Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM Spectrum Protect vs OpenText Data Protector vs Veritas Backup Exec comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Data Protector is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 1.8%, down from 2.6% 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.
Jeroen Vranckaerts - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Pawel Augustyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplified interface with good performance but needs monitoring
I need to use PowerStore and Veritas Backup Exec. It is a direct backup to types, and it is supported by my backup. It offers good performance and stability, and it works properly. I am happy with this program. It is still working on aligning with security requirements and data encryption for Amazon or ATAC. It has a lot of functions and security measures, which ensure our backups are secure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Scalability is pretty much unlimited."
"Good user interface."
"Forever incremental - allows TSM to optimize storage needs."
"Because of the flexible parameters, everything can be fine-tuned to the customers’ needs in their environment."
"The best part of this solution is that it just works."
"It has increased our security, scalability, and high availability."
"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 most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery."
"If you have an idea of what you are doing, it's very flexible and very stable."
"The initial setup is straightforward if you understand Data Protector."
"It's supports Unix, Linux, all of the OS's. It's very stable software."
"The feature that was most valuable was that we could restore one mailbox and we could do different backups for different databases."
"It works excellently only with Oracle."
"What I like the most about this solution is that I can change and access the Oracle backup file."
"The solution allows us to be able to backup and exchange directly, to backup Microsoft exchange."
"The file system backup (by far, the most used) is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is stable."
"I like that Backup Exec integrates with Microsoft Exchange. We can retrieve backups from the email boxes."
"This solution works well and has good integration with technologies such as VMware and Hyper-V."
"Veritas helps me manage business-critical backups effectively and has been pretty useful in keeping the functions comfortable."
"For us, the main two features that we appreciate in this application are backup and restore. They are the main purposes for which we are using this application."
"The most valuable feature of Veritas Backup Exec is the ease of use."
"Veritas is good for small environments."
"This solution has a very good technical support department that is very responsive."
 

Cons

"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"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."
"We need everything cloud. Strong support for cloud services. S3 connectivity, which is mandatory for us in the future along with this integration of Spectrum Copy Data Management or Spectrum Protect services together with these Spectrum Protect Plus functionalities, e.g., hardware, snapshots, and Copy Data Management. They should come together in one solution."
"There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those."
"Stability is very good now. It used to be rocky years ago."
"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."
"They took some of the funding off of it for a while. Therefore, instead of being a market leader, they took their position for granted. Then some competitors developed new bells and whistles that they advertise, and due to that lag a few years ago, there are not the resources to explain the differences."
"The product should be improved to save more space."
"I don't like this solution so much because it's very technical and compared to Commvault and Veeam, it's not so user-friendly. The interface needs improvement."
"Virtualization."
"The downside of the flexibility on offer is if you over-configure it, it may fail to function as some configurations may not match."
"Micro Focus are improving Data Protector with every new version and since we began undergoing training with the latest version we have not faced any real challenges yet. However, their support does need to be improved, in my opinion. In certain critical cases that we've had, they did not provide a satisfactory level of support."
"We faced some certification issues after we upgraded to version 10.2."
"The technical support is poor and should be improved."
"They should design the solution so that it is much easier for deployment and make the UI easy to use."
"We have a lot of requests for the Micro Focus team, particularly in terms of the Japanese data pattern, as it's not as good now. The Japanese data pattern accuracy of the Micro Focus Data Protector needs to be improved because there are a lot of false negatives and false positives. We are currently testing this and our product team has been communicating with the Micro Focus team."
"The one thing which could be improved, which we have informed Veritas about, is the ability to plug in to the cloud. Meaning, instead of using local storage if we're backing up a small user or end user, we want to be able to make it so they can direct the backups directly to the cloud. It can't be done at the moment. We can only back up to the storage then replicate to the cloud, but we cannot use the cloud as a source of storage."
"Veritas can improve the user interface and the information displayed."
"I wish that they have an outlet for the other products from Veritas built into the Backup Exec product. For example, Backup Exec does only server backup. Currently, it is possible to read the backup of one other product, but if they can add more products so that you can just go into the dashboard of these other products by clicking on a button within the Backup Exec product, it would be great."
"This solution does not support image-level backup of a physical server."
"Maybe they could improve reporting capabilities and predictions."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"There is no training provided, and their technicians are unaware of the features available."
"Veritas Backup Exec's dashboard feature could be enhanced."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not cheap."
"IBM Spectrum Protect can be considered an averagely-priced product."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive. However, there are a few packages and it is unclear because, for the entry suite they have both options, which are the back-end storage capacity and the front-end storage capacity."
"It is really expensive. Its price is not good for Latin America. Its price is good for the United States or Europe."
"The platform is neither highly priced nor inexpensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The different license models can give good benefits to the end customer."
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"The licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."
"The licensing cost was not annual. We didn't pay any license. We paid when we deployed and we didn't pay for anything after that. There were no additional fees after the initial payment."
"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."
"Our licensing is on a capacity basis."
"The pricing is neither too expensive nor very cheap."
"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."
"We have many competitors who are pricing better, and we believe that our pricing is higher."
"The licensing cost is too high."
"Its price is a bit high. There is only the standard fee. There is no additional fee."
"The price of this solution is a bit high."
"It is cheap compared to the other backup technologies. It all depends on the requirements."
"It is affordable, but I hope that the price will come down a lot because of other competitors. It is a good price for the customer, but sometimes, the competition provides a much lower price. There are two ways to license it. You can license it per instance or per terabytes of data that we are mocking up. It is enough because it is not so complex. It is good when you're working with customers."
"This product is priced for smaller customers."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"I rate the price of Veritas Backup Exec a four out of five."
"It is a mid-range solution on the pricing scale."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
853,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 w...
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 numb...
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...
How do the backup solutions of Veeam and Veritas compare?
Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file syste...
What do you like most about Veritas Backup Exec?
The most important feature is the variety of backup applications it supports, including ERP systems and most other pr...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas Backup Exec?
The price is one of the best. When I compare it with others, it is twice or three times cheaper, however, the functio...
 

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
Micro Focus Data Protector, Data Protector, OmniBack, HPE Data Protector
Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
 

Overview

 

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
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Zerto, Commvault and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: May 2025.
853,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.