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IBM Storage Protect vs Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (12th)
Veeam Agent for Microsoft W...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787573 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Salman Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Habib Bank Ltd.
Functional application availability
There are not many options available for AIX backup. They provide the agent for AIX, but it could be more mature, and they should improve that option. They also provide the AIX agent, which is similar to the Windows and Linux agents. Since we use AIX machines, we need to take backups of those machines. However, the options available in that agent are limited. Therefore, the new version should have improvements in that area.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support for Spectrum Protect is very mature. It is very committed to giving a top-notch support experience."
"We are talking about a stable solution which boasts good performance and security."
"The software-defined ability to do data reduction through deduplication and compression, as well as being able to replicate data to a cloud container."
"The product helps us do data protection and restoration for disaster recovery (DR)."
"You can do restores very quickly. You can mount a drive and restore it right from the drive."
"SPIR is Instant Recovery for Spectrum Protect. It sends snapshots using space efficiently and blocking backups to the Spectrum Protect server. It provisions the snapshot from the backup server to the same or new server near instantly."
"Because of the flexible parameters, everything can be fine-tuned to the customers’ needs in their environment."
"Our performance is better."
"Technical support is good. They're very responsive. It depends on the timezone responding, but I usually get a response within three hours of creating a ticket."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It was very easy. Deployment only took about one hour with configuration and everything considered."
"The solution is useful for taking backups for end-user laptops and end-user workstations where data is involved."
"It is good and easy to use for backing up physical servers. It is working fine, and it is stable and scalable."
"If you have windows machine at home and you'd like a backup, you can always download their free edition and plug in an external hard disk, and do a full backup of your laptop."
"The most valuable feature is that it's a VMware environment."
"The most valuable feature is application availability, which allows us to monitor all agents and accounts."
"The most valuable features are backup and restore. This solution is also easy to use."
 

Cons

"I am looking forward to new features in the next release. One of the main features is the cloud storage integration, which was one of my main required features. I've had more difficult experiences with other platforms than with this one."
"The licensing isn't very clear. They should work to simply or clarify the cost structure."
"It would be helpful if the solution included some sort of ransomware protection."
"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."
"The solution is evolving, so it has to be evolved to fit all new types of software requirements too."
"It needs agents that take into account more databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.)."
"Needs more support for non-mainstream databases, in particular PostgreSQL, SQL, and MySQL."
"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."
"The backups can go slow."
"I can't think of anything that may be missing."
"It fulfills our needs in terms of features. In terms of improvements, they can maybe improve its documentation."
"There really are no cons. The product simply has to maintain development to keep up with changes in the operating system."
"The solution lacks instant recovery."
"It is not always easy to update this solution to the newer version, so the update process needs to be improved."
"I would like to see the ability for incremental backups and reverse backups."
"If they could let you can do replication to physical servers - a backup from physical servers and a replication to physical servers - that will be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The different license models can give good benefits to the end customer."
"Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well."
"We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs."
"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."
"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."
"IBM provides an open license policy, which is more like a gentlemen's agreement."
"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."
"We have found that the pricing is high in our country."
"The solution is free of cost for end users but for enterprise use, a license per user is required."
"It is less expensive than one of its variants."
"The pricing is good."
"We have a cloud provider agreement with Veeam. We are also paying for the agent."
"Our licensing fees are on a yearly basis."
"We pay for a three-year subscription to use Veeam Agent."
"The licensing fees are billed on a yearly basis, and the fees are much lower than what I pay for NetBackup."
"Pricing is based on license packaging and duration. Longer term licenses are less per year and license packages also offer a discount."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Photography Company
22%
Performing Arts
19%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise95
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise10
 

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.
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 ...
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
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 ...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
ContinuitySA, Landmark Information Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Commvault and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: January 2026.
882,207 professionals have used our research since 2012.