Cloud and Backup Analyst at HCL Technologies
Real User
User-friendly software with efficient data recovery features
Pros and Cons
  • "Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes."
  • "The software's technical support could improve its response time for different time zones."

What is our primary use case?

We use the software for server backup purposes.

What is most valuable?

Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes.

What needs improvement?

The software's technical support could improve its response time for different time zones.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have experience working with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for over three years.

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How are customer service and support?

The software’s technical support team is responsive. There is no delay. Whenever we require support, we schedule a call with them. Although, due to time zone differences, some of our teams receive the solutions a little late.

I rate the technical support services an eight and a half out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

The complexity of the initial setup varies for the number of servers as per different sizes of organizations. For some, we may require only two servers; for others, we may need 100.

What other advice do I have?

It is a user-friendly software. Sometimes, WhatsApp and Google Photos on mobile may crash. In such situations, having IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for easy data recovery will be more beneficial.

I rate it a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Technical Manager at ASM Computer
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Stable solution with efficient data backup features
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is scalable."
  • "It requires much more automation features."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for the backup of virtual machines.

What is most valuable?

The solution integrates with IBM Spectrum Protect. Thus, we can have version backups and enhance retention.

What needs improvement?

The solution requires much more automation features. Also, its reporting feature for the backup process needs improvement as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution as a business partner for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The response time of the solution's technical support team could be better. Also, it should connect with the actual environment to solve the problems.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used IBM Spectrum Protect before.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the solution's initial setup process a seven out of ten. It includes installing a variety of patches. Compared to VMware, it requires a lot of planning.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is too expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the solution to others as it has been in the market since the 1940s. It is a safe product. It may give away speed regarding backups, but it matches the vendor's requirements. It has slow performance speed than competitors but is very stable. I rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Technical Services Manager at eBiZolution
Real User
Top 5
The solution is stable, scalable, and easily deployed
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is how we can easily power speed up the VM even though the VM resides in remote storage."
  • "The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for offline backups of our VM. This is because we can have a longer retention period and back up our VM using cheaper storage devices, such as tapes. The solution can be deployed both on-premises or cloud.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is how we can easily power speed up the VM even though the VM resides in remote storage.

What needs improvement?

The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix. The solution can be improved by supporting open-source virtualization like KVM and Nutanix for compatibility.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes about an hour.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Kevin Honde - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Solution Architect at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Easy to use, multiple file type backups, but security could improve
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases."
  • "IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve security."

What is our primary use case?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is used for backing up our data on our servers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases.

What needs improvement?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve security.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The stability of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is good.

We have approximately 2,000 virtual machines using the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used IBM TSM, which was replaced by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is straightforward. It took approximately three weeks to set up all of our servers and everything else.

What about the implementation team?

We used the vendor to do the implementation of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

We have two engineers and administrators that do the maintenance and support of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others.

I rate IBM Spectrum Protect Plus seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Senior Services Engineer at KENAC COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Responsive support, highly stable, but the environment could improve
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is the deduplication functionality. The clients moved to this solution originally because of this feature."
  • "IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve the IBM Spectrum Protect environment. It can be difficult to administer. The initial configuration can be difficult for entry-level teams or deployment teams, and it might be difficult to integrate. There's just too much content involved in the solution. The documentation is way too large."

What is our primary use case?

My clients are using IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for their virtual environments when using VMware.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is the deduplication functionality. The clients moved to this solution originally because of this feature.

What needs improvement?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve the IBM Spectrum Protect environment. It can be difficult to administer. The initial configuration can be difficult for entry-level teams or deployment teams, and it might be difficult to integrate. There's just too much content involved in the solution. The documentation is way too large.

In a feature release, they should have some bare metal recovery features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been a partner with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for 19 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is very good.

I rate the stability of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus can scale well because it is on the cloud.

How are customer service and support?

When I compare the support from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus with most of the other vendors we work with, IBM is at the top of the chart. They are prompt, they give proper feedback, and they're willing to help as much as they can.

I rate the support from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is easy.

I rate the setup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a seven out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

We use two specialists and administrators for the support of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. Additionally, we sometimes need more help with the store side of the operation of the solution.

What was our ROI?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a good investment. I've seen over the years the integration and upgrades, work well with the current solutions on the market. You don't necessarily have to buy a totally new solution if you wanted to migrate to the next level. Everything has been integrated into the current environment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are a few options available for purchasing the solutions. Overall, the price of the is high. 

I rate the licensing price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a six out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a good solution. It works well, but it requires a good budget for it and the training part. There most likely will be a huge CapEx involved.

I rate IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Storage Sales Leader at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
The solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's stability is high because it is derived from Spectrum Protect."
  • "The solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer."
  • "I would like more integration with security. We need to show the value of the product in regards to handling security. For example, how it handles current malware or viruses. IBM should be more proactive in this direction."

What is our primary use case?

It is a new product coming out from IBM to compete mainly against Veeam and Backup Exec software. It is mostly for the virtual environment, which is either VMware or Hyper-V.  

Our starting customers have approximately 30 to 40 VM machines. This is our target per customer, which may grow in the future, but cost-wise, it should be less for them.

Mostly, in our region, they are implemented on-premise with a mix of disk or tape. Some of them are looking for cloud, and this product is fully integrated with all cloud vendors, like IBM Cloud or Amazon Cloud. Therefore, there is no problem if the customer would like to have type of of cloud backup to keep his data.

What needs improvement?

I would like more integration with security. We need to show the value of the product in regards to handling security. For example, how it handles current malware or viruses. IBM should be more proactive in this direction.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution's stability is high because it is derived from Spectrum Protect.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. It starts from a small customer and grows with them as they develop and build up their business in the future.

Our company is managing small customer to large enterprise customers. This is because Spectrum Protect or Spectrum Protect Plus database can support very large enterprise customers with more than 4 billion objects. Thus, the solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer.

How is customer service and technical support?

We use them to support customer problems. The customer can open a ticket with a PMR with IBM for support. The customer can open it directly or we have our support line on GBM, so it will help the customer at a first stage or step before getting to IBM support. However, in a lot of cases, IBM is already supporting the customer, and the support is very good. The total fix time is recognized, and they can help our customers very well.

How was the initial setup?

I sell the product, but we have client engagement with the customer during the project planning. This explains to the customer the scope of work and how much it will take. So, our implementation guy already creates this scope after discussing the customer requirements and understanding the customer infrastructure, or customer components, then they decide the scope of work. We have to execute the project plan to be ensure that the product is delivered and installed correctly.

If the customer is new, maybe the older version of Spectrum Protect was little bit complex because it did not have full gateway interface interaction. However, the newer version of Spectrum Protect is easier, and the customer is likely to see the gateway interface. It is much more user friendly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price offering from IBM is coming down because it is based on number of VM machines. So, IBM is coming to the market to show the added value of the product. The product can be extended again on for a short-term retention on disk if you are going only on a virtual environment, only on VM base licensing. However, if you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our customers do evaluate other vendors, especially Commvault. We also cannot ignore Veritas and EMC NetWorker Solutions. These solutions sometimes evaluate our base on pricing or function. It depends on the customer situation. It is different from customer to customer, as it is a bit difficult to change the backup software on the customer side. This is because it requires a lot of migration.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
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analyste438435 - PeerSpot reviewer
analyste438435IT Analyst at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User

On stability, Mohamed wrote:
"The solution has a high stability because it comes from Spectrum Protect."

Last week, we met with a technical storage specialist at IBM. He explained that Spectrum Protect Plus is a brand new product designed from scratch by a team of programmers with no knowledge of Spectrum Protect.

System Admin at a sports company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
A multi-platform solution that supports a variety of media and has no limitations
Pros and Cons
  • "This is a multi-platform backup solution where you can take a backup from AIX, Windows, or Linux servers and restore from CD, disk, or tape."
  • "The user experience is very bad and the interface needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I was using this solution at my previous job, about six months ago. The company that I am with now is planning to purchase it, although, at this time, we do not have any of these products.

I have experience with the on-premises deployment model, and it was our backup solution.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution allows you to create a backup using any storage, and then take another one for disaster recovery. This is something that is very important for us.

What is most valuable?

This is a multi-platform backup solution where you can take a backup from AIX, Windows, or Linux servers and restore from CD, disk, or tape. It will restore exactly, from whatever you have. It's really comfortable.

This product has no limitations.

What needs improvement?

The user experience is very bad and the interface needs to be improved. It is not user-friendly. This is not my complaint, alone, but everybody I know who has worked with this solution. In order to perform a backup, professionally, you need to use the command-line interface. By comparison, Veritas has a backup solution with a very nice user interface that is easy to use.

This solution is difficult to troubleshoot when an error occurs. It gives you an error number that you can search for in the manual, or on the internet, to find an answer, but details are not given within the user interface. Again, it is just not user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have about one month experience with the Plus version of this solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution.

We have three backup managers who work together. I am with the Linux team, and we installed this solution, but we will be handing it over to the maintenance team. As both teams work with this solution, there are five people in total.

We are backing up approximately one hundred servers. We currently don't have any plans to expand this location, so our usage here will not increase. However, we do have branches in other cities, so in the future, we expect to use this solution in each of the branches.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have a lot of experience with IBM Spectrum Protect, and the Plus version has extra features. It includes, for example, cloud features. After we upgraded to the plus version, I did not use many of the additional features. From my perspective, I did not really notice any difference between the two versions. We made the switch because our consultants suggested the Plus version, and our research told us that it is a really good solution to upgrade to.

We actually used multiple backup solutions, but I am unable to name them.

How was the initial setup?

We did not initially install and configure the Plus version. The initial setup was for IBM Spectrum Protect, and then we performed an upgrade to the Plus version.

The initial setup is complex, for a new installation, when somebody does it for the first time. It is not too hard when you have experience with it. Our deployment took approximately one day.

What about the implementation team?

I and my colleague performed the implementation in-house, with some assistance from IBM.

What was our ROI?

This solution is worth the investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is expensive, but compared to other backup solutions, it is fair.

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. Unlike some other solutions, such as Veritas NetBackup where you have to pay for different licenses to use different features, there is a single license that allows you to use all of the features.

What other advice do I have?

This is a really strong application that I find really useful and reliable for backup, but it needs to be more user-friendly.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Technical Consultant at Tech Data Corporation
Real User
Flexible deployment, powerful API, and it doesn't need an agent
Pros and Cons
  • "The API is very good."
  • "The replication feature is not available."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and we implement IBM products, such as Spectrum Protect Plus for our clients.

What is most valuable?

The testing capability is good.

It can back up both VMware and Hyper-V in one console.

It can back up bare metals servers and doesn't need an agent. There is no specific limitation for backing up to either the cloud or on-premises.

The API is very good.

The duplication and compression features are included in one license.

What needs improvement?

Replication feature is available for off site backup. New generation data backup technologies are constantly being developed for multi-cloud environments.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The feedback that we have received is nice and we have heard no complaints of instability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can extend the customer's backup storage, add servers, or add new disaster recovery sites. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We have been in contact with technical support, and whenever we have a problem we open a ticket to IBM. They have supported us well for any case we have had.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation and installation will take 15 minutes at the maximum.

It can be deployed on-premises or as a cloud-based solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is lower than that of some competing products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Some of our customers are planning to replace Veeam with the Spectrum Plus software. Veeam is a powerful tool and good for virtualization, but the price is lower for the IBM product.

What other advice do I have?

This is a modern technology that supports not only data protection, but include HIPAA resources and virtualization. It is a product that I recommend.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

IBM
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Global Technology Distributor
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