IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs NetApp SnapCenter comparison

IBM and NetApp are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8, while NetApp is ranked #51 with an average rating of 7.7. IBM holds a 0.9% mindshare in BRS, compared to NetApp’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Read 30 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reviews

2,015 Views
1,447 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

NetApp SnapCenter

Read 26 NetApp SnapCenter reviews

1,290 Views
841 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

NetApp SnapCenter

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and NetApp SnapCenter are both data protection and recovery solutions. NetApp SnapCenter appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set.

Features: Users value IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for scalability, ease of integration, and reliable backup capabilities. NetApp SnapCenter stands out with powerful snapshot and replication features and efficient application-aware backups.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus needs enhancements in reporting, analytics, and compatibility. NetApp SnapCenter requires better compatibility with certain environments and a more intuitive performance monitoring system.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is praised for straightforward deployment and excellent customer service. NetApp SnapCenter has a relatively easy deployment process but mixed reactions about support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is more budget-friendly and offers good ROI due to lower initial setup costs. NetApp SnapCenter, though more expensive, is seen as worth the investment for its advanced features and robust capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. NetApp SnapCenter Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. NetApp SnapCenter

March 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

NetApp SnapCenter

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

51st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 NetApp SnapCenter is 0.6%, up from 0.6% 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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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Integrates well with various applications , provides a cloning feature for creating snapshots or clones of volume and a centralized command

It is basically centralized command control software. When the users visualize the workflow of the backup, the management and the customer storage administrator know the ins and outs of the backup and recovery. They can make the strategy for their backup and recovery and the certainty of their backups and restore. Strategic planning: Also, it is easy to make a strategy when you have visualized the inflow and outflow of the backup and recovery. With the CLI or native way, without any UI or management tool, you might not be able to create any strategy at all. This is especially important when you have multiple storage systems inside your data center or organization. You need a tool that connects and visualizes the workflow of the backup and recovery from all the storage systems and NetApp storage systems installed within the organization. It is very important when you have multiple storage systems, and you need to manage your backup and recovery workflow. Ease of Management: Unlike other storage vendors, NetApp has its own product called SnapCenter. Other vendors need to acquire third-party software or integrate with other software to manage storage systems. NetApp has its own solution, which is SnapCenter. NetApp's SnapCenter gels well with their storage systems and products. Ease of management is already there. It's a fine software with easy installation, management, and understanding. It's not a complicated software to understand.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Virtual snapshots that offer incremental backups."

"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."

"The solution offers a very straightforward deployment. You click, click, click and it's done. There's not much configuration to do."

"Large-scale recoveries are very straightforward."

"The most valuable features are the API features because it allows you to integrate with your Microsoft SQL, your Oracle, and your IBM Db2."

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

"Reliability, recovery features, and stability are valuable to me."

"With this product, we now have a reliable backup solution."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros

"The Exchange plugin is the most valuable because we have a lot of customers that use SnapManager Exchange and have to migrate to SnapCenter."

"I like the instant backups and recovery feature that SnapCenter provides within NetApp storage systems."

"The backup features are the most valuable because they allow the DBAs to replace SnapManager for Oracle (SMO), which is going away, and to do cloning as well. We can also clone to different servers and have the actual backup clone mounted on different servers. And we can split easily too."

"The way that it interconnects with VMware is really handy, because you can go right into your vSphere client, where you spend a lot of the day anyway, right-click on one of the VMs where you have backups running for however long, and you can restore either some files or restore the entire thing."

"Technical support has been very helpful when we have issues."

"The centralized GUI is the best feature, that there is only one webpage where we can see the states of all the backup jobs. We can see all the tasks that are running and we can quickly see if one fails; if they are running or have any issues. We have all that in one place."

"Being able to add everything in as resource groups is a valuable feature... Having all the SQL servers put into specific buckets, based on their year of release - 2008, 2012, 2014 - allows us to get almost immediate backups that are easily seen and reported on."

"The simplicity of backup and restore directly with VMware is an advantage and the time to backup and restore is reduced."

More NetApp SnapCenter pros

Cons

"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."

"Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface."

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

"The replication feature is not available."

"I think the graphical reports are a shortcoming of the tool since it fails to provide my company with what we want in terms of reporting. Due to the product's inability to take care of its reporting part, we have to use third-party software."

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

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

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve the IBM Spectrum Protect environment. It can be difficult to administer. The initial configuration can be difficult for entry-level teams or deployment teams, and it might be difficult to integrate. There's just too much content involved in the solution. The documentation is way too large."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons

"When you have role-based access, for example, it's a bit of a problem that the person who creates the backup job is the owner of it. We are struggling a bit with this, that everyone has the same view and the same permissions in there."

"The UI, the User Interface, needs to be improved. It's not as clean or modern as it could be."

"I would like to see replication support between systems. Right now, it's kind of limited. We manage them separately from the storage system interface, not from SnapCenter. It would be nice if it was integrated into SnapCenter."

"We have experience some difficulties with our current support. We are engaging in engineering level support because some of our problems are more technical."

"SnapCenter could improve its integration with other backup solutions, such as Veeam."

"My major issue is when I upgrade. I have to touch every last client that I have in SnapCenter, and right now I have 60... They said that in another release that will get better, but right now it's not better and I've had to do this three times."

"Since the solution's initial setup is complex, it should make training documents available in the public space."

"There is one area that needs improvement and that's in the alerting. When you set up your SMTP alerts, it only has - and I don't understand why - the ability to send an anonymous SMTP. It doesn't do basic authentication, which frustrated me for a while until I figured out that I'm not missing something. It's just not there."

More NetApp SnapCenter cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is lower than that of some competing products."

"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."

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

"Depends on the licensing options that you choose."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."

"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."

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

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice

"The product is inexpensive."

"Pricing is very good because if you already have NepApp controllers, then it's included."

"We have a site license, so it comes with the product."

"The licensing is well-designed because it's already included in some packages with NetApp storage. Therefore, for most customers, it's okay as the SnapCenter license is already included in some NetApp bundles."

"It comes free with the amount of equipment we purchase from NetApp. In terms of pricing, zero is my favorite number."

"It's free. The license is included with other NetApp products."

"We see a financial value with SnapCenter because we don't have to license Commvault, which is pretty expensive."

"The license for SnapCenter was included with the storage array."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Financial Services 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 NetApp SnapCenter?

Most banks and financial institutions use the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp SnapCenter?

If you have a license, you don't need to buy anything extra. If you have multiple storage systems and want to manage them with a central tool, you are covered.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp SnapCenter?

There is always a chance for improvement. One thing that might be improved is the ease of management. It might be made a little less complicated.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Spectrum Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 61% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 11% of the time

Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 6% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Competitors

Synology DSM vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 28% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 21% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 17% of the time

Cohesity DataProtect vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 10% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 8% of the time

More NetApp SnapCenter Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

February 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp SnapCenter

February 2025

Download NetApp SnapCenter product report

Also Known As

No data available

SnapCenter

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

Unified, scalable platform for application-consistent data protection and clone management. This software simplifies backup, restore, and clone lifecycle management with application-integrated workflows.

NetApp

Sample Customers

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio

All for One Steeb AG, Accenture

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. NetApp SnapCenter

March 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. NetApp SnapCenter

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. NetApp SnapCenter and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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