Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

BDRShield vs IBM ProtectTIER comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2025

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

BDRShield
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
18th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (9th), MSP Backup (1st)
IBM ProtectTIER
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
75th
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BDRShield is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
BDRShield0.8%
IBM ProtectTIER0.5%
Other98.7%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

TA
IT Director at Boom Logic
Can automatically pull the virtual machines that we have in an environment
I like the fact that BDRSuite can connect to VMware ESXi and automatically pull the virtual machines that I have in that environment. I also like that you can choose to back up the compute to the backup server or go straight to the cloud. BDRSuite enables you to recover data instantly. When we need to recover data, I only need to start a backup job or a restore job. Depending on the speed of the server and the Internet, it should be able to download the files from the cloud and split them back up the way they were like nothing ever happened. The restore options BDRSuite provides are crucial because we use it for a lot of healthcare companies that have HIPAA requirements. BDRSuite is HIPAA compliant. We need it to be readily available and accessible in case something goes wrong. It lets you schedule backups to run every 15 minutes. I don't believe you can do it at shorter intervals because there's no way the original backups will finish in 15 minutes. It allows you to adjust the schedules. For example, if you don't want it to go during certain times, you can set that up. You can also choose between a full or incremental backup. There are settings you can adjust to make it work how you want it. Incremental backup is crucial because a full backup would increase fees or affect the local server because it would back up the entire volume every time. Instead, it does one full backup—say 12 terabytes— and adds to it in increments of 100 gigabytes, 200 gigabytes, etc. Whenever you want to add a backup job, there's a wizard that pops up telling you how to make a new backup job. It asks you what you want to name it and what you want to back up. Then, it asks you if you want to schedule it. There's an interactive display on how to do that.
AG
Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Provides a short-term backup, archive, and cataloging for 20,000 people in our organization
The backup for a large amount of data is slow. When there's a large amount of data, sometimes the backup isn't completed in time. I have a 24 hour cycle, so it doesn't get completed in 24 hours with the large amount of data. With Veritas NetBackup, I can take 20 terabytes of backup in a day.

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 is its ability to copy quickly. We have about 12 terabytes, and trying to copy that volume size through the file structure would take a week. BDRSuite has a different approach to copying and is much faster."
"I am very pleased with the compression, especially with some of the larger SQL databases that need backup. The amount of compression is impressive."
"The most important features are the backup and the availability of the Universal Explorer. The in-transit compression is great."
"Their technical support is very good to work with, as they are able to propose alternate solutions to problems that work well for us."
"The smooth implementation is the most valuable aspect of BDRSuite."
"Vembu provides us with a way to instantly recover data. It offers instant data recovery through a local backup server deployed at the customer's site. We can quickly recover data either by copying it back to the main server or if the backup server is powerful enough, we can also directly start a virtual machine from the backup."
"The most valuable feature is the Hyper-V backup - it's just one click. I don't have to worry about it."
"It suits our needs, is versatile, and the functionality is there."
"Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use."
"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 solution is highly stable."
"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 command-line interface is good."
"The most valuable features are the Self-Service, and the ability to search the data."
 

Cons

"I have had issues with new client registrations. There are frequent connectivity issues to the cloud servers. Multiple times, I have had to prove to support that it wasn’t a problem on my end. It always works out in the end, but it is troubling to have the same issues repeated across different clients. Issues eventually get escalated to the cloud team and are mysteriously resolved with no changes on my end."
"There were issues with the implementation because of incompatibilities between the tool implementation and our current VMware installation. So, it was an implementation issue that doesn't allow me to use it for VMware backup in the manner in which we would want to use it. That wasn't clear from the evaluation stage nor was it clear from the first utilization of it because it worked in the environment that it was being evaluated in. Based on that, we went ahead and made the purchase of the full implementation. At that point, it became clear that there would be limitations in that implementation that could not be overcome without doing upgrades to the production environment."
"I have had issues where it was working and then it stopped and I had to diagnose what had changed or gone wrong to get it back up."
"The deduplication could be better. It doesn't give the level of deduplication that I would get with a product that's stored in a more standard file format. I would prefer to be able to use a non-deduplicated store on a third-party deduplicated medium."
"BDRSuite could improve support for XenApp Citrix Backup."
"The initial setup process can be more simplistic and quicker."
"It is not a well-known software. People do not know about Vembu."
"One thing that I reported with the backups: When there are accentuated characters in a path, then we can't restore documents into a folder. There is a bug with the restoration and restoring files with accentuated characters in the path. Hopefully, they have repaired this because otherwise we will restore files and find out that they are not there."
"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."
"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."
"IBM ProtectTIER could improve by being more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Vembu could be better. They have a good product, and I know good products cost money, but they need to find a balance."
"The license is per unit and is expensive."
"The pricing could have been cheaper."
"I selected this solution because it was the only one I could find for the cost that did what I needed it to do. I haven't found a competitor who does as good a job for the money."
"The pricing is fair."
"Take a look at the pricing and licensing closely. When we installed the BDR disaster recovery server, which is the duplication of the backup data on one server onto a second one where the backup data resides, it was not clear that this DR server needed two other licenses. These licenses were to back up the copy of the first backup server that had two licenses for the two physical host that it was backing up in the first place. Moving files around to a second DR server, why would I need an extra two licenses? I don't know if it's to make money, but it was not very obvious and I had to abort the project from there because I didn't plan to pay for extra licenses to copy data of the first two physical servers. I also didn't understand why it was needed. Hopefully, they will improve the explanation in the documentation for this."
"Price-wise, it is much cheaper than its counterparts. I like its pricing, and its price is okay. The lesser they take, the more profit we can make, but we are happy with its price. It is very affordable. We were working with a client, and they were looking for backup software and had a very tight budget. When I told them that Vembu is only going to cost around $400 to $500, they were shocked. They didn't believe me, so I showed them the website so that they can check the price themselves. Of course, if they agree to that price, we get a 15% rebate as a managed service provider."
"The product's pricing is a good value. Vembu is cost-effective versus using VMware Essentials. Regarding licensing, make sure you find the right workstation or server that you're going to install it on, and know the number of sockets it has, since the price depends on that."
"The customer can decide how they want to purchase a license. However, the price of the solution is expensive."
"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."
"We have a capacity-based license, which is managed centrally for all the sites of my company."
"This solution is very expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BDRSuite?
The best part of BDRSuite is how user-friendly it is and how it does not require any maintenance after the initial setup.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BDRSuite?
BDRSuite is cost-effective because you can purchase a perpetual license that covers multiple environments. You only renew the support costs annually. It offers advanced features at roughly 75 perce...
What needs improvement with BDRSuite?
I really don't know what could be improved about BDRSuite Backup & Replication. I've never had anything that I thought would be nice if that was possible. Every time I thought that, it was alre...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Vembu BDRSuite, BDRSuite Backup & Replication
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA, Intel, CISCO, PHILIPS, Atos, HEXAWARE, Motorola
Durham Police Department, Re-Store LLC, CenterGrid, pixx.io GmbH, Australian Government Department of Defence, QD, Refresco Gerber
Find out what your peers are saying about BDRShield vs. IBM ProtectTIER and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.