IBM Storage Protect vs OpenText Data Protector comparison

IBM and OpenText are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.0, while OpenText is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.0. IBM holds a 1.8% mindshare in BRS, compared to OpenText’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of OpenText users who would recommend it.

IBM Storage Protect

Read 4 IBM Storage Protect reviews

5,105 Views
4,288 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

OpenText Data Protector

Read 102 OpenText Data Protector reviews

2,452 Views
2,207 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

OpenText Data Protector

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

OpenText Data Protector and IBM Storage Protect compete in the data protection and backup solutions category. While both offer comprehensive features, IBM appears to have the upper hand with advanced deduplication and scalability, which are critical for large-scale enterprise environments.

Features: OpenText Data Protector offers seamless integration with applications such as SAP and Oracle, along with virtual and physical backup capabilities, benefiting from a comprehensive feature set. IBM Storage Protect supports advanced deduplication, compression, and robust database integrations, focusing on scalability and reliability for large enterprises.

Room for Improvement: OpenText Data Protector users seek enhancements in GUI, reporting functions, and better management for virtual environments, alongside improved support documentation. IBM Storage Protect needs simplification of configuration, better cloud integration, enhanced VM backup capabilities, and a more user-friendly command-line interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both solutions are favored for on-premises and hybrid deployments. OpenText Data Protector's customer service could improve in response times and localized expertise, while IBM offers professional service with room for quicker issue escalation.

Pricing and ROI: OpenText Data Protector provides flexible licensing options but can be costly if all features are used, yet remains cost-effective for comprehensive backup needs. IBM Storage Protect's pricing is seen as high; however, the enterprise-level capabilities, offering scalability, often justify this cost, ensuring a good ROI for large organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Storage Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector

December 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 Storage Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

OpenText Data Protector

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

26th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Data Protector is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect	1.8%
OpenText Data Protector	0.9%
Other	97.3%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787573

Interim Head of Infrastructure at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Backup coverage has supported immutable protection and now needs a more modern, intuitive interface

IBM Storage Protect is from a previous generation of backup software. In those days, backup software was complex in setting up and complex to manage. The new software, such as Rubrik, is very easy to use and more relatable to younger engineers because its interface design is more similar to Office 365 and the newer controls and labels that we are accustomed to. The difficulty that we now have with IBM Storage Protect is that for this day and age, compared to other products that are out there, it seems complex. If we look back 15 years ago, all enterprise class backup software was complex, so IBM was not any different. However, many of these older systems, such as Commvault, still have the same complaint that they are very complex because they have tried to keep that same interface and the same way it works. This suits them, but it probably needed a complete overhaul to bring it into the ease of use that we have with modern software. However, that upgrade has not been done. IBM Storage Protect has not been upgraded into a modern platform. It still looks a legacy platform.

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reviewer1751496

Project Manager and Technical Consultant at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Provides effective backup for physical servers and needs improvements for cloud compatibility

We use OpenText Data Protector for Oracle database backup and some applications that run for database security OpenText Data Protector is good for physical backup, specifically for physical servers. It is effective for direct backups to EMC library or storage without using a repository. However,…

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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 are the stability and also how it's seamlessly integrated with other IBM offerings."

"You can scale the product."

"It scales well for the amount of clients that we use with it."

"Spectrum Protect's best feature is that I can use it practically anywhere, on any platform, and for any servers or clients."

"IBM Storage Protect is very scalable, it is one of the most scalable platforms, and that is its strong point."

"We are able to run it in an enterprise quite easily with one or two resources."

"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."

"Overall, my experience with the solution is very positive, and I rate it a 9 out of 10."

More IBM Storage Protect pros

"Micro Focus Data Protector's most valuable feature is its interaction with the fiber share. It is easy to use, we use it to back up without any problem to VTLs, and can use the Fiber Channel that is still the TCP."

"In one of the projects involving a database and UCMDB integration, we needed to manage a large database. We used the scheduling feature in Data Protector to automate backups."

"The initial setup was relatively easy."

"This solution is quite stable because we have only three users."

"Data Protector is quite simple and easy to deploy. The deployment is always the same. It's on a server, and the agents are deployed to the machines in a straightforward way. We have two engineers who deploy and manage all our backup solutions."

"Performs the backup properly and protects our data."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...The initial setup process for the solution is easy."

"The dashboards in Micro Focus Data Protector are very good. They are similar to the dashboards in Veeam Backup & Replication."

More OpenText Data Protector pros

Cons

"IBM Spectrum Protect does have a lot of the features that we need, but I think they need to improve their backup virtualization and backup for container."

"It is not easy to manage like other products in the market. It is okay only if you are command-line driven. Even though the operation center is there, it doesn't provide a single view of everything. You have to, for example, use TSMManager on top of it, which gives you a far better management capability, but it is a third-party product. Its management needs to be improved. There should be an HTML or graphical interface. It is a very difficult product. For example, you have a backup policy where you want a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly policy standard. It is an old kind of system where you have to keep retention for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups, which is very difficult in IBM Spectrum Protect. In other products, in a matter of five minutes, you can configure such a policy. In TSM, it takes you one, two, or three days because you need to configure a node for each of them. If you have 250 nodes, you have to configure each node for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly retention. If you have 1,000 nodes, it is going to take you ages just to configure and register the nodes. You need to configure the schedule and the CAD daemons or services, depending on whether it is a Unix or Windows OS. Unfortunately, it is a very long and drawn-out process. You have to stop and start the services for changes to take effect. This is a very difficult part of TSM in IBM Spectrum Protect. To configure a backup policy, I should be able to select the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly options in one screen and finish it. After that, everything should happen in the background. All the backup products in the market already do that, and they are very simple to manage. This particular part of this solution has really been a major pain area for us, and unfortunately, we could not find a workaround. There is nobody at IBM who can give us a way to configure all this easily through a GUI or even scripts."

"The software is very complicated. You have to do a lot of configurations to build a server, and you would need to backup and restore."

"They need to reduce the complexity and make the learning curve easier."

"RTO is a huge gap for us. If we had a disaster scenario and had to recover a bunch of stuff from tape, the RTO would be too long for us."

"They need to do a better job on Windows, because if you are running Windows, the scalability is more limited than AIX and Linux."

"The solution must protect against ransomware attacks better."

"Replication of data could be more user friendly."

More IBM Storage Protect cons

"I would like to see a better user interface in the next release."

"The GUI could be updated. The GUI hasn't changed since version 6. It's on version 10 now. The reporting could also be better. Also, while Data Protector is excellent for backing up physical hardware, it needs more features for backing up VM images because many environments use hypervisor."

"I do not think that this solution is relevant in the current IT market. They have not upgraded their features and functionalities which makes it difficult for them to remain competitive."

"We have a lot of requests for the Micro Focus team, particularly in terms of the Japanese data pattern, as it's not as good now. The Japanese data pattern accuracy of the Micro Focus Data Protector needs to be improved because there are a lot of false negatives and false positives. We are currently testing this and our product team has been communicating with the Micro Focus team."

"Virtualization."

"Integration with the market applications must be improved, such as MS Exchange, MS Active Directory, SAP and Oracle. Other backup tools are more efficient with the integrated backups."

"The technical support was very slow."

"The scheduler setup could be better. We are facing some issues scheduling the job based on our requirements."

More OpenText Data Protector cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"License-wise regarding IBM, it's licensed per terabyte. And that is after compression and deduplication."

"Some of the new advanced features are definitely more into cost savings, e.g., dedupe compression, so doing more with less."

"Going to IBM Tech University Conference saved me from making a major purchase of the wrong thing, which was very helpful."

"The solution is expensive."

"I rate the pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is not cost-effective, and ten is cost-effective."

"Customers need to pay for licensing in order to use IBM Spectrum Protect. The customers that have been using it for a long time are okay and happy with it. From a cost point of view, it's better for them to renew their licenses than to go through the difficult process of changing a backup product in their environment, and migrate from one product to another."

"The solution is not cheap."

"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

"It is fast, reliable, and its licensing policy is great."

"Pricing/licensing is Data Protector's single best offering. In its most basic environment, the only license required is for whatever target device is required."

"In Data Protector, if you need extra features, you need to buy the agents for these features. Some of the features are Terabytes, some of them are agents. There's some complexity in the pricing and licensing."

"Pricing for Micro Focus Data Protector is reasonable."

"It is more affordable compared to other vendors."

"The licensing cost was not annual. We didn't pay any license. We paid when we deployed and we didn't pay for anything after that. There were no additional fees after the initial payment."

"The product is cheaper than Commvault."

"The license for the solution is very expensive compared to the other products in the market."

More OpenText Data Protector pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Performing Arts

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	95

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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

I do not know the current licensing cost for IBM Storage Protect and how we get our support because our licensing model is not quite standard. We do not buy IBM Storage Protect direct from IBM. We ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Data Protector?

The solution is expensive as it requires purchasing all features without the option to negotiate based on client numbers, unlike Veeam which offers flexibility in pricing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Micro Focus Data Protector?

OpenText Data Protector is not user-friendly, especially for cloud backup. It lacks functions and facilities compared to Veeam, which offers more user-friendliness for virtual machine backups. Ther...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Data Protector?

We use OpenText Data Protector ( /products/opentext-data-protector-reviews ) for Oracle database backup and some applications that run for database security.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 7% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 7% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 6% of the time

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Veeam Data Platform vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 18% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 7% of the time

Dell Avamar vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 5% of the time

Symantec Data Loss Prevention vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 4% of the time

More OpenText Data Protector Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

January 2026

Download IBM Storage Protect product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenText Data Protector

January 2026

Download OpenText Data Protector product report

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover

Micro Focus Data Protector, Data Protector, OmniBack, HPE Data Protector

Overview

IBM Storage Protect offers data protection and management to secure critical business information efficiently. It's designed to be a scalable and flexible solution for data backup, recovery, and archive needs in complex IT environments.

IBM Storage Protect delivers comprehensive data protection by integrating backup, recovery, and archiving functionalities. It supports a range of workloads and infrastructures, from on-premises to cloud environments, facilitating efficient data management. Its platform provides seamless scalability to meet evolving business needs, underpinned by reliable security measures. Organizations leverage its capabilities to ensure business continuity and minimize data loss risks, making it vital in a data-driven world.

What are the key features of IBM Storage Protect?

Advanced Data Protection: Offers robust encryption and data integrity for secure backup processes.
Scalability: Grows with your data demands, supporting large data volumes without compromising performance.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly integrates with cloud platforms, enhancing backup strategies with hybrid options.
Automated Operations: Simplifies management tasks with automation, reducing manual intervention and errors.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating IBM Storage Protect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces storage costs by optimizing backup processes and data retention strategies.
Data Safety: Ensures data accessibility and integrity during recovery efforts, building trust in data protection strategies.
Operational Efficiency: Boosts productivity through streamlined and automated backup management workflows.
Compliance Readiness: Helps maintain compliance with data protection regulations by providing thorough reporting and audit trails.

Industries like finance and healthcare implement IBM Storage Protect to safeguard sensitive information against threats. In financial services, it's crucial for maintaining client data confidentiality, while healthcare institutions use it to protect patient records, ensuring both accessibility and compliance with regulations.

IBM

OpenText Data Protector standardizes and consolidates backups across multiple platforms. It provides secure, comprehensive backup protection for business-critical data and applications whether virtual, physical, or online in the cloud.

OpenText

Sample Customers

CEMEX

GSK Vaccines, Repsol, Vodafone Group, Siemens AG, Medium Enterprise Transportation Services Company

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector

December 2025

Free Report: IBM Storage Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector

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