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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
16th
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
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 2.0%, down from 2.8% 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.
OmobolajiOlaloku - PeerSpot reviewer
Highly stable, intuitive design, and integrates well
The scalability of Veritas Backup Exec is good. Veritas has physical hardware appliances, and hard disks, you can easily upgrade your backup appliances to have more storage if needed. It is easy to scale. We have approximately 200 people who use this solution in my organization. We are happy with the usage at this time. I recommend this solution for large-scale and enterprise companies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The amount of data that it protects with very little storage by doing incremental forever is one of its most valuable features."
"It is good in terms of functionality. My clients are very satisfied with this solution."
"The fact that we can take the backup straight onto tape is the most valuable feature."
"Enterprise-wide type of architecture supports a lot of different platforms."
"It is a very stable product. The cost is similar to that of other enterprise solutions."
"We can scale. Today, we have an average backup volume of 100TB a day."
"IBM support is friendly, knowledgeable, and they always respond quickly. They've always been able to find the cause of my problem."
"The solution is not complex, it's very easy to configure agents or VM backup and restore. Upgrades from one version to another are very fast and the product is very stable."
"It gives us the ability to locate and restore critical files which users may have intentionally or unknowing deleted a while ago."
"When something goes down, and we need to restore data, the most used case is being able to restore it. Veritas Backup Exec allows you to restore down to the file level."
"Good open file option feature, SQL agent, and EM agent."
"The initial setup is easy."
"This solution has a very good technical support department that is very responsive."
"I have not seen another backup solution as scalable as this one."
"The beauty of the solution is that you can rely on it. It offers a quick recovery time when it's backing up items. The way it recovers data is excellent."
"The interface, dashboard, and pricing are all perfect."
 

Cons

"Restoring massive files is a very time-consuming process."
"Replication of data could be more user friendly."
"It needs some software upgrades to fix some of its current bugs."
"It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms."
"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."
"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."
"It's difficult in terms of the configuration at set up. In our case, it required another admin, one person dedicated to the backup."
"The installation process could be simplified."
"The pricing of the solution is a bit high."
"The deduplication feature can be improved."
"I have experienced some errors, such as failures, but there have not been very many."
"It is not a recommended software when it comes to large environments where there has to be a minimal Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and/or Recover Point Objective (RPO)."
"We need to have duplication and better compression."
"Maybe they could improve reporting capabilities and predictions."
"The EDR should be looked at, as the operating system is too weak."
"There are some issues with the Backup Exec Library and the random picking of tapes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs."
"It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market."
"It is expensive."
"The licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."
"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 solution has a capacity based licensing, front and back-end license."
"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
"The pricing of Veritas Backup's license is comparable to Veeam."
"The price is reasonable for the features it offers."
"I rate the product's pricing a six out of ten."
"This product is priced for smaller customers."
"I rate the price of Veritas Backup Exec a four out of five."
"The price of this solution is a bit high."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"I would like to see a better licensing model. They changed it and it's just horrendous."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?
For my company, the tool is affordable and reasonable, but most people don't know that. People only see one major price for the tool, which runs into millions, so they would always say that it is a...
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
The technical team's service depends on where the support service is located. Some products are not included in IBM itself, but external companies are developing some solutions for IBM. I think the...
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas Backup Exec?
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being very expensive. The pricing is good. We have a yearly license. The total license cost is around 40,000 dollars. That's with add-ons and t...
 

Also Known As

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

Learn More

 

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: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.