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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
149
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (14th)
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

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.
Salman Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"We've found the product to be quite stable and the performance is very good."
"It's a very stable product, and we've never had any downtime with it."
"We are able to run it in an enterprise quite easily with one or two resources."
"The best functional system I utilize is integrated with the data domain and DIGS backup solution, which makes it easily manageable and comprehensive."
"One of the features which is most interesting in Spectrum Protect is the ability to scale out to great environments. This is something that not many vendors have on the market."
"Replication processes with container storage pools allow reduction of storage space and network bandwidth, using deduplication and compression."
"Good deduplication and compression features."
"The feature we have found most valuable is when you want to integrate it with a Tape Library and then do the DRM life cycle. That is when it works the best."
"The installation of Veeam Agent is straightforward."
"It is a stable solution."
"To do the actual backup configuration is also not too bad."
"This is a reliable system that supports Veeam backup and recovery for Windows."
"Veeam is very user-friendly and intuitive software."
"Application awareness is very good and the speed of this solution is good."
"The solution is very affordable for small businesses."
"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."
 

Cons

"It could use single store. The ability to mark an archive from my backup for long-term retention."
"Needs more support for non-mainstream databases, in particular PostgreSQL, SQL, and MySQL."
"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."
"I would like a little more ease with the virtual platforms, because it is a huge thing that is coming up."
"We need better protection from ransomware or the ability to identify ways we can protect ourselves from ransomware. Having backups is one thing, but specifically, we need methods to recover if we have a ransomware attack."
"The product should be improved to save more space."
"I need two separate solutions for virtual and physical systems. I need IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for virtual systems and Spectrum Protect for physical systems and that's a pain. It would be an improvement if they were combined."
"Ease of use."
"I would like there to be more integration with other platforms."
"It fulfills our needs in terms of features. In terms of improvements, they can maybe improve its documentation."
"The solution lacks instant recovery."
"They should improve the solution's automation features."
"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."
"Updating and configuration can sometimes be a little bit of a hassel, but once you know the product better it is easy to use."
"Some customers have Oracle databases and Veeam does support back up of Oracle databases."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM provides an open license policy, which is more like a gentlemen's agreement."
"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."
"Licensing can be either complicated or simple depending on what type of licensing you wish to use and what works best for your environment."
"The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution is not cheap."
"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive. However, there are a few packages and it is unclear because, for the entry suite they have both options, which are the back-end storage capacity and the front-end storage capacity."
"Going to IBM Tech University Conference saved me from making a major purchase of the wrong thing, which was very helpful."
"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 pricing model is based on CPU and must be declared as Microsoft or VMware licensing."
"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."
"The pricing is good."
"We pay for a three-year subscription to use Veeam Agent."
"We have a license package."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Photography Company
20%
Performing Arts
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past. There is a need for additional layers of security to fill the gaps, which is wh...
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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
ContinuitySA, Landmark Information Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Zerto, Commvault and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.