IBM Spectrum Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Aug 25, 2022

We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Protect and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Many users relate that for the experienced, tech-savvy individual, the solution is easy and straightforward to deploy. However, the solution can be very complex to deploy for the novice or everyday user.
  • Features: IBM Spectrum Protect users appreciate that the solution is stable, robust, and available. Users are able to maintain several versions of a file or directory on a server at one time. Users appreciate the Retention Set feature, as it represents a significant cost- and time-saver.

    Spectrum Protect Plus users feel the solution is easy to use and offers a wide variety of flexible backup options. The solution works well with Kubernetes and helps make backup to the cloud seamless. Users feel the solution is still new and needs more time to mature.

    Users of both products feel that reporting and integration with other solutions need improvement.

  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel the licensing and pricing can be very expensive.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions are very happy with the level of service and support.

Comparison Results: Users are split on which solution is best. Both perform well and function appropriately. Spectrum Protect is mature, stable, and robust. Spectrum Protect Plus is moving toward a next-generation product that offers more flexibility, improved features, better scalability, and ultimately provides more of what enterprise organizations desire for the future.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"This solution has improved our organization through better file and database recovery.""Disk-based implementation of a data protection solution for multiple sites is a better fit for my complex data protection needs.""It's very robust and has been on the market for a long time.""We optimize our costs of media and storage use, thanks to the Incremental Forever backup. The TDP software provides us many ways to protect our data, so we don't need to use monstrous scripts for doing backups now.""It is also a product that has been maturing for a long time. This is good because customers need reliability in their enterprise initiatives.""It is scalable beyond anything my customers ever aspire to.""You can scale the product.""It protects our data. That is what it is there for."

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"The API is very good.""The initial setup of IBM Protect Plus is simple and not complex.""The most valuable feature of this solution is the integration with Oracle.""If the system were to go down, we needed to make sure that the system could be recovered and available as soon as possible. Spectrum Protect provides you access to directly bind the backup volume to the server and make the system available instead of restoring it and copying the system.""The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is the deduplication functionality. The clients moved to this solution originally because of this feature.""The solution integrates well with other tools.""This solution is very stable and has good support available online.""We used to use the solution with tapes a few years ago. We've switched to discs, and it has gotten much faster."

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Cons
"They need to reduce the complexity and make the learning curve easier.""Its management part can be better and simplified. It is kind of a beast as compared to Commvault or Veeam, but they are more user-friendly. They are also easier to learn, whereas Spectrum Protect definitely takes time. They should simplify it. Our teams are pretty comfortable with it because we have been using it for a long time, but from the perspective of a new user who is evaluating or using this solution, it is definitely more complex in terms of manageability. Its monitoring could be improved so that it can even monitor the jobs that are scheduled by external schedulers. There are situations where a database team might decide to use their own schedulers, but currently, Spectrum Protect is not able to catch those jobs in the Operation Manager console.""They are behind on many things, especially security. They are catching up a little bit now, but the competitors are doing better security-wise. There should be malware detection and prevention and higher security.""I need two separate solutions for virtual and physical systems. I need IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for virtual systems and Spectrum Protect for physical systems and that's a pain. It would be an improvement if they were combined.""Although I am not a technical user, I would say the cloud integration features could be improved.""It's difficult in terms of the configuration at set up. In our case, it required another admin, one person dedicated to the backup.""Sometimes we experience trouble with the backup transfer of the control files.""They should introduce more features for virtualization platforms and backing up IBMs. Backup speeds should also be improved."

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"It still needs to grow and add new features. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, I believe, requires time to become competitive due to a weakness in the other software products.""Not particularly user friendly.""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 user experience is very bad and the interface needs to be improved.""It requires much more automation features.""The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix.""The solution should allow for backup of iOS snapshots.""Their first level of support can be improved. Often they are too junior to understand the issues we are having, and it takes too much time to get from them to the next level of support, which is what we actually need."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Technical support is pretty good. It is doing fine, but you pay for it."
  • "Licensing can be either complicated or simple depending on what type of licensing you wish to use and what works best for your environment."
  • "At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."
  • "Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."
  • "We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
  • "We chose IBM Spectrum Protect, because they actually have something called MSP pricing, which means managed services provider pricing. The pricing was attractive, and it seems to be a platform that IBM is totally investing on in terms of new functions and new capabilities."
  • "Spectrum Protect is not expensive, and it is simple to use."
  • "It is very scalable, but the downside is that it costs money."
  • More IBM Spectrum Protect Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."
  • "The price offering from IBM is coming down because it is based on number of VM machines. So, IBM is coming to the market to show the added value of the product."
  • "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."
  • "Clients prefer to buy a perpetual license, but the majority opt for a yearly subscription."
  • More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The platform’s most valuable feature is its ability to verify the recoverability of backups.
    Top Answer:The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
    Top Answer:The product’s recovery process in terms of agent installation needs improvement. There could be an agent-less backup and recovery mechanism. In the next release, I would recommend the inclusion of a… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that the product works and helps with restoration areas whenever there is a need to restore something.
    Top Answer:IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is an expensive solution since it is mostly used for corporate-level projects. I rate the price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a one on a scale of one to ten, where one is… more »
    Top Answer:I think the graphical reports are a shortcoming of the tool since it fails to provide my company with what we want in terms of reporting. Due to the product's inability to take care of its reporting… more »
    Ranking
    17th
    out of 131 in Backup and Recovery
    Views
    7,719
    Comparisons
    5,477
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    522
    Rating
    7.3
    18th
    out of 131 in Backup and Recovery
    Views
    3,559
    Comparisons
    2,487
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    416
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
    Learn More
    IBM
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    Overview
    IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    CERN, Einstein Healthcare, Nyherji, Allianz Australia, TZM, ABT Online, NCT, Kindred Healthcare Inc., Cobalt Iron, TransGrid, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Cash America, Piedmont Healthcare, RWGV, Arkansas Tech University, British Columbia Institute of Technology
    PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Insurance Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Retailer8%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider29%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Non Tech Company14%
    Retailer14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Government11%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise65%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked 17th in Backup and Recovery with 146 reviews while IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is ranked 18th in Backup and Recovery with 28 reviews. IBM Spectrum Protect is rated 8.0, while IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is rated 8.0. 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 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus writes "Has very good integration features and can quickly backup data and optimize storage". IBM Spectrum Protect is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Commvault Cloud, Cohesity DataProtect, Rubrik and Veritas NetBackup, whereas IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Cohesity DataProtect, Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup, Rubrik and IBM ProtectTIER. See our IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus report.

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    We monitor all Backup and Recovery reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.