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Barracuda Backup vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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

Barracuda Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
52nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (40th)
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 Barracuda Backup is 0.3%, up from 0.1% 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

Ferrianto Suryanto - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers cost-effective data backup with room for user interface improvements
I work with various Barracuda products based on customer requests, including Barracuda Backup and Barracuda WAF. In the past, I also worked with Barracuda Web Security Gateway, but it has been phased out One valuable feature of Barracuda Backup is that it can be used as thin VMware storage. If…
Syed Habib - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

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 feature of Barracuda Backup is that it's on the cloud, so there is no need for hardware."
"One valuable feature of Barracuda Backup is that it can be used as thin VMware storage."
"The solution’s scalability is good because its space is unlimited. We can start in Office365 with one terabyte bit of information and leverage through an enterprise solution of 1000 users."
"Barracuda Backup is cost-effective because there is no licensing cost per server or VM."
"One of the features which is most interesting in Spectrum Protect is the ability to scale out to great environments. This is something that not many vendors have on the market."
"It is also a product that has been maturing for a long time. This is good because customers need reliability in their enterprise initiatives."
"It has to ability to backup DV2, Oracle, and Informix."
"The deduplication and compression features are the most valuable features."
"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."
"With the new features that we have added, it has made a difference as far as faster recovery and speed."
"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."
"Our performance is better."
 

Cons

"Barracuda Backup's support could be improved because sometimes the support team is situated outside the country, leading to time zone issues."
"An improvement is required in reports and backups for sharing on Linux and Unix."
"Barracuda Backup's user interface needs to be renewed as it appears outdated."
"In using Barracuda Backup, sometimes the VM has issues and becomes non-functional, requiring support tickets to resolve."
"We are having a balance issue between the reclamation and the backup function. It has to take the space back from the tapes before it can record to those tapes, but sometimes those two processes are overlapping."
"In the next version of the solution, I would like to see cloud support."
"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."
"It might be seen as leaning towards the legacy side, missing some features of newer solutions. The main drawbacks would be its complexity and high pricing."
"Stability is very good now. It used to be rocky years ago."
"The administration tools for GI need improvement, as the current assessment suggests shortcomings in the back-end system."
"The solution must protect against ransomware attacks better."
"Better integration with other tools and databases is needed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"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."
"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."
"The license model that they have at IBM, which is due to volume, from a certain volume onward is not the right license model."
"I don't have an idea about the pricing. They send that over to someone else, but I know that one of the issues they had was the licensing costs. I don't think they were happy with how they were charged."
"We have found that the pricing is high in our country."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."
"The pricing model of this solution is another difficult area, it's very sophisticated in the way they charge. It's based on PBU, which is a type of processor, how, many processors, and you need to put everything into an equation. However, they have different ways of charging or licensing. One way is a back-end volume or front-end volume, which is quite complicated."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Legal Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Backup?
The pricing is very competitive. Licensing is on a yearly basis, and Barracuda even provides replacements after three years if a device reaches end of life, without any extra charges.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Backup?
Barracuda Backup's support could be improved because sometimes the support team is situated outside the country, leading to time zone issues. Adding AI features for security would also be beneficia...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Backup?
I am not using Barracuda Backup ( /vendors/barracuda-networks ); I am selling it. The primary use case for my clients is to take the backup. It is used by a range of clients from small to enterpris...
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
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 dash...
 

Also Known As

LiveVault
IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ochsner Health System
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Backup vs. IBM Spectrum Protect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.