IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Review

We are using this as a backup solution in our on-premises environment.

With this product, we now have a reliable backup solution.

The administration is not user-friendly and needs to be improved. It is more suited to a technical person. Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface.

The reporting should be improved. This solution would benefit from reports that included more aggregated data from the databases.

We had an incident where we were unable to recover our data, and it was very bad. The solution was already implemented, but for technical reasons and a misunderstanding, we were not able to recover our data. This detracts from their credibility.

In terms of stability, we have not seen many challenges aside from the one incident that we had, where we could not recover our data.

This solution seems scalable. We plan on adding more services and backing up more servers with it. We currently are backing up four physical servers, and twenty virtual machines. We have five administrators.

We've had many problems with technical support, and I would rate them a five out of ten. There was a lot of bureaucracy before they would send engineers to our site.

Prior to this solution, we were performing manual backups.

We downloaded the software from the vendor's website.

The initial setup was complex. Most of the work was done by an engineer from IBM. We really tried to follow the process so that we could understand it and troubleshoot if we encounter en error, but it was quite complex to follow. It is not a straightforward implementation.

The deployment took approximately two months, and there is a training period.

An IBM engineer assisted us with the deployment, and they are good at their work.

We have not yet seen ROI because we are still early in the project, but maybe we will, with time.

The licensing fees are on a yearly basis. In addition to the standard licensing fees, we paid for implementation and training. 

We did evaluate other products before choosing this solution. We had a look at Veritas and another solution that works with VMware. We chose this solution because the price is lower than that of the other two. Also, we already had their hardware, including the server and tape libraries.

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is to be open-minded when checking the infrastructure and technology, and then see whether this solution will be the best one for them.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from this solution is that project planning is key. You have to plan ahead for all of the various scenarios.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.