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IBM Storage Protect vs NAKIVO Backup & Replication 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
NAKIVO Backup & Replication
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
6th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (6th)
 

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 NAKIVO Backup & Replication is 1.6%, down from 2.1% 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.
Mattia Sangiorgio - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances data protection strategies and ensures the reliability of backups with helpful support
The features we have found most valuable in NAKIVO Backup & Replication include its cost-effectiveness, seamless integrations, comprehensive functionalities, and ease of installation and management. The pricing model is very competitive, providing excellent value for the robust features offered. Its seamless integration with our VMware infrastructure ensures smooth operation without any compatibility issues. The wide range of functionalities, including incremental and full backups, storage optimization, and disaster recovery options, meets all our backup needs comprehensively. Moreover, the simplicity of installation and the intuitive user interface have made it easy for our team to quickly set up and manage the backups without requiring extensive training.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Forever incremental - allows TSM to optimize storage needs."
"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."
"Nothing beats this solution for file backup."
"Scalability is pretty much unlimited."
"We have a very good team of administrators who know the product perfectly and are able to manage it on a day-to-day basis."
"Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings."
"It has a lot more capabilities and functions than a lot of other products. Even though it is more complex, the reason is because it gives you a lot more features. This is what I prefer, especially for a long retention."
"The most valuable features are the stability and also how it's seamlessly integrated with other IBM offerings."
"Backups are working smoothly with Nakivo Backup."
"Cloud integration is valuable because the ability to not only backup locally, but to the cloud, has been a great addition to the already fantastic product."
"Nakivo makes our backs-ups more reliable and easy to recover in case of full damage or partial retrieval of files - all at a convenient cost."
"It was also very easy to configure backups to be sent offsite to a separate repository for disaster recovery needs."
"Nakivo has been instrumental in strengthening our data security infrastructure."
"Nakivo gives users confidence in knowing that if something happens with their application server, exchange server, or other applications, they can recover it easily and quickly."
"We have found all the features of Nakivo to be useful and the solution is easier to use compared to Proxmox. It is user-friendly, we are very satisfied."
"It is fast, simple, powerful, and has a price without competition."
 

Cons

"We would like to see bare-metal restorers."
"It can be improved for large file systems with many files. Spectrum Protect can restore large files very well, but if you're restoring millions of little files, it is not as great. At one point, we tried to implement the VMware module with it, and it was awful and terrible. I don't know if that has improved. If it hasn't, this would be one big improvement."
"It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum."
"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."
"Technical support could be improved."
"They do not have a unified GUI, they only work on CLI and operations center, which is really complicated for the installation and configuration."
"We are having a balance issue between the reclamation and the backup function. It has to take the space back from the tapes before it can record to those tapes, but sometimes those two processes are overlapping."
"Its management part can be better and simplified. It is kind of a beast as compared to Commvault or Veeam, but they are more user-friendly. They are also easier to learn, whereas Spectrum Protect definitely takes time. They should simplify it. Our teams are pretty comfortable with it because we have been using it for a long time, but from the perspective of a new user who is evaluating or using this solution, it is definitely more complex in terms of manageability. Its monitoring could be improved so that it can even monitor the jobs that are scheduled by external schedulers. There are situations where a database team might decide to use their own schedulers, but currently, Spectrum Protect is not able to catch those jobs in the Operation Manager console."
"An improvement would be to give us more control over the email alerts, with different emails going to different addresses based on a set of rules."
"There are some errors requiring support to correct and bugs and glitches should be addressed."
"We'd like to see more cooperation with Synology. It can be enhanced to get updates published faster to Synology's store."
"Using an independent bootable media to restore full physical machines would enable physical machines that may be serving as Nakivo Director or Transport machines to be reliably restored to service without undue delay, ensuring that an enterprise's local environment remains intact."
"While the solution provides mostly what we need, it would be ideal if there were some additional feature capabilities for the API."
"The only thing I could say is maybe some more options for job scheduling are needed."
"Updating VM tools on a replicated VM could be better."
"The product needs to improve backup speed and replication speed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Spectrum Protect can be considered an averagely-priced product."
"The solution's pricing is fair. Price-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"The solution is not cheap."
"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective.​"
"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."
"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."
"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."
"We worked our licensing into a capacity model, which is nice. Now, everything is much simpler to manage from a licensing perspective."
"It has a very good price in the market."
"You have a lot of different options when it comes to pricing and the pricing models are pretty flexible and affordable."
"The price is not a problem in NAKIVO, as it is the most competitive in the market."
"The prices are high."
"Pricing is easy to understand and very affordable."
"The price could be lower."
"It has a much higher bang for the buck than other products we evaluated."
"Nakivo is cheaper per machine and per backup."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 does Nakivo compare with Veeam Backup & Replication?
Nakivo is my favorite backup software. Below are the main benefits of Nakivo compared to Veeam 1. Low cost. 2. Backup storage with global deduplication (this is the main requirement of a backup sol...
What do you like most about Nakivo?
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is very easy to use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nakivo?
The product is affordable even for smaller organizations.
 

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
Coca Cola, Honda, 3M, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, University of Arkansas, Johns Hopkins University, Marriott, Radisson Hotels and Resorts, Fujifilm, Eiffage
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Storage Protect vs. NAKIVO Backup & Replication and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.