IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs N-able Cove Data Protection comparison

IBM and N-able are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8, while N-able is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 0.9% mindshare in BRS, compared to N-able’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of N-able users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Read 30 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reviews

1,837 Views
1,332 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

N-able Cove Data Protection

Read 22 N-able Cove Data Protection reviews

2,651 Views
1,693 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

N-able Cove Data Protection

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

N-able Cove Data Protection and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus compete in the data protection solutions category. N-able Cove Data Protection seems to have the upper hand in pricing and ease of deployment, while IBM Spectrum Protect Plus stands out in advanced features and scalability.

Features: N-able Cove Data Protection offers comprehensive backup and disaster recovery capabilities, emphasizing simplicity and efficiency. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus excels in scalability, integration with various environments, and advanced data management.

Room for Improvement: N-able Cove Data Protection could improve in flexibility and scalability, particularly in larger environments. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could enhance ease of use and reduce complexity in operations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, while powerful, has a steeper learning curve and benefits from robust support services to assist with complexity.

Pricing and ROI: N-able Cove Data Protection is generally more cost-effective, offering quicker ROI with lower setup costs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, although pricier, delivers long-term value through its advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. N-able Cove Data Protection Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. N-able Cove Data Protection

April 2025

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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

22nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

N-able Cove Data Protection

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

30th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (17th), SaaS Backup (9th), MSP Backup (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able Cove Data Protection is 1.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Atif Najam

Chief Information Officer and Program Lead at Gatron Industries Ltd

Has very good integration features and can quickly backup data and optimize storage

I would like to see continuous data protection (CDP). If there is machine failure, you don't have to go to the backup copy that you took 12 hours ago. You can actually go back to the backup copy made half an hour ago. That is, it would be good to have certain-point-in-time recovery. I would like them to add global deduplication. With deduplicate backups, deduplication will work only with the data of a certain machine or a certain backup set. Usually, the data is repeated across the data of the backup sets. However, if IBM Spectrum Protect Plus provides a global deduplication option it will ultimately result in better storage savings.

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Jack Henson

Owner at Henson Business Products

Allows us to back up workstations and servers, and saved us time when checking endpoints and the viability of backups

I have some issues with the agent failing on workstations. I've had to completely uninstall several of them, delete everything, and start over to get them to work. That's been the biggest source of my problems recently. The problem is that when we delete one, we lose the backup. Consequently, it means we're without a backup unless we have a local copy. When we delete the agent, there's the problem of how to go back and restore it. I haven't had to deal with it yet, because I haven't had a failure that occurred while I was doing that. I had a workstation that started failing, and we couldn't get the services to run. I don't know what caused it. I had to reinstall the agent, which didn't work. I had to go into the machine and delete everything and load another agent onto it. Once I did that, I was able to make it work, but 90% of the time I never have an issue. During the other 10% of the time when I have a problem, it's a mess. The ability to recover to a different workstation or a different data point is a little bit clumsy. It could use some work.

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 feature I find most valuable is the offload to Spectrum Protect for long-term retention. I think the deduplication and replication are quite nice on Plus."

"Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes."

"The API is very good."

"Virtual snapshots that offer incremental backups."

"Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot, are retention sets."

"The solution is scalable."

"The solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer."

"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."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros

"The ability to back up, restore, and do different types of testing for the preventative maintenance has really increased our importance to these clients because they see the value in how fast we can get them back up and running. We're saving them money in that way."

"The most valuable aspect is the added protection of having a cloud-based backup service. It provides redundancy in case of data loss."

"The most valuable feature by far is the Virtual Disaster Recovery. On top of that is the bare-metal recovery. The recovery options that we have are great. We have tested the Virtual Disaster Recovery and the bare-metal recovery in just about any scenario you can think of. We have even restored bare metal, a full server, to a laptop, and had full functionality. It's just insane how well it works and how simple it is. It does most of the work for you."

"N-able Cove Data Protection is user-friendly and straightforward, and the dashboard is clear."

"One of the bigger features and advantages of the solution is that it is easy to integrate with my RMM which is also N-able."

"It's their cloud, it's their storage. I don't have to buy a space on Amazon or Google's cloud and then use their software to push it. That works well for me. This way, I don't have to worry about another option or the opportunity that there might be a credential leak."

"The monitoring makes it very easy to check whether a backup has gone bad."

"The ease of use and the console are great."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pros

Cons

"In the future, I would like to see support for global deduplication."

"There could be better integration with Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus, it should be one solution."

"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."

"I would like integration into where the VMware guys can do their own restores."

"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."

"The security must be improved."

"The user experience is very bad and the interface needs to be improved."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve security."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons

"The only area that needs improvement is that it is a little bit difficult when you get into virtual machines. The initial deployment of Cove is a little tedious, not for standard machines, but when you get into specialty stuff, like Hyper-V."

"There could be a possibility to create a local NAS backup for infrastructure."

"One area I don't like has to do with the agent that goes on the system... if a system stays offline for some length of time, say for a week or so, I may have to go back in and reinstall the agent to get it back in business. I don't know what's causing that."

"An area for improvement that would really work out well would be if there were a little bit more of an elegant handshake relationship between SolarWinds RMM and the PCs that are being backed up, to advise regarding "up" status... Since RMM is an agent that feeds back that a machine is alive and on, I don't see any reason why they can't either tap into that one feature or build the same exact polling within the backup agent, to update right away and say the system is online or offline."

"We would like to have better reporting."

"The reporting feature and functionality need improvement. We would like to see a little bit more detailed reporting that offers more CEO or C-level focused reporting options."

"The one thing they don't are Linux servers, it's Windows only. I understand that directive. I have another product that I use for our Linux servers and stuff, but it would be nice if they had that flexibility on the Linux side. I understand the development and the world is geared towards Windows in 365, I know that's where the clienteles are and the business and the money is."

"This solution is not very good for image restores, mainly just files. The solution also does not allow you to enable or disable backups. Sometimes, our users will connect via mobile device and it will use their data to perform the backup. If they were able to enable and disable the backup, they would not have this issue."

More N-able Cove Data Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."

"There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive."

"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."

"Clients prefer to buy a perpetual license, but the majority opt for a yearly subscription."

"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 solution is too expensive."

"Depends on the licensing options that you choose."

"The initial cost of the product is perpetual but the support fees are billed annually."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice

"There is no per node cost, at least not the way I am doing it. I am on bulk. New customers can be set up on a trial, where they can get things all squared away, then they can switch over to being a billed customer."

"N-able Cove Data Protection is an averagely-priced product."

"The pricing is very competitive and it's well worth the price."

"The pricing is affordable. N-able Cove Data Protection has a direct-to-cloud architecture, but it also allows saving backups locally without extra storage costs."

"The cost is around ten dollars per workstation a month and that includes a certain amount of data."

"I believe that the price is very reasonable in comparison to other options. It is cheaper than both Redstor and Acronis and, since we are now using our own on-premise cloud, there is absolutely no comparison since we have unlimited storage rather than paying per gigabyte used for their onsite storage. We are currently able to backup fifty computers for the same price that we use to backup five computers."

"When you have a device/appliance on the site quite a lot of the other enterprise class backup people insist that you have their appliance, which is frankly offensively expensive. Because when you pry the top off, it's just a standard 19-inch tin box with a standard Intel I5 in it, some RAM, and a hard drive. Then, you go, "Why have they just charged me 5,500 quid for a box, which I could have probably build for under 500." Whereas, with the SolarWinds product, they don't have that. The backup appliances that we have onsite are just plain cooking PCs. We can build our own machines, which is reflected in the price that we can offer a customer."

"The only option I would like to see is an adjustable scale. Right now we have 250 seats and we're not using all of them. It would be nice to be able to save that little bit of money by being able to buy just what we need."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

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

It is probably based on the number of CPUs. They are fairly expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

With ransomware protection and cyber protection, more improvement is possible. IBM provides these through a third party, so enhancement is needed. There's significant room for improvement. They are...

See all answers

What do you like most about N-able Backup?

The initial setup of N-able Cove Data Protection was very easy.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N-able Backup?

In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with N-able Backup?

N-able Cove Data Protection does not provide a lot of SaaS backup products, which is an area they can improve. Additionally, there are some limitations on the storage side, where I cannot have a lo...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Spectrum Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 59% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 8% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 7% of the time

Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 15% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 13% of the time

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Backup vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Rubrik vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 5% of the time

More N-able Cove Data Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

April 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection

March 2025

Download N-able Cove Data Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup

Overview

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.

IBM

Cove Data Protection, from N-able, is a comprehensive solution designed to safeguard critical business data. It offers a range of features including backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection. With automated backups and flexible scheduling options, it ensures data is protected and easily recoverable.

The solution also includes advanced security measures such as encryption and ransomware detection to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. Cove Data Protection provides seamless integration with various platforms and offers centralized management for efficient monitoring and control.

With its user-friendly interface and robust capabilities, Cove Data Protection is an ideal choice for businesses seeking reliable data protection.

N-able

Sample Customers

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio

Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. N-able Cove Data Protection

April 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. N-able Cove Data Protection

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. N-able Cove Data Protection and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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