Compare IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. SolarWinds Backup
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros | |
"Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot, are retention sets." "The most valuable feature of this solution is the integration with Oracle." "The most valuable features are the API features because it allows you to integrate with your Microsoft SQL, your Oracle, and your IBM Db2." "This solution is very stable and has good support available online." "With this product, we now have a reliable backup solution." "The feature I find most valuable is the offload to Spectrum Protect for long-term retention. I think the deduplication and replication are quite nice on Plus." "This is a multi-platform backup solution where you can take a backup from AIX, Windows, or Linux servers and restore from CD, disk, or tape." "A full-featured data protection solution that is reliable and stable." | "The most valuables feature is the alerts and monitoring that catches the failed backups." "The monitoring makes it very easy to check whether a backup has gone bad." "The most valuable feature by far is the Virtual Disaster Recovery. On top of that is the bare-metal recovery. The recovery options that we have are great. We have tested the Virtual Disaster Recovery and the bare-metal recovery in just about any scenario you can think of. We have even restored bare metal, a full server, to a laptop, and had full functionality. It's just insane how well it works and how simple it is. It does most of the work for you." "It provides a single dashboard for all types of data protection, we monitor everything through a single dashboard. It simplifies everything overall. It allows us to see everything, whether passing or failing any issues, any problems through a single pane of glass that we don't have to click through or adjust as we go forward." "I know I won't have an issue if the data is there. The reliability and the confidence that we have is amazing. It doesn't matter. We've had customers have ransomware. We've had customers that have had corruption. We've had customers that have had employees destroy their data. As long as it's been backed up, I know that I can get it back and I know I have nothing to worry about. Our confidence level is very high." "We use a neat feature called VDR status, Virtual Disaster Recovery status. It only works on servers... It's automated. Once or twice a month it will virtually mount the backup and provide a screenshot and advise whether or not there have been any errors." "The most valuable feature is that it's hands-off. I log in every morning and there are pre-canned filters that I've created to make my life easier. I have something called server status color bars, and that gives me all the servers and, in a nutshell, I can see: if any errors are being reported; when the last backup was; if one is not working, should there be one, and it literally jumps off the page." "The solution has reduced backup times by an immeasurable amount. Its backups are incremental, so you are only backing up data changes based on the last 24 hours or so. If you are also maintaining the stored images, the restores are also only incremental, happening in minutes. Whereas, with a lot of the other solutions that we have looked at, each time it goes to refresh the restore, then it has to build a completely new image. That takes forever. This solution also improves recovery time." |
Cons | |
"An area that needs improvement is data validation. We currently use another product that gives us immediate validation, information about when the last backup was, and no risk of corruption happening. TSM in IBM Spectrum is not mature so that you can validate on the spot." "The backup support for IBM Power Virtualization needs to be added." "I would like integration into where the VMware guys can do their own restores." "The administration needs to be improved and made simpler to use." "Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface." "The user experience is very bad and the interface needs to be improved." "The Gui interface and usability are not so friendly and easy." "Not particularly user friendly." | "We would like to have better reporting." "Integration with a hybrid cloud is something that I found complicated." "A better default view on my dashboard would be great. There is a lot of useless information there that it pulls up. They could present the dashboard slightly better, in terms of the extra information after the first five columns. The first five columns are awesome. After that, I don't care about the rest, and there are another seven things after that." "The reporting feature and functionality need improvement. We would like to see a little bit more detailed reporting that offers more CEO or C-level focused reporting options." "The one thing they don't are Linux servers, it's Windows only. I understand that directive. I have another product that I use for our Linux servers and stuff, but it would be nice if they had that flexibility on the Linux side. I understand the development and the world is geared towards Windows in 365, I know that's where the clienteles are and the business and the money is." "An area for improvement that would really work out well would be if there were a little bit more of an elegant handshake relationship between SolarWinds RMM and the PCs that are being backed up, to advise regarding "up" status... Since RMM is an agent that feeds back that a machine is alive and on, I don't see any reason why they can't either tap into that one feature or build the same exact polling within the backup agent, to update right away and say the system is online or offline." "We don't use the solution’s automated recovery testing because SolarWinds made me cross. When they released it, I went, "Oh, well, that's quite good." Because if you use the system, then it supposedly spins up, and on the portal, it gives you a screenshot of the booted device. So, I phoned up, and I said, "Oh, that's really quite cool. How much is that?" They said, "No, no, no. It's all included in your license." I went, "Okay then," and went and deployed it on about half the fleet. One of the options that our customers have is they can pay us a small amount every month for us to test the recovery just to prove that it's viable, and I thought, "Well, this will do that for us. Nice." Then, in the next invoice, we got a charge for it. While It was not a huge amount, I took offense at the fact that we were told that it would be a no extra cost option that was part of our license, but it turns out that it's chargeable. Therefore, we haven't used it since." |
Pricing and Cost Advice | |
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original." "In addition to the standard licensing fees, we paid for implementation and training." "Unlike some other solutions, such as Veritas NetBackup where you have to pay for different licenses to use different features, there is a single license that allows you to use all of the features." "Depends on the licensing options that you choose." "The price is lower than that of some competing products." | "The pricing of SolarWinds seems to be fair compared to the rest of the industry." "When you have a device/appliance on the site quite a lot of the other enterprise class backup people insist that you have their appliance, which is frankly offensively expensive. Because when you pry the top off, it's just a standard 19-inch tin box with a standard Intel I5 in it, some RAM, and a hard drive. Then, you go, "Why have they just charged me 5,500 quid for a box, which I could have probably build for under 500." Whereas, with the SolarWinds product, they don't have that. The backup appliances that we have onsite are just plain cooking PCs. We can build our own machines, which is reflected in the price that we can offer a customer." |
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Questions from the Community | |
Top Answer: Virtual snapshots that offer incremental backups. Top Answer: Given that it's an expensive product I would suggest that if you're rich go with IBM, and if you're poor go with someone else. Most enterprise companies like to show off with these products. I've been… more » Top Answer: I don't think the solution is particularly user friendly, it requires expertise. Technical support could also be improved. Now that they're in the cloud I think they'll start enhancing with their… more » | Top Answer: The most valuables feature is the alerts and monitoring that catches the failed backups. Top Answer: We would like to have better reporting. Top Answer: We use this solution to provide a simple, easy to manage backup solution for our clients |
Ranking  | |
Views 5,711 Comparisons 4,148 Reviews 9 Average Words per Review 562 Rating 8.3 | Views 1,878 Comparisons 1,425 Reviews 4 Average Words per Review 2,575 Rating 8.5 |
Popular Comparisons | |
 Compared 46% of the time.  Compared 13% of the time.  Compared 6% of the time.  Compared 4% of the time.  Compared 3% of the time. | Compared 26% of the time.  Compared 19% of the time. Compared 9% of the time.  Compared 8% of the time.  Compared 7% of the time. |
Also Known As | |
| SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup | |
Learn | |
| IBM | SolarWinds |
Overview | |
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection and availability solution for virtual environments that can be deployed in minutes and protect your environment within an hour. It simplifies data protection, whether data is hosted in physical, virtual, software-defined or cloud environments. It can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or integrate with your IBM Spectrum Protect environment to off-load copies for long term storage and data governance with scale and efficiency. | SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery Console is an all-in-one platform for backup service providers and system administrators. Using the Console, a company can manage its user and reseller network, customize access to the service, manage storage and backup/recovery processes. |
Offer | |
Learn more about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus | Learn more about SolarWinds Backup |
Sample Customers | |
| PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio | Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia |
Top Industries | |
Computer Software Company40% Comms Service Provider16% Government7% Manufacturing Company7% | Computer Software Company34% Comms Service Provider15% Construction Company11% Educational Organization7% |
Company Size | |
Small Business18% Midsize Enterprise18% Large Enterprise64% | Small Business88% Midsize Enterprise13% |
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. SolarWinds Backup and other solutions. Updated: January 2021.
456,966 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is ranked 23rd in Backup and Recovery Software with 11 reviews while SolarWinds Backup is ranked 28th in Backup and Recovery Software with 7 reviews. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is rated 8.2, while SolarWinds Backup is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus writes "Enables us to have longer retention which saves us more money". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Backup writes "Drastically reduces the time spent on backup administration; we can manage every computer from one easy console". IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is most compared with IBM Spectrum Protect, Veeam Backup & Replication, Azure Backup, Commvault and Dell EMC Avamar, whereas SolarWinds Backup is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Acronis Backup, Veeam Backup for Office 365, MSP360 Backup and Altaro VM Backup. See our IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. SolarWinds Backup report.
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