Dell Avamar vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

Dell Technologies and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.3. Dell Technologies holds a 2.6% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Dell Avamar

Read 90 Dell Avamar reviews

5,260 Views
4,787 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

Read 3 IBM Storage Protect reviews

4,461 Views
3,747 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Dell Avamar

IBM Storage Protect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2025

Dell Avamar and IBM Storage Protect are in the data backup and recovery solutions category. Dell Avamar appears advantageous for ease of use, pricing, and customer support, while IBM Storage Protect leads with robust features and business value.

Features: Dell Avamar highlights efficient data deduplication, minimizes storage needs, and offers seamless integration across platforms. IBM Storage Protect provides comprehensive data protection, extensive scalability, and advanced security features, aligning with enterprise-level demands.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Avamar's deployment process is straightforward with a responsive support team, making it suitable for organizations with limited IT resources. IBM Storage Protect requires a complex setup but provides detailed documentation and training, making it ideal for enterprises seeking customized implementation. IBM's customer service is noted for its deep knowledge and problem-solving skills.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Avamar offers competitive pricing with lower initial setup costs, resulting in significant ROI through reduced storage expenses and simplified management. IBM Storage Protect demands higher upfront costs but is seen as a worthwhile investment due to its robust features and scalability, justifying long-term expenditure, appealing to large-scale enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Avamar vs. IBM Storage Protect Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. IBM Storage Protect

September 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 Avamar

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

7th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Deduplication Software (5th)

IBM Storage Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Avamar is 2.6%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell Avamar	2.6%
IBM Storage Protect	2.1%
Other	95.3%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

SamuelThomas

Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.

Have supported critical environments despite room for improvement in legacy backup options

It is very efficient in cyber resilience. Deduplication, automation, and everything is very efficient. It is multi-cloud enabled and has broad protections. The software delivers flexible and efficient backup and recovery options through its cyber resiliency features. Dell PowerProtect Manager provides insights in managing backup processes. Its encryption mechanisms are very efficient, helping to secure sensitive data. Its integration with Dell EMC Data Domain is very good. It is easy to integrate with Data Domain. Multi-cloud options are enabled, and backup in cloud options exist in Dell Avamar.

Read full review

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

"The most valuable feature for me is the backup functionality."

"The data reduction feature and the ease of enabling a server in a DR location are the most valuable."

"The stability is okay."

"The function I find most valuable in Dell Avamar is its ability to take differential backups for users. This feature is very effective for both backup and restore operations. We've had multiple cases where we needed to restore files directly from Avamar, and it worked perfectly. The Delta feature, which captures changes in user files, is particularly useful."

"The backup is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very reliable."

"I have found the product to be scalable."

"Dell EMC Avamar is easy to work with and is user-friendly."

"The solution is very stable."

More Dell Avamar pros

"Reliability: It has never had a problem with backups or restores. If you store something, it is there."

"The most valuable features are compression and de-duplication."

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

"We optimize our costs of media and storage use, thanks to the Incremental Forever backup. The TDP software provides us many ways to protect our data, so we don't need to use monstrous scripts for doing backups now."

"The interface is easy to use."

"The solution offers very good flexibility."

"IBM support is friendly, knowledgeable, and they always respond quickly. They've always been able to find the cause of my problem."

"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."

More IBM Storage Protect pros

Cons

"When you get down to doing certain things, such as somebody wants a particular file restored, the process by which you do that is stupid. You kind of have to know exactly where to look for in order to find it. Even on older backup products that I've used, I didn't have that kind of problem. If we were looking for a file with a particular kind of a name, the solution would find that file anywhere irrespective of where it resides within the backup system. So, we didn't have to know the name of the specific server, the specific timeframe, almost all the characters of the file name, and all kinds of data in order to find a file. In Avamar, we got to know these details. We've gone around and around with them on that, and their attitude seems to be that it is working just fine. There is nothing for them to improve. The organizational system of other products that I'm working with, such as Zerto and Cohesity, seems to be centered around the tasks that you would most commonly do and want to do, as opposed to we've laid it out in a really neat technical hierarchy."

"The tool's interface is very much in a spreadsheet format...reporting is an area with shortcomings requiring improvement."

"What would make Dell Avamar better is if it can do faster backups because right now, PowerProtect Data Manager is better in this area with its new UI and a new way to implement backups. Customers nowadays also expect more up-to-date solutions, and this is another area for improvement in Dell Avamar. It's not as up-to-date, so I'm counting on PowerProtect Data Manager, but customers who have Dell Avamar don't want to switch because you don't have as many backup problems in Dell Avamar compared to other solutions. What I'd like to see in the next release of Dell Avamar is an updated UI and a different way to manage backups because currently, backup management is a bit heavy for customers using Dell Avamar."

"The performance takes up a lot of resources, unfortunately."

"The solution could be a bit easier to use in the sense that they need to make it simpler to backup products and restore items."

"The configuration and expansion aspects of the solution need improvement. They're complicated and don't really integrate well."

"Dell Avamar could improve by adding more backup features."

"I think they could also move more towards cloud solutions. It already has some cloud tiering, but I think that could be more extensive. They should work with all cloud providers and I think in the future they will be on all cloud platforms."

More Dell Avamar cons

"They took some of the funding off of it for a while. Therefore, instead of being a market leader, they took their position for granted. Then some competitors developed new bells and whistles that they advertise, and due to that lag a few years ago, there are not the resources to explain the differences."

"IBM Spectrum Protect is not a very user-friendly tool."

"IBM Spectrum Protect does have a lot of the features that we need, but I think they need to improve their backup virtualization and backup for container."

"We recently had a situation where we quickly got code, and the number of tapes exceeded the library capacity so we were waiting a while to change. We got a fix for this right away."

"We would like to see capabilities of long-term archiving and more support for hardware platforms."

"Software-wise, IBM Spectrum Protect didn't handle virtual machines that well. The license cost is mainly the area for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect."

"There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those."

"For the database side, it does not have object level recovery."

More IBM Storage Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is easy to use."

"There is a license required for this solution."

"The price of this product should be lower."

"I rate the tool's price as a three out of ten if one means expensive and ten means it is a cheaply priced tool."

"It is expensive. Its cost is the main thing."

"It's an expensive tool"

"It was approximately $70-80,000 when it was under support, but right now EMC has not been supporting this product for two years."

"This is a fairly expensive solution. It cost approximately 21,000 each year."

More Dell Avamar pricing and cost advice

"That's a hard estimate. It depends on the licensing, the hardware, and other stuff, but it is fairly expensive. It is generally more expensive than other solutions."

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

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

"There may be an advantage to going with IBM in terms of pricing. They have a pay-as-you-grow policy, so there is no need to take one license for the entire datacenter. You can start with small licenses and then grow, and pay, as you use more."

"We are paying for support and maintenance on a monthly basis."

"The pricing model of this solution is another difficult area, it's very sophisticated in the way they charge. It's based on PBU, which is a type of processor, how, many processors, and you need to put everything into an equation. However, they have different ways of charging or licensing. One way is a back-end volume or front-end volume, which is quite complicated."

"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 licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	48

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	94

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?

From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC Avamar?

The cost is very significant, and it could be lower.

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell Avamar?

Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell Avamar

Compared 37% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell Avamar

Compared 12% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell Avamar

Compared 8% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Dell Avamar

Compared 7% of the time

Dell NetWorker vs Dell Avamar

Compared 6% of the time

More Dell Avamar Competitors

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 14% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 9% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Storage Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar

October 2025

Download Dell Avamar product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

October 2025

Download IBM Storage Protect product report

Also Known As

Avamar

IBM Spectrum Discover

Overview

Dell Avamar data protection software delivers flexible and efficient backup and recovery operations that can scale from daily backup protection for endpoints to high-performance protection for large enterprises with diverse applications and workloads. With application consistent recovery, automation and fast backup and restores, Avamar can help you meet your SLAs and optimize your backup and recovery processes

If you are deploying all or part of your backup environment to the cloud, Avamar enables you to make the most of your cloud investment, enabling replication, disaster recovery and long-term retention for customers using AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.

Avamar is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite, which offers comprehensive data protection software applications and tools. Avamar is delivered as software and as a virtual edition.

Dell Technologies

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

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions

CEMEX

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar vs. IBM Storage Protect

September 2025

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