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Actifio vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Actifio
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
50th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Test Data Management (7th)
IBM Spectrum Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
149
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Actifio is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Anil-Sinha - PeerSpot reviewer
Actifio enables quick and efficient data refreshes
The product is scalable. However, to ensure optimal scalability, you need to work on the underlying hardware and resources. For example, if your network has limited bandwidth, you need to identify and address the bottlenecks by increasing resources. The product is designed to be scalable, but it requires attention to the underlying resources to ensure sufficient capacity. For example, they have the appliance on a given server. And that server would work till a certain stage. Then if you see that the resources are low or have reached the capacity, you have to next level of the VM, like, in terms of if there is a memory or CPU or from the appliance to wherever you are hosting, wherever you are presenting that virtual disk, that network traffic, if you see that network traffic is reaching capacity, then you have to add additional. So it's scalable from the design perspective, but you have to work on the underlying resources to make sure they also have that capacity.
Syed Habib - PeerSpot reviewer
Manageable and comprehensive and integrates robust backup features for core banking
It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum. This is why I am searching for another solution. The product also lacks any centralized graphical user interface (GUI), such as Jarek Pod, and I am limited to using a console-based text user interface, which my local partner handles completely.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Very user-friendly and the QSA is very good."
"Actifio was very stable. Whenever they identified bugs, they would promptly provide us with patches."
"The solution helps reduce costs."
"Very user-friendly and the QSA is very good."
"This product has unique capabilities that lead the product category in test data management, cloning and recovery."
"They will assist me in achieving whatever budget issue the client may be having."
"The most valuable feature is the backup speed."
"It covers all the different operating systems. If you need backup, it can pretty much do everything."
"It's very robust and has been on the market for a long time."
"The file-restoring feature is the most valuable."
"It provides our customers with the comfort of having reliable enterprise data protection."
"We like IBM Spectrum's versioning capabilities. It lets us specify how many versions of a file we want to keep and for how long. Also, the archive component of the software helps us a lot."
"The backup is very good. In other backup systems, you need a lot of storage to gain the same backup policy."
"The solution is not complex, it's very easy to configure agents or VM backup and restore. Upgrades from one version to another are very fast and the product is very stable."
 

Cons

"Google has stopped supporting the on-premise version of the tool."
"Lacks the option to price backup costs within the solution itself."
"Areas that need improvement would be the support for recovery in the physical environment."
"The initial setup is complex."
"While the product does support various databases, the company needs to make more of an effort to support N-minus-one compatibility."
"The solution doesn't support AIX software or in-cloud, and we have a lot of servers running on AIX and Oracle."
"The solution needs to work on disaster recovery integration. Basically, VMware applications to the cloud, for example. There needs to be integration with the storage, and integration with VMware."
"The main admin console from the UI cannot do anything in the product. It just allows us to maintain, maybe, 30% to 40%. For the rest, we have to use the command line."
"It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum."
"The GUI has long been a problem for TSM/Spectrum Protect."
"The product should be improved to save more space."
"We recently had a situation where we quickly got code, and the number of tapes exceeded the library capacity so we were waiting a while to change. We got a fix for this right away."
"I would love to see something which allows us to do an auto restart of backup jobs."
"We need everything cloud. Strong support for cloud services. S3 connectivity, which is mandatory for us in the future along with this integration of Spectrum Copy Data Management or Spectrum Protect services together with these Spectrum Protect Plus functionalities, e.g., hardware, snapshots, and Copy Data Management. They should come together in one solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Actifio is cheaper than other tools."
"Support is very good. They send out a VM link and help you fix any issues."
"Pricing is on a case by case basis."
"Licensing IBM Spectrum Protect can be somewhat confusing for new users due to the options available, such as licensing on a capacity or per server basis."
"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."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive. However, there are a few packages and it is unclear because, for the entry suite they have both options, which are the back-end storage capacity and the front-end storage capacity."
"I don't have an idea about the pricing. They send that over to someone else, but I know that one of the issues they had was the licensing costs. I don't think they were happy with how they were charged."
"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."
"Customers need to pay for licensing in order to use IBM Spectrum Protect. The customers that have been using it for a long time are okay and happy with it. From a cost point of view, it's better for them to renew their licenses than to go through the difficult process of changing a backup product in their environment, and migrate from one product to another."
"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
"There may be an advantage to going with IBM in terms of pricing. They have a pay-as-you-grow policy, so there is no need to take one license for the entire datacenter. You can start with small licenses and then grow, and pay, as you use more."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
20%
Retailer
8%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Actifio?
Actifio is cheaper than other tools. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Actifio?
The product must provide AI features. Google has stopped supporting the on-premise version of the tool.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dash...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

IBM, Waste Industries, Nasdaq, Verizon, Sharp, Rosetta Stone, Dakine, JBS Australia, Texas Wesleyan University, Cintra, People's Choice Credit Union, Lotto NZ, Electric Insurance, Tyler Technologies, Intility, Corporate One Federal Credit Union, Bryant University, pc/nametag, Isagenix, Sungard Availability Services, Databank, Electrocraft, Lifescript, Westfleisch, Interstate National Corporation, RestorePoint, Net3, Access Community Health Network, Newmarket International, Rezolve Group Inc., Piri Reis University, MC Assembly, Grass-Merkur, dbMotion, Christian Broadcasting Network, Bezeq, Abilene Christian University, CNW Group, Softcat, Migliori, City of South Portland, NaviSite, News-Press & Gazette, Comtec, Equity Insurance, Admirals Bank, Assistra, Dassault, Henry Davis York Lawyers, SAI Global, Audax Group, DSM, Triad Retail Media, Euronet Worldwide, Palm Beach County School District, iGate, Emerald Queen Casino
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Actifio vs. IBM Spectrum Protect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,476 professionals have used our research since 2012.