IBM Spectrum Protect Reviews

My company was using IBM Spectrum Protect to back up the environment. It helped my company implement a backup policy. My company needed different versioning and types of backup, but in the last two years, the license cost for the solution got out of hand.

What I found most valuable in IBM Spectrum Protect is that it allows you to back up physical machines, and its proxy feature lets you back up virtual machines.

Software-wise, IBM Spectrum Protect didn't handle virtual machines that well, but I heard that the issue had been resolved on IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, though I didn't get a chance to test that feature.

The license cost is mainly the area for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect.

Another con in the solution is the Microsoft Office 365 backup, which needed to be handled better by IBM Spectrum Protect, and could have some improvements.

My company switched from IBM Spectrum Protect to Veeam, but I had hands-on experience with IBM Spectrum Protect within the last twelve months.

My company has been using IBM Spectrum Protect for the last ten years.

IBM Spectrum Protect is a very stable solution, so I'm rating it eight out of ten in terms of stability.

Scalability-wise, IBM Spectrum Protect is a seven out of ten for me.

I'm rating the technical support for IBM Spectrum Protect a nine out of ten.

Positive

We stepped away from IBM Spectrum Protect and have started using Veeam, primarily because of the higher license cost of IBM Spectrum Protect.

Before using IBM Spectrum Protect, we used Omniback from HP, and we switched to IBM Spectrum Protect because Omniback didn't keep up with the trend, was still working with OTA backup, and didn't support our backup needs, for example, versioning.

Regarding the initial setup for IBM Spectrum Protect, it's a four out of ten for me. It's complex.

Complete deployment of IBM Spectrum Protect took two weeks.

Initially, the team had some problems with the setup because there was an error in the assessment, and my company ran out of capacity within two months of implementing IBM Spectrum Protect. It was garbage in, garbage out. The evaluation by the administrators was not done correctly, so that IBM couldn't supply an adequate solution.

We hired a consultant from IBM to deploy IBM Spectrum Protect ten years ago. The consultant assessed the environment and implemented the solution.

I don't have the metrics on ROI from IBM Spectrum Protect, but mostly, my company switched over to the product because Omniback was no longer adequate.

Using IBM Spectrum Protect meant using fewer tapes versus Omniback because IBM Spectrum Protect could handle bigger tape sizes, while Omniback held three or five-millimeter tape sizes. IBM Spectrum Protect required less storage, so it was mostly good enough to support my company's new backup policy through versioning, encryption, and security.

ROI-wise, I'm scoring IBM Spectrum Protect as seven out of ten.

IBM Spectrum Protect, cost-wise, has way higher pricing than Veeam. By switching over to Veeam, my company saved over $600,000 in USD.

My company was on a PPU license for IBM Spectrum Protect, which was okay initially. After two or three years, IBM called to switch the license to terabyte licensing, and it seemed OK to change at the time, but in the last three or four years, it became expensive.

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.

I evaluated a solution from Quantum, though I can't recall its name.

I have experience with IBM Spectrum Protect, formerly Tivoli Storage Manager.

My company was an IBM customer but has stepped away and moved to Veeam.

The company had three different sites where the solution had on-premise deployments.

Regarding the implementation, there was an IBM consultant on site and two backup administrations learning the IBM Spectrum Protect installation process along the way. My company also had a team of five or six system and network administrators who helped with client-related concerns because my company had more than one hundred fifty clients for separate sites. The two backup administrators handled the maintenance for IBM Spectrum Protect.

One thousand two hundred people use the solution.

I would suggest to others looking into implementing IBM Spectrum Protect to research terabyte licensing and be clear on how much data your company has, including your expected data growth, so you can assess where you'll stand regarding license costs. If you're moving to big data or you'll be storing big data, PPU licensing could be a more suitable option.

My rating for IBM Spectrum Protect is seven out of ten because it's one of the two best backup software currently available. It also has excellent support if you have a maintenance contract, but I live in a small country, so this could be why IBM provided better support.

I'm an IBM Spectrum Protect customer.

The most valuable feature for data recovery in IBM Spectrum Protect is its database protection capabilities. It ensures the integrity and availability of databases through online communication and robust backup drivers.

There is room for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect, especially regarding its support for virtual environment backups. IBM hasn't progressed much in enhancing its products, leaving users seeking alternative solutions for virtual backups, like Spectrum Protect Plus.

I have been working with IBM Spectrum Protect for 18 years.

IBM Spectrum Protect is very stable. We haven't had any stability issues so far.

IBM Spectrum Protect is highly scalable, ranging from small environments with just a few servers to large-scale deployments with up to 3,000 servers.

I would rate the technical support as an eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect is complex but flexible, suitable for various environments. Implementation typically takes around three to four months for a large environment with over 500 servers. It may require a team of one specialist and two analysts for deployment and one person for ongoing maintenance.

The incremental backup capability in IBM Spectrum Protect has streamlined daily operations by steadily backing up data over time. However, it is important to note that Spectrum Protect focuses on database and file/folder backups, not virtual environments. For virtual environment backups, Spectrum Protect Plus is required.

IBM Spectrum Protect primarily focuses on backing up databases, online databases, files, and folders, but it lacks native support for virtual machine backups. For virtual environment backups, you would need to use a specific tool called Spectrum Protect Plus.

The deduplication technology in IBM Spectrum Protect helps reduce storage needs but performs at a medium level of efficiency and performance.

I would recommend IBM Spectrum Protect based on your environment's backup strategy. If you primarily need to backup databases, it is a good choice. However, for large virtual environments, consider combining it with other technologies like Spectrum Protect Plus for comprehensive coverage.

Overall, I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect as a five out of ten.

The product has helped our organization recover and restore data faster.

The most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery.

The solution should improve the ability to monitor backup failure. There should be proactive monitoring to provide early warning. The solution should also improve its dashboard.

The next release should include automated DR.

I have been using the solution for almost two years.

I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. Almost 20 employees in our organization use the solution, including IT specialists, backup engineers, and senior backup engineers. We will most probably increase the number of users in the future. However, it depends on our customers’ feedback.

We have used Veritas NetBackup and HP Data Protector. We switched to IBM Spectrum Protect because we wanted a more stable solution, and our customers liked IBM Spectrum Protect.

I rate the ease of initial setup an eight out of ten.

The deployment did not take long. We deployed the product in-house in one month.

The solution is not cheap. We do not have to pay additional costs apart from the licensing fee. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

IBM is a good option for any organization seeking a stable and steady solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

It serves a diverse range of use cases, catering primarily to enterprise users with multifaceted workloads. This encompasses the backup and recovery needs of various data types, including workloads, databases, file services, and specific applications.

Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings. By only backing up changed or new data, there is a reduced need for extensive storage space on the backup server. This efficiency contributes to both time and cost-effectiveness in data protection practices.

Enhancements are required for backing up our virtual environment.

I have been working with it for more than twenty years.

I would rate its stability capabilities ten out of ten. Technical instability in many cases arises from hardware or the operating system. For instance, using Spectrum Protect on a Windows platform tends to be more unstable compared to deploying it on AIX or any Linux platform.

The scalability of the system is exceptionally high, making it suitable for deployment in any enterprise environment. It can be utilized in a multi-site and multi-instance setup, with no inherent limitations. In the present project, we manage a user base of twenty-five thousand individuals and the company operates globally around the clock. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Currently, I would rate the satisfaction level at around eight out of ten. Generally, I am content because as an experienced user, I can pose pertinent questions and provide the specific information needed, ensuring effective communication with support.

Positive

I've occasionally utilized different products, such as the one formerly known as Tivoli Storage Manager. In smaller environments, I've worked with solutions like AXA for NETGEAR and some other alternatives. However, for enterprise-level environments, my primary choice has consistently been IBM Spectrum Protect.

The initial setup is straightforward for simple environments, but in the majority of cases where environments are more complex, it becomes challenging. While beginners can use it, configuring it optimally demands familiarity with the product and a comprehensive understanding of its various options. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it around seven or eight.

Deployment time can vary, it could take a day or a few days, contingent on the complexity. The process involves installing and configuring hardware, setting up the operating system, managing dependencies to Spectrum Protect, and then installing and configuring the Spectrum Protect service. The most challenging part is gathering all the necessary information for deployment, such as requirements from application teams and network details. Once you have all the needed information, the deployment becomes relatively straightforward. Around ten individuals are required for maintenance.

Without experiencing a disaster, the need for backup may not be apparent, resulting in no return on investment. However, in the event of a restore or recovery requirement, the return on investment can be as high as one hundred percent. On average, I would estimate it to be around seventy to eighty percent.

It can be perceived as expensive since it is designed for enterprise use. If your company doesn't fall into the enterprise category, the costs may be prohibitive. However, the expense varies based on the license model offered by IBM. For instance, if you opt for a CPU-based license model, the costs rise with each additional client. On the other hand, if you choose a license model based on the volume of backup data, the cost increase is not as significant as with the CPU-based model. I would rate it nine out of ten.

I evaluated Time Navigator and NetBackup.

Making a decision on Spectrum Protect should be a thoughtful process, considering factors such as cost, prerequisites, and alignment with your specific needs. It makes sense to carefully evaluate whether the investment aligns with your organization's priorities before deciding to purchase it. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

I am a consultant and work with different IT technology including data protection solutions. We work with the legacy version of IBM Spectrum Protect from 6.x version all the way to the latest version, 8.1.12.

I have implemented Spectrum Protect for organizations as big as 1,500 users and others that are small workgroups of 40 or 50 people.

Spectrum Protect is used for protecting virtualized workloads. It also allows you to protect traditional workloads such as physical machines and physical servers. It is well suited for storing data to tape.

The addition of the retention set feature provides a reduction in storage costs. It also reduces RTO and RPO so that you can respond quickly to your clients and services in case of data loss. 

Spectrum Protect is a robust solution. A valuable feature of this solution is the retention sets, which is a fairly new addition to the feature portfolio. This allows you to back up information to leverage all their copies of backup and not do new backups of the same information over and over again. 

The usability of IBM Spectrum Protect could be improved, specifically additional features to the product in the operations center. Additional reporting facilities and stronger reporting tools such as build dashboards would be beneficial. The tool should allow you to write SQL queries to get the information as it is not easy for entry users to retrieve some reports.

I would also value a comprehensive mass deployment solution for clients that would provide an automated method for deploying agents across a large environment, not only for Windows, but also for AIX and Linux. This would reduce the time required to deploy the tool.

I have been working with IBM Spectrum Protect for 10 years and consider myself an expert on this solution.

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

This solution is scalable. It is a very good solution for mid-range and enterprise customers. It is suitable for a broad range of different environments and types of customers, verticals, and other segments that can implement this product. 

Technical support of IBM Spectrum Protect is superb. They always help us to quickly get to the root cause of the problem. The incidents are well managed so that we can restore service quickly. The product comes with good quality documentation and videos that share best practices and help you get up to speed quickly. This knowledge helps you give a good description to their support team which also helps arrive at a quick solution.

In previous years we used Tivoli Storage Manager. The solution took up to three months to deploy. 

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum is straightforward. Currently, there are blueprints that have a solution to implement quickly. The blueprints come with automated scripts that can be leveraged to make the deployment simpler. You just have to run a script and then complete a set of policies, storage devices, users. The other configurations are already done for you. The documentation, or blueprints, are being updated all the time so you always have a way to reduce deployment time. Deployment takes as little as three or four days.

IBM Spectrum Protect listens to their customers and the feedback about each component and feature. They are always improving quickly based on new trends and software development and agile methodologies.

You have to be careful or aware of the different solutions and the different agents that the solution comes up with so that you select the right product for the right use case. The solution comes with different products that are intended to protect certain workloads such as databases like SAP HANA products. 

I also recommend that you get to know the product well, leverage the latest features so that you can get the most value from it. 

Lastly, I would recommend that you use IBM Spectrum Protect's service and support not only when you have problems but also for recommendations on how to do certain things properly so that you don't have problems in the future. 

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect an 8 out of 10. It is a great product, it's stable and has been on the market for a long time. 

I cannot tell what is the tool's most valuable feature. It is used in a different department of my company.

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 support within IBM is even better than that offered for IBM Cloud Management Console by Rocket Software, so I think the support is not as good as IBM itself.

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for fifteen years. My company uses the tool for different departments. I am a customer of the solution.

It is a very stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

A maximum of five people use the tool.

The solution's technical support is pretty good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

Positive

I have not worked with any other tools apart from IBM Spectrum Protect.

A couple of years ago, I worked with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM).

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 an expensive tool, but it isn't, and it is a normal price for me. I saw some of the comments on PeerSpot's website. I don't think most people know that when a company has large systems in place, the TCO is a lot lower.

Speaking about how IBM Spectrum Protect has handled our enterprise-level backup and recovery needs, I would say that we are using it right now for Linux and as an archive system. We also have an IBM storage system.

I have not used IBM Spectrum Protect for disaster recovery planning. Mostly, our service as a company is to maintain and administer IBM Spectrum Protect.

I am not only familiar with the tool's deduplication technology but also with its competitor's product from Dell.

I cannot say whether the duplication technology of IBM Spectrum Protect improved our storage efficiency because we do not have it in-house.

I would not recommend the tool to others because it is a really complex product. My company has an external third-party supplier that maintains and administers the tool for us.

The tool is complex. You can't spend a lot of time administering and maintaining the system.

We only use it for archiving and some backups in our company.

I rate the tool a six to seven out of ten,

We use the solution for our data protection.

We deployed the solution on-premises because the majority of our applications are also on-premises.

The file-restoring feature is the most valuable.

The Operations Center requires improvement. We are still using TSM Manager for many of our projects to administer our platform because the gap was not resolved with the new Operations Center.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

I give the stability a ten out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support team is always prompt in their response.

Positive

I previously used, NetApp Backup and Atempo Time Navigator but in the financial industry IBM Spectrum Protect is the most popular solution.

I have more than ten years of experience with the solution, so setting it up is easy for me. The deployment took less than one hour.

The implementation was completed in-house.

We have seen a return on investment with IBM Spectrum Protect because we are guaranteed to have our data when we need it.

We pay for a terabyte license to support our backend usage.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have two engineers responsible for the maintenance.

I recommend the solution to others.

There are various use cases. We have managed services, and we have customers on-prem or backing up to our TSM servers. There are different ways.

I work with various versions. I work for a service provider. We manage the service of various customers. So, we have from 8.1.9 to 8.1.14.

Its flexibility is valuable. It is a very flexible solution. There are always more ways than one to do something. It is a software solution, which means you can buy your own hardware and expand it whenever you want. You are not boxed in or locked into something you've bought and outgrown. You can always expand it.

They are behind on many things, especially security. They are catching up a little bit now, but the competitors are doing better security-wise. There should be malware detection and prevention and higher security.

The ease of use also needs improvement. There are many products that are easier to use than Spectrum Protect. It is quite complex to manage, and you need an experienced administrator to manage it, whereas other products are easier to get into. You can have somebody with less experience managing them.

I have been working with this solution for about 15 years.

It is very stable. Especially over the last five years or so, it has been extremely stable. I've had very few crashes or very few downtimes. They are almost nonexistent.

It is very scalable. It scales very high as well. It is an enterprise-class solution. It is one of the most scalable ones.

We have 10 to 15 customers who have their own TSM server and products, and then we have about 18 customers who back up to our servers.

It depends. The TSM server is pretty straightforward. Some other parts are pretty complex. The VMware solution is very complex, especially compared to competitors.

Deployment depends on the size and the customer requirements. If you want to set up a small company server, it takes one or two hours. If you have to set up a large enterprise with various wishes and custom demands, it can take days or maybe a week. For a basic customer with VMware, it is set up within a day with a few databases and a few things.

For deployment, one person is enough. A qualified and certified engineer has to do that because otherwise, we won't give the warranty. So, that person has to be a certified engineer.

We have customers who manage their own TSM servers, and we just come in to install it, or if there are any serious problems. We resell it as well as sell our managed services. They can back up to our servers. We have customers who have their own TSM servers, but we manage those for them. We manage the clients and servers. For some customers, we only manage servers, and they manage the clients.

We do A to Z for TSM basically. We are IBM's only business partner in our country. To our customers, we are basically IBM.

We are a managed service provider. Backup makes us money. So, the ROI is always there.

That's no longer my department, but I have some past experience with licensing. It is not cheap. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of licensing.

In terms of additional costs, there is management overhead. It is a complex solution and a lot of work goes into managing clients. It has gotten better over the years, but compared to its competitor, it is still heavy on management overhead. That comes with flexibility, and that's the price you pay when you want a solution that can do everything and not just a few things. It is not a simple solution. It is a complex solution, and that requires some management overhead. However, you can automate it pretty easily because it has a SQL interface. If you have a person who can script or knows SQL, you can automate a lot with it. It has a command line interface, and there is also an API. The command line is very much like Linux or Unix. It is really highly automatable.

Even though TSM is a great product, it is a great product for a classic backup solution and not for the future. It is a legacy solution. The newest product is IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but we haven't adopted it. The legacy TSM server is great. It was the best product around, but now, it is not. For a new solution, it is not the best product. If I am looking to buy a new product, I would look elsewhere. I would look to the competition that is more modern and more up-to-date. 

I would rate it an 8 out of 10. It is still very good. It is good for what it can be used for, but if you need a more modern solution, it is not the perfect solution anymore.