IBM Spectrum Control vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor comparison

IBM and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Storage Management category. IBM is ranked #6 with an average rating of 6.0, while SolarWinds is ranked #13. IBM holds a 9.1% mindshare in SM, compared to SolarWinds’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Control

Read 8 IBM Spectrum Control reviews

429 Views
192 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

Read 2 SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor reviews

157 Views
68 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Control

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Control and SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Storage Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Control vs. SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Control vs. SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

April 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 Spectrum Control

Ranking in Storage Management

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

Ranking in Storage Management

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Storage Management category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Control is 9.1%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor is 3.0%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Storage Management

Featured Reviews

Aamir Jameel

Senior Systems Manager at Tapal tea

Scalable but not user-friendly

Spectrum Control could be more user-friendly. IBM also needs to provide proper training to handle Spectrum Control because it's a complicated solution I've been using Spectrum Control for almost three years. Spectrum Control's stability is fine. Spectrum Control's scalability is fine - we can…

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it_user652953

IT Director at a construction company with 51-200 employees

Provides a visual representation and drill down into your environment.

Scalability is my sore spot. With the way they use nodes and count nodes, it’s very easy to blow well past your license amount. I have, for example, a 150 node license, of which I am monitoring 337 nodes. However, only 150 are actually monitored, so I have to do a lot to try to find the right applications to monitor. Since the next level for licensing is 500/700 or something like that, I simply haven’t been able to afford the bump up. I simply need a much higher license level than I have. However, the cost is too much and they lack the flexibility in allowing you a smaller step up. It goes from, say 150 nodes to 500. There is no 250 or 300, for example. Would I find applications to monitor, with the selection from Windows, Linux, SQL, IIS, Active Director, and Exchange? You bet. For now, however, I have to be patient until I can justify the cost of the upgrade.

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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 my opinion, it's the best monitoring and report creation tool for IBM storage devices. You can do a lot of performance stats and reports with very nice tools for IBM storage devices."

"The installation was very easy. You just install an agent on a server, and you give that agent access to your storage device, then it just collects the data. It took five minutes to set up."

"Spectrum Control is highly secure and competitively priced."

"The product keeps historical data for a very long time."

"The granularity of this solution has been most useful. Customers can click on a single item and get the information only for the single item they choose."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use. The ability to get into a storage device and look at whatever you are trying to look at as far as performance, then obtain the reports that you need to do your analytical work."

"Technical support is quite responsive and helpful."

"The benefits would be mostly the ability to diagnose a problem."

More IBM Spectrum Control pros

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

Cons

"Spectrum Control could be more user-friendly."

"The initial setup for IBM Spectrum Control is a bit complicated. They should also make it easier to integrate and use the Cosmos Analytics tool, which is very complicated."

"I would like to see is more information regarding the copy groups (the replication)."

"The pain points were, and may still continue to be, the fact that there are multiple components of the product which are installed, you might say, somewhat individually."

"The solution must support multi-vendor storage."

"If we were to add VM level performance being able to monitor VMs on a VM level, then that would be good."

"The database could be improved so that the complexity of installation could be easier. We would also like to have more granularity in the profiles and products for users. We would like to link the users to the tool to managers or auditors."

"The solution could always be more easily scalable."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is pay for the amount of storage that you are monitoring. The more that we use the tool and like the tool, we may want to extend it to other storage platforms. This is just a matter of cost."

"We were already licensing Spectrum Control. This was one reasons why we went to Control rather than using the other product."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

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Educational Organization

69%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Control?

The product keeps historical data for a very long time.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Control?

The solution must support multi-vendor storage.

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What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Control?

The solution can be used for monitoring storage.

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Comparisons

IBM Storage Insights vs IBM Spectrum Control

Compared 71% of the time

Dell Storage Resource Manager vs IBM Spectrum Control

Compared 29% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Control Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Control

April 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Control product report

Buyer's Guide

Storage Management

April 2025

SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor product report

Also Known As

Spectrum Control

SolarWinds SRM

Overview

IBM Spectrum Control is a comprehensive solution that can significantly improve monitoring, automation and analytics capabilities in multi-vendor storage environments. IBM Spectrum Control helps manage storage systems, software-defined storage, storage-area network (SAN) fabrics and devices. Storage can be seen from multiple perspectives, including departmental, application and server views. IBM Spectrum Control helps simplify provisioning, tier optimization, performance management and data replication processes.

IBM

The storage monitoring and capacity management software from SolarWinds gives you deep visibility into the performance of your multi-vendor storage arrays, and helps you closely watch the application stack for storage issues that affect application performance.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Nuance

NetSuite, Youngs Seafood, APS Bank, Sven Meinks

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Control vs. SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

April 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Control vs. SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Control vs. SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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We monitor all Storage Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.