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Dell PowerProtect Backup Services vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 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

Dell PowerProtect Backup Se...
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
42nd
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Storage Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Pre Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Cloud backup has simplified protecting hybrid, endpoint, and office data while cutting overhead
Areas for improvement could include having SaaS backups for Office 365 to back up on-premises. The majority of customers who speak about Office 365 backups want to back up Office 365 on-premises, which means if they have SaaS backups, they need a copy of that cloud data in their data center. Because everything is happening on the Microsoft cloud and Azure, if this feature is supported in a simple way, it would be very beneficial. Another idea for improvement is flexibility to be supported across different hyperscalers. Currently, it is supported in AWS. I understand that this may be irrelevant for customers because everything at the end of the day is managed by Dell. However, some customers may have subscriptions that they need to use. If there were another option in Azure or something similar, it would provide additional flexibility.
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

"The handiest feature of Dell PowerProtect Backup Services is that it syncs up our backups to other locations—we don't have to worry about our backups not syncing to other locations, and it monitors and reports to us if there are any issues."
"The user interface of Dell PowerProtect Backup Services is simple to manage and can manage multiple use cases on a single dashboard, which is very valuable from the customer perspective."
"Some of the returns on investment I see with this product are security and saving time."
"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."
"The solution is robust and problem-free."
"Overall, my experience with the solution is very positive, and I rate it a 9 out of 10."
"Since the technology is reliable, it simplifies the backup process significantly. Now, our focus can primarily be on managing full backups and creating some offline copies."
"So far, Spectrum Protector has been the best."
"Instead of taking three different backups of your systems, you're taking only one, and you're able to crack that open and get what you need."
"Everyone wants a full backup; it gives them safety and peace of mind, like an insurance policy for that rainy day when they may need to restore a system."
"We have better, faster backup times, and it has improved efficiency in the backups."
 

Cons

"In discussion with the company last year at Dell Tech World, the pricing model needs improvement because they are using shared resources."
"I think the pricing could be better, or they could improve support, automations, or customizations."
"The product should improve its GUI. It should also support Windows clustering."
"The only thing that I would like to have a little more of is insight in reporting. I find that Spectrum Protect needs a lot of monitoring, and I have to actually log into the servers."
"It is also expensive, and their support is also poor."
"We cannot take VMware backups for our banking data center environment."
"In the next version of the solution, I would like to see cloud support."
"The solution is a bit expensive, especially if you look at other competitors."
"IBM's support hasn't been so good in the last few years."
"Our customers would like to see metadata replication, tearing to tape, and more cloud capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"The product is not cheap."
"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."
"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."
"It is expensive."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well."
"That's no longer my department, but I have some past experience with licensing. It is not cheap. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of licensing. In terms of additional costs, there is management overhead. It is a complex solution and a lot of work goes into managing clients. It has gotten better over the years, but compared to its competitor, it is still heavy on management overhead."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise95
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Backup Services?
From what I know of the pricing. Dell PowerProtect Backup Services costs us around 10 grand. I think it was $10,000 initially. For what it does, it's worth it. It provides that reliability, so it i...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Backup Services?
Regarding security or pricing, our experience is definitely limited, but I can say that support is good. I think the pricing could be better, or they could improve support, automations, or customiz...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect Backup Services?
Dell PowerProtect Backup Services is what we use in the development and testing environment to protect any virtual machines in the OpenShift environment and Kubernetes. Currently, Dell PowerProtect...
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

No data available
IBM Spectrum Discover
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
CEMEX
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerProtect Backup Services vs. IBM Storage Protect and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.