ExaGrid EX Series vs IBM ProtectTIER comparison

ExaGrid and IBM are both solutions in the Deduplication Software category. ExaGrid is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while IBM is ranked #13. ExaGrid holds a 6.8% mindshare in DS, compared to IBM’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ExaGrid users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 60% of IBM users who would recommend it.

ExaGrid EX Series

Read 7 ExaGrid EX Series reviews

1,728 Views
1,693 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM ProtectTIER

Read 7 IBM ProtectTIER reviews

786 Views
267 Comparison Views

60% willing to recommend

ExaGrid EX Series

IBM ProtectTIER

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

IBM ProtectTIER and ExaGrid EX Series are competing in data backup and storage. ExaGrid holds the upper hand due to its scalability and robust backup performance.

Features: IBM ProtectTIER features efficient data deduplication, seamless integration with existing infrastructure, and robust support. ExaGrid EX Series offers strong scalability, fast backup and restore times, and adaptive deduplication, enhancing backup performance.

Room for Improvement: ProtectTIER could enhance its scalability, backup speed, and initial setup cost. ExaGrid could improve its long-term deduplication process, older data recovery speed, and offer more integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ProtectTIER is known for its straightforward deployment and reliable support infrastructure. ExaGrid EX Series is often praised for its simplified installation process and proactive support, making its deployment model more efficient.

Pricing and ROI: ProtectTIER generally incurs higher setup costs but offers strong ROI through storage efficiency. ExaGrid provides lower upfront expenses and competitive total cost of ownership, delivering immediate financial savings and desirable ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed ExaGrid EX Series vs. IBM ProtectTIER Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ExaGrid EX Series vs. IBM ProtectTIER

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

ExaGrid EX Series

Ranking in Deduplication Software

8th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM ProtectTIER

Ranking in Deduplication Software

13th

Average Rating

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Backup and Recovery (74th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Deduplication Software category, the mindshare of ExaGrid EX Series is 6.8%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 1.5%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Deduplication Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ExaGrid EX Series	6.8%
IBM ProtectTIER	1.5%
Other	91.7%

Deduplication Software

Featured Reviews

Daniel Gillber

Information Technology advisor at Lotus Consulting

Improvements in data storage efficiency and customer support experience

ExaGrid EX Series and Veeam was easy to set up, and it worked seamlessly. It was very simple to use. We rarely needed to touch the ExaGrid boxes, except for upgrades. With the systems engineer from ExaGrid, and with our common knowledge of backup software, it was very easy to use. The performance was good, the interface was good, and the GUI was good. When ExaGrid introduced the air gapped feature, it was almost complete. Almost every hardware vendor has an air gapped feature, but they were significantly ahead of other vendors. The air gapped and immutable storage are very nice features. The price compared to other competitors was good with better features. It is not a cheap product, but compared to the features, it is a good competitor.

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Avdhesh Garg

Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Provides a short-term backup, archive, and cataloging for 20,000 people in our organization

The backup for a large amount of data is slow. When there's a large amount of data, sometimes the backup isn't completed in time. I have a 24 hour cycle, so it doesn't get completed in 24 hours with the large amount of data. With Veritas NetBackup, I can take 20 terabytes of backup in a day.

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

"ExaGrid EX Series and Veeam was easy to set up, and it worked seamlessly."

"It is a solid and a quite simple solution, which is a good combination. The customers like the simplicity and its scale-out capacity. They like the support pricing, and even the extension capacity pricing, a fixed price, which the executive is offering in Czech market."

"The tool has improved backup and recovery times. One of the key features contributing to this improvement is the landing zone and deduplication retention zone. When data is in the landing zone, the process is fast, ensuring smooth backup and recovery operations at high speeds. However, the process becomes slower for long-term backups moved to the retention zone due to fragmentation. So, if the data is older than a few days, the speed may be limited, especially for non-deduplicated data in the landing zone."

"The most valuable features of the solution are deduplication and landing zone."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use and data deduplication. It's extremely easy to use and does a very good job of data deduplication and compression."

"One of the main features is the landing zone, it is a particular space where the information is not duplicated."

"The solution easily integrates with the backup targets, such as Veeam."

"The most valuable features are the Self-Service, and the ability to search the data."

"The command-line interface is good."

"Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use."

"The cataloging is the best feature. It takes millions of frames for the backup. It's incremental, so it takes less time to complete."

"In terms of stability, I've found it to be very stable. I've walked into the server room when it was at 60 degrees Celcius, and it was still running fine."

"The solution is highly stable."

Cons

"The tool reduces storage footprint. However, clients are now storing data for longer durations with increasing requirements to retain backups for longer periods, particularly as a defense against ransomware attacks. As a result, the retention zone with duplicated data is experiencing more demand, leading to space constraints. This necessitates using higher-end, more expensive models to address the issue."

"The one place where we are sometimes losing the opportunity with ExaGrid is that a few customers still require a fiber channel connectivity, which is not always possible."

"When speaking about a scale-out, you want to have better equipment. You cannot just add a disc to the foreign equipment. You have to buy another one and put it together, like parallel."

"The product's documentation can be made more precise."

"The solution could improve by switching to a flash-type solution rather than the spinning drives that they currently use. However, we have not had any failure with the spinning drives. The flash-type drives are more up-to-date and are something that is in their roadmap."

"I would like for them to develop direct cloud integration with a third-party cloud. Direct integration with AWS and other cloud providers."

"I would like the possibility to back up the infrastructure and then replicate it upon on restart, without having to orchestrate the starting of the VM."

"The backup for a large amount of data is slow."

"IBM ProtectTIER could improve by being more user-friendly."

"The configuration wizards are still complex and hard to navigate. These should be easier to manage."

"Setting up the system to work with legacy equipment is a bit complex at times."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The current agreement has 21 terabytes of free space and it cost approximately $35,000."

"In comparison to other solutions, it's affordable. They're all too expensive."

"The previous solutions I have used both included the Backup Software and the Appliance making it hard to compare to this solution. However, overall the solution is reasonably priced for the features you receive. ExaGrid EX Series is priced better than HP, Dell, and possibly Commvault which I have compared in the past."

"I rate ExaGrid EX Series' pricing eight to nine out of ten."

"My company had to pay 1,60,000 EUR for the system we use, and the payment was made just once for the system and five years of full support."

"We have a capacity-based license, which is managed centrally for all the sites of my company."

"The customer can decide how they want to purchase a license. However, the price of the solution is expensive."

"This solution is very expensive."

"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2

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

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ExaGrid EX Series?

The tool has improved backup and recovery times. One of the key features contributing to this improvement is the landing zone and deduplication retention zone. When data is in the landing zone, the...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExaGrid EX Series?

I rate ExaGrid EX Series' pricing eight to nine out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ExaGrid EX Series?

Everything can always be better, so I would give it a nine.

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Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 48% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 18% of the time

Quantum DXi Series vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 16% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 8% of the time

Veritas NetBackup Appliance vs ExaGrid EX Series

Compared 6% of the time

More ExaGrid EX Series Competitors

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 41% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 20% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 14% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 13% of the time

DD Boost vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 13% of the time

More IBM ProtectTIER Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ExaGrid EX Series

December 2025

Download ExaGrid EX Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Deduplication Software

November 2025

Download IBM ProtectTIER product report

Also Known As

EX Series

No data available

Overview

The ExaGrid EX Series hyper-converged secondary storage for backup product line consists of eight appliance models. Each appliance is sized for a full backup and for long-term retention. Any ExaGrid appliance can be mixed and matched in the same scale-out system with any other size or age appliance, allowing customers to buy what they need as they need it. This pay-as-you-grow model allows up to 25 appliances in a single scale-out system.

ExaGrid

IBM TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway is designed to meet the disk-based data protection needs of the enterprise data center while enabling significant infrastructure cost reductions. The solution offers industry-leading inline deduplication performance and scalability up to 1 petabyte (PB) of physical storage capacity per system, and can provide up to 25 PB or more backup storage capacity. Combined with IBM or third-party storage, TS7650G ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway provides a powerful disk-based repository to improve the performance, retention and availability of backup and archive data in a small footprint for energy and cost efficiency.

IBM

Sample Customers

NCI Group, North Attleborough Public School, North Kingstown School Department, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Rathbone Brothers PLC, Rio Hondo College, Ruder Finn, Sarah Lawrence College

Durham Police Department, Re-Store LLC, CenterGrid, pixx.io GmbH, Australian Government Department of Defence, QD, Refresco Gerber

Buyer's Guide

ExaGrid EX Series vs. IBM ProtectTIER

December 2025

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