IBM Spectrum Protect vs Oracle Data Guard comparison

IBM and Oracle are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.2, while Oracle is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.3. IBM holds a 2.2% mindshare in BRS, compared to Oracle’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 149 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

4,584 Views
3,530 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Oracle Data Guard

Read 31 Oracle Data Guard reviews

2,193 Views
1,476 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Oracle Data Guard

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and Oracle Data Guard are leading products in data protection and disaster recovery. IBM Spectrum Protect has an edge in pricing, while Oracle Data Guard stands out for its advanced features, making it worth its higher cost for some users.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect offers comprehensive data backup, recovery capabilities, and strong pricing. Oracle Data Guard provides high availability, data replication, and advanced features for maintaining data continuity.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect could benefit from a simpler installation process, more cloud service integrations, and better documentation. Oracle Data Guard could improve with a less complex management interface, more user-friendly documentation, and simplified deployment procedures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect is noted for its straightforward deployment and strong customer service. Oracle Data Guard has a steeper learning curve during deployment but is backed by quality support, compensating for its deployment challenges.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect is valued for its cost-effectiveness and provides a faster ROI. Oracle Data Guard, while more expensive, offers significant ROI through its robust feature set for enterprises needing high-availability solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Oracle Data Guard Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Oracle Data Guard

January 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

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

Oracle Data Guard

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

17th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 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 Oracle Data Guard is 0.7%, down from 1.1% 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.

Read full review

IfeoluwaOshinowo

Senior Oracle Database Administrator at Computer Information Systems (CIS)

Makes data protection and network management much easier

The initial setup is straightforward, provided you know the source, target, data version and format. You need to consider all those things. First and foremost, when deploying Oracle Data Guard, the number one priority is to ensure all parameters are correctly set. Two primary methods exist: using backups or recovering from services if the network is reliable. If the network is robust, backups from the source to the target may not be necessary. You must ensure that NIS names are correctly configured on both sides and that the failover and switchover processes are tested successfully from both production and standby environments. Once these steps are completed, the deployment process becomes straightforward. There's no need to copy the entire parameter file; only specific configurations, such as the SID or file structure, must be adjusted if necessary. Ensuring proper DNS name resolution, SID configurations, parameter settings, and understanding whether to convert the Data Guard are essential. Once these aspects are identified, the deployment process becomes more straightforward. I have implemented numerous Data Guard setups. Setting up Oracle Data Guard is performed within the Oracle CRS. Challenges may arise in establishing connectivity between the standby and production databases, necessitating troubleshooting. Apart from that, once configured within CRS, the setup is complete. The challenge with Oracle Data Guard is that it often takes some time for us to identify whether the issues stem from the disk or the network. If we report issues to the network or storage teams from the database end, we may not perceive any apparent problems, which can lead to confusion. We can convince the storage teams to investigate further until we delve into the disk I/O Guard and determine if specific disks operate at total capacity. When disks are operating at total capacity, it can significantly impact application processes. These difficulties in pinpointing the source of issues contribute to the challenges of maintaining and managing Oracle Data Guard.

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 solution offers very good flexibility."

"A robust tool which allows us to backup pretty much any environment, virtual or physical."

"It is a very mature product."

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

"It scales well. We have grown here in the last year or two, and it has been relatively easy."

"You can do restores very quickly. You can mount a drive and restore it right from the drive."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the centralized enterprise backup."

"The platform has valuable stability."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

"It's a very good solution if you want to protect your data across two data centers, or you have a middle man or many administrators who use these solutions for protecting their data. It's very reliable compared to other solutions that are most often not storage-based."

"We have found the replication feature the most useful. We use this feature the most. The ability to recover a database with less effort and the use of Oracle Data Guard Broker to administer the complete environment are also very useful features."

"The most valuable feature is the flashback standby, which allows us to test without scrapping the database."

"We have not encountered any major challenges with replication. We were able to achieve near-real-time replication. Also, with the switchover failover, we were not getting any technical issues. It's a pretty stable product."

"Oracle Data Guard has a nice feature called the DataGuard snapshot to open the solution in the read-write mode and make some changes to the database."

"You can see how the logs are applied, check the apply time, and how far behind the standby is at any given time."

"The solution is quite stable. We haven't experienced any bugs, glitches, or crashes. We find it to be quite reliable."

"If you have a problem with your primary site and can't access your primary database, you can continue working with the database that you have as standby on the other site, by changing its role to primary."

More Oracle Data Guard pros

Cons

"Its price can be better. It is very expensive. Its interface is very old and not user friendly. They can improve its interface. Their support can also be better. My clients are not very satisfied with the support because they are not really quick."

"There is room for improvement in the service aspect."

"I am not really impressed with the Level 1 support, but once I get past that and go to Level 2, then we will usually get some type of resolution."

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

"Software-wise, IBM Spectrum Protect didn't handle virtual machines that well. The license cost is mainly the area for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect."

"They are behind on many things, especially security. They are catching up a little bit now, but the competitors are doing better security-wise. There should be malware detection and prevention and higher security."

"It does not do too well in our virtual environment."

"This solution is not mature in terms of disaster recovery and could be improved."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

"Overall, there are some operational issues that need to be dealt with."

"For Italian medium-sized companies, the main challenge lies in the cost associated with licenses."

"The implementation is complex for anyone who's jumping into it without any experience. It's all command-line driven implementations. For some, that's a turn-off."

"The initial setup is complex."

"The pricing of the solution is quite high. They should do what they can to bring it down so that it is more reasonable for customers like us."

"Oracle could be improved by the ability to manage it on the cloud. This on-premises version is secure and reliable, but I'm sure that they will soon provide a cloud solution that will be even better. In one to two years, we will probably move to the cloud—we have already moved to the cloud with Microsoft Exchange, but our databases are still on-premises. I would prefer managing a cloud version of Oracle."

"One thing that can be improved is the GUI. It would be good to have a very nice GUI to easily configure and administer, providing different presentations to the database administrator. The feature that can be included is the integration with third-party monitoring systems, that is, monitoring systems from other vendors, not only from Oracle."

"I think it would be great to have a graphical interface assistant (like DBCA, ASMCA, NETCA, etc.) for initial configuration, monitoring, configuring Oracle Data Guard Broker and all the Data Guard Broker commands, without needing Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control installed."

More Oracle Data Guard cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"You need to put it in a PoC and test it out if you can."

"It is really expensive. Its price is not good for Latin America. Its price is good for the United States or Europe."

"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."

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

"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."

"The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The pricing of the solution is high in comparison to other products on the market. For example, IBM and Symantec have less costly options."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

"It is not a cheap product, but if you look at the price, features, availability, scalability, and maturity, it is a very good product."

"It's a cost-effective solution."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"Oracle Data Guard is a feature available only in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, and is available for extra cost."

"This is the best solution if you want something similar that's less expensive than Oracle Grid."

"The licensing cost is significantly high."

"The cost is expensive."

"If you want to have everything automated and done smoothly, you have to add additional licenses."

More Oracle Data Guard pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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.

See all answers

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

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

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What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

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What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

Ik fluister:VM Host Oracle en DataGuard hebben we per toeval vervangen door Zerto :-) tijdens de Zerto implementatie en VPG werden de Host Data in write-ack Block-Level gerepliceerd. Qua licentie 1...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

It is a very useful administrative IT tool. It saves on costs. I strongly recommend Data Guard. I've been using it for eight years and I would strongly recommend it. I'd rate Oracle Data Guard a se...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

We're Oracle partners. We've worked with databases 11G and 12C. If a company is planning to implement Oracle solutions, I would suggest they also implement Data Guard. I'd rate the solution nine ou...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 20% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 18% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs Oracle Data Guard

Compared 24% of the time

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery vs Oracle Data Guard

Compared 13% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs Oracle Data Guard

Compared 11% of the time

Zerto vs Oracle Data Guard

Compared 7% of the time

Cohesity DataProtect vs Oracle Data Guard

Compared 7% of the time

More Oracle Data Guard Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

February 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Data Guard

February 2025

Download Oracle Data Guard product report

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Active Data Guard

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

Oracle Data Guard ensures high availability, data protection, and disaster recovery for enterprise data. Data Guard provides a comprehensive set of services that create, maintain, manage, and monitor one or more standby databases to enable production Oracle databases to survive disasters and data corruptions. Data Guard can be used with traditional backup, restoration, and cluster techniques to provide a high level of data protection and data availability.

Oracle

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

Athenahealth, Discover Financial Services

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Oracle Data Guard

January 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Oracle Data Guard

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Oracle Data Guard and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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