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

IBM Storage Protect vs MSP360 Backup 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
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MSP360 Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
60th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (46th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (34th), MSP Backup (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MSP360 Backup is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect2.1%
MSP360 Backup0.7%
Other97.2%
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.
CONRAD FORREST - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution provides the ability to backup all types of cloud drives, is inexpensive, and has decent support
MSP360 Backup provides the backup functionality, but we need to provide the storage component. We can use Azure, AWS, or another provider, but we need to choose the storage provider and create a bucket to store our data. The vendor is making changes to improve the functionality of the service and the separation of storage, but I would like to see more integration and a knowledge base of the tool. Currently trying to understand why the storage is separated and how to implement the storage properly is a challenge. Using the solution incurs additional charges for the device storage and backup which are not included in the service. Unlike other solutions such as Kohl which includes everything at one price. MSP360 Backup can be improved by adding inclusive pricing.

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."
"The solution is mostly stable."
"You can protect your data and keep it for long durations, without it spending too much time on the local disk."
"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."
"Reliability: It has never had a problem with backups or restores. If you store something, it is there."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has excellent integration capability."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is its ability to verify the recoverability of backups."
"It scales well for the amount of clients that we use with it."
"Technical support is very good."
"The most valuable feature for me is that I can see what has has been successfully backed up and what not. I do not mean the file or folder view, because that's problematic with GDPR, but I mean which machines have successfully backed up. It's very valuable because you don't have to check the machines. The second feature is that you can change backup settings in the portal."
"The best feature is that it's very user-friendly to do scheduled backups and version maintenance."
"Block level transfers have significantly reduced the amount of time for transfers over some other solutions"
"Provides connectivity to a lot of different cloud storage solutions."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is its online backup capacity because you don't have to do an entire backup again and again, it just does whatever you type in, you type a, it goes a, you type b, it goes b. It doesn't take an entire site up again and again. So that incremental and bit by bit backup is important, it is a nice feature here."
"It has allowed me to implement a cost effective, highly configurable solution."
"The UI is pretty good. It's very simple. That is one thing that we like about this. It's very user-friendly."
 

Cons

"The deduplication must be perfect, and thus should be improved."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"We did not see any drawbacks to IBM Spectrum Protect before assisting a customer using Windows that wanted to migrate to using UNIX. IBM Spectrum Protect does not offer an option to migrate from other operating systems."
"I want to see better compression than what it currently does."
"It does what we need it to do, but it could be better with VM backups. It could be better integrated with virtual machines or VM backups, but that's why they have their Plus out now. Plus version is more geared toward VM backups. The regular version is more for endpoint clients."
"They need to do a better job on Windows, because if you are running Windows, the scalability is more limited than AIX and Linux."
"The solution should improve the ability to monitor backup failure."
"The interface feels like it is targeted for end users who typically are looking for an all-in-one integrated push button solution. It would be better if the interface had a beginner mode and an expert mode."
"As for what can be improved, some reports could be simplified so that you know how much backup you have done and what your backup details are. That report is available but it is very tough to get. I would like to know "today I have just uploaded 35 MB, tomorrow I have loaded 10 MB so my trend of backup is increasing.""
"The product could be more user-friendly."
"The initial setup is a little complex as it has to be done in the office and requires someone to come in and install the solution on your server, then configure the scheduling, backup pushing, and so on."
"They can add some production backup capabilities and the ability to do single instance back up. At the moment, it doesn't do deduplication on the standard backup. So, the issue is backing up PSG files for customers who have limited bandwidth. The other issue is that I don't like the implementation of the SQL backup. We do use SQL ourselves using a PowerShell script with the VDA tools as a module. That's how we back up. The rotation feature would be nice to have, but I know that they've got it on their dashboard or on their list to look at. They can also do a few tweaks to the dashboard. I would like the reporting capabilities on the portal to be much more granular. Normally, I export it to a text file, and then I run it through a pivot table in order to look at it from a cost-recovery point of view and to see when the backup last ran and if it was successful when it ran two or three days ago. Such a feature would work really well for my market. They can also add a cost-effective backup for Android and Apple cellphones. I've had one or two customers who were looking for this feature. I haven't found this functionality at the moment. I've been looking for a product that does that."
"Maybe implement an easier interface for basic users. For example, a set-up wizard with all the commonly used features as default."
"The solution needs a better graphical user interface. It's a graphical user interface that is very old-school right now. They could give it a little more modern feel."
"The restore time could improve. When we had an issue the restore time was lengthy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs."
"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."
"IBM Spectrum Protect, cost-wise, has way higher pricing than Veeam. By switching over to Veeam, my company saved over $600,000 in USD. The IBM Spectrum Protect pricing is a two on a scale of one to ten. My company paid additional fees for maintenance, apart from the standard licensing fees."
"It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market."
"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."
"The pricing of the solution is high in comparison to other products on the market. For example, IBM and Symantec have less costly options."
"The licensing fees are on a yearly basis, which for us it is about R400,000 (approximately $27,000 USD)."
"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."
"Pricing is reasonable although can be quite a large upfront cost."
"We have a very good return on investment."
"MSP360 is vastly cheaper than its competitors and has almost all the same features."
"The cost is pretty inexpensive. Around four to five dollars per device, per workstation on each server."
"It provides a good cost savings compared to our previous cloud backup."
"The solution is expensive."
"I rate the price of MSP360 Backup a seven out of ten."
"It includes a standard licensing fee. Once a year, there is a rebranding fee. The licensing costs are available on the internet for MSP360 Backup. There is a discount structure where if you have over 50 devices, you get a 50% discount. So, my cost is $2 a license per month."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

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 Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

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...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
Cloudberry Backup
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
StratX
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Storage Protect vs. MSP360 Backup and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.