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IBM ProtectTIER vs Rubrik comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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

IBM ProtectTIER
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
63rd
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (13th)
Rubrik
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (5th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM ProtectTIER is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rubrik is 3.0%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rubrik3.0%
IBM ProtectTIER0.7%
Other96.3%
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.
reviewer2588997 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable automated backups have protected critical databases and simplified recoveries for our operations
Portal identity management should improve. We end up losing people's identity, which was not sufficient enough to read the events. That was the only place I could see for improvement. They keep changing the layouts and descriptions, giving the user confusion if they have not used it for maybe three months. When they come back, the interface is changed. They lost the legacy support, and it is not consistent. Some of the options for the restore give a very hard time for the engineer if they come back after three months to use it because the phrases have changed completely. That is why they were not able to select whether they should select this option or should select another option. Where it comes from, the documentation we gave them does not match anymore. That was a challenge.My consultation part was about how to integrate the technology with each other for the platform or storage or database. I did not deal with any price metrics or scaling the storage. I have no idea about the pricing part. I never joined any meetings or any documents to disclose the pricing. It was quite good in general. Recently, in March 2025, they did a new update which enabled them to update their agents remotely and built in, in-place mode. That is bringing the cybersecurity perspective. That was a big challenge. I said it is a challenge, but I do not know because I left the company, so I am not sure if cybersecurity addressed the solution. Rubrik support is usually very accommodating and very flexible. I am not sure, but the last challenge I saw was that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I will highly recommend this product for excellent and quick backup solution in small and large IBM I Series environment."
"Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use."
"The command-line interface is good."
"The most valuable feature is the incremental backup."
"The solution is highly stable."
"The cataloging is the best feature, as it takes millions of frames for the backup and, because it's incremental, it takes less time to complete."
"In terms of stability, I've found it to be very stable."
"If you are looking for a reliable and scalable enterprise-class solution, you should consider this solution."
"It has the ability to test DR in a controlled, inexpensive way and to restore between environments."
"The feature that I found most valuable is Live Mount. You can either mount a virtual machine from a snapshot, or you can mount a volume from the snapshot. You can mount one disk to the server to retrieve data, or you can mount the whole VM, rename it, and use it as a test VM. If your VM gets corrupted, you just mount one from the snapshot, and you have your production VM's backup. So, Live Mount is definitely the best feature for me as an end-user."
"Rubrik is able to hit about 95% to 98% of the things that we want to do, which is not going to be the case for every company, but it will fit most customers' needs."
"Rubrik is an easy and automatic solution that needs no manual intervention."
"If a fast recovery and scalability are critical points, then this is the best choice."
"Rubrik has improved our organization by minimizing downtime (in case of an incident was to occur)."
"In terms of usage, Rubrik has allowed us to retrieve data 80 to 90 percent faster than our previous technology."
"A reduced infrastructure complexity and fast to rack and go."
 

Cons

"My advice to anybody who is considering this solution is to conduct a proof of concept first because everybody's needs are different, and this product is not suitable for every kind of backup."
"Setting up the system to work with legacy equipment is a bit complex at times."
"The configuration wizards are still complex and hard to navigate. These should be easier to manage."
"These days, we are thinking about pushing another solution because of the poor support from IBM."
"It is unmanageable. Support would be good."
"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 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 dashboard and user interface could be improved to make them more user-friendly."
"There could be better reporting and better filtering."
"Price-wise, Rubrik needs improvement as it is considered expensive compared to similar competitors."
"The interface is still slightly clunky and has room for improvement."
"The main pain points we experienced was the stability of the system. We received a lot of instability when we have upgraded from a certain version to a new version. The newer version was completely filled with bugs and we needed to purge the system every week until we update to a newer version that was available one year later. The stability of the code is the main problem, they need to make it better."
"Two areas I would like to see improvement in Rubrik are pricing and localization."
"The only thing that can be improved is catering for open source databases because at the moment it doesn't cater for Mongo, MySQL, and Postgres."
"Some of the areas that need improvement are the user GUI (multi-tenancy) and the promised Rubrik Edge solution, which will allow customers to back up their physical devices in our cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"This solution is very expensive."
"IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution."
"Rubrik is priced high, but it was the solution that was providing us encryption and was secure. The solution price is high, but you get what you pay for."
"I rate the pricing an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high."
"You pay a premium for Rubrik, but you're getting a premium service that comes with immutable backups, instant recovery, and world-class support."
"We do perpetual licensing... It was all based on the amount of storage we needed to use. We did a cost analysis compared to Tivoli and it was in line with other solutions."
"There are additional costs like maintenance, and there are some features on their central management piece that don't come with our licensing."
"Rubrik is an expensive solution."
"Rubrik is expensive, but due to its data management capabilities, customers can save a lot by reducing hardware and storage."
"Rubrik's competitive pricing and strong return on investment make it a compelling choice, especially compared to alternatives like Data Domain and Avamar. Commvault was considered but deemed too expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

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 Business23
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise56
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
Which would you choose - Rubrik or Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam Backup & Replication provides an easy-to-set-up solution to the issue of data storage and recovery. Setting it up is a relatively simple affair. For the most part it prompts you from scre...
What do you like most about Rubrik?
It's easy to manage and has an innovated solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rubrik?
Regarding pricing, Rubrik is a costly solution, and I would rate it an eight.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Durham Police Department, Re-Store LLC, CenterGrid, pixx.io GmbH, Australian Government Department of Defence, QD, Refresco Gerber
Driscoll's, Red Hawk Casino, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Wabash National, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Galliker Transport & Logistics
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM ProtectTIER vs. Rubrik and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.