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IBM Spectrum Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

IBM Spectrum Protect and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.4, while IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is ranked #23 with an average rating of 7.8. IBM Spectrum Protect holds a 2.2% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM Spectrum Protect Plus’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM Spectrum Protect users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus users who would recommend it.
IBM Spectrum Protect
Read 150 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews
  • 3,616 Views
  • 2,660 Comparison Views
86% willing to recommend
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Read 31 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reviews
  • 1,646 Views
  • 1,095 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus compete in the enterprise backup and recovery solutions category, with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus having the upper hand due to its ease of use and simplified management.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect offers comprehensive coverage, scalability, and robust enterprise-grade backup capabilities with broad platform support, valuable for extensive data protection needs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is known for its modern backup solutions, simplified management, and comprehensive reporting tools, particularly suitable for virtual environments. Both products have their strengths, but IBM Spectrum Protect Plus’s advanced features and user-friendly interface give it an edge.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest IBM Spectrum Protect needs a more intuitive configuration process, faster performance during large-scale backups, and improved user interface design. For IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, users recommend expanded integration options, enhanced deduplication efficiency, and better error reporting mechanisms. Even with these areas noted, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus remains favored for its streamlined interface and quicker deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect is noted for its complexity during initial setup, often requiring specialized knowledge, with responsive but occasionally slow customer service. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is commended for its straightforward deployment, reducing time and effort, with generally perceived efficient and supportive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Users perceive IBM Spectrum Protect’s pricing as higher compared to IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. However, the extensive feature set often justifies the cost. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is seen as more cost-effective, with a quicker return on investment due to lower setup costs and simplified management, making it an attractive choice for those balancing budget with comprehensive backup needs.

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To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
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 Spectrum Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
150
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 0.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Habib - PeerSpot reviewer
Manageable and comprehensive and integrates robust backup features for core banking
It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum. This is why I am searching for another solution. The product also lacks any centralized graphical user interface (GUI), such as Jarek Pod, and I am limited to using a console-based text user interface, which my local partner handles completely.
Read full review
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.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have a very good team of administrators who know the product perfectly and are able to manage it on a day-to-day basis."
"It is very stable. A plus is to use POWERAge for the SNR copy of the Spectrum Protect, then it is more reliable."
"The scalability of IBM Spectrum Protect is good."
"I love the TDP for VMware because of the web interface and the possibilities provided by this tool. It's amazing."
"The way it covers backup and archive needs. The flexibility of backup copy group always allows me to cover the customer's requests."
"We have been using it for several years, and it is quite reliable and predictable. We are quite comfortable with this solution. They're coming up with new features as well. It has good scalability, and it provides good integrations with business-critical applications or databases, such as SAP HANA. It works as expected, and we don't see any issues."
"The best functional system I utilize is integrated with the data domain and DIGS backup solution, which makes it easily manageable and comprehensive."
"The product is very stable."
More IBM Spectrum Protect pros
"The most valuable features are the API features because it allows you to integrate with your Microsoft SQL, your Oracle, and your IBM Db2."
"The feature I find most valuable is the offload to Spectrum Protect for long-term retention. I think the deduplication and replication are quite nice on Plus."
"With this product, we now have a reliable backup solution."
"The initial setup of IBM Protect Plus is simple and not complex."
"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 API is very good."
"A full-featured data protection solution that is reliable and stable."
"The support from IBM is very good."
More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros
 

Cons

"The solution is evolving, so it has to be evolved to fit all new types of software requirements too."
"Replication services would be nice. If these could be enhanced to be always on so multiple storage backup services could be added as a cluster pool. This would provide a better availability service."
"This solution is not mature in terms of disaster recovery and could be improved."
"Needs more support for non-mainstream databases, in particular PostgreSQL, SQL, and MySQL."
"I would love to see something which allows us to do an auto restart of backup jobs."
"The solution must protect against ransomware attacks better."
"The solution needs to work on disaster recovery integration. Basically, VMware applications to the cloud, for example. There needs to be integration with the storage, and integration with VMware."
"It has a lot of areas for improvement. Its reporting for job completion or incompletion can be improved. It should also provide a granular recovery, ease of operation, data life cycle management, and media management. It should support a backup in such a format that in case of a disaster, one can start the virtual machine out of the backup itself. Its reliability can also be better. It is also expensive, and their support is also poor."
More IBM Spectrum Protect cons
"Not particularly user friendly."
"It still needs to grow and add new features. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, I believe, requires time to become competitive due to a weakness in the other software products."
"With ransomware protection and cyber protection, more improvement is possible."
"The security must be improved."
"There could be better integration with Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus, it should be one solution."
"The backup support for IBM Power Virtualization needs to be added."
"The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix."
"I would like more integration with security. We need to show the value of the product in regards to handling security. For example, how it handles current malware or viruses. IBM should be more proactive in this direction."
More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."
"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."
"The pricing of the solution is high in comparison to other products on the market. For example, IBM and Symantec have less costly options."
"We chose IBM Spectrum Protect, because they actually have something called MSP pricing, which means managed services provider pricing. The pricing was attractive, and it seems to be a platform that IBM is totally investing on in terms of new functions and new capabilities."
"I rate the pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is not cost-effective, and ten is cost-effective."
"The pricing is a little expensive for our current employer, so they want to move to a cheaper solution."
"That's a hard estimate. It depends on the licensing, the hardware, and other stuff, but it is fairly expensive. It is generally more expensive than other solutions."
"We have capacity licensing. We use the front end. The capacity licensing is pretty okay on the licensing price. I used to use the old PVU-based licensing in the early environment, but now we use capacity-based licensing."
More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice
"The solution is too expensive."
"Clients prefer to buy a perpetual license, but the majority opt for a yearly subscription."
"Unlike some other solutions, such as Veritas NetBackup where you have to pay for different licenses to use different features, there is a single license that allows you to use all of the features."
"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."
"The price is perpetual, but the maintenance cost is annual. That is, we pay once for the product and pay annually for the maintenance and support. The price was much cheaper than what we would have had to pay for EMC or Veritas. The pricing is competitive, and I would rate it at four out of five."
"If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."
"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."
"The initial cost of the product is perpetual but the support fees are billed annually."
More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?
IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?
It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?
It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dash...
See all answers
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.
See all answers
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.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
With ransomware protection and cyber protection, more improvement is possible. IBM provides these through a third party, so enhancement is needed. There's significant room for improvement. They are...
See all answers
 

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More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect
June 2025
IBM Spectrum Protect reportDownload IBM Spectrum Protect product report
Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
June 2025
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reportDownload IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product report
 

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
No data available
 

Overview

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.
IBM

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection and availability solution for virtual environments that can be deployed in minutes and protect your environment within an hour. It simplifies data protection, whether data is hosted in physical, virtual, software-defined or cloud environments. It can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or integrate with your IBM Spectrum Protect environment to off-load copies for long term storage and data governance with scale and efficiency.

IBM
 

Sample Customers

CERN, Einstein Healthcare, Nyherji, Allianz Australia, TZM, ABT Online, NCT, Kindred Healthcare Inc., Cobalt Iron, TransGrid, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Cash America, Piedmont Healthcare, RWGV, Arkansas Tech University, British Columbia Institute of Technology
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Buyer's Guide
IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
June 2025
Free Report: IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
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