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IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2025

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

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
49th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Storage Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect2.1%
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.0%
Other96.9%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables organizations to make large-scale recoveries easily, but the security must be improved
The security must be improved. We face a lot of cyber threats like ransomware. It impacts data availability and protection. The tool must provide a mechanism to make resilient backups. The tool must ensure that the recent backups have no ransomware. The backup must be immutable. They must be cyber-resilient backups. Finding a good resource person for IBM Spectrum in Pakistan is difficult. We have to rely on the support team. Resource availability is a challenge.
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

"The most valuable feature is how we can easily power speed up the VM even though the VM resides in remote storage."
"A full-featured data protection solution that is reliable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases."
"Large-scale recoveries are very straightforward."
"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 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."
"Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot, are retention sets."
"We have been using it for several years, and it is quite reliable and predictable. We are quite comfortable with this solution. They're coming up with new features as well. It has good scalability, and it provides good integrations with business-critical applications or databases, such as SAP HANA. It works as expected, and we don't see any issues."
"The licensing isn't very clear. They should work to simply or clarify the cost structure."
"The solution is really scalable."
"I love the TDP for VMware because of the web interface and the possibilities provided by this tool. It's amazing."
"It is a very stable product. The cost is similar to that of other enterprise solutions."
"It scales from very small to very large. It is easily the most scalable product out there."
"The ability to use S3 Data Store as a repository."
"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

"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."
"Rooms for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are installation and configuration because those were difficult. They should try their best to improve those areas. In the next release of the product, better implementation and administration are what we're expecting."
"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."
"IBM has made a decision to withdraw the product and replace it with IBM Data Protect."
"It requires much more automation features."
"Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface."
"The replication feature is not available."
"There could be better integration with Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus, it should be one solution."
"The product’s recovery process in terms of agent installation needs improvement"
"Generally, the implementation of virtualization could be improved. The workflow service and so on are not working properly."
"The deduplication must be perfect, and thus should be improved."
"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."
"The solution should improve the ability to monitor backup failure."
"We would like to see bare-metal restorers."
"I want a better user interface, support, and integrations."
"It needs some software upgrades to fix some of its current bugs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."
"Clients prefer to buy a perpetual license, but the majority opt for a yearly subscription."
"The price is perpetual, but the maintenance cost is annual. That is, we pay once for the product and pay annually for the maintenance and support. The price was much cheaper than what we would have had to pay for EMC or Veritas. The pricing is competitive, and I would rate it at four out of five."
"The price is lower than that of some competing products."
"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."
"If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."
"I rate the price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a one on a scale of one to ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is very cheap."
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."
"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."
"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."
"We pay for a terabyte license to support our backend usage."
"The solution has a capacity based licensing, front and back-end license."
"The solution is not cheap."
"The licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."
"Some of the new advanced features are definitely more into cost savings, e.g., dedupe compression, so doing more with less."
"We are paying for support and maintenance on a monthly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise94
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Technical support could be improved significantly. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score.
What do you like most about IBM Storage Protect?
The best point about IBM Storage Protect is that it can use IBM tape environments, which we still use and will continue to use in the future.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is generally an expensive tool. However, with good contracts with IBM or its partners, the cost might not be so high. New customers can expect very high prices.
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past. There is a need for additional layers of security to fill the gaps, which is wh...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Spectrum Discover
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
CEMEX
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. IBM Storage Protect and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,697 professionals have used our research since 2012.