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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

"It is scalable beyond anything my customers ever aspire to."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is its ability to verify the recoverability of backups."
"This solution has improved our organization through better file and database recovery."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is application-aware backups."
"We apply the new dedupe and compression technology, using maintenance and time to give more time for the backup window and less time for the overhead related to the daily housekeeping."
"The addition of the retention set feature provides a reduction in storage costs. It also reduces RTO and RPO so that you can respond quickly to your clients and services in case of data loss."
"The ability to do dedupe in the product is nice to have."
"The amount of data that it protects with very little storage by doing incremental forever is one of its most valuable features."
"It is a stable solution."
"The most valuable features are backup and restore. This solution is also easy to use."
"It's powerful and user-friendly."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and stability of the product."
"Technical support is good."
"The most valuable feature is application availability, which allows us to monitor all agents and accounts."
"The solution is useful for taking backups for end-user laptops and end-user workstations where data is involved."
"I love Veeam because it is very easy to work with."
 

Cons

"Getting technical support all the necessary diagnostic information is still very painful."
"We need everything cloud. Strong support for cloud services. S3 connectivity, which is mandatory for us in the future along with this integration of Spectrum Copy Data Management or Spectrum Protect services together with these Spectrum Protect Plus functionalities, e.g., hardware, snapshots, and Copy Data Management. They should come together in one solution."
"The version that we had when I first started made it look really bad. We are talking about commands that should have run in two seconds, but instead took four to eight hours. Other components were sluggish."
"Probably educating the virtual group who are not as used to the product. Most of our expertise is with AIX servers and virtual server backups."
"It can be improved for large file systems with many files. Spectrum Protect can restore large files very well, but if you're restoring millions of little files, it is not as great. At one point, we tried to implement the VMware module with it, and it was awful and terrible. I don't know if that has improved. If it hasn't, this would be one big improvement."
"Our new leadership has pushed us to go more toward the cloud, so we are definitely going to leverage anything we can in that direction."
"A lot of my customers always ask for legal holds, especially on email."
"My customers are not always happy with the Level 1 support. Sometimes, it just takes too long for the response to come, which is probably something that needs to be addressed."
"We need some sort of security for backups and archives."
"Interface could possibly be improved."
"If you are doing an AIX backup then you have to use the CLI because it doesn't appear on the console, the way that Windows and Linux jobs do."
"An area that this solution could be improved would be with the licensing."
"With the currency exchange, the solution ends up being quite expensive."
"The support could be improved a lot, as it is currently non-existent."
"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."
"The predictability of the solution needs improvement. Sometimes, if it's doing something at the back end, it may go slow. Today, the backup completion took four hours, but sometimes it can do the backup in 30 minutes or an hour. With solutions like NetBackup, I can predict to a much higher degree of certainty how long something will take to complete."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
"The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"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."
"IBM Spectrum Protect, cost-wise, has way higher pricing than Veeam. By switching over to Veeam, my company saved over $600,000 in USD. The IBM Spectrum Protect pricing is a two on a scale of one to ten. My company paid additional fees for maintenance, apart from the standard licensing fees."
"The solution's pricing is fair. Price-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"It is very scalable, but the downside is that it costs money."
"The solution is not cheap."
"The different license models can give good benefits to the end customer."
"Pricing is based on license packaging and duration. Longer term licenses are less per year and license packages also offer a discount."
"For the licensing of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, the customer can choose to pay monthly or yearly. It's up to the customer."
"The cost for its licenses is reasonable and as per industry standards."
"The solution is free of cost for end users but for enterprise use, a license per user is required."
"We are on an annual license to use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows. There are not any additional fees to use the solution."
"We have the Community Edition and I believe we bought a license for 200 instances. Veeam Agent is mainly used for our branch offices. Those only have one or two Hyper-V servers, so it's covered with the Community Edition. Basically, it's free. I remember Veeam 7.0 or 8.0 wasn't free, but the Community Edition is."
"We pay for a three-year subscription to use Veeam Agent."
"The solution is inexpensive, more so than other products."
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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: February 2026.
882,606 professionals have used our research since 2012.