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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

"When I have to do disaster recoveries, I can do it with this tool."
"We can scale. Today, we have an average backup volume of 100TB a day."
"Our customers have come to trust IBM."
"Traditional storage works perfectly with it."
"IBM support is friendly, knowledgeable, and they always respond quickly. They've always been able to find the cause of my problem."
"The product is very stable."
"The backup is very good. In other backup systems, you need a lot of storage to gain the same backup policy."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the centralized enterprise backup."
"This is a reliable system that supports Veeam backup and recovery for Windows."
"User-friendly data backup and protection solution for a Windows environment. The Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows is very scalable, stable, and has good compatibility and integration."
"It's powerful and user-friendly."
"Veeam is very useful for the Hyper-V environment."
"The most valuable features of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows are the backups, ease of use, and report manager."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to navigate inside a backup point to look for a specific folder or data you want to recover."
"The user interface is good. It provides a lot of information."
"The Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows is easy to use and performing a recovery is easy to do."
 

Cons

"Integration with Windows environments needs improvement. It should be more "assisted", both at the application and database level. It remains a product that fits better in Unix/Linux environments than in Windows environments, given its configuration procedures."
"The only thing that I would like to have a little more of is insight in reporting. I find that Spectrum Protect needs a lot of monitoring, and I have to actually log into the servers."
"Ease of use. That has got to be the one thing that I routinely hear from clients and customers, that it's a little bit more difficult than it should be. What I'm finding is that IBM has heard that and they're responding with updated interfaces and things like that."
"It seems like they are a little behind on the integration to Azure Cloud as well as Amazon."
"The administration tools for GI need improvement, as the current assessment suggests shortcomings in the back-end system."
"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."
"The solution's ability to integrate with a cloud solution is one area that needs improvement."
"Perhaps some better documentation, which I believe was better in the past."
"I've found a lot of difficulties on the initial setup and especially in terms of credentials. We really need a Window OS. It doesn't like the domain admin account. it's a primary permission issue."
"We can't use tape for primary storage on Veeam."
"The backups can go slow."
"I can't think of anything that may be missing."
"There are not many options available for AIX backup. They provide the agent for AIX, but it could be more mature."
"The solution's compression ratio and high speed for backing up can always improve. Aspects that need improvement are less time, better quality, higher security, and more compression. These are continuous requirements for any customer."
"It is not always easy to update this solution to the newer version, so the update process needs to be improved."
"The price of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows could improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Going to IBM Tech University Conference saved me from making a major purchase of the wrong thing, which was very helpful."
"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."
"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"The solution's pricing is fair. Price-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"Licensing can be either complicated or simple depending on what type of licensing you wish to use and what works best for your environment."
"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 licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."
"It is less expensive than one of its variants."
"The pricing is good."
"The licensing fees are billed on a yearly basis, and the fees are much lower than what I pay for NetBackup."
"The solution is free of cost for end users but for enterprise use, a license per user is required."
"We purchased a three-year license, and I think that the prices are ok."
"We have a cloud provider agreement with Veeam. We are also paying for the agent."
"Pricing is based on license packaging and duration. Longer term licenses are less per year and license packages also offer a discount."
"The cost for its licenses is reasonable and as per industry standards."
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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 ...
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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.
882,410 professionals have used our research since 2012.