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Regional Platform Services Manager at GBM
MSP
A very reliable, consistent, unhackable product
Pros and Cons
  • "The backup on real-time, especially for the virtual machine, archiving, and retrieving the reader from the backup repository and getting it online, getting it validated, then performing the data consistency check over the backup."
  • "Once setup, you do not need to touch it again. You just need to do a formal check on possibly batch updates."
  • "They should have a proper technical support team serving the customers and get issues resolved earlier."
  • "It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms."

What is our primary use case?

It is performing very well. However, our customer feedback is the product is very complex, and mainly built for the enterprise customer. They will need to do some developments on the Spectrum Protect, especially on the Plus series. Maybe on Spectrum Protect, they can simplify it, so the admin can get more easily access the console, and generate jobs and alerts.

As a product, it is very nice. People love it, but the only issue is it requires a very unique/rare skill set. 

80% of the core business is running on-prem, and some of the applications which are add-on, go on the cloud. This is a mixture: 80% is on-premise, which is non-critical.

The problem with moving to the cloud is the government compliance agreements. The government says the data should not leave the country, or if the data is leaving Iran, it should be encrypted and no one else can read it. This is why Amazon is coming with their data center. Once it is live, all the Ministry's data should be part of Amazon and it should not go out. Those are the compliance issues with the Ministry.

We manage approximately 20 customers, except Saudi Arabia.

How has it helped my organization?

Especially for the banking and ministry sectors, they have core businesses running and they can't have a single bit of data corruption or data loss. This is a very important product for them, because it gives ease of access and the type of data consistency where they can rely on it and its safe on-hand. When there is a need or a disaster, they can get the information back from the archive. So, it is very much required.

What is most valuable?

The backup on real-time, especially for the virtual machine, archiving, and retrieving the reader from the backup repository and getting it online, getting it validated, then performing the data consistency check over the backup.

What needs improvement?

  • I would like the users to have a better experience with the product.
  • Easier recovery
  • It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms. If it can get connected with other applications, the customer would be happier because they would not need to stick to a single vendor, so they could have a backup on multiple environments.
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.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. It is meant for the enterprise customer's core business. I have never seen any customer talk about a system crash and not being able to retrieve their backup. 

It takes a lot of time to configure on the first setup. Once setup, you do not need to touch it again. You just need to do a formal check on possibly batch updates.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If you are attaching with IBM products, it is all compatible and very easy. Issues arise when you are working with non-IBM products. Then, you need to find all the APIs with the Spectrum Product. There are some issues with HPE and Dell, because these two do not support Spectrum Protect. You have to be on certain versions before they will support integrations.

Spectrum Protect will meet our customers needs as they grow, because as the data is growing they need to have a backup. We are talking about on-premise backup, we are not talking about cloud backup. We are discussing out of the country backup. There are tapes which are getting shipped out of the country with an encryption key. Spectrum Protect is playing a vital role, because they do the encryption. It is a very reliable, consistent, unhackable product. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is okay, but their skills are limited.

Example: Our customer was not able to do certain activities. So it went from Level 1 to Level 2, then Level 3. Level 3 takes a longer time to bring up the batch or find a resolution. I think that is a part IBM could fix something. They should have a proper technical support team serving the customers and get issues resolved earlier.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup starts straightforward, but as soon as a customer opens the requirements for the backup because they are happy it, they will want to export their system, virtualized platform, or some applications on the databases. This is when it starts getting complex. Then you need to run multiple jobs, multiple consoles, and bring it all together. Of course, customers want to have a single console to connect all their different environments.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would recommend IBM, but I am a business partner.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Other market competitors include EMC NetWorker, Veritas (Plus Edition), and Veeam (for virtualization).

What other advice do I have?

Customers main criteria when selecting a vendor: presence in the market, and onsite and offsite support.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Business partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user866154 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It is low maintenance, though we are having issues with sizing and stability
Pros and Cons
  • "Once it is completed properly, it is low maintenance. Most of the functions do not require much deliberation. It is all the blueprints and technologies laid out, and it is straight forward."
  • "We are able to run it in an enterprise quite easily with one or two resources."
  • "There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those."
  • "The version that we had when I first started made it look really bad. We are talking about commands that should have run in two seconds, but instead took four to eight hours. Other components were sluggish."
  • "I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case is to back up our data to tape to outsource storage to protect us against any sort of cryptoware attack. We are using our DR recovery scenarios, basically for protection we are backing up to tape. We also back up the disk first. 

Our environment consists of two primary data centers with IBM storage in the thousands along with older and newer generations, and we have backed up everything to TS4500 already. We are still trying to move away from TS3500, but we are working on that. We have a mix of all sorts of databases and Exchange.

How has it helped my organization?

One of the recovery methods used to help troubleshoot all of our operations for contractors or the lower tiers, it meets that. Therefore, we are able to run it in an enterprise quite easily with one or two resources. All of the automatic tape deck functions are done well, too. We are able to connect two separate sites relatively easily without any problems. 

What is most valuable?

Once it is completed properly, it is low maintenance. Most of the functions do not require much deliberation. It is all the blueprints and technologies laid out, and it is straight forward.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The version that we had when I first started made it look really bad. We are talking about commands that should have run in two seconds, but instead took four to eight hours. Other components were sluggish. I noticed it as soon as our database improved. 

Because the database was slow, everything was very unresponsive. I did not know if I was doing anything wrong or if the system was not performing. With support, we were able to get up to a working version. 

Now, we are having issues with some of our underlying hardware. We require a lot of support, which has given us more scripts to get data out to the databases. In my 15 years experience of experience with backups, though not with Spectrum Protect, I could not get enough data out of the system to figure out what is going on. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable for my need, especially when you can just buy the hardware attachment. It is very fluid. To increase, as long as all the performance issues are taken into account, you can add as much you want. You can really scale it up in a lot of areas. The only issue I have with scalability is for the small offsite locations. You have about 50 different companies and you would never consider using Spectrum Protect in them. 

Our primary use centers are using Spectrum Protect instances. We run two Spectrum Protect instances.

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

How is customer service and technical support?

I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided. 20% of those leads get a resolution. 

Because of our current case, I have had to open multiple cases and had some stagnant delays when answers did not fit the problem we had. It is normal in the industry to have to reach out to our customer rep to get proper support. 

It is not just for the IBM product, but it is on par at the top tier level. We receive the proper amount of attention once the proper communications are opened up with sales. On the lower tiers, I'm reasonably better off without creating communication with support.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third-party provider to set up the solution. The only problem is the speed of picking it up. There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those. Afterwards, we can move it forward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have been at our size for a few years. We are not really looking to battle the licensing costs, as this is our primary system.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I do not know who they evaluated.

What other advice do I have?

I would not recommend Spectrum Protect at this point.

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.
PeerSpot user
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.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Presales Solutions Architect at SAS
Reseller
Although the solution is stable, it lacks scalability due to its inability to integrate with some of the major cloud platforms
Pros and Cons
  • "Regarding technical support, if one has the entire enterprise support, I would rate it a nine out of ten...Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
  • "The solution's ability to integrate with a cloud solution is one area that needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

The solution's use cases would mostly involve its use in finance and insurance companies.

What is most valuable?

The two features in the solution that I have found valuable are its functionalities related to UFS and KMS.

What needs improvement?

The solution's ability to integrate with a cloud solution is one area that needs improvement.

In the next release of the solution, I would like to see the solution being able to integrate with EFS storage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have experience with IBM Spectrum Protect and have been working with the solution for thirteen years. Also, I am a reseller of the solution from the sales department. I have worked with versions ranging from IBM Spectrum Protect Version 9.x to IBM Spectrum Protect Version 11. The latest one I am working on is IBM Spectrum Protect Version 2.1.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a four or five out of ten. More precisely, I rate the solution's scalability a five out of ten. The low rating is due to its inability to integrate with the cloud providers today. So, if the integration is within an IBM cloud, it is good, and if it is outside IBM cloud, it is really bad. Also, most of our clients are enterprise-sized ones.

How are customer service and support?

Regarding technical support, if one has the entire enterprise support, I would rate it a nine out of ten, but without enterprise support, I would rate it a five or six out of ten. So, to be more precise, without enterprise support, I would rate it a five out of ten owing to the timelines required for the technical support to resolve any issues.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is straightforward as long as the prerequisites are followed. So, I rate the solution's setup between seven to eight out of ten.

The time required for the deployment process is somewhere between two to three weeks.

Around 200 to 300 steps are involved in the deployment process of the solution. So unless specified, explaining all the steps involved in the deployment process can be difficult.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's pricing is fair. Price-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

To the ones planning to use the solution, I would like to say that as long as your use cases aren't transactional, you can use IBM Spectrum Protect for anything they want. For transaction storage, it is better not to use IBM Spectrum Protect. Since the solution can only be launched on IBM cloud and not on Google or Amazon cloud, I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
IT Architect at CGI
Real User
Faster restores as only one full backup is needed to restore
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "Replication services would be nice. If these could be enhanced to be always on so multiple storage backup services could be added as a cluster pool. This would provide a better availability service."

What is our primary use case?

Protecting infrastructures and applications. We have infrastructures and applications that must be online. Some has archiving requirements that need to store data using longer retention due to legal or other requirements. With Spectrum Protect, you can adjust this to your needs.

We use this to fine tune our business requirements for the data, where we can save shorter data retention data on a storage pool with faster performance and save archiving on a storage pool with tapes to keep cost lower.

How has it helped my organization?

With Spectrum Protect, we were able to lower the TCO thanks to it always being incremental by design (progressive incremental forever).

Why back up data again if the data has not been changed? It has faster backups, as only changed content is sent and has less storage use.

Why restore the same content many times if you can just restore one backup?

  • Faster restores as only one full backup is needed to restore. With other competitors, you have to restore fully with all their incrementals.
  • We successfully lowered data storage due to its progressive incremental-forever by design (always incremental), plus its advanced data reduction techniques using deduplication with compression.
  • Backups are much faster, as only changed content is sent, especially if the journaling is added.
  • Restores are much faster too, as it only restore the objects needed. Other competitors restore objects from full backup, later restoring a more recent version of the object.

What is most valuable?

Progressive incremental-forever (always incremental):

SPFS is a file system for Spectrum Protect. A way to mount a Spectrum Protect storage pool as a mount point on your server for easier usage. With this one can protect any data using the Spectrum Protect storage.
Eg
# mount -t spfs /backup
# mysqldump > /backup/mysqldump.bkp

SPIR is Instant Recovery for Spectrum Protect. Take application consistent snapshots locally using, and sends snapshots data 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, so that applications can be started before all data has been copied back to original place.

What needs improvement?

Replication services would be nice. If these could be enhanced to be always on so multiple storage backup services could be added as a cluster pool. This would provide a better availability service.

It would be great if the API could add functions to check storage pool details using the client-side API.

It would be great if there would be an API to add new licenses using the client-side API so the licenses can be reviewed using QUERY LICENSE. Then, new licenses could be added using the REGISTER LICENSE command.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

the solution is stable and all the fixes and patches are well tested before rolled out. workarounds are being published if bugs exists early bug fixes can be shipped earlier for clients has emergent needs (eFix) change list is being published at each release

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

the solution scales frmo small setup to enterprise hosting many thousands of clients. Competitors need more resourses, as it has difficulty to host the inventories, of manage the amount of data If needed, one can add storage agents, which can be used to off load data transfer, so that the data goes over these agents, instead of being sent to a central server

How are customer service and technical support?

support is great

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Dell EMC NetWorker and switched because:

  • More storage was needed to manage data protection.
  • It was more difficult to manage traffics, as it uses RPC, and more ports needed to be opened in the firewall.
  • The solutions sometimes does not respond on "push/pull requests".

How was the initial setup?

being working with ADSM, TSM, Spectrum Protect for several years, and the setup becomes more easier nowadays

What about the implementation team?

we used an in-house team

What was our ROI?

By changing to this solution, we saved not only a lot of license costs, but also 450% storage cost (without space reduction techniques) + 450% additional using space reduction techniques

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

IBM provides an open license policy, which is more like a gentlemen's agreement.

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

NetBackup.

What other advice do I have?

The perfect solution with a robust, scalable, open architecture.

Many additional plugins are available on the Global Solution Directory.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1366821 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Storage Services at a legal firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Great archiving features with good stability and the capability to scale
Pros and Cons
  • "The archiving feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution."
  • "Although I am not a technical user, I would say the cloud integration features could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is primarily used for backing up all of our servers and data. We also use it for a lot of driving data.

How has it helped my organization?

I'm new to the company, so I don't know if I can answer how the solution has improved the organization.

What is most valuable?

The archiving feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution.

What needs improvement?

Although I am not a technical user, I would say the cloud integration features could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I'm fairly new to the company, however, I've been using the solution for probably just over five years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. We haven't faced any bugs or glitches. There haven't been system crashes. It's reliable. An organization won't have to worry about stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is highly scalable. An organization that needs to expand the services should be able to do so without any issues.

The solution doesn't have a high user count. Rather, it is used by our IT department to protect our organizations' data. No end users would have access to it. About 10-15 people from our storage and data protection team have access to it currently.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is great. they're very knowledgable and technical people. We've been satisfied with the level of support they've provided. It's been very good. We've had cases in the past where they've been able to help us overcome issues effectively.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't at the company at the time the solution was implemented, so I don't have knowledge as to if the solution is difficult or straightforward to set up.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have any information about the pricing of the solution other than to say it's a little bit higher than we would like.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are always looking at different solutions. For example, we are looking at Cloud Work, Cohesity, and Rubrik. We're very early in the process of evaluating them, so we don't have clear differentiators yet. It's too early to discuss a comparison of features.

What other advice do I have?

We're not partners with IBM. We're just customers. We have a good relationship with the company, however, we are not reseller partners.

We're using the latest version of the solution.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It's a great solution, and we've been very happy with it, but it does lack cloud integration features. If it offered that, I'd rate it higher.

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.
PeerSpot user
Tomas-Dalebjörk - PeerSpot reviewer
Tomas-DalebjörkIT Architect at CGI
Real User

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

it_user672336 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Systems and Database Administration at Austin Community College
Vendor
It protects my company's data
Pros and Cons
  • "We cannot live without it, since it gives us the confidence to move forward."
  • "It protects our data. That is what it is there for."
  • "Regarding stability, it's been rock solid."

    What is our primary use case?

    I use it for the disaster recovery backup archive. It is performing very well.

    Spectrum Protect is running under AIX on a Power system. We have a SAN volume controller in front of two generation three XIVs and two IBM tape libraries (all Fibre Channel attached). We have two sites. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    It protects our data. That is what it is there for.

    We cannot live without it, since it gives us the confidence to move forward knowing our data is safe.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features are reliability, capacity, and performance.

    What needs improvement?

    I'm sure there are some areas of improvement, because no product is perfect- but I can't think of any right now.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    More than five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Regarding stability, it's been rock solid; very stable. I've never had a problem with it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I've never had issues with scalability. It scales very well.

    It has scaled with us over the last 25 years. We are a community college with about 40,000 students and roughly 5000 to 6000 employees. It is growing, though not as much right now. The economy is good, and we grow when the economy is bad. The exact opposite of everybody else!

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is pretty good. It is doing fine, but you pay for it.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We have been using it for a long time. I don't know what we had before.

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup was straightforward, but it is a complicated product. It was a lot more complex to set up so long ago. There were just a lot of moving parts with a lot of pieces to it.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    For vendors, I want good technical support, but I also want honest sales people. I want somebody who is going to tell me the straight truth, and whether or not it's a product that I should buy. I don't want it similar to selling me a car or something. I want somebody who will be honest with me.

    I would also like a product that scales and is reliable. It should be able to handle the amount of data that we backup every night. I go back to being reliable.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would highly recommend it to anybody that would like to buy something like this.

    If it fits them, I would say "Get it." It is not the right product for everybody. No product is for everybody. However, this is a very good product. If they have a need, like I did, then it is the right solution.

    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.
    PeerSpot user
    Charlita Dalebjörk - PeerSpot reviewer
    Charlita DalebjörkActing CFO with 1-10 employees
    Real User

    Take a look at ("LIGTAS") products too; it uses Spectrum Protect environment to protect open source databases.
    ligtas.org

    reviewer1541931 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Manager - Storage & Backup at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Good stability and reliability, works as expected, and recommended for large-scale environments
    Pros and Cons
    • "We have been using it for several years, and it is quite reliable and predictable. We are quite comfortable with this solution. They're coming up with new features as well. It has good scalability, and it provides good integrations with business-critical applications or databases, such as SAP HANA. It works as expected, and we don't see any issues."
    • "Its management part can be better and simplified. It is kind of a beast as compared to Commvault or Veeam, but they are more user-friendly. They are also easier to learn, whereas Spectrum Protect definitely takes time. They should simplify it. Our teams are pretty comfortable with it because we have been using it for a long time, but from the perspective of a new user who is evaluating or using this solution, it is definitely more complex in terms of manageability. Its monitoring could be improved so that it can even monitor the jobs that are scheduled by external schedulers. There are situations where a database team might decide to use their own schedulers, but currently, Spectrum Protect is not able to catch those jobs in the Operation Manager console."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it for our enterprise backups. By enterprise, I mean Oracle, SAP, and all other business-critical applications.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Initially, we started using Spectrum for backing up our business-critical applications, such as SAP running on AIX, and then we had Oracle RAC clusters. We also had Veeam for VMware, but then IBM Spectrum came up with their version of the virtual environment. IBM was initially not into the virtual environment, but over a period of time, they got into this.

    IBM is providing us a good and cost-effective solution. We also get more robustness for daily backup where we can restore a virtual machine, just like Commvault and Veeam. 

    What is most valuable?

    We have been using it for several years, and it is quite reliable and predictable. We are quite comfortable with this solution. They're coming up with new features as well. 

    It has good scalability, and it provides good integrations with business-critical applications or databases, such as SAP HANA. It works as expected, and we don't see any issues.

    What needs improvement?

    Its management part can be better and simplified. It is kind of a beast as compared to Commvault or Veeam, but they are more user-friendly. They are also easier to learn, whereas Spectrum Protect definitely takes time. They should simplify it. Our teams are pretty comfortable with it because we have been using it for a long time, but from the perspective of a new user who is evaluating or using this solution, it is definitely more complex in terms of manageability.

    Its monitoring could be improved so that it can even monitor the jobs that are scheduled by external schedulers. There are situations where a database team might decide to use their own schedulers, but currently, Spectrum Protect is not able to catch those jobs in the Operation Manager console.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for more than ten years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We have been using it for several years now, and it is very good in terms of stability and reliability.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is scalable.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We don't have any issues with technical support. They're okay, and we're fine with their support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We also use Veeam, which is mainly for the virtual environment. IBM Spectrum covers everything. It covers virtual and physical environments and heavy databases and applications such as SAP HANA. We are using Veeam only for a subset of our environment. 

    How was the initial setup?

    Its initial setup is complex and not very easy. The deployment duration depends on a lot of factors, but generally, one week should be enough.

    What about the implementation team?

    It is not very intuitive, and you can't do it all by yourself. You need someone for initial deployment. We have a seller who helps us out. This solution has been here with us for years, so our team is now comfortable implementing it, but it is still not that intuitive that you can do it all by yourself.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Its licensing is complex, and its price is not really reasonable. It is on the expensive side. IBM, in general, is slightly expensive, but with IBM Spectrum for the virtual environment, they are looking into the aspect of helping customers with the cost and providing a cost-effective solution.

    What other advice do I have?

    It is a reliable tool. It has been there for so many years. It is a good solution that provides many options. I would recommend this solution for large-scale environments with mission-critical applications running on complex hardware, such as AIX.

    I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect an eight 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.
    PeerSpot user
    Stefan Schneider - PeerSpot reviewer
    Lead Engineer Storage at Abraxas Informatik AG
    Real User
    Top 10
    Scalable with good performance and great technical support
    Pros and Cons
    • "We've found the product to be quite stable and the performance is very good."
    • "Generally, the implementation of virtualization could be improved. The workflow service and so on are not working properly."

    What is our primary use case?

    The primary use case for the solution is mainly backing up Oracle databases and critical workload AIX servers, and so on.

    What is most valuable?

    The Oracle database backup is the solution's most valuable aspect.

    The solution is scalable.

    We've found the product to be quite stable and the performance is very good.

    Technical support has been helpful overall.

    What needs improvement?

    Generally, the implementation of virtualization could be improved. The workflow service and so on are not working properly. They have another solution, Spectrum Protect Plus, however, for me, that is a new product. They invented a new product for virtual environments as they didn't succeed in integrating it into the former solution. For me, Spectrum Protect Plus, and Spectrum Protect are not the same product. It's not a new feature for Spectrum Protect, it is just a new thing. Therefore, we assessed IBM was not able to provide a good solution for virtual environments. Therefore, we decided to use Veeam for that.

    The initial setup is quite complex.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using the solution for at least these last 12 months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability of the solution is perfect. It's reliable and offers good performance. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. It's good.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution can scale well. If a company needs to expand things, it can do so with ease.

    We just count the servers in terms of usage. In terms of the servers, I would assume we have more or less, about 400 servers with 1.5 petabytes of storage.

    In terms of scaling, we'll remain the same more or less, however, as the databases grow, we tend to increase the amount. We don't have new features and functions that we want to integrate, however, we have new services. We are growing and likely expanding.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We've contacted technical support several times. They are always helpful and responsive. We're satisfied with their level of support.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We're using Veeam for virtualization, as that aspect is not covered under IBM Spectrum Protect.

    At the moment, we're happy with the features available. I can't recall feeling that there was something lacking. There aren't any new features we desperately need.

    What we would like is integration between this solution and Spectrum Protect Plus. They should be one product and not two different solutions. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is not straightforward. It is quite complex. It's important to have the right people in place. You need good experts to manage upgrades, et cetera.

    For the initial deployment, for running the system, for implementing new servers or new clients, et cetera, that is not a problem, however, the problem is really handling upgrades. That is kind of tricky.

    What about the implementation team?

    It's a good idea to hire a consultant or integrator to assist your company in the process. It's not easy to do if you don't have the right knowledge base. 

    What other advice do I have?

    We're just a customer and end-user.

    We're using an older version, called Spectrum Protect. We are not using Spectrum Protect Plus.

    Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've largely been happy with it. I'd give it a higher rating if Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus could either be the same product or integrated together.

    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.
    PeerSpot user
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    Updated: March 2025
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    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free IBM Spectrum Protect Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.