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IBM Storage Protect vs NovaStor NovaBACKUP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

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
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NovaStor NovaBACKUP
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
33rd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.6%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NovaStor NovaBACKUP is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Storage Protect1.6%
NovaStor NovaBACKUP0.7%
Other97.7%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787573 - PeerSpot reviewer
Interim Head of Infrastructure at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Backup coverage has supported immutable protection and now needs a more modern, intuitive interface
IBM Storage Protect is from a previous generation of backup software. In those days, backup software was complex in setting up and complex to manage. The new software, such as Rubrik, is very easy to use and more relatable to younger engineers because its interface design is more similar to Office 365 and the newer controls and labels that we are accustomed to. The difficulty that we now have with IBM Storage Protect is that for this day and age, compared to other products that are out there, it seems complex. If we look back 15 years ago, all enterprise class backup software was complex, so IBM was not any different. However, many of these older systems, such as Commvault, still have the same complaint that they are very complex because they have tried to keep that same interface and the same way it works. This suits them, but it probably needed a complete overhaul to bring it into the ease of use that we have with modern software. However, that upgrade has not been done. IBM Storage Protect has not been upgraded into a modern platform. It still looks a legacy platform.
Rainer Kummerfeldt - PeerSpot reviewer
IT-Teamleader at Bechtle
Easy to work and offers features for tape backups, disk backups, and whatever you want
NovaStor NovaBACKUP is still working on new features because they listen to the customers and integrate their needs into new versions. You can see they make progress with each new version. They are much faster than IBM, where you sometimes have to wait years for new features. It is very quick and fast. NovaStor have big competitors like Veeam, which is very fast and aggressive. It's good, but it depends on the price. I think NovaStor might be cheaper. They have a direct connection to their developers and sales teams, which makes getting answers very fast. Veeam has a lot of features, like a special reporting tool. However, I've heard from some customers that Veeam wasn't always the right decision because it couldn't work with their environment. But Veeam has aggressive marketing, which is why they are probably in first place at the moment, besides Commvault. IBM has lost its competitive edge and is trying to catch up, but it might be too late.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the stability and also how it's seamlessly integrated with other IBM offerings."
"by backing up only the changed data, we average around 75TB per night. If we had to do full backups, even occasionally, we would not be able to complete the backup within 12 hours, or we would have to make a large investment to fit a full backup within the 12 hour window."
"The most valuable feature for data recovery in IBM Spectrum Protect is its database protection capabilities."
"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."
"It is a very powerful product that offers great performance and integrates very well in Unix/Linux environments and with powerful databases (Oracle, DB2, SAP, etc.)."
"With IBM Spectrum Protect, we optimize our costs of media and storage use, thanks to the Incremental Forever backup."
"The most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery."
"Space efficient data reduction, using progressive incremental forever in combination with deduplication and compression."
"It's the easiest way to configure it."
"It is a very good and easy-to-use tool for non-technical people."
"NovaBACKUP protects your entire system with a single solution."
 

Cons

"Technical support for this product is pathetic - whenever we tried to raise support, it took a long time, so we had to resolve the problems on our own, especially in the production environment."
"The only thing that I would like to have a little more of is insight in reporting. I find that Spectrum Protect needs a lot of monitoring, and I have to actually log into the servers."
"The version that we had when I first started made it look really bad. We are talking about commands that should have run in two seconds, but instead took four to eight hours. Other components were sluggish."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
"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."
"It could use single store. The ability to mark an archive from my backup for long-term retention."
"This product comes up against other products available that are marketed better but the other products that it's in competition with are a single product and this is one of IBM products. If it could be marketed as more for competitors I think that's where it comes short."
"One of the main features is the cloud storage integration, which was one of my main required features."
"The room for improvement lies in the compatibility of NovaBACKUP with older operating systems."
"The price of NovaStor NovaBACKUP is an area that can be considered as a weakness or drawback, where improvements are required."
 

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."
"That's a hard estimate. It depends on the licensing, the hardware, and other stuff, but it is fairly expensive. It is generally more expensive than other solutions."
"Use capacity licensing. It's easier and cheaper."
"The solution has a capacity based licensing, front and back-end license."
"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."
"There may be an advantage to going with IBM in terms of pricing. They have a pay-as-you-grow policy, so there is no need to take one license for the entire datacenter. You can start with small licenses and then grow, and pay, as you use more."
"One can go with either a PVU licensing model or a capacity based licensing model. Either solution does not block the usage, if over used."
"Some of the new advanced features are definitely more into cost savings, e.g., dedupe compression, so doing more with less."
"My company has to make yearly payments towards the solution's maintenance and support."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise95
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Storage Protect?
I do not know the current licensing cost for IBM Storage Protect and how we get our support because our licensing model is not quite standard. We do not buy IBM Storage Protect direct from IBM. We ...
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is from a previous generation of backup software. In those days, backup software was complex in setting up and complex to manage. The new software, such as Rubrik, is very easy ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is my primary tool for backup and recovery. We also use it for immutable backups to protect against ransomware. We use IBM Storage Protect for everything on-premises. The benefi...
What needs improvement with NovaStor NovaBACKUP?
The room for improvement lies in the compatibility of NovaBACKUP with older operating systems like Windows XP. Some customers still rely on outdated systems due to specific production requirements....
What is your primary use case for NovaStor NovaBACKUP?
It's developed in Hamburg. It's very easy to work with because it has a web interface, and the configuration is straightforward. It has features for tape backups, disk backups, and whatever you wan...
 

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
NovaBACKUP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
Ex'pression College, Osborne Wood Products Inc., REIT Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Storage Protect vs. NovaStor NovaBACKUP and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.