IBM Spectrum Protect vs OpenText Data Protector comparison

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector

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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

149

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

OpenText Data Protector

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

22nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 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 OpenText Data Protector is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

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.

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Jeroen Vranckaerts

System Engineer - Server & Storage, DBA at Audi Brussels

Though a highly stable tool, it needs to be made easier to use and configure

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten. OpenText Data Protector is complex to configure correctly, but the areas concerning the data and compression are good. Once you get the product to work, it works, but it's much too complex to configure and troubleshoot, as it takes a lot of time and energy, making it not so efficient. Once the tool is configured in your environment, it provides good backup and compression features. In my company, we use OpenText Data Protector as a backup for our servers, and we have a team of 20 people to take care of the data backup using the tool. My company doesn't use OpenText Data Protector as a backup for our client's computers. In my company, we have scheduled the process related to backup, which makes the tool run daily around 30 to 40 times.

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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

"It is a very stable product. The cost is similar to that of other enterprise solutions."

"The backup of Sybase databases is the most valuable feature in the existing environment. They have got the most documentation out there on the internet for its software protection. The documentation is excellent, and there are a lot of blogs, websites. Because it's still one of the oldest products out there for data protection, there are also lots of people who have a lot of experience in using this solution."

"IBM Spectrum Protect offers stable software and products."

"It is a very mature product."

"One of the main things that I like about IBM is the versioning of the data - meaning that we can have multiple versions of a file or directory of a server."

"You can scale the product."

"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."

"The scheduled backups ensure we meet the requirements for our business, and we keep backups of certain environments."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

"I like that Micro Focus keeps a separate catalog of our data."

"It works excellently only with Oracle."

"The most valuable features of this solution were the features we worked most with which were telemetry, and the scheduler."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"The stability of the product seems to be quite good."

"Data Protector is very good at automation. From the time of the backup, verification, and copy to tape, it is very good. I don't need to touch it, it will do it by itself."

"It's user-friendly and not overly complicated to configure."

More OpenText Data Protector pros

Cons

"Needs more support for non-mainstream databases, in particular PostgreSQL, SQL, and MySQL."

"RTO is a huge gap for us. If we had a disaster scenario and had to recover a bunch of stuff from tape, the RTO would be too long for us."

"It would be helpful if the solution included some sort of ransomware protection."

"It might be seen as leaning towards the legacy side, missing some features of newer solutions. The main drawbacks would be its complexity and high pricing."

"An area for improvement would be the ease of use - the GUI is not up to the mark compared to other products in the market."

"This solution does not have good support for virtualization and a hyper-converged environment."

"I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided."

"The administration interface should implement more functionalities that exist only in the command line and needs improvement in how some reports are created."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

"We have so many specific technological cracks in Micro Focus, but we are not getting the features, facilities, or coordination between the global delivery centers and the R&D team that we need to express our ideas."

"People prefer Veeam because the interface is easier, and Data Protector is difficult in comparison."

"VM backups needs to be improved. They need to make it similar to the way Veeam and Commvault are doing the virtual backups."

"The graphical interface needs to be improved."

"I do not think that this solution is relevant in the current IT market. They have not upgraded their features and functionalities which makes it difficult for them to remain competitive."

"In terms of what can be improved, I would say integrations with MongoDB. We use MongoDB and we need to go to scripts to do backups. We need more integrations."

"Virtualization."

"It would be ideal if they could improve their level of support."

More OpenText Data Protector cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."

"IBM provides an open license policy, which is more like a gentlemen's agreement."

"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

"The product is not cheap."

"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."

"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."

"The licensing fees are on a yearly basis, which for us it is about R400,000 (approximately $27,000 USD)."

"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

"In Data Protector, if you need extra features, you need to buy the agents for these features. Some of the features are Terabytes, some of them are agents. There's some complexity in the pricing and licensing."

"Avoid using many LTO drives; when using fewer drives, the price will be extremely good."

"The licensing cost is too high."

"It is more affordable compared to other vendors."

"The solution requires paying for a license."

"Pricing/licensing is Data Protector's single best offering. In its most basic environment, the only license required is for whatever target device is required."

"There is a perpetual license involved in addition to support which needs to be renewed annually."

"The pricing is acceptable for enterprise level companies, but it's not acceptable for small- and medium-sized businesses. Micro Focus Data Protector is not an enterprise level solution, and it should cover small- and medium-sized businesses with acceptable prices."

More OpenText Data Protector pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

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.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past. There is a need for additional layers of security to fill the gaps, which is wh...

What do you like most about Micro Focus Data Protector?

I haven't experienced any crashes while using the solution...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Data Protector?

The solution is expensive as it requires purchasing all features without the option to negotiate based on client numbers, unlike Veeam which offers flexibility in pricing.

What needs improvement with Micro Focus Data Protector?

OpenText Data Protector is not user-friendly, especially for cloud backup. It lacks functions and facilities compared to Veeam, which offers more user-friendliness for virtual machine backups. Ther...

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Comparisons

Compared 15% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 15% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 12% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 52% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 12% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 8% of the time

Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Tivoli CDP for Files vs OpenText Data Protector

Compared 6% of the time

More OpenText Data Protector Competitors

Product Reports

IBM Spectrum Protect

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

OpenText Data Protector

Download OpenText Data Protector product report

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Micro Focus Data Protector, Data Protector, OmniBack, HPE Data Protector

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

OpenText Data Protector standardizes and consolidates backups across multiple platforms. It provides secure, comprehensive backup protection for business-critical data and applications whether virtual, physical, or online in the cloud.

OpenText

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

GSK Vaccines, Repsol, Vodafone Group, Siemens AG, Medium Enterprise Transportation Services Company

IBM Spectrum Protect vs. OpenText Data Protector