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IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs MSP360 Backup 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 Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
47th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MSP360 Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
55th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (45th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (33rd), MSP Backup (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MSP360 Backup is 1.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.1%
MSP360 Backup1.1%
Other97.8%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

AS
IT Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
Has provided straightforward backup and rapid deployment for diverse environments
There is reporting in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but I'm not very familiar with this area. I always concentrated on getting the customer to do the backup, restore, and related tasks, but there is reporting. IBM has made a decision to withdraw the product and replace it with IBM Data Protect. The correct direction is Data Protect, which includes ransomware detection. With IBM Data Protect, you can add more servers for backup. It's scalable, which is a key feature over Storage Protect and Storage Protect Plus, even more capable than Veritas, because Veritas has an option to make different media servers. You can scale the backup process regardless of the load of the customer. This speeds up the backup and restore process for a complete data center, which cannot be done with any other product. I rate IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 9 out of 10.
CONRAD FORREST - PeerSpot reviewer
President at MTS Consulting Group, Inc.
The solution provides the ability to backup all types of cloud drives, is inexpensive, and has decent support
MSP360 Backup provides the backup functionality, but we need to provide the storage component. We can use Azure, AWS, or another provider, but we need to choose the storage provider and create a bucket to store our data. The vendor is making changes to improve the functionality of the service and the separation of storage, but I would like to see more integration and a knowledge base of the tool. Currently trying to understand why the storage is separated and how to implement the storage properly is a challenge. Using the solution incurs additional charges for the device storage and backup which are not included in the service. Unlike other solutions such as Kohl which includes everything at one price. MSP360 Backup can be improved by adding inclusive pricing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot, are retention sets."
"The solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer."
"The solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer."
"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, and it is possible to pick up Kubernetes containers and use a different cloud provider if you need to start backups on the cloud."
"If you want to have a strong backup for recovery and restore, you need this solution."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases."
"Spectrum Protect provides you access to directly bind the backup volume to the server and make the system available instead of restoring it and copying the system."
"This is a multi-platform backup solution where you can take a backup from AIX, Windows, or Linux servers and restore from CD, disk, or tape."
"The solution is simple to use and easy to configure."
"I liked the way the product worked, its flexibility on the storage and cost, and the way it was supported."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is its online backup capacity because you don't have to do an entire backup again and again, it just does whatever you type in, you type a, it goes a, you type b, it goes b."
"MSP360 is vastly cheaper than its competitors and has almost all the same features."
"It has allowed me to implement a cost effective, highly configurable solution."
"General ease of use and performance of the Windows version is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is appliance-free, the initial setup is very straightforward, the scalability and stability have never been a problem for us, technical support is very good, and we have found the price point to be quite good."
"MSP360 Backup's most valuable feature is its backup interface."
 

Cons

"There's significant room for improvement. They are not yet where I want them to be."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve the IBM Spectrum Protect environment. It can be difficult to administer. The initial configuration can be difficult for entry-level teams or deployment teams, and it might be difficult to integrate. There's just too much content involved in the solution. The documentation is way too large."
"One of the places where the product can improve is in the interface. It is a little cumbersome to interact with and not very user-friendly."
"The administration needs to be improved and made simpler to use."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve the IBM Spectrum Protect environment. It can be difficult to administer."
"The one issue we are facing is related to file restores."
"Instead of using the command prompt for troubleshooting and administering the backup, there should be an easy-to-use graphical user interface."
"I would not recommend this solution to others because there are far better solutions on the market."
"They can add some production backup capabilities and the ability to do single instance back up. At the moment, it doesn't do deduplication on the standard backup. So, the issue is backing up PSG files for customers who have limited bandwidth. The other issue is that I don't like the implementation of the SQL backup. We do use SQL ourselves using a PowerShell script with the VDA tools as a module. That's how we back up. The rotation feature would be nice to have, but I know that they've got it on their dashboard or on their list to look at. They can also do a few tweaks to the dashboard. I would like the reporting capabilities on the portal to be much more granular. Normally, I export it to a text file, and then I run it through a pivot table in order to look at it from a cost-recovery point of view and to see when the backup last ran and if it was successful when it ran two or three days ago. Such a feature would work really well for my market. They can also add a cost-effective backup for Android and Apple cellphones. I've had one or two customers who were looking for this feature. I haven't found this functionality at the moment. I've been looking for a product that does that."
"The restore time could improve. When we had an issue the restore time was lengthy."
"The other issue is that I don't like the implementation of the SQL backup."
"The main improvement is that it should have GDPR compliance. That's the problematic point. They say they are GDPR compliant, but they are not."
"Maybe implement an easier interface for basic users. For example, a set-up wizard with all the commonly used features as default."
"The Linux GUI leaves a lot to be desired. It lacks many of the features of the Windows version and is buggy, but it is still usable."
"The interface could use some updating."
"If I have an incident and I need to restore something very fast, I want to restore a particular virtual machine, maybe in an hour and that is not possible to do with MSP360."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."
"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."
"The solution is too expensive."
"The initial cost of the product is perpetual but the support fees are billed annually."
"If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."
"The price is lower than that of some competing products."
"In addition to the standard licensing fees, we paid for implementation and training."
"MSP360 is vastly cheaper than its competitors and has almost all the same features."
"It includes a standard licensing fee. Once a year, there is a rebranding fee. The licensing costs are available on the internet for MSP360 Backup. There is a discount structure where if you have over 50 devices, you get a 50% discount. So, my cost is $2 a license per month."
"Its pricing needs improvement."
"Pricing is reasonable although can be quite a large upfront cost."
"I rate the price of MSP360 Backup a seven out of ten."
"The cost is pretty inexpensive. Around four to five dollars per device, per workstation on each server."
"We have a very good return on investment."
"The solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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?
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is very simple to deploy for us, but for more clients or competitors, the solution is hard to deploy and to integrate. For our team, deployment of IBM Spectrum Protect Plu...
What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
We are an IT integrator and we need to have a good vision of all recovery and backup recovery solutions. Most frequently, we use Veeam Backup. We use Cohesity. For some old workloads, we use IBM TS...
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Also Known As

No data available
Cloudberry Backup
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
StratX
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs. MSP360 Backup and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.