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CA Allocate DASD Space and Placement vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

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 Allocate DASD Space and ...
Average Rating
6.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Storage Management (13th)
IBM Storage Protect
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

CA Allocate DASD Space and Placement and IBM Storage Protect aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. CA Allocate DASD Space and Placement is designed for Storage Management and holds a mindshare of 3.4%, down 3.9% compared to last year.
IBM Storage Protect, on the other hand, focuses on Backup and Recovery, holds 1.6% mindshare, down 2.2% since last year.
Storage Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CA Allocate DASD Space and Placement3.4%
NetApp OnCommand Insight8.0%
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor6.9%
Other81.7%
Storage Management
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Storage Protect1.6%
Veeam Data Platform5.4%
Commvault Cloud3.2%
Other89.8%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

it_user354057 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mainframe Storage Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's a space recovery product that helps us fix problems before they happen so we work on them after running a job, but I don't want to have to touch a file to make changes or updates.
One of the biggest benefits of CA Allocate is in the cost. We initially went with BMC MainView, which is a great product and a little more user friendly than CA Allocate. But because of our good relationship with CA, we were able to mimic everything we had with BMC. Any issues we had doing that, CA collected them right away to help us. As a space recovery product, CA Allocate helps us fix problems before they happen and then we work on them after we run a job. If somebody does not put the right space parameter, we let the job run and then we fix it after. If somebody does not optimize a data set, we run our reports after talking to these people without ever having an event waste CPU cycles.
reviewer2787573 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As a space recovery product, CA Allocate helps us fix problems before they happen and then we work on them after we run a job."
"Every time customers make a change or we have made a change, then they use the product to do a cloning and refreshing. They are happy that they get good performance something changes."
"IBM Spectrum Protect is a robust tool which allows us to backup pretty much any environment, virtual or physical, and create offsite copies of all our data for security and recovery purposes."
"Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings."
"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."
"The technical support for Spectrum Protect is very mature. It is very committed to giving a top-notch support experience."
"The best functional system I utilize is integrated with the data domain and DIGS backup solution, which makes it easily manageable and comprehensive."
"We can use it with any storage for the back-end to save data."
"It is good in terms of functionality, and my clients are very satisfied with this solution."
 

Cons

"Allocate is a good product, but it's not there yet in terms of that."
"Integration with some applications in the healthcare field could be added, as that is a big part of our business."
"In a future release, it would be a benefit to have the ability to add an application as a storage target, as a storage pool. Additionally, they should add more functionality to the administration for the Operation Center."
"At one point, we tried to implement the VMware module with it, and it was awful and terrible."
"Replication services would be nice. If these could be enhanced to be always on so multiple storage backup services could be added as a cluster pool. This would provide a better availability service."
"Even with Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environment which could be improved a lot."
"The pricing is a bit high. It would be ideal if it was more affordable."
"If they have migrated off of it, they migrated off of it because of its lack of virtual environment functions."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market."
"You need to put it in a PoC and test it out if you can."
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"IBM Storage Protect is not expensive and fits the needs of all business types. The licensing is based on a capacity-based model. You can take a license for one, two, or three terabytes."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive. However, there are a few packages and it is unclear because, for the entry suite they have both options, which are the back-end storage capacity and the front-end storage capacity."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."
"We have been at our size for a few years. We are not really looking to battle the licensing costs, as this is our primary system."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise95
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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 ...
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is my primary tool for backup and recovery. We also use it for immutable backups to protect against ransomware. We use IBM Storage Protect for everything on-premises. The benefi...
 

Also Known As

BrightStor DASD Space and Placement
IBM Spectrum Discover
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tieto
CEMEX
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