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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

"You can scale the product."
"Their GUI has improved quite a bit. It's made the solution a lot simpler and less complex."
"It is pretty scalable. It will scale to anything."
"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."
"Reliability: It has never had a problem with backups or restores. If you store something, it is there."
"The amount of data that it protects with very little storage by doing incremental forever is one of its most valuable features."
"The most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery."
"Since the technology is reliable, it simplifies the backup process significantly. Now, our focus can primarily be on managing full backups and creating some offline copies."
"This is a good product with a simple environment."
"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."
"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."
"Application awareness is very good and the speed of this solution is good."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"A full-featured option for managing virtual machines with an instant recovery feature."
"The solution is meeting all of our client's requirements. It has good performance."
"It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"The product should be improved to save more space."
"The solution is evolving, so it has to be evolved to fit all new types of software requirements too."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"Customers have migrated off of it because of its lack of virtual environment functions."
"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."
"The software is very complicated. You have to do a lot of configurations to build a server, and you would need to backup and restore."
"We did not see any drawbacks to IBM Spectrum Protect before assisting a customer using Windows that wanted to migrate to using UNIX. IBM Spectrum Protect does not offer an option to migrate from other operating systems."
"The solution needs to work on disaster recovery integration. Basically, VMware applications to the cloud, for example. There needs to be integration with the storage, and integration with VMware."
"The compression ratio and application ratio could still be improved in this solution. Reporting could also be improved, for better monitoring."
"Updating and configuration can sometimes be a little bit of a hassel, but once you know the product better it is easy to use."
"I can't think of anything that may be missing."
"Maybe in the future, they could do something better with the user interface and the performance, but so far it's a really good, efficient solution."
"The support could be improved a lot, as it is currently non-existent."
"I am not very impressed by the technical support I received when I had an issue."
"It is not always easy to update this solution to the newer version, so the update process needs to be improved."
"Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows should improve by having more features, easier deployment, and compatibility with Unix boxes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is very scalable, but the downside is that it costs money."
"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."
"We pay for a terabyte license to support our backend usage."
"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 solution is not cheap."
"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."
"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 pricing model of this solution is another difficult area, it's very sophisticated in the way they charge. It's based on PBU, which is a type of processor, how, many processors, and you need to put everything into an equation. However, they have different ways of charging or licensing. One way is a back-end volume or front-end volume, which is quite complicated."
"We purchased a three-year license, and I think that the prices are ok."
"We have a license package."
"It is less expensive than one of its variants."
"We pay for a three-year subscription to use Veeam Agent."
"For the licensing of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, the customer can choose to pay monthly or yearly. It's up to the customer."
"Our licensing fees are on a yearly basis."
"There are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees, and pricing can be a disadvantage or a weakness for this solution."
"We are on an annual license to use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows. There are not any additional fees to use the solution."
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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: February 2026.
882,637 professionals have used our research since 2012.