BackupAssist vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

BackupAssist and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. BackupAssist is ranked #70, while IBM is ranked #17 with an average rating of 7.2. BackupAssist holds a 0.2% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BackupAssist users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

BackupAssist

Read 5 BackupAssist reviews

437 Views
263 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 149 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

4,073 Views
3,133 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

BackupAssist

IBM Spectrum Protect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and BackupAssist compete in the data protection and backup category. IBM Spectrum Protect has an advantage due to its advanced scalability and comprehensive features, although BackupAssist is noted for its ease of use and suitability for smaller businesses.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect is valued for its scalability, reliability, and integration capabilities. BackupAssist is recognized for its straightforward configuration, effective backup solutions, and tailoring to small and medium enterprises.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect could enhance its performance and simplify management tasks. Users suggest that BackupAssist improve technical support and expand advanced features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect deployment can be complex and requires significant IT resources. Customer service is knowledgeable but sometimes slow. BackupAssist offers a quick and easy deployment process, making it suitable for environments with limited IT staff, although users desire more prompt and effective support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect has higher setup costs but provides good ROI through its robust capabilities. BackupAssist is more affordable and offers quicker ROI, making it cost-effective for smaller organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

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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

BackupAssist

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

70th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

MSP Backup (12th)

IBM Spectrum Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

17th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

149

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BackupAssist is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

RichardMukarakate

Director at Gemini Systems

Provides ransomware protection, does good reporting, and is close to perfect for our use case

The main challenge that I have had with it was no line of support, but I've anyway taken away the Linux machine that I was using. So, I don't need that anymore. I'm migrating my Exchange to the cloud. So, I probably will stop using the exchange backup side of it sometime next year, but the rest of the virtual machines that I have on-premises are very well covered by it. To be able to back up my online Exchange, I know there is a backup in the cloud, but I prefer to have something physical with something on my premises as well. It stopped doing my backups after I did the last update on it.

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Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of BackupAssist are ease of use, configure is simple, and more importantly, ease of recovery. If you needed to do a complete system recovery or another recovery it is straightforward."

"I have found that the backups are usually very successful."

"We can configure the notifications themselves so that the right people get the notifications. This is very helpful. It allows key stakeholders to know if backups have happened and to remind each other to check the backups if something is not right."

"I get my reports. It is generally very reliable. Unless there is a major change, it doesn't stop backing up. I've got my server room set up with everything connected to the same power, and I never have power issues or failures of backups because a sub-site has gone off."

"by backing up only the changed data, we average around 75TB per night. If we had to do full backups, even occasionally, we would not be able to complete the backup within 12 hours, or we would have to make a large investment to fit a full backup within the 12 hour window."

"The ability to migrate between media over a long period of time. My customers are long-time users, and they have benefited from being able to move between tiers. They have been able to do this within the product."

"Once setup, you do not need to touch it again. You just need to do a formal check on possibly batch updates."

"Nothing beats this solution for file backup."

"IBM Spectrum Protect offers stable software and products."

"It integrates well with Spectrum Scale."

"IBM Spectrum Protect is stable."

"We apply the new dedupe and compression technology, using maintenance and time to give more time for the backup window and less time for the overhead related to the daily housekeeping."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

Cons

"In the future I would like to see more support for Linux."

"Many solutions become stagnant over time. However, BackupAssist has been consistent in updates but they must continue to innovate and improve to avoid stagnation."

"It stopped doing my backups after I did the last update on it."

"Many solutions become stagnant over time. However, BackupAssist has been consistent in updates but they must continue to innovate and improve to avoid stagnation."

"The solution needs a dashboard or some form of central control from which you can manage all backups."

"I need two separate solutions for virtual and physical systems. I need IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for virtual systems and Spectrum Protect for physical systems and that's a pain. It would be an improvement if they were combined."

"I would like a little more ease with the virtual platforms, because it is a huge thing that is coming up."

"Sometimes we experience trouble with the backup transfer of the control files."

"I would not recommend the tool to others because it is a really complex product."

"The features should be a little bit closer together."

"Generally, the implementation of virtualization could be improved. The workflow service and so on are not working properly."

"The licensing isn't very clear. They should work to simply or clarify the cost structure."

"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."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's on a yearly basis, but I'm not the one who does the licensing on that. I don't have any figures, but it's on a yearly basis, and I believe it's reasonable."

"The cost of the solution is reasonable and there are add-on options that can be purchased. I have used other solutions that are a lot more expensive that are not as good. The ability to get support is very simple and very reasonable from a cost standpoint."

"The product pricing here in Zimbabwe is good, I cannot complain."

"There's a yearly licensing cost. The costs might be around $2000 USD annually."

"IBM Spectrum Protect can be considered an averagely-priced product."

"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."

"The pricing of the solution is high in comparison to other products on the market. For example, IBM and Symantec have less costly options."

"We have found that the pricing is high in our country."

"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."

"The solution is expensive."

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

"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."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

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What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

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Comparisons

Veeam Data Platform vs BackupAssist

Compared 61% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs BackupAssist

Compared 39% of the time

More BackupAssist Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 18% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 18% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist

May 2025

Download BackupAssist product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Overview

BackupAssist is a comprehensive backup and recovery software designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a wide range of features to ensure data protection and minimize downtime in case of system failures or disasters. With BackupAssist, users can easily create and manage backups for their critical data, applications, and systems.

One of the key features of BackupAssist is its support for multiple backup types, including full, incremental, and differential backups. This flexibility allows users to choose the backup strategy that best suits their needs and optimize storage space and backup time. Additionally, BackupAssist supports both local and remote backups, enabling users to store their backups on external drives, network shares, or cloud storage services.

BackupAssist also provides advanced features for application-specific backups, such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Hyper-V. These features ensure that critical business applications are backed up correctly and can be quickly restored in case of data loss or system failures. Moreover, BackupAssist offers granular recovery options, allowing users to restore individual files, folders, or even specific application items.

To further enhance data protection, BackupAssist includes features like encryption, compression, and verification. Encryption ensures that backups are securely stored and can only be accessed by authorized users. Compression reduces the backup size, optimizing storage space and reducing backup time. Verification checks the integrity of backups, ensuring that they can be successfully restored when needed.

BackupAssist also offers a range of disaster recovery options, including bare-metal recovery and virtual machine backups. Bare-metal recovery allows users to restore their entire system to new or existing hardware, minimizing downtime in case of hardware failures or system crashes. Virtual machine backups enable users to protect their virtualized environments, ensuring business continuity in virtualized infrastructures.

BackupAssist

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.

IBM

Sample Customers

Monash University, NASA, NYU, Pfizer, RAF Association, Rockwell Colins, University of Arizona, US Department of State, Volvo

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

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

April 2025

Free Report: BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

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