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CA 1 Tape Management vs IBM Spectrum Control comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

CA 1 Tape Management
Ranking in Storage Management
3rd
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Spectrum Control
Ranking in Storage Management
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Storage Management category, the mindshare of CA 1 Tape Management is 6.8%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Control is 6.3%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Storage Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CA 1 Tape Management6.8%
IBM Spectrum Control6.3%
Other86.9%
Storage Management
 

Featured Reviews

Beyza Aksöz - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-use solution with good technical support services
We use the solution to manage virtual tape volumes The solution is easy to use. The solution's pricing could be better. We have been using the solution for eight years. I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. We have 20 solution users in our organization. Also, we plan to…
Aamir Jameel - PeerSpot reviewer
Scalable but not user-friendly
Spectrum Control could be more user-friendly. IBM also needs to provide proper training to handle Spectrum Control because it's a complicated solution I've been using Spectrum Control for almost three years. Spectrum Control's stability is fine.  Spectrum Control's scalability is fine - we can…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With this product, it all becomes automatic: locating the data, backing up the data, restoring the data. We can automate all that with it."
"It has become easy to backup and archive all our system data and financial data. It helps us mainly in managing the backup of our databases, and it is easy to retrieve that data and find it in a secure place."
"The tapes are mounted automatically. You can read a tape automatically without waiting for someone to insert it."
"package that manages all of your tapes. Create/write/catalog, retention, delete. There are queries and reports, which are needed to know when/where/length keeping, etc., in order to track them or find out current status."
"The solution is stable."
"The granularity of this solution has been most useful. Customers can click on a single item and get the information only for the single item they choose."
"The benefits would be mostly the ability to diagnose a problem."
"Spectrum Control is highly secure and competitively priced."
"Technical support is quite responsive and helpful."
"In my opinion, it's the best monitoring and report creation tool for IBM storage devices. You can do a lot of performance stats and reports with very nice tools for IBM storage devices."
"The product keeps historical data for a very long time."
"The installation was very easy. You just install an agent on a server, and you give that agent access to your storage device, then it just collects the data. It took five minutes to set up."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use. The ability to get into a storage device and look at whatever you are trying to look at as far as performance, then obtain the reports that you need to do your analytical work."
 

Cons

"The product itself is fairly complex so the install is as well."
"The solution's cost needs improvement."
"When we want to interface the CA 1 product with other vendors, IBM or others, it is difficult to interface it with them, because you need some exits, you need to compile some assemblers."
"Spectrum Control could be more user-friendly."
"The initial setup for IBM Spectrum Control is a bit complicated. They should also make it easier to integrate and use the Cosmos Analytics tool, which is very complicated."
"The database could be improved so that the complexity of installation could be easier. We would also like to have more granularity in the profiles and products for users. We would like to link the users to the tool to managers or auditors."
"If we were to add VM level performance being able to monitor VMs on a VM level, then that would be good."
"The solution must support multi-vendor storage."
"The pain points were, and may still continue to be, the fact that there are multiple components of the product which are installed, you might say, somewhat individually."
"I would like to see is more information regarding the copy groups (the replication)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price could be better."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"It is pay for the amount of storage that you are monitoring. The more that we use the tool and like the tool, we may want to extend it to other storage platforms. This is just a matter of cost."
"We were already licensing Spectrum Control. This was one reasons why we went to Control rather than using the other product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Insurance Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Control?
The product keeps historical data for a very long time.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Control?
The solution must support multi-vendor storage.
What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Control?
The solution can be used for monitoring storage.
 

Also Known As

BrightStor Tape Management
Spectrum Control
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TravelPort, AlphaServe, Rogers Communication
Nuance
Find out what your peers are saying about CA 1 Tape Management vs. IBM Spectrum Control and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.