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IBM Storage Protect vs Veritas Backup Exec comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 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 Storage Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Veritas Backup Exec
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 2.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 1.7%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect2.3%
Veritas Backup Exec1.7%
Other96.0%
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.
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

"It covers all the different operating systems. If you need backup, it can pretty much do everything."
"Regarding stability, it's been rock solid."
"The most valuable features of Spectrum Protect would be the compression and the deduplication."
"Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings."
"It integrates well with Spectrum Scale."
"Scalability is pretty much unlimited."
"It is scalable beyond anything my customers ever aspire to."
"Disk-based implementation of a data protection solution for multiple sites is a better fit for my complex data protection needs."
"One of the valuable features is the instant recovery for VMs. It reduces the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) drastically."
"It offers good performance and stability, and it works properly."
"The product makes it easy to restore data."
"Its reliability and the fact that we have all the skills that we need for Veritas Backup Exec are the most valuable."
"It is a simple and flexible solution to work with."
"It's quite stable, and so far, we have had no technical issues with Veritas Backup Exec."
"The platform has significantly improved our backup and recovery processes by efficiently managing data protection and supporting tape drives. It has also provided reliable data recovery solutions."
"The product is good in a small environment when looking to a backup on a tape."
 

Cons

"Enhancements are required for backing up our virtual environment."
"The administration tools for GI need improvement, as the current assessment suggests shortcomings in the back-end system."
"The main admin console from the UI cannot do anything in the product. It just allows us to maintain, maybe, 30% to 40%. For the rest, we have to use the command line."
"We are still using TSM Manager for many of our projects to administer our platform because the gap was not resolved with the new Operations Center."
"Scalability is poor. As you get to bigger environments, this is where our gaps have been introduced. As we have grown over the past couple of years, the gaps have become more apparent."
"We would like to see bare-metal restorers."
"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."
"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."
"If you keep it for too long and the catalog gets really big, the application tends to move slowly."
"The licensing packet is confusing. If Veritas could do a better job of clarifying it, that would be helpful."
"It's not too stable for client-server architecture. Center Management is not so interactive, and then there are some issues regarding the complex licensing which needs improvement."
"Compared to other vendors, there are features that you will find not included in Veritas."
"Its scalability should be improved."
"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."
"We need to have duplication and better compression."
"I probably need to monitor the infrastructure and check the logs to be notified about anomalies."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market."
"At scale, the consumption license (per TB) is very expensive."
"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
"It is expensive."
"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."
"The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."
"Its licensing is complicated. It goes by CPUs, and it is pretty expensive as well."
"Veritas licensing is somewhat expensive. They have to decrease the price."
"The product is affordable."
"I think, at least for the price I've seen, it could be lower compared to other products."
"There is an evaluation license available to test this solution."
"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."
"The pricing can be improved."
"Regarding expense, Backup Exec is generally suitable for small and medium businesses. However, we can customize them based on the workload."
"It has a good price-value ratio. Its price-value ratio is better than Veeam."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise94
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Storage Protect?
The best point about IBM Storage Protect is that it can use IBM tape environments, which we still use and will continue to use in the future.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is generally an expensive tool. However, with good contracts with IBM or its partners, the cost might not be so high. New customers can expect very high prices.
What needs improvement with IBM Storage 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...
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 system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too. But Veritas Netbac...
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 programs, such as Microsoft.
 

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Storage Protect vs. Veritas Backup Exec and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.