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IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs Microsoft DPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is viewed as a competitive, reasonably priced investment with excellent integration and future roadmap visibility.
Sentiment score
1.0
Microsoft DPM improved backup efficiency, reduced costs, minimized data loss, and enhanced productivity with streamlined integration and minimal maintenance.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus support is reliable and efficient, with users praising quick responses, expertise, and comprehensive resources.
Sentiment score
7.3
Microsoft support is generally knowledgeable and responsive, but experiences vary with complex issues, response times, and pricing.
Their documentation, runbooks, troubleshooting articles, and support people are good.
They provide professional services that are quite good and can meet your needs.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers scalable, flexible data management for various businesses, supporting extensive virtual machines and environments efficiently.
Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft DPM excels in scalability but faces challenges with complex setups and user interface preferences for larger demands.
The solution does not provide horizontal and vertical scaling.
IBM Data Protect is the scalable solution, not IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is stable and reliable, managing large environments efficiently, though occasionally needing specialized expertise.
Sentiment score
5.5
Microsoft DPM is mostly stable with reliability praised, though synchronization issues and version differences affect user opinions.
The product is very stable, rating between eight and nine out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus needs better integration, user-friendly design, enhanced reporting, cyber resilience, and improved backup and virtualization support.
Microsoft DPM needs enhanced user-friendliness, integration, compatibility, support, and features for backup, recovery, cloud costs, and interface.
I used IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but IBM is now replacing it with IBM Data Protect, which is a giant product now in common development with a well-known company in backup solutions.
It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling.
The backup should have compression, deduplication, and DR replication.
Microsoft DPM could improve by adding S3 backup to S3 storage capabilities.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers competitive pricing with various licensing models, often seen as fair compared to alternatives.
Microsoft DPM offers cost-effective licensing and savings, particularly benefiting enterprises with a Microsoft Agreement, despite potential storage expenses.
They are fairly expensive.
The pricing of Microsoft solutions rates in the middle range at five out of ten.
Microsoft licensing is complex, especially for enterprise or data center solutions.
 

Valuable Features

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers fast, scalable, multi-platform backup and recovery with integration, cloud support, and user-friendly features.
Microsoft DPM provides seamless integration, efficient recovery features, and scalability with a user-friendly interface and Azure Active Directory support.
The biggest benefit of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is that it's an agentless backup product which is very easy to configure and use.
The two-layer backup system is a particularly valuable feature in Microsoft DPM.
Microsoft DPM impacted my organization positively, and that was definitely possible.
One of the most effective features of Microsoft DPM is its integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem.
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
46th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft DPM
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
28th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 0.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft DPM is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables organizations to make large-scale recoveries easily, but the security must be improved
The security must be improved. We face a lot of cyber threats like ransomware. It impacts data availability and protection. The tool must provide a mechanism to make resilient backups. The tool must ensure that the recent backups have no ransomware. The backup must be immutable. They must be cyber-resilient backups. Finding a good resource person for IBM Spectrum in Pakistan is difficult. We have to rely on the support team. Resource availability is a challenge.
Nirukshitha Gamage - PeerSpot reviewer
User finds setup straightforward but seeks wider platform support and advanced features
Microsoft DPM could implement backup capabilities for third-party systems such as Linux. They also need to consider other features such as replication to DR sites, similar to what Veeam and other products offer. Microsoft DPM didn't have that capability at that time. If they want to remain competitive in the market, they need to observe the competition and implement improvements. The backup should have compression, deduplication, and DR replication. They should also improve monitoring of the environment. Microsoft DPM didn't have these basics at that time. If they had continued development on the products, they could have reached a higher level, especially given Microsoft's significant presence and majority of servers. Microsoft DPM didn't have any support structure in the backend. If they had a support structure, we could have escalated issues. I never received any support from Microsoft DPM.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that the product works and helps with restoration areas whenever there is a need to restore something.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
It is probably based on the number of CPUs. They are fairly expensive.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
I used IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but IBM is now replacing it with IBM Data Protect, which is a giant product now in common development with a well-known company in backup solutions.
What do you like most about Microsoft DPM?
This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft DPM?
Microsoft DPM was more affordable for customers compared to other products such as Veritas, which were somewhat expensive. This was one of the main reasons customers chose to purchase Microsoft DPM...
What needs improvement with Microsoft DPM?
Microsoft DPM could implement backup capabilities for third-party systems such as Linux. They also need to consider other features such as replication to DR sites, similar to what Veeam and other p...
 

Also Known As

No data available
DPM, Data Protection Manager, MS DPM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Medical Park, Centropol Energy, a.s., NCFE, D & H Distributing, Metalor, Colosseum, a.s., Sanitas S.A., Icebreaker
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. Microsoft DPM and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.