IBM Spectrum Protect Reviews

The most valuable feature for data recovery in IBM Spectrum Protect is its database protection capabilities. It ensures the integrity and availability of databases through online communication and robust backup drivers.

There is room for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect, especially regarding its support for virtual environment backups. IBM hasn't progressed much in enhancing its products, leaving users seeking alternative solutions for virtual backups, like Spectrum Protect Plus.

I have been working with IBM Spectrum Protect for 18 years.

IBM Spectrum Protect is very stable. We haven't had any stability issues so far.

IBM Spectrum Protect is highly scalable, ranging from small environments with just a few servers to large-scale deployments with up to 3,000 servers.

I would rate the technical support as an eight out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum Protect is complex but flexible, suitable for various environments. Implementation typically takes around three to four months for a large environment with over 500 servers. It may require a team of one specialist and two analysts for deployment and one person for ongoing maintenance.

The incremental backup capability in IBM Spectrum Protect has streamlined daily operations by steadily backing up data over time. However, it is important to note that Spectrum Protect focuses on database and file/folder backups, not virtual environments. For virtual environment backups, Spectrum Protect Plus is required.

IBM Spectrum Protect primarily focuses on backing up databases, online databases, files, and folders, but it lacks native support for virtual machine backups. For virtual environment backups, you would need to use a specific tool called Spectrum Protect Plus.

The deduplication technology in IBM Spectrum Protect helps reduce storage needs but performs at a medium level of efficiency and performance.

I would recommend IBM Spectrum Protect based on your environment's backup strategy. If you primarily need to backup databases, it is a good choice. However, for large virtual environments, consider combining it with other technologies like Spectrum Protect Plus for comprehensive coverage.

Overall, I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect as a five out of ten.

We use the solution for our data protection.

We deployed the solution on-premises because the majority of our applications are also on-premises.

The file-restoring feature is the most valuable.

The Operations Center requires improvement. We are still using TSM Manager for many of our projects to administer our platform because the gap was not resolved with the new Operations Center.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

I give the stability a ten out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support team is always prompt in their response.

Positive

I previously used, NetApp Backup and Atempo Time Navigator but in the financial industry IBM Spectrum Protect is the most popular solution.

I have more than ten years of experience with the solution, so setting it up is easy for me. The deployment took less than one hour.

The implementation was completed in-house.

We have seen a return on investment with IBM Spectrum Protect because we are guaranteed to have our data when we need it.

We pay for a terabyte license to support our backend usage.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have two engineers responsible for the maintenance.

I recommend the solution to others.

There are various use cases. We have managed services, and we have customers on-prem or backing up to our TSM servers. There are different ways.

I work with various versions. I work for a service provider. We manage the service of various customers. So, we have from 8.1.9 to 8.1.14.

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.

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 ease of use also needs improvement. There are many products that are easier to use than Spectrum Protect. It is quite complex to manage, and you need an experienced administrator to manage it, whereas other products are easier to get into. You can have somebody with less experience managing them.

I have been working with this solution for about 15 years.

It is very stable. Especially over the last five years or so, it has been extremely stable. I've had very few crashes or very few downtimes. They are almost nonexistent.

It is very scalable. It scales very high as well. It is an enterprise-class solution. It is one of the most scalable ones.

We have 10 to 15 customers who have their own TSM server and products, and then we have about 18 customers who back up to our servers.

It depends. The TSM server is pretty straightforward. Some other parts are pretty complex. The VMware solution is very complex, especially compared to competitors.

Deployment depends on the size and the customer requirements. If you want to set up a small company server, it takes one or two hours. If you have to set up a large enterprise with various wishes and custom demands, it can take days or maybe a week. For a basic customer with VMware, it is set up within a day with a few databases and a few things.

For deployment, one person is enough. A qualified and certified engineer has to do that because otherwise, we won't give the warranty. So, that person has to be a certified engineer.

We have customers who manage their own TSM servers, and we just come in to install it, or if there are any serious problems. We resell it as well as sell our managed services. They can back up to our servers. We have customers who have their own TSM servers, but we manage those for them. We manage the clients and servers. For some customers, we only manage servers, and they manage the clients.

We do A to Z for TSM basically. We are IBM's only business partner in our country. To our customers, we are basically IBM.

We are a managed service provider. Backup makes us money. So, the ROI is always there.

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. That comes with flexibility, and that's the price you pay when you want a solution that can do everything and not just a few things. It is not a simple solution. It is a complex solution, and that requires some management overhead. However, you can automate it pretty easily because it has a SQL interface. If you have a person who can script or knows SQL, you can automate a lot with it. It has a command line interface, and there is also an API. The command line is very much like Linux or Unix. It is really highly automatable.

Even though TSM is a great product, it is a great product for a classic backup solution and not for the future. It is a legacy solution. The newest product is IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but we haven't adopted it. The legacy TSM server is great. It was the best product around, but now, it is not. For a new solution, it is not the best product. If I am looking to buy a new product, I would look elsewhere. I would look to the competition that is more modern and more up-to-date. 

I would rate it an 8 out of 10. It is still very good. It is good for what it can be used for, but if you need a more modern solution, it is not the perfect solution anymore.

The product has helped our organization recover and restore data faster.

The most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery.

The solution should improve the ability to monitor backup failure. There should be proactive monitoring to provide early warning. The solution should also improve its dashboard.

The next release should include automated DR.

I have been using the solution for almost two years.

I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. Almost 20 employees in our organization use the solution, including IT specialists, backup engineers, and senior backup engineers. We will most probably increase the number of users in the future. However, it depends on our customers’ feedback.

We have used Veritas NetBackup and HP Data Protector. We switched to IBM Spectrum Protect because we wanted a more stable solution, and our customers liked IBM Spectrum Protect.

I rate the ease of initial setup an eight out of ten.

The deployment did not take long. We deployed the product in-house in one month.

The solution is not cheap. We do not have to pay additional costs apart from the licensing fee. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

IBM is a good option for any organization seeking a stable and steady solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

It serves a diverse range of use cases, catering primarily to enterprise users with multifaceted workloads. This encompasses the backup and recovery needs of various data types, including workloads, databases, file services, and specific applications.

Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings. By only backing up changed or new data, there is a reduced need for extensive storage space on the backup server. This efficiency contributes to both time and cost-effectiveness in data protection practices.

Enhancements are required for backing up our virtual environment.

I have been working with it for more than twenty years.

I would rate its stability capabilities ten out of ten. Technical instability in many cases arises from hardware or the operating system. For instance, using Spectrum Protect on a Windows platform tends to be more unstable compared to deploying it on AIX or any Linux platform.

The scalability of the system is exceptionally high, making it suitable for deployment in any enterprise environment. It can be utilized in a multi-site and multi-instance setup, with no inherent limitations. In the present project, we manage a user base of twenty-five thousand individuals and the company operates globally around the clock. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Currently, I would rate the satisfaction level at around eight out of ten. Generally, I am content because as an experienced user, I can pose pertinent questions and provide the specific information needed, ensuring effective communication with support.

Positive

I've occasionally utilized different products, such as the one formerly known as Tivoli Storage Manager. In smaller environments, I've worked with solutions like AXA for NETGEAR and some other alternatives. However, for enterprise-level environments, my primary choice has consistently been IBM Spectrum Protect.

The initial setup is straightforward for simple environments, but in the majority of cases where environments are more complex, it becomes challenging. While beginners can use it, configuring it optimally demands familiarity with the product and a comprehensive understanding of its various options. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it around seven or eight.

Deployment time can vary, it could take a day or a few days, contingent on the complexity. The process involves installing and configuring hardware, setting up the operating system, managing dependencies to Spectrum Protect, and then installing and configuring the Spectrum Protect service. The most challenging part is gathering all the necessary information for deployment, such as requirements from application teams and network details. Once you have all the needed information, the deployment becomes relatively straightforward. Around ten individuals are required for maintenance.

Without experiencing a disaster, the need for backup may not be apparent, resulting in no return on investment. However, in the event of a restore or recovery requirement, the return on investment can be as high as one hundred percent. On average, I would estimate it to be around seventy to eighty percent.

It can be perceived as expensive since it is designed for enterprise use. If your company doesn't fall into the enterprise category, the costs may be prohibitive. However, the expense varies based on the license model offered by IBM. For instance, if you opt for a CPU-based license model, the costs rise with each additional client. On the other hand, if you choose a license model based on the volume of backup data, the cost increase is not as significant as with the CPU-based model. I would rate it nine out of ten.

I evaluated Time Navigator and NetBackup.

Making a decision on Spectrum Protect should be a thoughtful process, considering factors such as cost, prerequisites, and alignment with your specific needs. It makes sense to carefully evaluate whether the investment aligns with your organization's priorities before deciding to purchase it. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

IBM Spectrum Protect server runs on Linux and collects the backups from the clients. Either direct clients, backup archive clients, or through a proxy in the case of VM, which is TDA.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the centralized enterprise backup.

The solution could be more user-friendly and provide better monitoring. The monitoring should be improved first since it is a higher priority.

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for approximately 30 years.

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

I have found IBM Spectrum Protect to be highly scalable, it can scale up to 1,000.

I was in the IBM Spectrum Protect support myself and it is high quality.

The installation could be improved, it takes a lot of effort.

The pricing model of this solution is another difficult area, it's very sophisticated in the way they charge. It's based on PBU, which is a type of processor, how, many processors, and you need to put everything into an equation. However, they have different ways of charging or licensing. One way is a back-end volume or front-end volume, which is quite complicated.

I have evaluated Veeam.

IBM Spectrum Protect is very good for high volume enterprise costs. If you are a small to medium-sized business I would choose a cheaper and more straightforward solution, such as Veeam.

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect approximately a six out of ten for small to medium businesses but for enterprise companies, I would rate it a ten out of ten.

When combining all factors, I rate IBM Spectrum Protect an eight out of ten.

I am a consultant and work with different IT technology including data protection solutions. We work with the legacy version of IBM Spectrum Protect from 6.x version all the way to the latest version, 8.1.12.

I have implemented Spectrum Protect for organizations as big as 1,500 users and others that are small workgroups of 40 or 50 people.

Spectrum Protect is used for protecting virtualized workloads. It also allows you to protect traditional workloads such as physical machines and physical servers. It is well suited for storing data to tape.

The addition of the retention set feature provides a reduction in storage costs. It also reduces RTO and RPO so that you can respond quickly to your clients and services in case of data loss. 

Spectrum Protect is a robust solution. A valuable feature of this solution is the retention sets, which is a fairly new addition to the feature portfolio. This allows you to back up information to leverage all their copies of backup and not do new backups of the same information over and over again. 

The usability of IBM Spectrum Protect could be improved, specifically additional features to the product in the operations center. Additional reporting facilities and stronger reporting tools such as build dashboards would be beneficial. The tool should allow you to write SQL queries to get the information as it is not easy for entry users to retrieve some reports.

I would also value a comprehensive mass deployment solution for clients that would provide an automated method for deploying agents across a large environment, not only for Windows, but also for AIX and Linux. This would reduce the time required to deploy the tool.

I have been working with IBM Spectrum Protect for 10 years and consider myself an expert on this solution.

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

This solution is scalable. It is a very good solution for mid-range and enterprise customers. It is suitable for a broad range of different environments and types of customers, verticals, and other segments that can implement this product. 

Technical support of IBM Spectrum Protect is superb. They always help us to quickly get to the root cause of the problem. The incidents are well managed so that we can restore service quickly. The product comes with good quality documentation and videos that share best practices and help you get up to speed quickly. This knowledge helps you give a good description to their support team which also helps arrive at a quick solution.

In previous years we used Tivoli Storage Manager. The solution took up to three months to deploy. 

The initial setup of IBM Spectrum is straightforward. Currently, there are blueprints that have a solution to implement quickly. The blueprints come with automated scripts that can be leveraged to make the deployment simpler. You just have to run a script and then complete a set of policies, storage devices, users. The other configurations are already done for you. The documentation, or blueprints, are being updated all the time so you always have a way to reduce deployment time. Deployment takes as little as three or four days.

IBM Spectrum Protect listens to their customers and the feedback about each component and feature. They are always improving quickly based on new trends and software development and agile methodologies.

You have to be careful or aware of the different solutions and the different agents that the solution comes up with so that you select the right product for the right use case. The solution comes with different products that are intended to protect certain workloads such as databases like SAP HANA products. 

I also recommend that you get to know the product well, leverage the latest features so that you can get the most value from it. 

Lastly, I would recommend that you use IBM Spectrum Protect's service and support not only when you have problems but also for recommendations on how to do certain things properly so that you don't have problems in the future. 

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect an 8 out of 10. It is a great product, it's stable and has been on the market for a long time. 

We use this solution to monitor our backup tasks and to manage our backup. It also does retention on archives.

We use it for all of our backups.

It is easy to implement and restores very quickly.

It's very simple.

With the SPVE you can migrate from IBM to a different storage box. For example from IBM, you are going to Dell or NetApp. If you want to carry it over, you can.

You can do restores very quickly. You can mount a drive and restore it right from the drive.

Their plans need to be upgraded. It's a 1.0 and needs to be taken to a 1.4. Other solutions have more; Veeam for example, has 2.0, as well as Cohesity, and CommonVault.

When it comes to virtualization in IBM, it's not perfect.

We are going to switch from IBM to Veeam because Veeam is more accommodating to virtual environments. You can restore your Active Directory or your object to your group policy with Veeam.

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for three years.

We are using version 8.1.

It's very stable.

IBM Spectrum Protect is scalable. There are archives on the flash that goes into a queue, and when it's available, it goes into flash and retains it for seven days then into the normal storage.

We may require support or we may do it ourselves.

Technical support is good, they are responsive. Once you submit a ticket and depending on the level of priority from level one to level four, they will respond to the ticket with a day to the same day to resolve the issues.

The response time is normal. If you compare with Dell at the same priority level, it may take a day or two to get back to you.

I would rate technical support an eight out of ten.

The initial setup was straightforward. When you log in you can explore further. It will provide you with an explanation and how to do restores on the system. 

It will also let you know if you are backing up a C client or backing up a normal VM.

It's not complex. It's easy.

IMB does all of the updates.

We did no use an integrator or consultant. We completed the installation ourselves.

We are paying for support and maintenance on a monthly basis. It is approximately $124.00 USD per month for the entire company.

We are currently reviewing Veeam. After we have installed it, we will know more about it and some of the similarities.

TSM is moving to the cloud and will be much easier.

IBM Spectrum is coming out with a new version with the option of using Kubernetes, it's called IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

It's solid, it helps you protect the IDMS and helps you restore your VMware data and the types of data on your VM.

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