Dell Data Protection Advisor vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

Dell Technologies and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #28 with an average rating of 9.0, while IBM is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.3. Dell Technologies holds a 0.5% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Dell Data Protection Advisor

Read 13 Dell Data Protection Advisor reviews

1,672 Views
1,622 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 149 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

3,978 Views
3,421 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Dell Data Protection Advisor

IBM Spectrum Protect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and Dell Data Protection Advisor offer comprehensive data protection solutions. IBM Spectrum Protect seems to have the upper hand in reliability, while Dell Data Protection Advisor is preferred for its advanced analytics capabilities.

Features: User reviews highlight that IBM Spectrum Protect stands out for its robust backup and recovery options, reliable data protection, and flexible storage management. Dell Data Protection Advisor is noted for powerful analytics, detailed reporting, and intuitive user interface.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest IBM Spectrum Protect could benefit from a reduction in complexity, more intuitive configurations, and enhanced user training resources. Dell Data Protection Advisor users note the need for improved integration with third-party tools, more customization options, and better scalability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect’s deployment is noted for its flexibility but can be complicated. Customer service receives mixed reviews, often citing slow response times. Dell Data Protection Advisor is said to be straightforward to deploy with supportive customer service that provides timely assistance and follow-ups.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect users point out the high setup costs but recognize the substantial ROI over time due to its reliability. Dell Data Protection Advisor’s setup costs are also high, with users appreciating the ROI due to its advanced features and ease of use.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

July 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

Dell Data Protection Advisor

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

28th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Spectrum Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

149

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Data Protection Advisor is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

AnkurGupta1

Lead Consultan at HCL Technologies

Offers seamless integration with robust data privacy features

I am currently working with other companies on data center solutions. In our data center, we work with HP, Dell, and Nutanix on data center build-up and migrations. I work with Dell Data Protection Advisor for cloud, though not extensively, and we provided that solution to one customer and are awaiting their approval. I am a reseller and service provider. We implemented Dell Data Protection Advisor for data privacy, and another team handles data protection and related issues. I did not work extensively on specific features, so nothing particularly stands out. From my reseller and end customer perspective, I would rate Dell Data Protection Advisor an eight out of ten as it is a good solution.

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Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

Manageable and comprehensive and integrates robust backup features for core banking

It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum. This is why I am searching for another solution. The product also lacks any centralized graphical user interface (GUI), such as Jarek Pod, and I am limited to using a console-based text user interface, which my local partner handles completely.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It generates very detailed reports, which makes things easier when it comes to IT auditing."

"The deduplication is probably the most valuable feature of that requirement."

"I can increase the tool's licensing as per my requirement with no conditions applied."

"I have never found any glitch in any Dell solution to date."

"It has a lot of stock reports. I believe over 300 canned reports, which for the most part meet a lot of generic needs."

"The reporting feature and the Dell's continuous improvement of the solution are the most valuable features. The solution not only supports Dell Power Products but also other products."

"The platform's most valuable features are data protection and retention."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the compression and the duplication."

More Dell Data Protection Advisor pros

"The solution is not complex, it's very easy to configure agents or VM backup and restore. Upgrades from one version to another are very fast and the product is very stable."

"We cannot live without it, since it gives us the confidence to move forward."

"The ability to migrate between media over a long period of time. My customers are long-time users, and they have benefited from being able to move between tiers. They have been able to do this within the product."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is application-aware backups."

"The amount of data that it protects with very little storage by doing incremental forever is one of its most valuable features."

"It's very robust and has been on the market for a long time."

"It protects our data. That is what it is there for."

"Our customers have come to trust IBM."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

Cons

"We have encountered issues where we were unable to pull data from the database server. It should also improve the backward compatibility."

"There is a steep learning curve to use the interface and to create new reports, this could be made easier. If the solution could provide more drag and drop functionality to build more advanced reports that would be very helpful."

"Customization of reports or creating new reports can be difficult. Users need to have a deep knowledge of SQL. 70-80% of customers can't seem to understand how to do it. They don't know how to address reporting. If Dell EMC could simplify it, it would benefit the end-user."

"Dell Data Protection Advisor's feature for data domain protection needs enhancement."

"It is difficult to manage the solution with the available tools. You need to know exactly what are you are doing."

"They should empower their customers with the ability to upgrade this solution as long as it's in the same major release."

"The stability of the solution needs improvement for stand alone users."

"Some minor adjustments could be made regarding the graphical interface and customization options."

More Dell Data Protection Advisor cons

"It doesn't integrate with storage pools, with a normal pool. I'd like to see that."

"The solution is evolving, so it has to be evolved to fit all new types of software requirements too."

"One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past."

"It can be improved for large file systems with many files. Spectrum Protect can restore large files very well, but if you're restoring millions of little files, it is not as great. At one point, we tried to implement the VMware module with it, and it was awful and terrible. I don't know if that has improved. If it hasn't, this would be one big improvement."

"The software is very complicated. You have to do a lot of configurations to build a server, and you would need to backup and restore."

"I need to have more than two instances working together. I need a worldwide grid able to have replication between three, four, or five instances."

"We would like to see cloud integration."

"Getting technical support all the necessary diagnostic information is still very painful."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You have to procure the license when you are ordering or quoting for Dell Data Protection Suite (DPS). DPS is bundled with the suite and comes with a license. However, if you purchase NetWorker separately then you will have to procure the license for DPS separately."

"You need to make an upfront payment for three, five, or seven years and renew the licenses for support. We can do an annual maintenance contract with Dell. I would rate the product's pricing a six out of ten."

"The product pricing has been satisfactory, particularly with the economy of scale in our agreement."

"For pricing, I would rate Dell 2 out of 5. It's affordable."

"The product is affordable."

"If the customer has huge lineup of Dell Products then they receive discount on the pricing."

"It's not very expensive — I think the price is fair."

"It is very scalable, but the downside is that it costs money."

"It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market."

"When compared to the cost of other enterprise products, it seems to be in the same range. However, compared to the cost of non-enterprise products, it is really high."

"Customers need to pay for licensing in order to use IBM Spectrum Protect. The customers that have been using it for a long time are okay and happy with it. From a cost point of view, it's better for them to renew their licenses than to go through the difficult process of changing a backup product in their environment, and migrate from one product to another."

"License-wise regarding IBM, it's licensed per terabyte. And that is after compression and deduplication."

"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

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

"Going to IBM Tech University Conference saved me from making a major purchase of the wrong thing, which was very helpful."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell Data Protection Advisor?

The platform's most valuable features are data protection and retention.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell Data Protection Advisor?

The product is satisfactory regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell Data Protection Advisor?

From a service perspective, improvements are needed at Dell because when customers call, it takes a long time to get a response for calls or emails. Response time is the main problem that needs add...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

See all answers

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

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum 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...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 30% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 19% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 17% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 13% of the time

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Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 15% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 15% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 12% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor

July 2025

Download Dell Data Protection Advisor product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

June 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Also Known As

DPA

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Overview

Effectively managing your data protection environment can be labor intensive and complex. It requires knowledge of backup applications, replication technologies, and the entire supporting infrastructure, yet it is critical in keeping your data secure.

With Dell Data Protection Advisor, you can automate and centralize the collection, monitoring and reporting of this data and get a single, comprehensive view of your environment, no matter where your data resides. This includes monitoring data on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

With clear visibility, you can gain actionable insight and effectively manage service levels while reducing costs and complexity. You can also collect and report on that data to help other stakeholders make the best decisions for your organization.

Data Protection Advisor is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite.

Dell Technologies

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.

IBM

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Trek Bicycle, Cal-Israel Credit Cards

CERN, Einstein Healthcare, Nyherji, Allianz Australia, TZM, ABT Online, NCT, Kindred Healthcare Inc., Cobalt Iron, TransGrid, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Cash America, Piedmont Healthcare, RWGV, Arkansas Tech University, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

July 2025

Free Report: Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. IBM Spectrum Protect and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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