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IBM Spectrum Protect vs NAKIVO Backup & Replication comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
149
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NAKIVO Backup & Replication
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
6th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NAKIVO Backup & Replication is 1.6%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Mattia Sangiorgio - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances data protection strategies and ensures the reliability of backups with helpful support
The features we have found most valuable in NAKIVO Backup & Replication include its cost-effectiveness, seamless integrations, comprehensive functionalities, and ease of installation and management. The pricing model is very competitive, providing excellent value for the robust features offered. Its seamless integration with our VMware infrastructure ensures smooth operation without any compatibility issues. The wide range of functionalities, including incremental and full backups, storage optimization, and disaster recovery options, meets all our backup needs comprehensively. Moreover, the simplicity of installation and the intuitive user interface have made it easy for our team to quickly set up and manage the backups without requiring extensive training.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The backup on real-time, especially for the virtual machine, archiving, and retrieving the reader from the backup repository and getting it online, getting it validated, then performing the data consistency check over the backup."
"The solution can back up every kind of workload in the environment."
"IBM support is friendly, knowledgeable, and they always respond quickly. They've always been able to find the cause of my problem."
"The main thing is to keep the data safe and in files, keep it on tape ready for a request from a bank, and it is working perfectly with all our hardware."
"In the past, one of the most valuable features, and the biggest advantage, was the incremental forever feature. Not many other backup vendors provided that. In the pre-virtualization environment, it was very robust and simple technology, especially writing to tape."
"The ability to do dedupe in the product is nice to have."
"The most valuable feature for data recovery in IBM Spectrum Protect is its database protection capabilities."
"The backup of Sybase databases is the most valuable feature in the existing environment. They have got the most documentation out there on the internet for its software protection. The documentation is excellent, and there are a lot of blogs, websites. Because it's still one of the oldest products out there for data protection, there are also lots of people who have a lot of experience in using this solution."
"The chat functionality with Nakivo Support in the web interface is very unique and we love it."
"The simplicity of installation and the intuitive user interface have made it easy for our team to quickly set up and manage the backups without requiring extensive training."
"Creating a backup task in NAKIVO is fast and easy."
"This enables us to do quick granular file recovery as and when required but also to do whole-site relocation in the case of a total loss scenario."
"The updates are problem-free, so we can keep Nakivo up to date on the server and NAS too."
"We really appreciate the simplicity of the solution."
"The VM, restore, and file recovery capabilities are considered gold standards."
"Nakivo makes our backs-ups more reliable and easy to recover in case of full damage or partial retrieval of files - all at a convenient cost."
 

Cons

"Replication of data could be more user friendly."
"It needs BMR (bare machine recovery) solutions for both Windows and Linux systems."
"They took some of the funding off of it for a while. Therefore, instead of being a market leader, they took their position for granted. Then some competitors developed new bells and whistles that they advertise, and due to that lag a few years ago, there are not the resources to explain the differences."
"For the database side, it does not have object level recovery."
"It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum."
"We have had some problems about using storage agents on the X6 environment. It is not quite stable, but it is also not supported in a virtualized environment."
"Replication services would be nice. If these could be enhanced to be always on so multiple storage backup services could be added as a cluster pool. This would provide a better availability service."
"We would like to see bare-metal restorers."
"It would be a good thing to have some use case and architecture examples online to understand integration in complex infrastructure."
"The way encryption is currently working could be improved. Currently, it's not possible to encrypt the backup to an NFS share directly. It needs to have the encryption within the Transporter/VM to enable encryption, which isn't optimal. So I'm hoping that in the near future this function will be implemented."
"Implementing more comprehensive data deduplication and compression techniques could optimize storage utilization and reduce backup times, improving overall efficiency."
"It would be great if they had a Let's Encrypt integration."
"Personally, I would like to have the ability to backup older legacy systems on the new versions as well."
"The interface can be a little clunky at times."
"Sometimes, for some VMs and some Windows Server versions, specifically old versions (aka server 12 or older) fail due to the VSS writer error or locking file system."
"I would like to have the option of creating a subfolder per job in the backup repository because we had an issue where some files were corrupted and we lost the backup of the majority of the VMs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for a terabyte license to support our backend usage."
"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
"The license model that they have at IBM, which is due to volume, from a certain volume onward is not the right license model."
"We have been at our size for a few years. We are not really looking to battle the licensing costs, as this is our primary system."
"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."
"It is really expensive. Its price is not good for Latin America. Its price is good for the United States or Europe."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"Spectrum Protect is not expensive, and it is simple to use."
"The price could be lower."
"The prices are high."
"Nakivo is cheaper per machine and per backup."
"This product is cheaper than other big rivals."
"Cost is very appropriate for SMEs."
"You have a lot of different options when it comes to pricing and the pricing models are pretty flexible and affordable."
"I advise that this is the best product for medium or small environments according to my cost-benefit analysis."
"Pricing is easy to understand and very affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
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 dash...
How does Nakivo compare with Veeam Backup & Replication?
Nakivo is my favorite backup software. Below are the main benefits of Nakivo compared to Veeam 1. Low cost. 2. Backup storage with global deduplication (this is the main requirement of a backup sol...
What do you like most about Nakivo?
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is very easy to use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nakivo?
The product is affordable even for smaller organizations.
 

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Coca Cola, Honda, 3M, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, University of Arkansas, Johns Hopkins University, Marriott, Radisson Hotels and Resorts, Fujifilm, Eiffage
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. NAKIVO Backup & Replication and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.