Dell NetWorker vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

Dell Technologies and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.2. Dell Technologies holds a 3.1% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Dell NetWorker

Read 84 Dell NetWorker reviews

5,010 Views
4,203 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 149 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

4,073 Views
3,133 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Dell NetWorker

IBM Spectrum Protect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and Dell NetWorker compete in the data protection solutions category. Users generally rate IBM Spectrum Protect higher for pricing and support, but Dell NetWorker's features often make it a preferred investment.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect is praised for its scalability, extensive platform support, and cost-effectiveness. Dell NetWorker is noted for its advanced integration capabilities, comprehensive reporting, and user-friendliness.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect users suggest enhancements in speed, modernizing backend processes, and better user interface customization. Dell NetWorker users seek improvements in backup and recovery speeds, better documentation, and improved security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect is described as complex to deploy but has robust customer service. Dell NetWorker offers a simpler deployment process yet has mixed reviews regarding customer support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect is considered cost-effective with a good ROI. Dell NetWorker's higher setup costs are balanced by its robust features and perceived long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell NetWorker vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

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Helped 849,190 peers since 2012

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

Dell NetWorker

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

12th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 Dell NetWorker is 3.1%, up from 3.0% 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

ErmiasGirma

System and Cloud Deployment Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc

Offers seamless integration and cost-saving benefits with enhanced recovery capabilities

Currently, in my organization, I am using Dell NetWorker for open-source solutions like PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, and some large VM environments. It also supports the Dell library and is used for the library archiving system Dell NetWorker allows for extensive customization, supporting…

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Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very stable, especially if you are using a RAC environment."

"It is scalable software. All you need to increase is its RAM and CPU. It's pretty easy."

"The most valuable feature of Dell NetWorker is its quick configuration and handling of large databases."

"It's a good product that can be integrated easily with the Data domain."

"Technical support from Dell is excellent."

"The best feature is the DR replication for us."

"NetWorker is fast and reliable."

"Technical support is good."

More Dell NetWorker pros

"Scalability, performance, mass platform coverage. It's one of the few backup products on the market right now which an organization can bring in and it will serve all of their backup needs. It's a completely centralized solution."

"The fact that we can take the backup straight onto tape is the most valuable feature."

"It has a lot more capabilities and functions than a lot of other products. Even though it is more complex, the reason is because it gives you a lot more features. This is what I prefer, especially for a long retention."

"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."

"Enterprise-wide type of architecture supports a lot of different platforms."

"Scalability: Our customers are able to grow the product without having to buy additional hardware, so it is very scalable."

"Data archiving is easier and less time-consuming."

"The scheduled backups ensure we meet the requirements for our business, and we keep backups of certain environments."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

Cons

"Reporting templates could be easier to understand and more comprehensive."

"The UI is not user-friendly."

"They need to be compatible with the cloud because EMC NetWorker cannot compete with other products at the moment. EMC focuses only on their own cloud and do not take into consideration other cloud vendors."

"Currently, the NetWorker server only supports the Windows server bare-metal recovery, so an improvement would be built-in support for Linux and UNIX BMR."

"There should be more vendors incorporated into the solution."

"Reporting and support for this product need to be improved. There are multiple bugs that need to be fixed."

"The licensing rules are difficult to navigate and understand."

"There are too many reboots and the software requires constant updating."

More Dell NetWorker cons

"For Spectrum Protect Plus, I would like to see more enhanced reporting features and integration with Spectrum Protect."

"In terms of features, they've got it all covered. The features they have are quite good. The only downside to it is that it is for an enterprise or big organization. In my opinion, it is not for a small business."

"Replication of data could be more user friendly."

"This product should be more user-friendly for newcomers."

"There have been scalability issues. The core product does not support scale out. We needed to create a new system and manage resources separate from the existing one."

"I want a better user interface, support, and integrations."

"We have run into some periods where we have found some tape issues which were causing us problems, but we resolved them. For some reason, we had a bunch of drives go offline on our disk storage (our virtual library)."

"It seems like they are a little behind on the integration to Azure Cloud as well as Amazon."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model can be traditional licensing or capacity-based licensing."

"It is excellent from the pricing point of view. It is free with Data Protection Suite. Similarly, when you purchase Avamar, Dell EMC NetWorker is free with one terabyte license capacity. Its price is very competitive."

"They are not cheap."

"Licensing is based on the number of terabytes, so you need to purchase packages."

"The solution follows a subscription model for licensing. We pay annually to use the solution and the price is high."

"We use a license without a time term. We just need to buy additional support when needed."

"The pricing of the solution is not the cheapest compared to other similar solutions. The Networker is available as a component of the Dell EMC Data Protection Suite package and it should have the ability to be purchased separately."

"The tool is pricey."

More Dell NetWorker pricing and cost advice

"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."

"It is very scalable, but the downside is that it costs money."

"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."

"The product is not cheap."

"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."

"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."

"Spectrum Protect is not expensive, and it is simple to use."

"IBM Spectrum Protect, cost-wise, has way higher pricing than Veeam. By switching over to Veeam, my company saved over $600,000 in USD. The IBM Spectrum Protect pricing is a two on a scale of one to ten. My company paid additional fees for maintenance, apart from the standard licensing fees."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?

From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell NetWorker?

The feature that offers the greatest benefits in ensuring data integrity is its backup capability.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell NetWorker?

The licensing cost is somewhat expensive. While we use a traditional license, there is a capacity-based license available, but our customer is not comfortable switching to it. A five to seven perce...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 30% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 13% of the time

Dell Avamar vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 11% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 8% of the time

Cohesity DataProtect vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell NetWorker Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 18% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 17% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker

April 2025

Download Dell NetWorker product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Also Known As

NetWorker

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Overview

Built on a reputation of efficiency and reliability, thousands of customers trust Dell NetWorker to protect their data and applications across multiple environments, from core to edge to cloud.

Inherently flexible, NetWorker helps you deploy and leverage the data protection that fits your needs. NetWorker protects both physical and virtual environments, including VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as cloud workloads on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

NetWorker is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite, which offers comprehensive data protection software applications and tools. NetWorker is delivered as software and as a virtual edition.

Dell Technologies

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

Sample Customers

Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport

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

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

Free Report: Dell NetWorker vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell NetWorker vs. IBM Spectrum Protect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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