a shortcoming, then it's the fact that there's a bit of complexity involved when dealing with the product."
"The HTML interface is a remarkable improvement. However, there are still some features that are not available in that interface that are available in the Java console, but I'm sure that will come with time."
"It does what we need it to do, but it could be better with VM backups. It could be better integrated with virtual machines or VM backups, but that's why they have their Plus out now. Plus version is more geared toward VM backups. The regular version is more for endpoint clients."
"We did not see any drawbacks to IBM Spectrum Protect before assisting a customer using Windows that wanted to migrate to using UNIX. IBM Spectrum Protect does not offer an option to migrate from other operating systems."
"The installation process could be simplified."
"There have been scalability issues. The core product does not support scale out. We needed to create a new system and manage resources separate from the existing one."
"I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided."
"I would like to see the operations center be a lot more functional. It was nowhere near as functional as the admin center, and I'm doing a lot of command line with it."
"We should be talking about the capacity of the tape drives. That's the only problem."
"It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms."
Commvault Cloud is ranked 3rd in Backup and Recovery with 104 reviews while IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked 17th in Backup and Recovery with 146 reviews. Commvault Cloud is rated 8.6, while IBM Spectrum Protect is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Commvault Cloud writes "Provides excellent visibility and helps reduce costs and time". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Protect writes "Performance and recoveries are better, and customers are happier with performance". Commvault Cloud is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Rubrik, Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Azure Backup and Veritas Backup Exec, whereas IBM Spectrum Protect is most compared with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, Veeam Backup & Replication, Cohesity DataProtect, Rubrik and Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain). See our Commvault Cloud vs. IBM Spectrum Protect report.
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