We compared IBM Spectrum Protect and Nakivo based on user reviews in five categories. We reviewed all of the data and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: IBM Spectrum Protect is highly regarded for its ability to integrate with tape libraries and its customization options. Users also praised Spectrum Protect for its compatibility with various products, scalability, and stability. Nakivo is praised for its offsite backup to Synology NAS and seamless cloud integration. IBM Spectrum Protect could improve its integration with cloud services and make its interface more user-friendly. Nakivo could benefit from improvements in its remote upgrade capabilities, SNMP features, and application backup.
Service and Support: IBM’s customer service is described as high quality, friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive. At the same time, some said the support process can be lengthy. Nakivo's support is praised for being quick, considerate, and attentive.
Ease of Deployment: IBM Spectrum Protect's initial setup is challenging and demands skilled professionals to configure multiple parameters and features. This process can be time-consuming. Nakivo's setup was described as straightforward. A few users said the deployment was somewhat complex but not excessively difficult.
Pricing: IBM Spectrum Protect is considered expensive. The pricing model is complex, taking into account factors like processor type and volume. Nakivo offers lower licensing costs and a flexible pricing structure. Nakivo provides cost-efficient backups at a competitive price and even offers a free license for one year for up to five VMs.
ROI: Users have realized benefits from IBM Spectrum Protect’s data protection and retrieval. They appreciate its ability to reduce storage requirements with larger tape sizes. Nakivo ensures a favorable return on investment with a reasonable total cost of ownership and reduced testing expenditures.
Comparison Results: IBM Spectrum Protect is a reliable, customizable solution that allows smooth integration with tape libraries. At the same time, some say that the user interface could be more intuitive and Spectrum Protect could integrate better with the cloud. Nakivo is a powerful, cost-effective solution that seamlessly integrates with the cloud, but it could use some enhancements in its SNMP features and remote upgrading functionality.
"We work very closely together with IBM using their Support Center, but we have a strong contact in their development teams, and we have dedicated people from IBM working with us."
"It allows us to have one interface."
"The deduplication and compression features are the most valuable features."
"It has a lot more capabilities and functions than a lot of other products. Even though it is more complex, the reason is because it gives you a lot more features. This is what I prefer, especially for a long retention."
"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."
"We apply the new dedupe and compression technology, using maintenance and time to give more time for the backup window and less time for the overhead related to the daily housekeeping."
"The MN backup for a cluster is most valuable because it has made backing up the GSF as a zero-file system easier. I like its stability a lot. Over the years, I very rarely had a problem with it."
"The addition of the retention set feature provides a reduction in storage costs. It also reduces RTO and RPO so that you can respond quickly to your clients and services in case of data loss."
"It has saved us numerous times from power outages and server failure."
"Backup jobs are running smoothly every day with job reports sent to email after they finish each job. That gives us peace of mind."
"It is easy to manage all of the individual backup jobs, check the status every day, and it can even send an email to keep us informed."
"It was also very easy to configure backups to be sent offsite to a separate repository for disaster recovery needs."
"We are able to take backups on a regular interval and restore data/VMs as we choose making the process work as advertised."
"Nakivo's backup and replication product has allowed us to implement a disaster recovery solution with a target repository in the cloud."
"The implementation of Nakivo made it possible to implement the information security policies currently in force in the company and to meet the statutory requirements in the field of IT security."
"The backup for physical machines and replication for the virtual environment are the most valuable aspects."
"This solution does not have good support for virtualization and a hyper-converged environment."
"Integration with Windows environments needs improvement. It should be more "assisted", both at the application and database level. It remains a product that fits better in Unix/Linux environments than in Windows environments, given its configuration procedures."
"It does what we need it to do, but it could be better with VM backups. It could be better integrated with virtual machines or VM backups, but that's why they have their Plus out now. Plus version is more geared toward VM backups. The regular version is more for endpoint clients."
"I would like to see the operations center be a lot more functional. It was nowhere near as functional as the admin center, and I'm doing a lot of command line with it."
"I am not really impressed with the Level 1 support, but once I get past that and go to Level 2, then we will usually get some type of resolution."
"It needs some software upgrades to fix some of its current bugs."
"I would like to see a way to have "always on" implemented."
"They do not have a unified GUI, they only work on CLI and operations center, which is really complicated for the installation and configuration."
"Log and report creation can be improved."
"There is a familiar error that pops up and that is a VM error as much as it is a Nakivo error. It says that the job couldn't calm the VM and restores might be impacted. That error is, to say the least, a bit scary. I have seen this type of error on other backup systems also."
"I would like to see some additional models in the next release to make backups more functional."
"We want the backup job to consume fewer resources, as the utilization is very high if we choose the best compression."
"I would love to see compatibility with KVM Backup."
"While the solution provides mostly what we need, it would be ideal if there were some additional feature capabilities for the API."
"In the future, it would be nice to have support for Zimbra email, Collabora Office, and the NextCloud content collaboration platform."
"There is a lack of native (web-based) update functionality."
IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked 17th in Backup and Recovery with 146 reviews while NAKIVO Backup & Replication is ranked 6th in Backup and Recovery with 84 reviews. IBM Spectrum Protect is rated 8.0, while NAKIVO Backup & Replication is rated 9.4. The top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Protect writes "Performance and recoveries are better, and customers are happier with performance". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NAKIVO Backup & Replication writes "Good deduplication, easy to configure, and offers a free version". IBM Spectrum Protect is most compared with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, Veeam Backup & Replication, Commvault Cloud, Cohesity DataProtect and Dell Avamar, whereas NAKIVO Backup & Replication is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Hornetsecurity Altaro VM Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect, Rubrik and BDRSuite. See our IBM Spectrum Protect vs. NAKIVO Backup & Replication report.
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