Carbonite Server vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

OpenText and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. OpenText is ranked #58, while IBM is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.0. OpenText holds a 0.8% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Carbonite Server

Read 7 Carbonite Server reviews

1,596 Views
1,149 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

Read 4 IBM Storage Protect reviews

4,852 Views
4,027 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Carbonite Server

IBM Storage Protect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

Carbonite Server and IBM Storage Protect compete in the data backup and recovery space. IBM Storage Protect stands out due to its comprehensive features, even at a higher cost.

Features: Carbonite Server provides automatic cloud backup, centralized management, and local backup options, catering to small to medium businesses. IBM Storage Protect offers enterprise-grade features, including advanced data recovery, security protocols, and impressive scalability.

Room for Improvement: Carbonite Server could enhance its scalability and data protection capabilities to better serve larger organizations. IBM Storage Protect might improve ease of deployment and simplify user interfaces to aid smaller businesses without dedicated IT resources. Both products could benefit from further price optimization and efficiency enhancements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Carbonite Server offers an easy setup process with responsive support, ideal for small businesses with minimal IT staff. IBM Storage Protect is more complex to deploy but offers robust support services, suiting larger organizations with dedicated IT teams.

Pricing and ROI: Carbonite Server is competitively priced with substantial ROI for cost-conscious businesses. IBM Storage Protect, despite a higher upfront cost, delivers a strong ROI through its advanced feature set and scalability, appealing to enterprises seeking extensive data management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect

December 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

Carbonite Server

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

58th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (44th)

IBM Storage Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Carbonite Server is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect	1.8%
Carbonite Server	0.8%
Other	97.4%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Chris Puddy

Backup, storage and disaster recovery technical specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

A reliable backup product which needs little management

For most technical users the setup and initial deployment are fairly straightforward and once deployed it 99% of the time looks after itself. Installation of the agents is similar to most other products in that it has an install wizard to guide you, the accompanying documentation is also very useful to assist wherever you are in the agent install and policy setup process. Normally our customers' IT team does the deployment of agents, however, this isn't a daunting task unless you are dealing with multiple servers to protect the product. On a server-by-server basis, the deployment doesn't take long. From the MSP side of things, the infrastructure sitting behind the scenes doesn't take too much to install, configure and maintain.

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reviewer2787573

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.

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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

"The efficiency and convenience are excellent."

"Easy verification of things is the most valuable feature."

"The solution is very stable."

"It seems reliable and easy to use."

"The solution is a free engine to help work with the container."

"Technical support handled all our issues quickly and effectively."

"I find the BMR/image and the recovery pieces are valuable."

"The Granular Restore of SQL feature has been a lifesaver more times than I can count. One of the main reasons for looking at Carbonite was their support for platforms like AIX and AS/400 Series."

More Carbonite Server pros

"IBM Spectrum Protect offers stable software and products."

"With data deduplication and compression, we are reducing our overall storage footprint for our disk histories. Therefore, we are reducing the actual cost of the disk for our data protection and data backups."

"I've had no problems with the stability of this solution."

"We have a very good team of administrators who know the product perfectly and are able to manage it on a day-to-day basis."

"Performance and recoveries are better. Our clients and customers are happier with the performance of it."

"We apply the new dedupe and compression technology, using maintenance and time to give more time for the backup window and less time for the overhead related to the daily housekeeping."

"The tool's backup engine is very powerful. Previously, our client finished backup with HPE product in 48 hours. IBM Storage Protect completes backup in 8 hours."

"We've found the product to be quite stable and the performance is very good."

More IBM Storage Protect pros

Cons

"They do not yet have USB recovery but they are adding it in coming releases."

"The only thing that I would like to see improved is related to marketing. Currently, it is very difficult to find the right paper and stuff for me. Their marketing department should provide better information because currently, it is very difficult to find information on the internet. It was bought over by OpenText, and you won't be able to find a lot of information about this solution on their site. They should also provide training facilities for commercial purposes. Some of my colleagues recently went for pilot training, and they were technical. If I want to get trained, the training has to be more commercial. Currently, there is no such training for users like me."

"It could be a little bit easier or faster to be able to access data files without having to download anything."

"In the next release I would like to see an improvement in the auto failover option."

"The Hyper-V backup has room for improvement."

"The stability has room for improvement."

"The support for object storage isn't quite there yet. Its public cloud support can be improved. I would love to see the public cloud support for object storage, and it would be great, but what I always hear from the folks at Carbonite is that in a lot of cases, it directly competes with their cloud offering. So, I don't know when or where that will go or if that will go anywhere, but we are hopeful to see something. The dashboard is a little outdated. If they gave it a facelift and put some better design around their dashboard, that would be tremendous. I generally care less about the visual aesthetics of an application as long as it does what it needed to do, which is true in the case of this solution. We also have the Microsoft 365 platform. Because they're two separate platforms, I have to log in to my Microsoft platform to manage it, and I have to log into my Carbonite server backup platform to manage it. Having these two coexist together in one management console is really what we're looking for, but we went for it knowing this. We also knew that there would be some integration coming down the road. So, we're again hoping to see some of that coming in 2021."

"It needs some software upgrades to fix some of its current bugs."

"IBM's support hasn't been so good in the last few years."

"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."

"We are still using TSM Manager for many of our projects to administer our platform because the gap was not resolved with the new Operations Center."

"There could be various client systems and process integration included in the product."

"Some features are outdated as the product does not use the latest technologies. The graphical user interface, known as the operation center, is not very well designed. Additionally, IBM Storage Protect does not work well with virtual environments such as VMware and Hyper-V."

"The solution should improve the ability to monitor backup failure."

"The Hyper-V and SQL Server backup could be improved. In the 2016 version there was a significant improvement, but I think IBM has a big challenge with these technologies."

More IBM Storage Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is between $120 and $150 per year."

"The solution is open source."

"We pay 9,000 dollars per year for our license."

"Its price is reasonable."

"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."

"The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."

"The product is not cheap."

"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."

"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."

"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective."

"You need to put it in a PoC and test it out if you can."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	95

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about IBM Storage Protect?

The best point about IBM Storage Protect is that it can use IBM tape environments, which we still use and will continue to use in the future.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Storage Protect?

IBM Storage Protect is generally an expensive tool. However, with good contracts with IBM or its partners, the cost might not be so high. New customers can expect very high prices.

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What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?

One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past. There is a need for additional layers of security to fill the gaps, which is wh...

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Comparisons

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Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 vs Carbonite Server

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs Carbonite Server

Compared 6% of the time

Datto Cloud Continuity vs Carbonite Server

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Backup

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

December 2025

Download IBM Storage Protect product report

Also Known As

Carbonite Recover Backup

IBM Spectrum Discover

Overview

Carbonite Server securely replicates data to the local backup server while securing a second copy in the cloud. Granular restore and local failover options ensure rapid recovery and minimal data loss. With integrated hardware and cloud failover for critical systems, Carbonite Server provides reliable data protection.

OpenText

IBM Storage Protect offers data protection and management to secure critical business information efficiently. It's designed to be a scalable and flexible solution for data backup, recovery, and archive needs in complex IT environments.

IBM Storage Protect delivers comprehensive data protection by integrating backup, recovery, and archiving functionalities. It supports a range of workloads and infrastructures, from on-premises to cloud environments, facilitating efficient data management. Its platform provides seamless scalability to meet evolving business needs, underpinned by reliable security measures. Organizations leverage its capabilities to ensure business continuity and minimize data loss risks, making it vital in a data-driven world.

What are the key features of IBM Storage Protect?

Advanced Data Protection: Offers robust encryption and data integrity for secure backup processes.
Scalability: Grows with your data demands, supporting large data volumes without compromising performance.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly integrates with cloud platforms, enhancing backup strategies with hybrid options.
Automated Operations: Simplifies management tasks with automation, reducing manual intervention and errors.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating IBM Storage Protect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces storage costs by optimizing backup processes and data retention strategies.
Data Safety: Ensures data accessibility and integrity during recovery efforts, building trust in data protection strategies.
Operational Efficiency: Boosts productivity through streamlined and automated backup management workflows.
Compliance Readiness: Helps maintain compliance with data protection regulations by providing thorough reporting and audit trails.

Industries like finance and healthcare implement IBM Storage Protect to safeguard sensitive information against threats. In financial services, it's crucial for maintaining client data confidentiality, while healthcare institutions use it to protect patient records, ensuring both accessibility and compliance with regulations.

IBM

Sample Customers

INLINE Commercial Construction, Hamilton County

CEMEX

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect

December 2025

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