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IBM Spectrum Protect vs Veritas Backup Exec comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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
Veritas Backup Exec
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Veritas Backup Exec is 1.7%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

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.
Pawel Augustyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplified interface with good performance but needs monitoring
I need to use PowerStore and Veritas Backup Exec. It is a direct backup to types, and it is supported by my backup. It offers good performance and stability, and it works properly. I am happy with this program. It is still working on aligning with security requirements and data encryption for Amazon or ATAC. It has a lot of functions and security measures, which ensure our backups are secure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Scalability: Our customers are able to grow the product without having to buy additional hardware, so it is very scalable."
"It's a very stable product, and we've never had any downtime with it."
"We optimize our costs of media and storage use, thanks to the Incremental Forever backup. The TDP software provides us many ways to protect our data, so we don't need to use monstrous scripts for doing backups now."
"The feature that I have found the most valuable is that IBM Spectrum Protect is highly integrated with IBM ESS. In addition, it allows us to back up our virtual servers directly to take VM snapshots. It runs on Linux as well."
"We have better, faster backup times, and it has improved efficiency in the backups."
"The scalability of IBM Spectrum Protect is good."
"The solution is very stable. It is one of the most important features that we look for in a product before putting it into the market and when establishing a strategy with our customers."
"It is pretty scalable. It will scale to anything."
"The most valuable features of Veritas Backup Exec are the easy-to-use intuitive GUI. It is very easy to understand. I have never lost data and I have been able to recover all the data I need."
"The platform has significantly improved our backup and recovery processes by efficiently managing data protection and supporting tape drives. It has also provided reliable data recovery solutions."
"It is a good backup tool."
"I like that Backup Exec integrates with Microsoft Exchange. We can retrieve backups from the email boxes."
"This solution is not complex and you do not have to be too technical to use it."
"We have virtual infrastructure, so restoring virtual machine systems from backups is also very easy."
"The backup solution comes in different versions to support different platforms."
"The usability and interface of the solution are good."
 

Cons

"Sometimes we experience trouble with the backup transfer of the control files."
"There were scalability issues only in the brand new features which were recently released."
"It needs some software upgrades to fix some of its current bugs."
"Replication of data could be more user friendly."
"IBM Spectrum Protect is not a very user-friendly tool."
"I want a better user interface, support, and integrations."
"The administration tools for GI need improvement, as the current assessment suggests shortcomings in the back-end system."
"They should have a proper technical support team serving the customers and get issues resolved earlier."
"One area for improvement is Veritas's pricing."
"Veritas Backup Exec could improve the analytics. If there were some more detail in our scan reports it would be beneficial."
"Initial setup is a bit complex and needs some expertise for troubleshooting when something goes wrong."
"I would like to be able to create a restore task that can be scheduled so that the same restore action will be performed automatically."
"The image backup functionality needs to be examined, because I know a few customers who are using Veritas Backup Exec find it difficult to take a proper image backup and perform image restoration in case of a hardware failure of the client."
"I wish that they have an outlet for the other products from Veritas built into the Backup Exec product. For example, Backup Exec does only server backup. Currently, it is possible to read the backup of one other product, but if they can add more products so that you can just go into the dashboard of these other products by clicking on a button within the Backup Exec product, it would be great."
"There needs to be an integration process of the endpoint devices so that we don't have to redo everything for different products."
"The deduplication feature can be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."
"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 product is not cheap."
"We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs."
"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."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"The license model that they have at IBM, which is due to volume, from a certain volume onward is not the right license model."
"I would like to see a better licensing model. They changed it and it's just horrendous."
"It is a mid-range solution on the pricing scale."
"The pricing of Veritas Backup's license is comparable to Veeam."
"The price of Veritas Backup Exec could be reduced and we pay annually for the license. However, compared to other solutions, such as Veeam, it is less expensive."
"Its price is a bit high. There is only the standard fee. There is no additional fee."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Regarding expense, Backup Exec is generally suitable for small and medium businesses. However, we can customize them based on the workload."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

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...
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...
What do you like most about Veritas Backup Exec?
The most important feature is the variety of backup applications it supports, including ERP systems and most other programs, such as Microsoft.
 

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
 

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
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Veritas Backup Exec and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.