IBM ProtectTIER vs Quest Rapid Recovery comparison

IBM and Quest Software are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM is ranked #86, while Quest Software is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 0.1% mindshare in BRS, compared to Quest Software’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 60% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

IBM ProtectTIER

Read 7 IBM ProtectTIER reviews

219 Views
126 Comparison Views

60% willing to recommend

Quest Rapid Recovery

Read 20 Quest Rapid Recovery reviews

1,106 Views
516 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM ProtectTIER

Quest Rapid Recovery

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM ProtectTIER and Quest Rapid Recovery are leading products in the data protection space. Users generally express greater satisfaction with the features and support provided by IBM ProtectTIER, yet Quest Rapid Recovery stands out for its advanced capabilities, which many feel justify its higher cost.

Features: IBM ProtectTIER: High-speed data deduplication, efficient storage management, robust integration with existing storage solutions. Quest Rapid Recovery: Comprehensive data protection, rapid recovery options, extensive cloud integration. Quest's advanced recovery options give it a slight edge in user reviews.

Room for Improvement: IBM ProtectTIER: Enhancing scalability, adding more cloud-based features, improved user interface. Quest Rapid Recovery: More intuitive management console, smoother updates, better documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ProtectTIER: Straightforward setup, reliable customer support, smooth integration into enterprise environments. Quest Rapid Recovery: Simplified deployment, responsive support team, favorable ease of use and rapid deployment processes.

Pricing and ROI: IBM ProtectTIER: Competitive pricing structure, strong return on investment, particularly in large-scale deployments. Quest Rapid Recovery: Higher cost, high ROI due to comprehensive features and reduced downtime in data recovery scenarios. Users feel the higher cost is justified by its features.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM ProtectTIER vs. Quest Rapid Recovery Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM ProtectTIER vs. Quest Rapid Recovery

June 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

IBM ProtectTIER

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

86th

Average Rating

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Deduplication Software (13th)

Quest Rapid Recovery

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

37th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest Rapid Recovery is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

ValereFEUGWANG

Information System Consultant at CFAO Technologies

Protects data in hybrid infrastructures, but it is an expensive product with poor support

The main challenge for our customers is to replicate the virtual environment upon restart, without using any additional solutions such as VMware SLM. 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. It would be much better for us. This solution can be made easier to use. Technical support is very frustrating and we are considering other solutions because of it. Stability is something that should be improved. The product is expensive and the licensing should be changed.

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Adam Augustín

Country Manager at Prianto Ltd

Granular recovery, replication is good and offers good speed

It is for any kind of company that uses their own servers. From a global perspective, our clients are small-sized companies. All the SMEs, compared to the Slovakian market, are quite small. It's a small market with small companies. They just want to enhance security and follow regulations It's…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"The command-line interface is good."

"The solution is highly stable."

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

"The most valuable feature is the disaster recovery process from the data center."

"It is very easy to use and very easy to manage. The fact that I can easily recover data is valuable. I don't use it much. The only way I have been using it is that sometimes, people ask to recover the data, which is a very easy process. It takes only a few minutes to get in and get the data from the server."

"The general backup for replication and virtual standby are the most valuable aspects. It does what it says it does. It's a decent tool for not a big budget."

"The best feature of the solution is the user interface."

"The compression and deduplication features have helped to save on storage costs."

"Not having to switch tapes is wonderful. It makes it so easy. We have an on-prem deployment that we also replicate to an offsite replication host. So by not having to deal with tapes and moving them off-site every day and every week, that's amazing ease of use for us."

"The solution's most valuable aspect is its ability to back up a physical server to another physical or virtual server."

"The local mount utility is most valuable. I do restores fairly regularly. Thankfully, I have not ever lost an entire server that I've had to resurrect, but I certainly have people who erroneously saved over a file or have deleted a file. So, we've done that quite a bit. We still have the DL4000 appliance, and we had, kind of, extrapolated that out over a five-year period. Now, we're in year six, so we had to add storage, which we did as a SAN next to DL4000, but prior to adding in that extra storage, we, here and there, would run into situations where for whatever reason, it would want to be pulling a new base image, and then we would run out of storage. So, we would utilize the archive feature and archive the old data that we want to hang on to, but we don't necessarily need it taking up current data storage. Being able to export out really old data is most valuable to us. Then, we just store that on a NAS that we keep in another building."

More Quest Rapid Recovery pros

Cons

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

"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."

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

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

"The initial setup can be tricky, and if not done right, the whole solution needs to be reinstalled."

"The terminology didn't seem easily available. When I go to the website, it is hard to search for things. You get all the articles, then you finally get the search button. They need the search at the top of the knowledge base. Then, on occasion, if you get an error message in the system, which is very important, it says, "Click here for more information," but I never get more information. The search engine doesn't find it or it is some weird error. It has never worked for me."

"I think the self-paced learning and knowledge base can always be improved so that users can self-service without having to contact either a reseller or Quest. I know there are things that I would have been looking for to try and solve. And the only way I could get there was to actually open a ticket rather than go through self-service through the portal."

"When you do a full backup, all of the memory resources on the server are used, which is something that should be improved."

"It is quite surprising to me that the configuration cannot be backed up automatically, and I think that Rapid Recovery should have an option for scheduled configuration backup."

"Rapid Recovery can only backup the machine or disc, but it can't back up from folders, and files, and things like that."

"I don't really think that there is a whole lot that needs to be changed. It would be nice if you could deploy the agent without having to reboot. When I upgraded my core to the latest version, I also wanted to update all of my servers, but I had to put that off because I can't just shoot it out there. I have to make sure it is at a time when I can do a reboot right away."

"There could be better space management for incremental data. When you use incremental data, the space in the appliance keeps on going up. There should be a better way to manage the space. You have to manage the incremental data to reduce the time."

More Quest Rapid Recovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."

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

"This solution is very expensive."

"It is a little expensive. However, I haven't compared it to other solutions. Being a nonprofit, it is always good to have nonprofit discounts on products."

"It's very expensive which is why I want to drop it. They charge us per core and we have a six-core server. It's expensive to pay for maintenance charges. I want to switch to something cheaper."

"Its price is okay. It is reasonable in terms of the way it works."

"When I purchased the change to the license, it was $1,600. I think that was for changing the license. I don't believe that I had to purchase technical support in a while, so I must've bought maybe for five years, but I don't feel there was a huge cost involved in technical support. Its cost was definitely worth it because we've had a fantastic experience with them."

"I'm not aware of the exact cost of Quest Rapid Recovery because I'm from the technical team, but in general, the solution is quite competitive cost-wise."

"I don't think the licensing for the product is very expensive."

"The pricing is on the higher end."

"I believe the basic license comes with six terabytes, whereas a lot of the other ones are four terabytes. From the price point, it seemed a lot better than the comparative models, such as Datto, Barracuda, and some of the others. I believe Barracuda was about $15,000 for four terabytes, and Quest was around $12,000 for six terabytes. Pricing is based on the period. There is just the maintenance fee that you have to pay annually, or you can pay for a three-year or four-year contract. This includes Premier Support."

More Quest Rapid Recovery pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

24%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Quest Rapid Recovery?

The most valuable feature of Quest Rapid Recovery for our organization is the VM recovery functionality.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest Rapid Recovery?

Dell solutions are approximately 30% to 35% more expensive than Veeam.

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What needs improvement with Quest Rapid Recovery?

The product is expensive.

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Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM ProtectTIER

Compared 100% of the time

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Veeam Data Platform vs Quest Rapid Recovery

Compared 39% of the time

Quest NetVault Plus vs Quest Rapid Recovery

Compared 13% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Quest Rapid Recovery

Compared 8% of the time

Rubrik vs Quest Rapid Recovery

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Zerto Software vs Quest Rapid Recovery

Compared 7% of the time

More Quest Rapid Recovery Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Deduplication Software

June 2025

Download IBM ProtectTIER product report

Buyer's Guide

Quest Rapid Recovery

June 2025

Download Quest Rapid Recovery product report

Also Known As

No data available

Dell AppAssure

Overview

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

Quest Rapid Recovery is a software solution that helps you recover your lost or deleted data quickly and easily. It works by scanning your hard drive for any traces of lost or deleted files, and then recovering them for you. You can use Quest Rapid Recovery to recover files from any type of storage device, including your computer's hard drive, an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, or even a memory card.

Quest Rapid Recovery is easy to use and comes with a user-friendly interface. It also has a wide range of features that make it one of the most powerful data recovery tools available on the market today. Whether you need to recover a single file or your entire system, Quest Rapid Recovery is flexible enough to get the job done.

The software offers simple solutions for backup and restoration. You can monitor and manage backup and recovery environments across multiple sites from one cloud-based management console. The software also tracks changed blocks to speed up backups and reduce storage usage. In addition, Quest Rapid Recovery deploys application-consistent backup with fast recovery for file servers and applications on both Microsoft Windows and Linux systems.

Quest Rapid Recovery Features

Cloud archive: Stores your static data in Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, Rackspace, or any OpenStack provider. This gives you more options for recovering your data. You can directly mount the archives to do a bare metal restore or a file-level restore.
Rapid snap for applications: Incremental-forever snapshots can be used to capture an entire application and its relevant state every 5 minutes, so that the application can be recovered quickly with near-zero downtime and minimal data loss.
Rapid snap for virtual: Protect your growing virtual environment by protecting VMware and Hyper-V VMs without disrupting applications and users.
Live recovery: Restores operations rapidly with an RTO of minutes.
Virtual standby: If the primary machine has any problems, the virtual machine will be activated to take its place.

Quest Rapid Recovery Benefits

Offers the ability to easily back up data in the data center and in the cloud.
Allows users to return to work quickly and without any impact on their business.
Ensures you set recovery point objectives that are specific in order to reduce the risk of data loss.
Reduces the amount of storage space you need to back up your files and save money on backup costs.
Uses the cloud to back up, archive, and store your data in case of a disaster.
Functions as a single solution for both physical and virtual environments.

Reviews from Real Users

Quest Rapid Recovery stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to greatly reduce backup and recovery time and its ability to mount an entire server.

PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews. Glenn R., an ICT network manager at St Christopher's School Hove, writes, “We have reduced our backup and recovery time by between 80% and 90%. Built-in encryption helps to secure our data as it travels from our on-site server to our off-site backup server.”

Bill V., a systems and network administrator at a tech services company, notes, “Probably the point-in-time recovery is most valuable. The other piece that is really nice is that you can mount a whole server at any point in time. So, you can mount the server with all the drives to a Z drive or something like that. It will just mount it all up, and your data is accessible right there on one drive, which is nice."

Quest Software

Sample Customers

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

PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Tamworth Regional Council, Rhondda Housing Association, Stadtwerke Pforzheim GmbH & Co., Guangdong Aiyingdao Childrens Department Store, Nspyre, Tarrant Technology Partners, CloudRunner

Buyer's Guide

IBM ProtectTIER vs. Quest Rapid Recovery

June 2025

Free Report: IBM ProtectTIER vs. Quest Rapid Recovery

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM ProtectTIER vs. Quest Rapid Recovery and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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