IBM Spectrum Protect vs VxRail comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Protect and VxRail based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Zerto, Rubrik and others in Backup and Recovery.
To learn more, read our detailed Backup and Recovery Report (Updated: October 2023).
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Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"What I found most valuable in IBM Spectrum Protect is that it allows you to back up physical machines, and its proxy feature lets you back up virtual machines.""Its flexibility is valuable. It is a very flexible solution. There are always more ways than one to do something. It is a software solution, which means you can buy your own hardware and expand it whenever you want. You are not boxed in or locked into something you've bought and outgrown. You can always expand it.""Spectrum Protect's best feature is that I can use it practically anywhere, on any platform, and for any servers or clients.""Good deduplication and compression features.""Regarding technical support, if one has the entire enterprise support, I would rate it a nine out of ten...Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.""IBM Spectrum Protect offers stable software and products.""I have found that the most valuable feature is useful documentation and troubleshooting.""It's a very stable product, and we've never had any downtime with it."

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"We like the design and that it meets data storage needs.""VxRail can manage the whole cluster at the same time, so it's easy to expand. VxRail has more features vSAN ReadyNodes that make it easier to implement from scratch.""It's somewhat hard to speak about specific features, but I like VxRail's simplicity and ease of use. It's a decent solution for customers with a small footprint. If you're operating a big data center, it's not easy to position VxRail or HCI solutions, but when you have a small customer managing many different components, it's easier to work only with one solution.""VxRail is an agile solution with easily scalable, simplify operations with software driven automation and lower operational cost.""The VxRail is built on two specific platforms that have been in the industry for the last 15 to 20 years: the 1-U socket and the 2-U socket platforms from Dell. They're in their sixteenth generation of those platforms, I believe, so they're very stable.""Low-maintenance solution with hyperscale feature so it has the ability to utilize the resources for the VMware cluster setup on which Citrix VDA runs.""We are very happy with the purchase, and it works well. It is fast. We went with the full-flash version, meaning that we have SSDs. So, we can build a Windows virtual machine in two minutes. We were surprised when we first tried to do that.""The initial setup is simple."

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Cons
"Replication of data could be more user friendly.""I want a better user interface, support, and integrations.""If IBM could provide a partial module, that would be great.""I need two separate solutions for virtual and physical systems. I need IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for virtual systems and Spectrum Protect for physical systems and that's a pain. It would be an improvement if they were combined.""IBM Spectrum Protect does have a lot of the features that we need, but I think they need to improve their backup virtualization and backup for container.""The solution's initial setup process wasn't easy...The solution is overly complicated in terms of architecture, especially compared to other tools in the market.""They are behind on many things, especially security. They are catching up a little bit now, but the competitors are doing better security-wise. There should be malware detection and prevention and higher security.""The solution's ability to integrate with a cloud solution is one area that needs improvement."

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"The implementation of a VxRail, it's straightforward, but the ongoing utilization, and integration, are where it can start to become difficult if you're not used to doing it.""The update for the graphics integration and the media drivers isn't included in the VxRail update.""The SCL database sends out a warning and you have to download the adjacent file from the Dell website. You have to upload it and retest it. We cannot always connect our systems to the internet which means we sometimes miss these important updates.""One area of the product that could be improved is the support.""What I find very valuable is VxRail's life cycle management. The life cycle management takes care of everything from firmware to the actual upgrading of the hypervisor and keeps everything up to level.""It would be nice if the update process was shortened and that patching would be simpler.""They need to keep upgrading the environment and improving automation so that the solution keeps getting better and better.""The solution is vendor-locked and Dell is the only supplier of VxRail."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "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."
  • "Customers need to pay for licensing in order to use IBM Spectrum Protect. The customers that have been using it for a long time are okay and happy with it. From a cost point of view, it's better for them to renew their licenses than to go through the difficult process of changing a backup product in their environment, and migrate from one product to another."
  • "The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."
  • "The solution has a capacity based licensing, front and back-end license."
  • "Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."
  • "The price of IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive and there is only a standard licensing fee."
  • "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."
  • "We have found that the pricing is high in our country."
  • More IBM Spectrum Protect Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Price is a bit of a challenge, particularly if you want extra features or higher performance."
  • "It varies. It could be $100,000 at the smaller end and millions and millions of dollars at the higher end."
  • "More cost-effective than Nutanix."
  • "VxRail is an expensive solution."
  • "Fees vary by license type."
  • "The license is a bundle with the hardware. It comes with the license and five-year support."
  • "VxRail is expensive because it's based on VMware and V-SAN. The price is not the cheapest. The technical support is expensive, but it is a good service."
  • "When compared with others, the price is very reasonable."
  • More VxRail Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The deduplication and compression features are the most valuable features.
    Top Answer:License-wise regarding IBM, it's licensed per terabyte. And that is after compression and deduplication. There are additional costs if you want that as a managed service, there's a management fee… more »
    Top Answer:If IBM could provide a partial module, that would be great.
    Top Answer:HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, zero rule. That means I need three copies of my data on two different types of… more »
    Top Answer:While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major… more »
    Top Answer:VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a… more »
    Ranking
    14th
    out of 133 in Backup and Recovery
    Views
    8,906
    Comparisons
    6,264
    Reviews
    22
    Average Words per Review
    496
    Rating
    7.6
    1st
    out of 39 in HCI
    Views
    43,049
    Comparisons
    25,940
    Reviews
    38
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
    VCE VxRail
    Learn More
    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.

    VxRail is a hyper-converged appliance based on VMware virtual SAN Software and is jointly engineered and built with VMware, for VMware, to enhance Vmware. VxRail software-defined architecture simplifies compute, storage, virtualization, and management. It will safeguard performance, reliability, and flexibility across your organization with a broad range of workloads and applications from business-critical to next-gen. With VxRail, you are covered.

    VxRail is a single turn-key appliance that is a validated, fully integrated, pre-configured,  pre-tested solution and offers non-disruptive scaling. Every node includes compute storage and IO. All-flash configurations can contain between 12-28 cores per node. The storage capacity options run from 7.6 TB to 19TB with either 256 GB or 512GB of memory. Hybrid appliances may have 6-20 cores per node, 3.6 TB to 10 TB of storage capacity, and 24GB to 256 GB of memory. 

    VxRail offers high availability fail-over, an active/active stretch cluster, and VSan Kernal integration. VxRail is a power-edged server with APIs built on automation. There are over 15 million different combinations of hardware available with VxRail. VxRail provides a simple, cost-effective solution that solves a large range of use cases. Additionally, you also get a mixed workloads automated system that is backed with fully automated system updates, and complete end-to-end lifecycle management all in a single two-rack appliance. 

    VxRail is a value-added suitable solution for distributed small to mid-sized enterprises, remote offices, private clouds, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). You choose the deployment option that best suits your organizational needs, from appliance to integrated rack offerings, with or without networking, and it will be delivered to you, ready to deploy out-of-box. 

    If you know VMware, you know VxRail.

    VxRail Features and Benefits

    • Seamlessly accelerate deployment to a hybrid cloud 
    • Fast data center modernization
    • Create developer-ready Kubernetes platforms
    • Powerful performance and reliability
    • Improve and simplify operational efficiency
    • Excellent integration 
    • Save time
    • Reduce costs

    Reviews from Real Users

    VxRail is an all-in-one solution: "You don't have to worry too much about the hardware and you don't have to work on integrating a storage device. We instead have this as an all-in-one solution and everything is available as a box."

    VxRail is remarkable: “The cover points feature in VxRail is remarkable. It's unique. It has an intervention failover system as well as an automatic failover system, reaching clusters existing in VxRail…

    VxRail is a powerful performer: “...VxRail delivers a very high number of IOPS for a hybrid configuration or an all-flash configuration. The processors that are available in the Xeon family are very powerful. They are multi-core with typically 2 gigahertz, 2.4 gigahertz, or higher frequency, so the performance is very much appreciated.” 

    Offer
    Learn more about IBM Spectrum Protect
    Learn more about VxRail
    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
    World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company15%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Insurance Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Retailer8%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise65%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Backup and Recovery
    October 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Zerto, Rubrik and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: October 2023.
    745,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Spectrum Protect is ranked 14th in Backup and Recovery with 23 reviews while VxRail is ranked 1st in HCI with 38 reviews. IBM Spectrum Protect is rated 7.6, while VxRail is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Protect writes "High stability and availability for reliable data backup and retrieval". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VxRail writes "It's built on platforms that have been in the industry for more than 15 years, so it's very stable". IBM Spectrum Protect is most compared with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, Veeam Backup & Replication, Cohesity DataProtect, Commvault Complete Data Protection and Rubrik, whereas VxRail is most compared with VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, Dell PowerFlex, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI).

    We monitor all Backup and Recovery reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.