Setup was pretty good. With the Blueprint design that they put out, you do the runbook, and run through it. There are a few "gotchas", but overall it was pretty straightforward. We like having a standard setup. 

We know with this pool of resources, if you dump it somewhere, it will be protected offsite. That is the mode we want to be in, rather than having to go back and double check. We do not want to say, “This one thing happened, it should have went here, and it didn't.” We are trying to get more generic with these services.

The initial setup is super complex.  The reason is that all the on-prem backup software that you can utilize—each and everyone that says, "Oh, it's just a few clicks, and then you're up and running"—quite often, very poorly written, really it's kind of crappy. When it comes to IBM, it's a true enterprise product, meaning that you can scale it and you can design it the way you want. 

So from our perspective, we have designed it to scale on individual companies, meaning that each and every client has their own dedicated solution, which we host for them. And since it's an enterprise product, we can also design it the way we want. So IBM is not one, two, three, or four clicks. It takes a lot of experience to set up IBM Spectrum Protect correctly. 

But once it's up and running, it's one of the most stable on-premises backup solutions I've ever seen. I've been working in this field for almost 25 years, and I've never seen a solution that's as reliable as IBM Spectrum Protect.

The initial setup has medium complexity. Initially, the process was facilitated with the assistance of a consultant from the IBM support team. Later, when we encountered an issue with the database and needed to restore from a backup, our team was able to set it up independently in about a day. It required one administrator to handle the setup and maintenance of 82,000 devices.

The setup complexity largely depends on the environment. There's a significant learning curve, but, there are partners trained and knowledgeable in this area. The key to a smooth setup is engaging in planning workshops and clearly defining the scope and goals. 

If it's set up correctly, IBM Spectrum Protect can provide support. Crucial to this process is the support from local IBM, vendor, and partner experts. Their expertise is a vital consideration during the selection process, ensuring that the solution is well-supported by regional expertise.

Everything from the OS installed to provisioning the disk to installing the Spectrum Protect software was neither straightforward nor complex. There were a few bugs and hiccups along the way, but nothing that a seasoned admin could not overcome.

The implementation is difficult. It is not intuitive. It needs special skills. People must do their research before implementing the solution.

Regarding the initial setup for IBM Spectrum Protect, it's a four out of ten for me. It's complex.

Complete deployment of IBM Spectrum Protect took two weeks.

Initially, the team had some problems with the setup because there was an error in the assessment, and my company ran out of capacity within two months of implementing IBM Spectrum Protect. It was garbage in, garbage out. The evaluation by the administrators was not done correctly, so that IBM couldn't supply an adequate solution.

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect is complex but flexible, suitable for various environments. Implementation typically takes around three to four months for a large environment with over 500 servers. It may require a team of one specialist and two analysts for deployment and one person for ongoing maintenance.

It depends. The TSM server is pretty straightforward. Some other parts are pretty complex. The VMware solution is very complex, especially compared to competitors.

Deployment depends on the size and the customer requirements. If you want to set up a small company server, it takes one or two hours. If you have to set up a large enterprise with various wishes and custom demands, it can take days or maybe a week. For a basic customer with VMware, it is set up within a day with a few databases and a few things.

I rate the ease of initial setup an eight out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward for simple environments, but in the majority of cases where environments are more complex, it becomes challenging. While beginners can use it, configuring it optimally demands familiarity with the product and a comprehensive understanding of its various options. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it around seven or eight.

The installation could be improved, it takes a lot of effort.

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum is straightforward. Currently, there are blueprints that have a solution to implement quickly. The blueprints come with automated scripts that can be leveraged to make the deployment simpler. You just have to run a script and then complete a set of policies, storage devices, users. The other configurations are already done for you. The documentation, or blueprints, are being updated all the time so you always have a way to reduce deployment time. Deployment takes as little as three or four days.

The initial setup was straightforward. When you log in you can explore further. It will provide you with an explanation and how to do restores on the system. 

It will also let you know if you are backing up a C client or backing up a normal VM.

It's not complex. It's easy.

IMB does all of the updates.

I have more than ten years of experience with the solution, so setting it up is easy for me. The deployment took less than one hour.

Deployment is a difficult question because we've been using the product for so many years that it's simple for us. I think implementation for the server and the node is simple but the configuration is a little complex. Part of the issue is that there are so many features and if you want to use them all, it needs to be via configuration. There are a lot of configuration parameters in Spectrum Protect. To add a new computer to the server takes a minute. To deploy a new server might take a day or two. All our deployments are done in-house. 

I would rate the initial setup on the medium side. It's not totally complex, but there are a lot of moving parts to it. I would give it a medium.

The initial setup was quite complex. 

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

The initial setup was straightforward. Just follow the blueprints. They are very well written and that works pretty well.

My company has experience dealing with legacy systems, owing to which the setup phase of IBM Spectrum Protect was not too difficult for us. IBM Spectrum Protect might be difficult to configure and handle for a new user, a layman, or a simple administrator.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in an hour and a half.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's a basic setup and you just need to know what has to be done. Your pools and everything, it just has to point to that directory and it's done.

Our deployment took about a day. We last upgraded in 2015 to V7, and it handles backups of all our file systems, our images, our recordings, etc. The deployment included setting up these policies.

The initial setup and infrastructure were done within days. It was an okay process. There was nothing negative about it.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was not complex; it was pretty much straightforward. Besides the security issues, we experiences no other issues.

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.

While I was not involved in the initial setup, new releases and implementation have gone smoothly. I have never had problems.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The solution's initial setup is straightforward as long as the prerequisites are followed. So, I rate the solution's setup between seven to eight out of ten.

The time required for the deployment process is somewhere between two to three weeks.

Around 200 to 300 steps are involved in the deployment process of the solution. So unless specified, explaining all the steps involved in the deployment process can be difficult.

I wasn't at the company at the time the solution was implemented, so I don't have knowledge as to if the solution is difficult or straightforward to set up.

It's a complex software, so it's a complex task, especially at the large scale and the software is accordingly complex. You won't set up this software or any competitor within a few clicks. So it is complex, but it's adequately complex. And on the client side, it depends on the documentation given by the central IT on the server side.

The solution's initial setup process wasn't easy. It's okay to have trouble installing the server. So you may have problems installing the clients. They have a lot of documentation, and I can tell that it requires an expert to install the client itself. Even for Windows applications, it was a hassle. There are complexities with the installation phase.

Regarding the time for deployment, it took me a long time just for you now because you have to start from the planning through deployment. The setup isn't simple or straightforward. They have one document, which makes sense compared to what's available in the market now. However, it is not easy to manage and can be a hassle. It took me weeks to deploy the solution.

The people required for the solution's maintenance depend if it is only on the basic operations, then one person is enough. A professional team ready to troubleshoot would make it a different story. Two qualified people would be more than enough.

We've been using IBM Spectrum Protect for a long time, so we've acquired the experience over time to deploy it. Installing it would be straightforward for us because we know the product. However, it might take a week for someone new to the platform to get it up and running. We have four people responsible for maintenance, and they're mostly system admins. 

Its initial setup can be complicated. You would need a certified deployment expert to configure it and install it properly upfront. It isn't for a novice to be able to set up.

The deployment duration depends on the environment, but it typically takes about a week or two. Its maintenance also depends on the size of the company. If it is a small-sized or a medium-sized company, you could get away with one admin, but if it is larger, you might have more than one Spectrum Protect server, so you'd have multiple admins.

The initial setup can be a bit complex, specifically in terms of configuring everything. We had to bring on an extra admin to assist us.

Its initial setup is complex and not very easy. The deployment duration depends on a lot of factors, but generally, one week should be enough.

The initial setup starts straightforward, but as soon as a customer opens the requirements for the backup because they are happy it, they will want to export their system, virtualized platform, or some applications on the databases. This is when it starts getting complex. Then you need to run multiple jobs, multiple consoles, and bring it all together. Of course, customers want to have a single console to connect all their different environments.

I work on the initial setup with my teammates and technical team to verify the setup will work. I work with the IBM blueprints that they have online as a basis. I try to follow them as closely as possible, but they do not always fit all customers, because there are just three broad versions: small, medium, and large footprints. 

If you follow the blueprints, it is pretty straightforward, because it is all scripted out for you. We do run into something complex with each customer setup, but we have the experience to handle it.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was straightforward.

We have been with this product for a long time. I know initially it was difficult, but after the team built the experience, things started to be straightforward. So initial setup is complex, but maintenance is average, it is not that complicated.

It was complex because of the learning curve, for people to know more about the product, how to handle the product and the features. That's where the complexity comes from. But once people get the knowledge of how to handle the solution, it can be very straightforward.

Because we have done multiple installations, the initial took a couple of months if I recall correctly. The last installation for the backup was done four years ago and I remember it took two weeks to configure and have everything up and ready. For the Spectrum Scale, it took less than two days because we're getting the appliance model that comes as a total solution - hardware and software preconfigured.

The initial setup is quite complex, but I'm familiar with the solution so it's not a problem for me. 

The initial setup can be a little bit complex.

It could be simplified.

The initial setup for IBM Spectrum Protect was complex. It's not a software that you can install and do a little bit of configuration and be done. You have to know very well what you're doing with it.

It works with DB2, and you have to know what the sizing, the log sizing, and so forth are. This is the difficulty with this software.

The initial setup is not complex. It's straightforward. It's easy.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward because it was really old school. Now, with the whole new design of where we are going, I am involved from ground floor up.

There was a team of two to three administrators for deployment. Two administrators maintain it at present.

I think that the initial setup is simple, although the solution overall is somewhat complex in terms of detail. Our deployment took one month to complete because it took time to identify the full workload.

We were able to deploy it for databases on four or five systems, some of which are not Windows-based. We have different technologies in use.

The setup was challenging in certain areas. For the most part, based on the experience I had, I was able to accomplish it OK.

Setting up the server is not easy; really difficult, in fact. It requires some skill sets. 

The installation of IBM Spectrum Protect has become easy for me but was not always. It's not as easy as others, such as Veeam. But nevertheless, I think it to be more robust than Veeam, and more realistic. The only option for a very small deployment is to use the Windows platform, but you cannot have a very small deployment as a blueprint on the Linux and on AIX. They have to create a very small deployment blueprint for the AIX and for the Linux.

It is complex. We have a complicated environment, and it took a week. We had to use the encryption key manager, which is also an IBM product called SKLM, and that had to be upgraded. It was definitely a full week, and it was not easy.

being working with ADSM, TSM, Spectrum Protect for several years, and the setup becomes more easier nowadays

The setup was straightforward, but it is a complicated product. It was a lot more complex to set up so long ago. There were just a lot of moving parts with a lot of pieces to it.

The installation is better. It's basically a push button thing. You set it up, start a script, and start answering questions. The graphical interface is a lot better than setting it up manually, because it will do everything for you. Now it does an automatic check to make sure that you have enough space and your authorization is there before actually doing the install. In this way, you don't get through an install, or partway through an install, and then fail.

The installation is simple. You just click and follow the instruction. Where the complexity is coming up is when you decide how you want to do your backup and restore. Like any other software you have to decide how you want to do it and understand what's going on behind the scene. 

The deployment itself, with my experience, doesn't take long due to the fact that I know the product. That said, for someone that does not know the product, I would say, it will take, just to understand how it works about a week.

We have two or three people on staff that can handle any maintenance required. They are all systems administrators. 

The initial setup is a little more complex than some of the other solutions. The younger, backward products out there are much easier to implement. 

Generally speaking, it works well for me, as a person who sells my services. It is nice to be able to be able to set something up for a customer, and have it work directly the first time, because of the fact that I have the experience. 

I was not involved in the initial setup.

I was not involved in the initial setup since it happened before I joined the company.

If I'm being completely honest, setup is not easy. It's a more complex setup, but with great flexibility comes great complexity. If you want something to do things which are very complex, you have to be mindful of that in the setup process. It is not trivial, but it is very workable and the documentation is out there to get it done.

I was involved in the setup. It was straightforward.

Setup has always been straightforward. We always start with a simple and solid installation. We then extend the functions when the base is very stable and meets our expectations.

The initial setup was complex due to the lack of a proper GUI.

The initial setup was easy, but I did struggle with it with no training as I was new to the product. I did do a good job, though.

In the beginning, it was not an easy setup. Now, the product has developed to be quite flexible and easy in its setup with some lesser ticks.

I think the initial setup with IBM was easier for us because we have a strong relationship with them. We have a history of working together for about 15 to 18 years using Spectrum Protect.

The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty straightforward overall. They have very helpful documentation and assistance from the engineers. It's a smooth process. A company shouldn't have any issues with the implementation.

The initial setup was a little bit complex. Our deployment took a couple of months to complete.

The initial setup was straightforward. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward and easy to implement.

I would say its fairly complex and would be best done with a consultant. It is a product designed to scale to immense proportions and takes a team to put it together right.

The initial setup was easy but it does require focus. You have to have experience with IBM Spectrum Protect to deploy. However, if you do have the experience, it is easy.

The initial setup is very impressive. I am a system admin, but I do love learning a lot. It is a straightforward setup, and the IBM engineers are very helpful and provide me with new information each time that they do an implementation.

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect is complex and the process took a few weeks.

In recent years, there has been improvement regarding the product's setup. Now, we have an installation manager, which helps us a lot. There is no customized research. It is the same installation manager that all other IBM products use. This is great for us, as it is very simple to install patches. That was difficult previously, but now we have a streamline method to install the product. 

With initiatives like Spectrum Protect Plus, which is new, we are advancing even more with our technology initiatives.

I was not part of the initial setup.

The setup is not too bad. Once you know what you are doing, it tends to be fine. The part we always struggle with is the onboarding process, getting people used to how it works, the specific nuances of the product, the fact that it is always incremental, their retention policies, and the commands to use when you're interacting with it. That is more the challenge that we have with it: The onboarding of new people whether they are internal people to us or clients.

There is quite a steep learning curve to your initial interactions with Protect. Then, once you kind of get into it and get into that intermediate level, the documentation is really good and the resources out there are also good. Thus, once you get over that initial hump, then it is pretty good.

The initial setup had some complexities.

The initial setup might be complex. There are a lot of different nuances that need to be taken into account; however, with the help from an experienced team, the product can be deployed seamlessly.

Years ago, it took us roughly three to four months to implement this solution — mainly due to the amount of maintenance and the number of components that also need to be deployed. Security concerns also need to be addressed and resolved from the client-side. All of this made it quite difficult.  Now that we leverage IBM Spectrum Protect blueprints that are available publicly, to reduce implementation time down to a couple of weeks, sometimes even a couple of days. This has allowed us to stay competitive in what is a very competitive market.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

You do need to know what you are doing to setup the platform, so invest in doing the design work upfront before deploying.

I was involved in the installation and it was complex in every aspect.

A little bit complex.

The initial setup is not straightforward. It is quite complex. It's important to have the right people in place. You need good experts to manage upgrades, et cetera.

For the initial deployment, for running the system, for implementing new servers or new clients, et cetera, that is not a problem, however, the problem is really handling upgrades. That is kind of tricky.

Its initial setup is complex. It took three to four days.

I do the initial setups of the solution. The initial setups are complex still. This is maybe the one weak point, getting it setup, but this is where I help.

With the initial setup, if you follow the blueprint rules, there are no issues.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

It has medium complexity. We have a lot of experience in implementing this solution, and that's why it is easy for us, but the other partners of IBM say that it is not easy to set up.

The deployment duration depends on the clients and their setup. Generally, it takes one to two months.

The initial setup was quite complex. It required experienced and skilled people with a lot of know-how. We used a consultant for the deployment. 

In the beginning, the product was sometimes difficult to deploy. Then, there were improvements by IBM, giving more confidence to customers.

Now, setup is really straight forward.

Setup/implementation requires a high level of knowledge/skill. For those with experience, the setup can be very fast, although it is true that it requires a pre-planning and sizing process.

I have been involved in the initial setup a few times. I have also migrated from one hardware platform to a different one, Solaris to AIX along with TSM (before it was Spectrum Protect). I have found it more complex then some of its competitor products, but because I have worked on the product for a while, I find it fairly simple. Now, I understand how to install it well, but it would still be complex for a novice. 

I am quite keen on getting more experience with Spectrum Protect Plus, because it seems like it is a lot easier, and that is where we will go in the future.

The initial setup was not difficult at all; it was very straightforward. Even though Spectrum Protect is not the easiest to use, it was not a big deal to set it up.

It was easy to set up/rebuild.

It was easy to set up.

If you want a high performing flexible solution, you need some skills with the product. Name standards, design of database, policies and storage needs some decision making.

The initial setup is complex,and requires planning.

IBM Spectrum Protect is very complex to install—it's not a simple installation at all, which is why there's always professional services attached to a Spectrum Protect sale. 

The amount of technical people you will need depends on the size of the environment, but in an environment with about 800 VMs and a couple of Unix machines, you need at least two administrators. 

It depends on the experience that you have. Instead of Windows, we've mostly implemented it on a UNIX-based platform, such as AIX, or Linux. So, you need someone who has the skills to manage these platforms. Apart from that, Spectrum Protect itself is a great product.

The initial setup at a new sight is straightforward. It takes about a week. 

The initial setup of our IBM Spectrum Protect install was not straightforward. We needed some experts to come down and do it. They could have given us the instructions so that we could have done it here ourselves.

We had some folks from outside for the implementation, which was done in three weeks. That includes implementing the backup test. 

The initial setup is straightforward. The documentation is fine. There are some issues though. If you create a server, not all testings regarding fire systems are done in advance. Therefore, sometimes we have to go three rounds to fill all the gaps. This could be done a little bit better. 

I was not involved in the initial setup.

The initial setup was not complex. It was really straightforward. It has been a lot easier as of late to do these implementations.

It can be fairly complex depending on what is being set up.

The initial setup can be very simple. If you have a small environment, it can be extremely simple. It can be as complex as you want it to be or as you need it to be. That's the good thing about it. 

Some people get lost in it sometimes and the solution makes it too complex for their needs. I know there's criticism that it's too complex. Yes, it's true, it is complex, but it's only complex due to the fact that IBM shares the knowledge. If IBM wouldn't share the knowledge about how to solve things, or how to make things complex, then it wouldn't be complex as then you would have to call support if you have a problem with it.

That's what other vendors do. They don't share the knowledge, they don't allow you to dig into the deeper configuration of the product and you have to call support if you have a problem. That way, with IBM, you can solve it yourself basically. You can customize it to your wishes. 

However, on the other hand, the downside of that is if you have a problem and it's complex and you have to be able to solve it, or you can call support. You have the option. At least you have the option with IBM of making it as complex as you want it to be. With other vendors, you don't have that. That provides flexibility.

Deployment times vary. If you have a VMware environment, it's really fast. It can be a few hours to install the servers and install the data mover, and you're done. If you have a complex environment where you need to install a lot of clients on hardware machines or machines that need a specific backup plan, then it can take weeks.

Our team was involved in the initial setup, and it was fairly complex.

As long as you have a bit of experience, you shouldn't have any trouble with the initial setup. I didn't handle it directly, however. We had someone who did it and he was quite knowledgable. Due to that, the deployment was pretty quick. He had is up and running in three or four hours. 

The initial setup is complex. The solution needs a designer who knows the product in-depth.

I was involved in a migration setup. When one of our customers was moving from a VTL to Spectrum scale for their target storage, we had to go through some migrations because we switched from VTL doing the replication to using Spectrum Protect for node replication, using compression, etc. It was pretty straightforward.

The set up is complex unless you know the product.

It's pretty hard to install IBM Spectrum Protect, and the whole procedure is not that simple. It takes maybe eight hours or a whole working day, and one person can handle the deployment. Right now, we have three or four users working with it, and there are one or two technical staff who take care of the maintenance.

The installation is complex. It is a comprehensive solution as IBM has evolved from the TSM and Tivoli Storage Manager. It has multiple integrators, allowing it to communicate with most of the kinds of workloads. It is not easy to deploy.

The initial setup is better than TSM, buts still has room to improve.

We live and breathe the initial setup, so the process is good.

The installation was straightforward, although having specific knowledge about the product can be helpful.

I was involved in the installation. I've set it up hundreds of times. It is a complex setup. You have to do your planning for your environment. Once you have the plan, the setup is easy. But the planning is the hardest piece.

The ease of the setup depends on the infrastructure, however, mostly it's a complex process as it's not so easy to deploy Spectrum Protect when you compare it to the other products.

You have to know the customer infrastructure and you have to know what they need, and what they want to do. It's important that their requirements are clear. Even when you deploy according to these requirements, it's very complex. 

The solution does have automatic maintenance services, however, it needs an administrator on the system engineering corrections. It's not required not every day, however, from time to time, you'll have to check the logs and everything.

The initial setup was very complex.

While the installation is mostly straightforward, there is an initial need to ensure that the requirements are fulfilled before proceeding with it. 

Setup was pretty good with the Blueprint design. We are trying to get more generic with these services.

Installation of the product is much more simplified than in the past. Configuring the server itself is not something I would recommend for an inexperienced administrator to try and do on his own.

The initial setup was complex.

The planning and its structure all went smoothly.

Initial setup is very easy. If there are updates, there are recommended actions.

The setup was pretty straightforward.

In the past, it was complex to set up the solution. But today, it is easier with its graphical interface.

I wasn't involved in the setup.

Yes, straightforward.

Complex but that's good for me because then I have more work!

The installation is straightforward and required around 20 servers. 

It took us about an hour.