BackupAssist vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

BackupAssist and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. BackupAssist is ranked #71, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.0. BackupAssist holds a 0.5% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BackupAssist users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IBM users who would recommend it.

BackupAssist

Read 5 BackupAssist reviews

806 Views
766 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

Read 4 IBM Storage Protect reviews

5,105 Views
4,288 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

BackupAssist

IBM Storage Protect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

BackupAssist and IBM Storage Protect compete in the data protection landscape with distinct strengths. IBM Storage Protect is viewed as the superior product due to its extensive features and scalability justifying its cost.

Features: BackupAssist provides ransomware protection, disk-to-disk-to-cloud setups, and is easy to configure for small to medium businesses. IBM Storage Protect offers scalability, strong security protocols, and multi-platform versatility, making it ideal for larger enterprises.

Room for Improvement: BackupAssist could enhance its scalability options and add more advanced features for larger environments. It might also benefit from additional automation capabilities. IBM Storage Protect may improve on simplifying its deployment process, streamlining its user interface, and enhancing ease of use for less technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BackupAssist is known for its easy deployment and responsive support, fitting well with less complex IT settings. IBM Storage Protect has a complex deployment requiring professional expertise but benefits from robust integration support in extensive corporate systems.

Pricing and ROI: BackupAssist offers a cost-effective entry with quicker ROI for smaller businesses due to lower setup costs. IBM Storage Protect, with higher initial costs, delivers greater ROI for larger organizations through comprehensive features and scalability.

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

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Storage Protect

December 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

71st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

MSP Backup (16th)

IBM Storage Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BackupAssist is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect	1.8%
BackupAssist	0.5%
Other	97.7%

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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reviewer2787573

Interim Head of Infrastructure at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Backup coverage has supported immutable protection and now needs a more modern, intuitive interface

IBM Storage Protect is from a previous generation of backup software. In those days, backup software was complex in setting up and complex to manage. The new software, such as Rubrik, is very easy to use and more relatable to younger engineers because its interface design is more similar to Office 365 and the newer controls and labels that we are accustomed to. The difficulty that we now have with IBM Storage Protect is that for this day and age, compared to other products that are out there, it seems complex. If we look back 15 years ago, all enterprise class backup software was complex, so IBM was not any different. However, many of these older systems, such as Commvault, still have the same complaint that they are very complex because they have tried to keep that same interface and the same way it works. This suits them, but it probably needed a complete overhaul to bring it into the ease of use that we have with modern software. However, that upgrade has not been done. IBM Storage Protect has not been upgraded into a modern platform. It still looks a legacy platform.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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 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."

"Instead of taking three different backups of your systems, you're taking only one. You're able to crack that open and get what you need. The incident recovery, where it creates the VM and then you're running it, technically you're running it on Spectrum Protect. But then in the background, it's doing the storage motion and moving it off the Spectrum Protect back to your VMware environment. The users don't know the difference."

"Since the technology is reliable, it simplifies the backup process significantly. Now, our focus can primarily be on managing full backups and creating some offline copies."

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

"All other products contain the same features, but when I'm backing up an IBM Power server I feel more comfortable with IBM Spectrum Protect because it's the same vendor."

"It is scalable beyond anything my customers ever aspire to."

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

"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."

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

More IBM Storage Protect pros

Cons

"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."

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

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

"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 would be helpful if the solution included some sort of ransomware protection."

"Easier configuration of some of the products, e.g., VE comes to mind."

"A lot of my customers always ask for legal holds, especially on email."

"We need better protection from ransomware or the ability to identify ways we can protect ourselves from ransomware. Having backups is one thing, but specifically, we need methods to recover if we have a ransomware attack."

"They should have a proper technical support team serving the customers and get issues resolved earlier."

"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."

"If IBM could provide a partial module, that would be great."

"The user interface (UI) for the admin is still not good. It is way too complicated to manage the product, as we still need to use command line. IBM launched the Operations Center (OC), but there are still functions lacking, especially since we cannot manage all our scheduled tasks by using the GUI."

More IBM Storage 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."

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

"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."

"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

"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."

"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."

"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."

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

"Licensing IBM Spectrum Protect can be somewhat confusing for new users due to the options available, such as licensing on a capacity or per server basis."

"When compared to the cost of other enterprise products, it seems to be in the same range. However, compared to the cost of non-enterprise products, it is really high."

"It is expensive."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	95

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about IBM Storage Protect?

The best point about IBM Storage Protect is that it can use IBM tape environments, which we still use and will continue to use in the future.

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

I do not know the current licensing cost for IBM Storage Protect and how we get our support because our licensing model is not quite standard. We do not buy IBM Storage Protect direct from IBM. We ...

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What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?

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Commvault Cloud vs IBM Storage Protect

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist

January 2026

Download BackupAssist product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

January 2026

Download IBM Storage Protect product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM Spectrum Discover

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 Storage Protect offers data protection and management to secure critical business information efficiently. It's designed to be a scalable and flexible solution for data backup, recovery, and archive needs in complex IT environments.

IBM Storage Protect delivers comprehensive data protection by integrating backup, recovery, and archiving functionalities. It supports a range of workloads and infrastructures, from on-premises to cloud environments, facilitating efficient data management. Its platform provides seamless scalability to meet evolving business needs, underpinned by reliable security measures. Organizations leverage its capabilities to ensure business continuity and minimize data loss risks, making it vital in a data-driven world.

What are the key features of IBM Storage Protect?

Advanced Data Protection: Offers robust encryption and data integrity for secure backup processes.
Scalability: Grows with your data demands, supporting large data volumes without compromising performance.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly integrates with cloud platforms, enhancing backup strategies with hybrid options.
Automated Operations: Simplifies management tasks with automation, reducing manual intervention and errors.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating IBM Storage Protect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces storage costs by optimizing backup processes and data retention strategies.
Data Safety: Ensures data accessibility and integrity during recovery efforts, building trust in data protection strategies.
Operational Efficiency: Boosts productivity through streamlined and automated backup management workflows.
Compliance Readiness: Helps maintain compliance with data protection regulations by providing thorough reporting and audit trails.

Industries like finance and healthcare implement IBM Storage Protect to safeguard sensitive information against threats. In financial services, it's crucial for maintaining client data confidentiality, while healthcare institutions use it to protect patient records, ensuring both accessibility and compliance with regulations.

IBM

Sample Customers

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

CEMEX

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Storage Protect

December 2025

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