We primarily provide this solution to our customers. They mostly use the solution for backup and recovery purposes.
Spectrum Protect Specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Extremely flexible, customizable, and easy to automate
Pros and Cons
- "The solution offers very good flexibility."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution offers very good flexibility.
It's huge. You can do almost everything with it. It's very programmable, customizable, and automatable. It supports a lot of operating systems and a lot of applications. It's very versatile. It's maybe the most versatile on the market.
What needs improvement?
The solution is used to support newer client types for backup for cloud-based software as a service, mail as a service, things like that, and hyper-converged systems. That's what they intended Spectrum Protect Plus for. They need to make sure it continues to cater to these clients.
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution since 2003. That's 17 years at this point.
Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about IBM Spectrum Protect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is huge. It's maybe the most scalable backup of all products on the market. It's in the petabytes per server. They have the best tape libraries per square meter and capacity per square meter. You can scale in the exabytes with these solutions. You will have to have multiple servers, but most of the exabyte scale projects that we've looked at are IBM.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is always very good. I have never experienced any support as good as them. I'm very happy with IBM technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup can be very simple. If you have a small environment, it can be extremely simple. It can be as complex as you want it to be or as you need it to be. That's the good thing about it.
Some people get lost in it sometimes and the solution makes it too complex for their needs. I know there's criticism that it's too complex. Yes, it's true, it is complex, but it's only complex due to the fact that IBM shares the knowledge. If IBM wouldn't share the knowledge about how to solve things, or how to make things complex, then it wouldn't be complex as then you would have to call support if you have a problem with it.
That's what other vendors do. They don't share the knowledge, they don't allow you to dig into the deeper configuration of the product and you have to call support if you have a problem. That way, with IBM, you can solve it yourself basically. You can customize it to your wishes.
However, on the other hand, the downside of that is if you have a problem and it's complex and you have to be able to solve it, or you can call support. You have the option. At least you have the option with IBM of making it as complex as you want it to be. With other vendors, you don't have that. That provides flexibility.
Deployment times vary. If you have a VMware environment, it's really fast. It can be a few hours to install the servers and install the data mover, and you're done. If you have a complex environment where you need to install a lot of clients on hardware machines or machines that need a specific backup plan, then it can take weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is average. It's not expensive, it's not cheap. It's not the cheapest, it's not the most expensive. It's very good value for money I would say.
What other advice do I have?
We're an IBM partner.
I would advise companies to use it for small environments that need a simple solution. I would also advise it for very large environments over a petabyte for flexibility. For the midsize company, I'm not sure if I would advise it as that's where you get into that sweat show. You need complex features, however, you don't really have the complex knowledge. For a mid-sized company, that's where the problems lie.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement. If they shift to a little more simplicity, it might help. There are other products out there that have more modern features, and IBM is not yet there. Therefore, they're not 10 out of 10. That doesn't mean that those other products are 10 out of 10 because they lack things that IBM has. There's no perfect 10 on the market.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Sr. Infrastructure Engineer at Unum Group
Helps to satisfy our data protection needs but cloud support should be added
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are compression and de-duplication."
- "In the next version of the solution, I would like to see cloud support."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary uses for this solution are Disaster Recovery and operational data protection.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution helps us to meet all of our data protection needs.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are compression and deduplication.
What needs improvement?
In the next version of the solution, I would like to see cloud support. Specifically, I'd like to see this product leverage the native data protection services in the major cloud providers (AWS, Azure) and not require an agent to be installed. Since access to the hypervisor is not available in an IaaS environment the native services must be leveraged. Many competing solutions already do this.
For how long have I used the solution?
Twenty years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about IBM Spectrum Protect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of Cloud & Systems at Abraxas Informatik AG
A great user interface, unfortunately technical support is lacking
Pros and Cons
- "Good user interface."
- "Technical support could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our current primary use case for this solution is for file backup. I'm head of cloud systems and we are customers of IBM.
What is most valuable?
I believe the user interface is a good feature. The personnel who work with the product on a daily basis seem to be satisfied with what's possible.
What needs improvement?
This is quite an expensive solution so I'd like to see the cost reduced. Technical support could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using this solution for 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. We have one person involved with maintenance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution. We have 25 users in the company.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support really needs to be improved.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite complex. It required experienced and skilled people with a lot of know-how. We used a consultant for the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure what the licensing fees are but I believe they are substantial.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Administrator at a government with 51-200 employees
Good speed performance, but the interface should be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the backup speed."
- "The interface could be more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product to back up our VMs and files locally and then to the cloud.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the backup speed.
What needs improvement?
The interface could be more user-friendly.
In the future, I would like to see more features regarding file backup, as well as multiple cloud integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Spectrum Protect is used to back up our infrastructure on the backend and is not directly related to the number of people in the company.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using both Veeam and Spectrum Protect.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a little bit complex. Our deployment took a couple of months to complete.
What about the implementation team?
A consultant assisted us with our deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is considering this product is to implement the newest version, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
This is a good product, although it would be better if it were easier to use and manage.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Systems Administrator at Grenfell Campus
The backup solution is our fail safe. When we are required to recover data, it is there.
Pros and Cons
- "Reliability: It has never had a problem with backups or restores. If you store something, it is there."
- "It seems very scalable and robust. It can do what we require it to do."
- "The only thing that I would like to have a little more of is insight in reporting. I find that Spectrum Protect needs a lot of monitoring, and I have to actually log into the servers."
- "I would like to see more technical training online. Sometimes, it is a little bit difficult to find, or that I do not really know what I am looking for as somebody who is starting off finding their learning curve."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case would be that I use Spectrum Protect for Exchange at the moment. It is working really well. These is a little bit of a learning curve with it, but I am finding it to be good, as Exchange now is migrated into SIP versions. IBM needs to catch up somewhat, but from what I have seen, it is acting the exact way that I would want it to act.
We have an on-premise infrastructure comprised of flash storage, disk, and tape, working well together. We are not looking to move to a cloud strategy in the immediate future.
How has it helped my organization?
It is reliable. The backup solution is our fail safe. When we are required to recover data, it is there.
What is most valuable?
Reliability: It has never had a problem with backups or restores. If you store something, it is there.
What needs improvement?
The only thing that I would like to have a little more of is insight in reporting. I find that Spectrum Protect needs a lot of monitoring, and I have to actually log into the servers. I would rather be more proactive and send the information when things do not work the way we want.
I am hoping that the Spectrum Protect Plus supports Exchange. That is my primary wish, since Spectrum Protect Plus should be a single pane of glass where I will be able to monitor all my instances from.
I would like to see more technical training online. Sometimes, it is a little bit difficult to find, or that I do not really know what I am looking for as somebody who is starting off finding their learning curve. The first part of it was very long, but once I found the terms and where to look, it became a lot easier. Then. I found another gap when troubleshooting information that I needed to have. I needed to contact support to actually find that information.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far, from my limited experience, it is working flawlessly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It seems very scalable and robust. It can do what we require it to do.
I currently have eight instances of Spectrum Protect installed on the servers that I manage.
How is customer service and technical support?
Technical support is above standard in regards to the Exchange part. In our organization, we have backup administrators taking care of the exchange, and my primary function is to monitor and setup the schedules and backup.
When it comes down to when it actually moved to the TSM part (now Spectrum Protect), we were having problems with the backup. It seemed to go well when we contacted technical support and they seemed to be fluent. They had a good response time and solved the issue.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Spectrum Protect. It does what we require. It is robust. The support is good.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It gave us the flexibility to use whatever storage we wanted. We have a balance issue between reclamation and the backup function.
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to use S3 Data Store as a repository."
- "With Spectrum Protect, you can use any type of disk to back-end the repositories. It gave us flexibility to use whatever storage we wanted at our secondary site."
- "I would like to see integration with Copy Data Management, which is an IBM product. Right now, these two products are siloed, so if these two become integrated, the product would become a bit of a powerhouse."
- "We are having a balance issue between the reclamation and the backup function. It has to take the space back from the tapes before it can record to those tapes, but sometimes those two processes are overlapping."
What is our primary use case?
We are actually implementing our own private cloud and using Spectrum Protect to back up and replicate the backups to a secondary site.
How has it helped my organization?
With Spectrum Protect, you can use any type of disk to back-end the repositories. It gave us the flexibility to use whatever storage we wanted at our secondary site. On our first site, we have really high performing variable disks, and at our secondary site, we have a lower performing tier. On the cloud, we have an even slower tier.
What is most valuable?
Most valuable features are:
- Good tape integration
- The node replication to a secondary site.
- The ability to use S3 Data Store as a repository.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see integration with Copy Data Management, which is an IBM product. That would be really nice. Right now, these two products are siloed, so if these two become integrated, the product would become a bit of a powerhouse.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With stability, we have had some challenges. There have been some issues around some of the functionality around reclamation. In the reclamation jobs, there has been fighting over the backup jobs. With Spectrum Protect, you have a reclamation job that takes space back from tapes which are no longer needed, and we' are having a challenge with that right now.
We are having a balance issue between the reclamation and the backup function. It has to take the space back from the tapes before it can record to those tapes, but sometimes those two processes are overlapping.
This is in the process of being resolved. We are currently working with IBM support and the IBM engineering teams to resolve the issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not really had a chance to properly scale it, but I imagine it should be fairly straightforward in terms of growing it out, e.g., we spec'd out a server that was really powerful.
In terms of scalability, the next thing should be adding additional storage.
We currently have one Spectrum Protect instance, but in the future, there will be at least three or more.
How is customer service and technical support?
The support is really good. They are very responsive. There is a PMR set up, and we are working directly with the engineering team, who are actually coding the product.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not complex. It was really straightforward. It has been a lot easier as of late to do these implementations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We chose IBM Spectrum Protect, because they actually have something called MSP pricing, which means managed services provider pricing. The pricing was attractive, and it seems to be a platform that IBM is totally investing on in terms of new functions and new capabilities.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We seriously looked at Commvault. We also looked at Veeam and another third-party.
What other advice do I have?
The way it works is customers can host their applications on our cloud, and we basically charge them to backup those products. We wanted something that could do that and we have the skill sets in-house. That is how it came about that we purchased Spectrum Protect. It is pretty much a function of wanting to backup primary workloads running on our cloud.
Most important criteria when selecting a backup:
- Resiliency
- Integration with tape
- Integration with cloud.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Global Backup Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
It has improved efficiency in the backups with faster backup times
Pros and Cons
- "It scales well. We have grown here in the last year or two, and it has been relatively easy."
- "We have better, faster backup times, and it has improved efficiency in the backups."
- "We have run into some periods where we have found some tape issues which were causing us problems, but we resolved them. For some reason, we had a bunch of drives go offline on our disk storage (our virtual library)."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is backing up Oracle Databases, SQL databases, Exchange, and all documents which are produced by my company.
Our on-premise infrastructure is comprised of disks on data domain and tape. We do not have a cloud strategy at the moment, but we are looking into it.
Right now, we have six Spectrum Protect instances with three of them in full production.
How has it helped my organization?
We have better, faster backup times, and it has improved efficiency in the backups.
What is most valuable?
- The ease of use
- Being able to set it up and configure it.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had issues, but everybody is going to have them. Overall, it seems to be stable. We have run into some periods where we have found some tape issues which were causing us problems, but we resolved them. For some reason, we had a bunch of drives go offline on our disk storage (our virtual library).
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales well. We have grown here in the last year or two, and it has been relatively easy.
How is customer service and technical support?
I have used their technical support. It has mostly been good. There has been some times where Level 1 tried to hit at things which I had already looked at, but once we got passed that, then they were able to either send me to the next Level or resolve the issue.
What other advice do I have?
The additional features that I am looking to see in the future are already in the roadmap.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Director at Q Pro Solutions
Helps you protect your data with various retention policies, and with the incremental forever approach, we don't have to load tapes to do a restore
Pros and Cons
- "Its incremental forever approach is valuable, so we don't have to load tapes to do a restore."
- "It does what we need it to do, but it could be better with VM backups. It could be better integrated with virtual machines or VM backups, but that's why they have their Plus out now. Plus version is more geared toward VM backups. The regular version is more for endpoint clients."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for backing up corporate data.
How has it helped my organization?
It helps you protect your data with various retention policies, as required by the business. It would help the company maintain a disaster recovery plan and be able to recover from a failure.
What is most valuable?
Its incremental forever approach is valuable, so we don't have to load tapes to do a restore.
What needs improvement?
It does what we need it to do, but it could be better with VM backups. It could be better integrated with virtual machines or VM backups, but that's why they have their Plus out now. Plus version is more geared toward VM backups. The regular version is more for endpoint clients.
Its licensing and pricing could be improved. Its licensing is complicated, and it is an expensive solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for over 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is pretty good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
They're decent. They're fine. I would rate them an eight out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have only been with IBM. I'm a consultant, so that's basically what I've worked on.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup can be complicated. You would need a certified deployment expert to configure it and install it properly upfront. It isn't for a novice to be able to set up.
The deployment duration depends on the environment, but it typically takes about a week or two. Its maintenance also depends on the size of the company. If it is a small-sized or a medium-sized company, you could get away with one admin, but if it is larger, you might have more than one Spectrum Protect server, so you'd have multiple admins.
What about the implementation team?
I am a consultant, so I would be the one who does the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to do proper planning beforehand. You should know the retention policies that you want. You should know what policies you want to set before you go into it, and you should know how much data you're going to be backing up and then make sure it is sized properly.
I'll give it a nine out of 10. It is a good product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Spectrum Protect Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Product Categories
Backup and RecoveryPopular Comparisons
Veeam Data Platform
Commvault Cloud
Acronis Cyber Protect
Veritas NetBackup
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Cohesity DataProtect
Azure Backup
Dell Avamar
Dell NetWorker
Veritas Backup Exec
NAKIVO Backup & Replication
Veritas NetBackup Appliance
Bacula Enterprise
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Spectrum Protect Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- What is the biggest difference between Dell EMC Data Domain and IBM Spectrum Protect?
- What's the best third party monitoring and reporting tool for IBM Spectrum Protect?
- What are the alternatives to Spectrum Protect?
- When evaluating backup and recovery software, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- Veeam vs. Dell AppAssure vs. ShadowProtect
- Help! Need an opensource backup solution to work with OVM, Linux, Windows, Sql server, Exchange, Sharepoint. Plus bare metal recovery.
- What will be the best strategy for develop a up to date BCRS?
- CommVault vs. EMC NetWorker vs. Dell vRanger
- Should I get a third-party backup solution for Office 365?
- What is the best next generation backup tool?
Have you seen the SPFS solution?
SPFS is a filesystem for Spectrum Protect, making it possible to mount the storage pool data as a filesystem directly on the servers, and in that way protecting almost any data with Spectrum Protect.
www-356.ibm.com