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Carbonite Server vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 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

Carbonite Server
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
58th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (47th)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
49th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Carbonite Server is 0.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.0%
Carbonite Server0.7%
Other98.3%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Dale Dirkes - PeerSpot reviewer
A simple, efficient, reliable product
The efficiency and convenience are excellent. The pricing is very good. It shows you what has been updated via little green dots. The solution is very automatic. I don't have to worry about it. It was easy to set up. Technical support has been helpful in the past. The solution has been problem-free.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables organizations to make large-scale recoveries easily, but the security must be improved
The security must be improved. We face a lot of cyber threats like ransomware. It impacts data availability and protection. The tool must provide a mechanism to make resilient backups. The tool must ensure that the recent backups have no ransomware. The backup must be immutable. They must be cyber-resilient backups. Finding a good resource person for IBM Spectrum in Pakistan is difficult. We have to rely on the support team. Resource availability is a challenge.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support handled all our issues quickly and effectively."
"The solution is a free engine to help work with the container."
"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."
"The efficiency and convenience are excellent."
"I find the BMR/image and the recovery pieces are valuable."
"Easy verification of things is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is very stable."
"It does not slow down your computer or use a lot of resources as it works."
"A full-featured data protection solution that is reliable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases."
"Reliability, recovery features, and stability are valuable to me."
"The solution's stability is high because it is derived from Spectrum Protect."
"The solution is scalable."
"Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot, are retention sets."
"Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors."
"There is protection against disasters with good, fast, reliable recovery options."
 

Cons

"It could be a little bit easier or faster to be able to access data files without having to download anything."
"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."
"The stability has room for improvement."
"The Hyper-V backup has room for improvement."
"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."
"They do not yet have USB recovery but they are adding it in coming releases."
"In the next release I would like to see an improvement in the auto failover option."
"The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix."
"Rooms for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are installation and configuration because those were difficult. They should try their best to improve those areas. In the next release of the product, better implementation and administration are what we're expecting."
"Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface."
"The administration needs to be improved and made simpler to use."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score."
"You end up needing to do a lot of troubleshooting to get things to work effectively."
"Their first level of support can be improved. Often they are too junior to understand the issues we are having, and it takes too much time to get from them to the next level of support, which is what we actually need."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve by adding SAP Rena."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is between $120 and $150 per year."
"Its price is reasonable."
"We pay 9,000 dollars per year for our license."
"The solution is open source."
"There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive."
"The price offering from IBM is coming down because it is based on number of VM machines. So, IBM is coming to the market to show the added value of the product."
"If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."
"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."
"The price is lower than that of some competing products."
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."
"In addition to the standard licensing fees, we paid for implementation and training."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that the product works and helps with restoration areas whenever there is a need to restore something.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Technical support could be improved significantly. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score.
 

Also Known As

Carbonite Recover Backup
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

INLINE Commercial Construction, Hamilton County
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Find out what your peers are saying about Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.