IBM Spectrum Protect Reviews

I am using Oracle Database as well as MySQL and MHSQL. In terms of security products, I have Tenable Micro. For the backup solution, I am using IBM TSM only, however, I am searching for a more robust solution for my central backup needs. 

I am looking into options like TSN, IBM, and Tably. Specifically, Tably is being considered for my core banking database, but I still need a solution that can cover all my Linux and Windows systems platforms, including the 5GS file system and other database backups. I am actively searching for another solution.

The best functional system I utilize is integrated with the data domain and DIGS backup solution, which makes it easily manageable and comprehensive. Incremental and differential backup features are built-in, which I frequently utilize on a weekly and daily basis. 

Additionally, the solution has proven to be robust, especially being an IBM product, making it easier to manage and configure for my core banking system running on AIX. My local partner manages all these aspects efficiently, which contributes to my satisfaction.

Our primary use case is DR and backup.

The performance has been pretty good. We have installed three of the TSM large Blueprints in the past couple of years. We are continuing to scale them. It is all disk replication and we are working on eliminating our tape. We have three tape libraries across three data centers and we are continuing to reduce the reliance on tapes, as we move more things into compress, dedupe, and container pool stuff.

From a Spectrum Protect perspective, AIX has been largely our footprint for a long time with TSM, and those are the large Blueprints that we purchased, the 824s with 256GB of memory. We do F900 for the database, and a V5030 large petabyte back-end on each of those. We have gone into the new Blueprints with a Linux OS. That is a change in direction from our management team which has spun us in a little bit of a different direction than the standard stuff we have done, which is fine. Some of our new Blueprints have been built on Linux, and they are more of a medium scale.

If we back out and we start floating up to a 10,000-foot view of data centers, we have 4.5 petabytes of SVC Spectrum Virtualize. We have been using it for about 14 years and been very successful with it. We use Easy Tier with a good healthy mix of flash, in the neighborhood of 400 terabytes. Spinners, 10K drives, 15K drives are all but gone in our data center at this point. As far as server OS, we are an AIX pSeries shop for our big iron. VMware for our x86 virtualization, and hypervisor choice across UCS Dell.

It is used in two data centers in northwest Arkansas, and looked at as a single data center. We own our own dark fiber between the two. We do a stretch cluster topology across a couple of different clusters in that environment, and support everything with VDisk mirroring between the two.

The storage admins: If we are standardizing on a Blueprint spec, and it has been blessed by IBM, it helps the supportability of everything. We are not "cowboying" things. It is, "This is the spec, it will perform to this standard,” and we know what our expectations are going into it.

We have been fortunate to roll out a few of the Blueprints, and they have been successful, so supportability is one of the benefits.

We use it for normal file system backups, database backups for Microsoft SQL, and VM image backups. We also use it for the backup of the Sybase database, which is an important backup for us. Sybase is the database for the SAP ERP systems. These are business-critical systems.

IBM doesn't provide its own data protection agent for Sybase. Therefore, we are taking Sybase backups by using the built-in API from SAP. We utilize Sybase ASE, which contains the API and allows us to connect with the TSM of IBM Spectrum Protect. We are currently on an older version, but we are going to upgrade to 8.1.9 very soon.

The backup of Sybase databases is the most valuable feature in the existing environment.

They have got the most documentation out there on the internet for its software protection. The documentation is excellent, and there are a lot of blogs, websites. Because it's still one of the oldest products out there for data protection, there are also lots of people who have a lot of experience in using this solution.

We are currently looking at doing a refresh for the PowerNAS for Spectrum Protect and getting Spectrum Protect Plus in-house for our VE as well as backing up our databases, such as Oracle, DB2, or SQL.

We use all-flash for all the storage that we use for Spectrum Protect.

We do not have anything going to the cloud now. The goal is to have anything which requires a long-term retention backed up to either Amazon or Azure.

We currently use Tivoli Data Protection to back up our databases. Spectrum Protect is actually the application which backs up the file system data, then anytime you want to back up the databases you use an agent with Tivoli Data Protection (TDP) to be able to back up your Oracle databases or your SQL databases. 

Right now, we are getting  good results when we back up Oracle with TDP, but we back it up directly to the VTO. So, the goal is to get rid of the VTO and utilize the native features within Spectrum Protect to be able to do deduplication and no replication as we would do it on the VTO, because all that functionality is on the VTO. However, Spectrum Protect does not know about the VTO. So, it would be nice to be able to move that within the functionality Spectrum Protect. However, in order to do, we have to make sure we are sizing the servers correctly. This is why we are also considering using the PowerNAS, and maybe putting Spectrum Scale ESS behind it as well. 

We currently are working with our sales rep and some of the IBM techs to see how this solution would play out if we wanted to bring it in-house.

IBM Spectrum Protect is designed for data centers, catering to large enterprises, including banks, insurance companies, etc. There is competition in the market for data protection solutions. Price is a significant factor in this competition. We must explore alternative solutions beyond Spectrum Protect, especially concerning virtual environments, cloud infrastructure, and other emerging technologies.

Customers need a clearer understanding of how to implement IBM Spectrum. However, issues revolve around financial constraints. If you lack the correct service contract, resolving problems can be time-consuming, requiring escalation and waiting. Sometimes, the solutions provided are standard and could be more helpful. The initial advice is often to update to a newer version, which may not address the specific issue. In our experience, newer versions sometimes resolve different errors. Overall, there is room for improvement in the service aspect.

So IBM Spectrum Protect is part of our Cyber Recovery as a service delivery to other MSPs, an IT company, and also in clients. 

The reason why we're using IBM is both the beneficial support that we have and can provide. But also security. We do provide AirGap solutions. From there, we also see, based on statistics, that both IBM Spectrum Protect and also the other software that we're using, which is Rubrik, are rarely an issue when it comes to ransomware attacks, in comparison with Veeam or NET Backup or DPM, or other vendors.  

The deduplication and compression features are the most valuable features. For example, one of our clients has a quarter of a terabyte that we are protecting and the deduplication and compression of that data is in the back end around 75%, which means that it's just magic.

I run IT infrastructure for a banking group based in Southeast Europe, I am in charge of IT infrastructure.

Traditionally, we used it across two locations, supporting various systems like XADC's platform and Unix power systems. It was utilized depending on the business impact technologies, with multiple levels of protection copies and retention periods defined by our business and products department.

We plan to use it for archiving and as the third copy of data in a remote location.

As a highly regulated institution, like any bank in the European Union East, we have mandatory requirements for data protection in case of data loss, cyberattacks, or some kind of catastrophic event. We test it regularly, daily. 

These are the main benefits, but there's also a practical one for forensics, which we don't use as often, but it does happen from time to time. 

Spectrum Protect allows us to retrieve a point-in-time view of our data, like the balance sheet or any other information at that specific point. So, the benefits are for security, regulatory compliance, and even for forensic or business needs.

Integration with IBM products is out of the box, and fully supported across everything from mainframes and Unix platforms to the latest container platforms. It supports all major operating systems, application stacks, databases, and file systems out of the box, providing essential features like security, compression, and encryption for enterprise-class protection in financial institutions like banks.

Moreover, the incremental forever strategy in our backup processes has been in place for more than a decade. At this point, it's not so much a choice as it is a standard we've adopted. 

Since the technology is reliable, it simplifies the backup process significantly. Now, our focus can primarily be on managing full backups and creating some offline copies. The incremental forever approach is widely accepted and has been for over ten years.

We use the product as a primary backup solution for enterprise or tier-one workloads. We implement a disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) strategy for our data backups for long-term retention.

The platform’s most valuable feature is its ability to verify the recoverability of backups. It helps us take data backup at different levels to be used during structural disasters.