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IBM ProtectTIER 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

IBM ProtectTIER
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
74th
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (13th)
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 December 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 0.5%, up from 0.1% 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%
IBM ProtectTIER0.5%
Other98.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

AG
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.
reviewer1656648 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Offers reliable recovery and backup but needs better ransomware protection
With ransomware protection and cyber protection, more improvement is possible. IBM provides these through a third party, so enhancement is needed. There's significant room for improvement. They are not yet where I want them to be. It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling. These are areas IBM can improve.

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 features are the Self-Service, and the ability to search the data."
"The solution is highly stable."
"The command-line interface is good."
"Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use."
"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 cataloging is the best feature. It takes millions of frames for the backup. It's incremental, so it takes less time to complete."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is the deduplication functionality. The clients moved to this solution originally because of this feature."
"The solution offers a very straightforward deployment. You click, click, click and it's done. There's not much configuration to do."
"Virtual snapshots that offer incremental backups."
"The solution integrates well with other tools."
"Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes."
"The solution's stability is high because it is derived from Spectrum Protect."
"The support from IBM is very good."
"The most valuable features of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are you have many possibilities on how to use it. We use it for backups and to create secondary and third copies. It is possible to pick up Kubernetes containers and use a different cloud provider if you need to start backups on the cloud."
 

Cons

"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."
"IBM ProtectTIER could improve by being more user-friendly."
"The backup for a large amount of data is slow."
"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."
"IBM has made a decision to withdraw the product and replace it with IBM Data Protect."
"I think the graphical reports are a shortcoming of the tool since it fails to provide my company with what we want in terms of reporting. Due to the product's inability to take care of its reporting part, we have to use third-party software."
"The one issue we are facing is related to file restores."
"I would like to see continuous data protection (CDP). If there is machine failure, you don't have to go to the backup copy that you took 12 hours ago. You can actually go back to the backup copy made half an hour ago. That is, it would be good to have certain-point-in-time recovery."
"The replication feature is not available."
"There's significant room for improvement. They are not yet where I want them to be."
"The tool needs to increase the number of threats."
"The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is very expensive."
"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."
"The customer can decide how they want to purchase a license. However, the price of the solution is expensive."
"We have a capacity-based license, which is managed centrally for all the sites of my company."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."
"There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive."
"The price is lower than that of some competing products."
"The price is perpetual, but the maintenance cost is annual. That is, we pay once for the product and pay annually for the maintenance and support. The price was much cheaper than what we would have had to pay for EMC or Veritas. The pricing is competitive, and I would rate it at four out of five."
"I rate the price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a one on a scale of one to ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is very cheap."
"In addition to the standard licensing fees, we paid for implementation and training."
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Durham Police Department, Re-Store LLC, CenterGrid, pixx.io GmbH, Australian Government Department of Defence, QD, Refresco Gerber
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM ProtectTIER vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.