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IBM Spectrum Protect vs Quest NetVault Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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
Quest NetVault Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
41st
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (25th)
 

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 Quest NetVault Plus 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 - 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.
Isa Safii - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive data protection and reliable backup capabilities enable smooth disaster recovery operations
The features of Quest NetVault Plus ( /products/quest-netvault-plus-reviews ) that are most valuable include the ability to pick up and restore to tape servers and external hard disks. It allows us to pick up from devices and then restore to the same devices or external server storage. Additionally, the application supports scanning files for malware before backup operations.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature that I have found the most valuable is that IBM Spectrum Protect is highly integrated with IBM ESS. In addition, it allows us to back up our virtual servers directly to take VM snapshots. It runs on Linux as well."
"One way they have improved our organization is through the stability of the solution and the availability of the product."
"SPIR is Instant Recovery for Spectrum Protect. It sends snapshots using space efficiently and blocking backups to the Spectrum Protect server. It provisions the snapshot from the backup server to the same or new server near instantly."
"We are talking about a stable solution which boasts good performance and security."
"Performance and recoveries are better. Our clients and customers are happier with the performance of it."
"We can freeze and start databases for consistent backups."
"It scales well for the amount of clients that we use with it."
"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."
"Its dashboard is quite well done. When you log into the GUI, you can basically see everything you need to know. There is also the possibility to edit the view as you like, which is great."
"The user interface is good."
"If a job is pending, the solution communicates it to us through emails."
"Quest NetVault Plus is quite effective for managing backups across multiple systems because we don't need to log in to the backup server to manage it; it's web-based, so from any system in the network, you can log in and manage everything."
"The initial setup is straightforward. It's not that complicated. Deployment took maybe about 15 minutes."
"Having the web-based interface is important to us because we can access it from any computer in the network, rather than having it installed and available for use only on a specific one."
"The platform helps us with efficient QoreStor deduplication (DD) capabilities and configuration."
"Quest NetVault Plus has a high level of stability."
 

Cons

"Stability is very good now. It used to be rocky years ago."
"My customers are not always happy with the Level 1 support. Sometimes, it just takes too long for the response to come, which is probably something that needs to be addressed."
"The features should be a little bit closer together."
"It seems like they are a little behind on the integration to Azure Cloud as well as Amazon."
"There could be various client systems and process integration included in the product."
"Enhancements are required for backing up our virtual environment."
"Our new leadership has pushed us to go more toward the cloud, so we are definitely going to leverage anything we can in that direction."
"We have had some problems about using storage agents on the X6 environment. It is not quite stable, but it is also not supported in a virtualized environment."
"The product’s SQL backup plugin needs improvement."
"The stability of the solution is poor."
"The interface can be improved. It should be more clear what features are available and make them easy to find."
"There are certain issues with the product that we report to Quest, and we get offered a workaround instead of a fix. There could be better interaction with the development teams, perhaps in terms of transparency."
"The storage capacity is very low."
"I would like to see the option of cloud-based management."
"There are command-line limitations. There is not a very strong possibility to work with the command line. The commands that are there are not that powerful, and you need to be very good at scripting, for example, in PowerShell or in Bash in case it is running on Linux systems. You need to combine a lot of commands together, and still, you will not get a great output that is presentable to others. You cannot work with it as easily."
"In the next version, I would like to see support for the MongoDB database. As it is now, there is no component that works with it and we cannot back the data up using NetVault."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."
"That's no longer my department, but I have some past experience with licensing. It is not cheap. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of licensing. In terms of additional costs, there is management overhead. It is a complex solution and a lot of work goes into managing clients. It has gotten better over the years, but compared to its competitor, it is still heavy on management overhead."
"The pricing is a little expensive for our current employer, so they want to move to a cheaper solution."
"Going to IBM Tech University Conference saved me from making a major purchase of the wrong thing, which was very helpful."
"The product is not cheap."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"It is expensive."
"I don't have an idea about the pricing. They send that over to someone else, but I know that one of the issues they had was the licensing costs. I don't think they were happy with how they were charged."
"The tool is expensive."
"The price of our 12-month contract is approximately $1,500 AUD ($1,100 USD)."
"When we purchased four licenses, we were given a very good price. However, it is still on the high side when compared to some other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 Quest NetVault?
NetVault is a great cloud-ready enterprise backup software for hybrid data centers. Here are some of the things I really like about the solution: It is easy to use right out of the box and scales ...
What needs improvement with Quest NetVault?
There's always scope for improvement with any backup software we discuss, whether it's Quest NetVault Plus or Backup Exec, and I don't think any software is 100% foolproof or satisfactory. Improvem...
What is your primary use case for Quest NetVault?
We have customers in the pharma industry. Our customers' main use cases for this backup are file system backup and different databases such as MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, and bare metal recovery.
 

Also Known As

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
NetVault Backup, Quest NetVault, Quest NetVault Backup, BakBone
 

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
intel, Mars, MERK, Microsoft, Uber, Visa
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Protect vs. Quest NetVault Plus and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.