IBM Spectrum Protect vs Veeam Data Platform comparison

IBM and Veeam Software are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.3, while Veeam Software is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. IBM holds a 2.2% mindshare in BRS, compared to Veeam Software’s 14.8% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Veeam Software users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 149 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

3,978 Views
3,421 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Veeam Data Platform

Read 425 Veeam Data Platform reviews

35,384 Views
26,184 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Veeam Data Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

IBM Spectrum Protect and Veeam Data Platform are leading products in the data protection and backup software category. Based on the analysis, Veeam Data Platform holds a competitive edge due to its user-friendly design and robust data recovery features, making it preferred for ease of use and deployment.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect is known for comprehensive support across various platforms with features like disaster recovery, scalable archiving, and strong deduplication and compression. It supports incremental forever backups ensuring robust data protection. Veeam Data Platform is renowned for ease of use and affordability, with features like application-aware backups and quick recovery, integration with applications like Exchange, SQL, and SureBackup, offering a comprehensive solution that is flexible and scalable.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect could enhance GUI functionality and cloud integration, and could also improve virtualization platform features. Veeam Data Platform needs better GUI intuitiveness and cross-hypervisor replication. Speed of backup, reporting, and support for more storage systems and databases also need attention.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect caters primarily to on-premises deployments with sophisticated features, yet its complexity can hinder deployment. Customer service has mixed reviews. Veeam Data Platform excels with a flexible deployment across clouds and on-premises environments and is praised for easy setup and responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect’s complex licensing is costly, favoring larger enterprises. Its ROI is strong with excellent data protection. Veeam Data Platform offers straightforward licensing for various environments and is considered cost-effective due to robust features, efficient backup solutions, and superior ROI acknowledgment.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veeam Data Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veeam Data Platform

July 2025

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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

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

149

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Veeam Data Platform

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

425

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (1st), Virtualization Management Tools (3rd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veeam Data Platform is 14.8%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

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.

Read full review

Edward Hore

L3 Infrastructure Engineer at Specsavers

Reliable with good support but needs a better navigation menu

We use Veeam Data to back up our VMware infrastructure Veeam Data Platform is valuable for its stability and the ability to easily contact support for assistance. The support team provides answers whenever we need them. It is also one of the most scalable backup solutions I've worked with. The…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ability to migrate between media over a long period of time. My customers are long-time users, and they have benefited from being able to move between tiers. They have been able to do this within the product."

"The product is very stable."

"The best part of this solution is that it just works."

"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."

"It scales well for the amount of clients that we use with it."

"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."

"IBM support is friendly, knowledgeable, and they always respond quickly. They've always been able to find the cause of my problem."

"We have better, faster backup times, and it has improved efficiency in the backups."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

"It is a flexible, simple, and scalable software-based solution. It has agentless functionality with specific hypervisors and agent-based functionality with specific operating systems. It gives you the flexibility to use your own hardware and back up physical Windows, Linux, IBM AIX, and Oracle Solaris systems as well as VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs, and Nutanix VMs from one console. It also has integration with major applications that most companies are using, such as Active Directory, SQL, Exchange, or SharePoint. It has integrations, not just for the backup on the image, host layer, or hypervisor, but also for performing an application-consistent backup. It is helpful in backing up to the tape, cloud, DR site, etc. It is really flexible. It is really amazing that you can restore any backup on VMware, Azure, or AWS. As compared to the other solutions in the market. Veeam has really integrated a lot in the past years. It has the best performance and perfect replication."

"We have evaluated other solutions but Veeam is the best for virtualization."

"I think the interface is straightforward"

"I can't think of any improvements yet for Veeam because they are very good. It integrates very well with Microsoft applications. It is very easy to integrate. Micro Focus can also integrate but it's more complex. You have to know the product very well to be able to integrate. While Veeam, it's very user-friendly. You don't need to have certifications or anything to work on Veeam."

"The most valuable feature is the continuous backup."

"The most valuable features of Veeam ONE are the backup reports, such as the status of the storage."

"The solution offers the normal benefits of a virtual machine versus a physical, actual machine. It doesn't take up space, for example."

"They introduced a new feature called the Immutable Repository feature, which helps protect environments from malware attacks that target backup file extensions."

More Veeam Data Platform pros

Cons

"I want to see better compression than what it currently does."

"It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms."

"The solution should have better integration with VMware and with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus."

"There is room for improvement in the service aspect."

"For Spectrum Protect Plus, I would like to see more enhanced reporting features and integration with Spectrum Protect."

"Replication of data could be more user friendly."

"The product should be improved to save more space."

"I would like to see the operations center be a lot more functional. It was nowhere near as functional as the admin center, and I'm doing a lot of command line with it."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

"I would like to see a storage application in the next version of the product."

"The solution could improve by having more user-friendly dashboards."

"Scalability, as well as licensing costs, need to be improved."

"Its reporting feature could be better."

"Some support replies for a broken backup task have been "rebuild the job from scratch" and this is a bad thing to do if you have many VMs and repositories."

"There is a bug that prevents enabling the restore button, which is hectic."

"There is always some room for improvement, especially with some of the different technologies such as DB2. Commvault has a DB2 agent, but Veeam still doesn't have it. We have to use the universal one for it."

"Apart from security improvements, enhancing compatibility with various platforms and addressing limitations related to integration and verification would be beneficial."

More Veeam Data Platform cons

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 licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

"One can go with either a PVU licensing model or a capacity based licensing model. Either solution does not block the usage, if over used."

"Some of the new advanced features are definitely more into cost savings, e.g., dedupe compression, so doing more with less."

"The solution has a capacity based licensing, front and back-end license."

"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."

"We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs."

"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

"Veeam ONE is moderately priced, where it is neither expensive nor cheap."

"The licensing is based on the number of cores you have in your ESX or Hyper-V environment."

"Veeam Backup Replication is inexpensive for small workloads."

"The price of the solution is high."

"We pay on an annual basis. We pay roughly $12,000 for our software subscription."

"Veeam has a ten-license package gives you two physical and two virtual servers you can use on any endpoint."

"The product must improve its pricing."

"The product is not that expensive."

More Veeam Data Platform pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user159711

Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 9, 2014

VMware SRM vs. Veeam vs. Zerto

Disaster recovery planning is something that seems challenging for all businesses. Virtualization in addition to its operational flexibility, and cost reduction benefits, has helped companies improve their DR posture. Virtualization has made it easier to move machines from production to…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Major Differences Between These 4 Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions?

Comparing the features of the four is not the right approach. You need to develop a list of requirements for backup and DR that are specific to your organization and then compare each of the four ...

See all answers

How do the backup solutions of Veeam and Veritas compare?

Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too. But Veritas Netbac...

See all answers

How does Nakivo compare with Veeam Backup & Replication?

Nakivo is my favorite backup software. Below are the main benefits of Nakivo compared to Veeam 1. Low cost. 2. Backup storage with global deduplication (this is the main requirement of a backup sol...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 15% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 12% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Commvault Cloud vs Veeam Data Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Rubrik vs Veeam Data Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs Veeam Data Platform

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Zerto Software vs Veeam Data Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Azure Backup vs Veeam Data Platform

Compared 3% of the time

More Veeam Data Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

July 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Buyer's Guide

Veeam Data Platform

June 2025

Download Veeam Data Platform product report

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE

Overview

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.

IBM

Veeam Data Platform ensures comprehensive data resilience by offering secure backups and intelligent data insights, catering to the complexities of modern data management.

Veeam Data Platform empowers businesses with reliable data protection, orchestrated recovery, and streamlined management. Providing peace of mind, it guarantees data is secure, available, and effortlessly recoverable. Organizations benefit from features such as instant recovery, simplified management, and compatibility with virtual environments. While it shines in backup and restore capabilities, it calls for improvements in integration with physical servers and enhanced cyber security features.

What are the key features of Veeam Data Platform?

Instant Recovery: Allows immediate data restoration with minimal downtime.
Simplified Management: Intuitive interfaces for managing data with ease.
Efficient Replication: Supports reliable duplication for high availability.
Seamless VM Backups: Integrates well with virtual environments like VMware and Hyper-V.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Offers robust alerting for proactive data management.

What are the notable benefits of using Veeam Data Platform?

Reliability: Trustworthy backup and restore functionalities.
Scalability: Supports cloud integration for expanding data needs.
Time Efficiency: Fast recovery processes minimizing business impact.
Flexibility: Adapts to diverse data management requirements.
Peace of Mind: Assures persistent data availability and protection.

Organizations in industries like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing utilize Veeam Data Platform for critical data management, ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery. Employed in securing both virtual and physical workloads, Veeam integrates cloud storage for enhanced scalability and efficiency.

Veeam Software

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

Business & Legal Resources Inc., Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, Alliance Healthcare, Poulin Grain Inc., Linear Technology, Northwestern University, ARKEMA, Sogegross, City of Lynchburg

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veeam Data Platform

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veeam Data Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veeam Data Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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