IBM Spectrum Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

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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

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

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

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.

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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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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 features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery."

"Good deduplication and compression features."

"Scalability is pretty much unlimited."

"Data reduction definitely reduces costs, not only software costs, but from the infrastructure needed."

"With the new features that we have added, it has made a difference as far as faster recovery and speed."

"Traditional archiving. One of our revenue streams involves maintaining archives of our customers' data for very long periods of time."

"Support of the IBM X platform and the backup data replication to DR are the most valuable features."

"One of the main things that I like about IBM is the versioning of the data - meaning that we can have multiple versions of a file or directory of a server."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

"The tool has enough documentation; you don't need to contact the support team."

"What I like about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its integration, plus it has very good technical support."

"The solution integrates well with other tools."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The most valuable features of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are you have many possibilities on how to use it. We use it for backups and to create secondary and third copies. It is possible to pick up Kubernetes containers and use a different cloud provider if you need to start backups on the cloud."

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

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros

Cons

"Perhaps some better documentation, which I believe was better in the past."

"The features should be a little bit closer together."

"We should be talking about the capacity of the tape drives. That's the only problem."

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

"Their support is lacking. I've talked to their developers and stuff in the last couple of weeks and they reassure me that some people have retired, and they're working on getting that bumped back up. But the support lacks a lot to be desired at this point."

"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."

"We cannot take VMware backups for our banking data center environment."

"If IBM could provide a partial module, that would be great."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

"The one issue we are facing is related to file restores."

"There's significant room for improvement. They are not yet where I want them to be."

"It still needs to grow and add new features. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, I believe, requires time to become competitive due to a weakness in the other software products."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve security."

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

"You end up needing to do a lot of troubleshooting to get things to work effectively."

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

"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."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"That's no longer my department, but I have some past experience with licensing. It is not cheap. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of licensing. In terms of additional costs, there is management overhead. It is a complex solution and a lot of work goes into managing clients. It has gotten better over the years, but compared to its competitor, it is still heavy on management overhead."

"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."

"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

"For my company, the tool is affordable and reasonable...I don't think most people know that when a company has large systems in place, the TCO is a lot lower."

"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."

"Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well."

"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."

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

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

"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."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."

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

"Depends on the licensing options that you choose."

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

"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."

"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

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

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

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

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?

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

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...

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Product Reports

IBM Spectrum Protect

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IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

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Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

No data available

Overview

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

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

Sample Customers

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

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus