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IBM Spectrum Protect vs Rubrik 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
Rubrik
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (4th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 Rubrik is 7.8%, up from 7.1% 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.
CarlosCastells - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to do backup, easy to deploy and scalable
I have experience with different solutions like Oracle, Veeam, andCommvault Cloud. Right now, we are testing a solution for Kubernetes. We are trying to replace it, so we just don't know yet. I don't really know if Rubrik is a good solution for this. We are testing Velero (Open Source) or Kasten K10, and I don't know Rubrik's view for this type of technology.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can scale the product."
"We cannot live without it, since it gives us the confidence to move forward."
"The product is very stable."
"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."
"For initial setup, we started with the blueprints, which were great. The blueprints allowed us to be able to decide if we needed to use small, medium,k or large. Because we are a large environment, we used a large blueprint. Once we followed everything in the blueprint, it was a smooth transition from there."
"The technical support for Spectrum Protect is very mature. It is very committed to giving a top-notch support experience."
"It saves you a lot of storage."
"We are talking about a stable solution which boasts good performance and security."
"Rubrik is a faster unit from a hardware perspective. Things, like Live Mount, mean we can bring services back straightaway, then have them transition back into the live storage in the background. Because we can use Live Mount to do instant restores, a restore is now a five-minute job. Then, the rest of it is done in the background, rather than doing something for an hour before you actually get the restore back."
"We have a great success rate for backups with Rubrik and because of the ease of automating tasks, we also run periodical restores to check the quality of the backups."
"The most valuable feature is the archive to cloud location and the automation around the PowerShell script. There are also reports and dashboards."
"It has the ability to test DR in a controlled, inexpensive way and to restore between environments."
"The feature that I have found most valuable from Rubrik is its protection against ransomware attacks. Rubrik is a very nice, very good solution because it is able to protect your data and you have the possibility from the backup to detect any abnormal behavior, like a ransomware attack. You are able to detect and restore very easily with this solution. This is a major differentiator in comparison to the other competitors."
"The search functionality is second to none as the speed of the search is fast across the whole system and predictive."
"It has reduced our maintenance efforts. The amount of time and effort that would have gone in troubleshooting various issues related a data crash has been addressed by Rubrik. So, it has helped to improve our productivity. The data is being captured about our customers periodically that is secure and safe."
"Intelligent agent technology."
 

Cons

"It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum."
"When it comes to virtualization in IBM it's not perfect."
"Our customers would like to see metadata replication, tearing to tape, and more cloud capabilities."
"Integration with some applications in the healthcare field could be added, as that is a big part of our business."
"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."
"It has a lot of areas for improvement. Its reporting for job completion or incompletion can be improved. It should also provide a granular recovery, ease of operation, data life cycle management, and media management. It should support a backup in such a format that in case of a disaster, one can start the virtual machine out of the backup itself. Its reliability can also be better. It is also expensive, and their support is also poor."
"There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those."
"They can include more cloud-enriching features. I would like IBM Spectrum Protect to have the functionality for backing up a VM directly in Azure. I would like to be able to back up a VM directly in Azure without spinning up a Hyper-V cluster and backing up the virtual server."
"When errors do occur, it can be a somewhat painful process to get to the bottom of issues."
"We have some challenges with the solution's reporting because historical reports have some limitations."
"There is always room for improvement with some shortcuts for the web interface. They could make it even more beautiful."
"I would like a way to set monthly backups on a certain date and time."
"With Windows, it is difficult to configure Oracle Database."
"They have what's called an organization which means different groups of access to Rubrik, but the alerting only goes to the admins. My suggestion to Rubrik is to make sure that the separate organizations or groups of users get the appropriate alerting."
"One improvement I would suggest for Rubrik is to have an inbuilt media layer facility for direct backups to tape."
"Rubrik's disaster recovery capabilities could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Technical support is pretty good. It is doing fine, but you pay for it."
"Spectrum Protect is not expensive, and it is simple to use."
"We have capacity licensing. We use the front end. The capacity licensing is pretty okay on the licensing price. I used to use the old PVU-based licensing in the early environment, but now we use capacity-based licensing."
"Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well."
"There may be an advantage to going with IBM in terms of pricing. They have a pay-as-you-grow policy, so there is no need to take one license for the entire datacenter. You can start with small licenses and then grow, and pay, as you use more."
"I don't have an idea about the pricing. They send that over to someone else, but I know that one of the issues they had was the licensing costs. I don't think they were happy with how they were charged."
"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."
"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 setup cost is a bit high, but the solution is an all-in-one solution."
"Rubrik is priced high, but it was the solution that was providing us encryption and was secure. The solution price is high, but you get what you pay for."
"Rubrik is an all inclusive price. No additional implementation costs or licencing."
"I rate the tool's pricing a six out of ten."
"There are additional costs for add-ons, and they recently upgraded a new cluster, which also carries a price."
"Rubrik is fairly priced."
"We pay annually for the license for Rubrik. There are no additional costs. Initially, we needed to set it up, negotiate and finalize the offer."
"The cost was less than our previous provider, and this is a much better product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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...
Which would you choose - Rubrik or Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam Backup & Replication provides an easy-to-set-up solution to the issue of data storage and recovery. Setting it up is a relatively simple affair. For the most part it prompts you from scre...
What do you like most about Rubrik?
It's easy to manage and has an innovated solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rubrik?
Rubrik is considered expensive, with a price rating of three out of ten. Improvements in pricing and licensing would be beneficial.
 

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
Driscoll's, Red Hawk Casino, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Wabash National, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Galliker Transport & Logistics
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Rubrik and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.