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Bacula Enterprise vs IBM ProtectTIER comparison

Bacula Systems and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Bacula Systems is ranked #25 with an average rating of 10.0, while IBM is ranked #82. Bacula Systems holds a 1.0% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 0.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Bacula Systems users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 60% of IBM users who would recommend it.
Bacula Enterprise
Read 10 Bacula Enterprise reviews
  • 1,044 Views
  • 904 Comparison Views
90% willing to recommend
IBM ProtectTIER
Read 7 IBM ProtectTIER reviews
  • 210 Views
  • 167 Comparison Views
60% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM ProtectTIER and Bacula Enterprise are well-regarded products in the data backup and recovery market, each with its strengths in various aspects. Based on user reviews, Bacula Enterprise appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features.

Features: Users highlight IBM ProtectTIER's data deduplication, efficient storage, and competitive pricing. Bacula Enterprise attracts praise for its wide range of supported platforms, versatility, and extensive compatibility.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest IBM ProtectTIER could improve its scalability options, management complexity, and user onboarding. Bacula Enterprise needs better documentation, a more intuitive setup process, and more advanced training resources for users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ProtectTIER users report a relatively straightforward deployment process but mention mixed experiences with customer service. Bacula Enterprise users find deployment slightly complex but benefit from responsive and helpful customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Users appreciate IBM ProtectTIER's competitive pricing structure and feel it offers good ROI for larger enterprises with significant data storage needs. Bacula Enterprise, perceived as more expensive, provides robust features that justify its cost, leading to long-term ROI for users seeking extensive compatibility and flexibility.

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To learn more, read our detailed Bacula Enterprise vs. IBM ProtectTIER Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Bacula Enterprise vs. IBM ProtectTIER
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

Bacula Enterprise
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
25th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (18th)
IBM ProtectTIER
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
82nd
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 0.1%, down from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Davilson Aguiar - PeerSpot reviewer
Very cost-effective and well organized with good compression
It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company. A managerial user who wants more information beyond the operational technician should be able to access it. It could include greater transparency regarding the volume of data trafficked on the network, as well as the expectation of deduplication. A more practical strategy could come with a backup policy model as a suggestion for both large and small companies. A simple suggestion is to visually implement the backup time as far as your physical media.
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ValereFEUGWANG - PeerSpot reviewer
Protects data in hybrid infrastructures, but it is an expensive product with poor support
The main challenge for our customers is to replicate the virtual environment upon restart, without using any additional solutions such as VMware SLM. I would like the possibility to back up the infrastructure and then replicate it upon on restart, without having to orchestrate the starting of the VM. It would be much better for us. This solution can be made easier to use. Technical support is very frustrating and we are considering other solutions because of it. Stability is something that should be improved. The product is expensive and the licensing should be changed.
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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

"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"It is easy to scale Bacula Enterprise even if your system is growing tremendously in data and servers."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"Bacula is very solid, very stable, and very scalable."
"It works great and it provides you with several standard tools to restore your backup, even after a big failure."
"The most valuable features are the special plugins such as SAP HANA databases, Microsoft SQL, and various types of virtualization."
"It can be used in virtually any environment we have onsite."
"The cataloging is the best feature. It takes millions of frames for the backup. It's incremental, so it takes less time to complete."
"The most valuable features are the Self-Service, and the ability to search the data."
"The command-line interface is good."
"In terms of stability, I've found it to be very stable. I've walked into the server room when it was at 60 degrees Celcius, and it was still running fine."
"The solution is highly stable."
"Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use."
 

Cons

"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"A more user-friendly interface (GUI) can be developed."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"Bacula needs a graphical user interface because, for administrators, the command-line interface is okay, but for the average user it is not very easy."
"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"Easier setup and configuration, perhaps including a GUI, would be an improvement."
"I would like the possibility to back up the infrastructure and then replicate it upon on restart, without having to orchestrate the starting of the VM."
"Setting up the system to work with legacy equipment is a bit complex at times."
"IBM ProtectTIER could improve by being more user-friendly."
"The backup for a large amount of data is slow."
"The configuration wizards are still complex and hard to navigate. These should be easier to manage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source solution."
"We have a perpetual license."
"The customer can decide how they want to purchase a license. However, the price of the solution is expensive."
"We have a capacity-based license, which is managed centrally for all the sites of my company."
"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."
"This solution is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
24%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bacula Enterprise?
Bacula is more expensive than various other solutions. It’s almost completely commercial now. Products like Veeam software are much more expensive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Bacula Enterprise?
Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Bacula Enterprise?
The last scenario in which I used Bacula was for a customer who needed some open-source tool which could support encryption at that time. We managed to convince the customer to use Bacula to deploy...
See all answers
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Comparisons

Bareos vs Bacula Enterprise Logo
Bareos vs Bacula Enterprise
Compared 51% of the time
UrBackup vs Bacula Enterprise Logo
UrBackup vs Bacula Enterprise
Compared 17% of the time
Veeam Data Platform vs Bacula Enterprise Logo
Veeam Data Platform vs Bacula Enterprise
Compared 13% of the time
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Bacula Enterprise Logo
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Bacula Enterprise
Compared 4% of the time
Acronis Cyber Protect vs Bacula Enterprise Logo
Acronis Cyber Protect vs Bacula Enterprise
Compared 2% of the time
More Bacula Enterprise Competitors
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM ProtectTIER Logo
Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM ProtectTIER
Compared 100% of the time
More IBM ProtectTIER Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Backup and Recovery
April 2025
Bacula Enterprise reportDownload Bacula Enterprise product report
Buyer's Guide
Deduplication Software
March 2025
IBM ProtectTIER reportDownload IBM ProtectTIER product report
 

Overview

Bacula Enterprise is a highly scalable, especially robust and secure data backup and recovery software. Its unique low cost subscription model empowers data centers to truly escape data volume price traps. With a high degree of flexibility and customizability, Bacula offers native integration with a wide range of hypervisors, databases, file systems, cloud interfaces and containers. High numbers of enterprise organizations worldwide (incl. NASA, Bank of Austria, Swisscom or Sky PLC) have adopted Bacula Enterprise backup software in mission critical environments because of its advanced features and ability to handle high data volume at very low cost.

Bacula Systems

IBM TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway is designed to meet the disk-based data protection needs of the enterprise data center while enabling significant infrastructure cost reductions. The solution offers industry-leading inline deduplication performance and scalability up to 1 petabyte (PB) of physical storage capacity per system, and can provide up to 25 PB or more backup storage capacity. Combined with IBM or third-party storage, TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway provides a powerful disk-based repository to improve the performance, retention and availability of backup and archive data in a small footprint for energy and cost efficiency.

IBM
 

Sample Customers

NASA, SwissCom, Navisite, Turner Studios, Bank Austria, Caixa Bank, SdV Plurimedia, Leibniz University Hannover, Zeta Global, Tricore, NetLog, Siemens, LocaWeb, wbsGo, itesys, Queens School of Computing, Escrypt.
Durham Police Department, Re-Store LLC, CenterGrid, pixx.io GmbH, Australian Government Department of Defence, QD, Refresco Gerber
Buyer's Guide
Bacula Enterprise vs. IBM ProtectTIER
April 2025
Free Report: Bacula Enterprise vs. IBM ProtectTIER
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