IBM ProtectTIER is designed for backup and recovery, providing efficient data management for IBM I Series environments. It offers valuable features like self-service, high adaptability, and data search capabilities.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| IBM ProtectTIER | 2.5% |
| Dell PowerProtect Data Domain | 20.9% |
| HPE StoreOnce | 17.1% |
| Other | 59.5% |
IBM ProtectTIER stands out in environments requiring robust backup and recovery solutions, particularly suited for IBM I Series. Known for its efficiency in managing large volumes of data, it integrates a command-line interface, automatic workload distribution, and a virtual tape library. While highly functional, improvements in redundancy management, interface complexity, and user-friendliness are needed. It also faces challenges in integrating with legacy systems and ensuring fast backup speeds for substantial data loads.
What are the key features of IBM ProtectTIER?Organizations use IBM ProtectTIER to manage backup and recovery successfully, deploying it in physical and hybrid infrastructures. It supports short-term backup and archiving for internal IT within diverse deployment methods, accommodating thousands of users and multiple clients while securing database backups effectively.
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| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees | 4.0 | I use IBM ProtectTIER for short-term backup, valuing its efficient cataloging. While stable and scalable, large data backups are slow, and customer service needs improvement. Setup is easy. I've used it for 15 years and recommend it, despite these performance issues. |
| Sr. Consultant, pSeries & Open Systems at Glasshouse Systems | 4.5 | I found IBM ProtectTIER a highly stable and scalable enterprise solution, with automatic workload movement being a valuable feature. While the initial setup isn't complex, it's expensive and could be more user-friendly. I rate it 9/10 for reliable, scalable enterprise needs. |
| Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees | 3.0 | I use IBM ProtectTIER for backup. Incremental backup and CLI are good, but I'm somewhat dissatisfied with support and legacy integration complexity. It's stable and scalable, yet I rate it 6/10, advising a proof of concept. |
| Section Head: IT Infrastructure (Networks, Servers and Security) with 51-200 employees | 4.0 | I found this solution very stable and effective at data reduction, but its high learning curve and complex configuration are significant drawbacks. Technical support could also improve. |
| Information System Consultant at CFAO Technologies | 2.0 | I use this solution for client data protection, valuing its self-service and data search features. However, it is very complex, expensive, unstable, and has frustrating technical support, leading me to consider alternative solutions, giving it a 4/10. |
| Project Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees | 5.0 | I highly recommend this quick, automated VTL backup for IBM i Series, outperforming tape. It's stable and scalable, though I'd improve redundancy, full system restore for AS/400, and quicker IBM support. |
| Service Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees | 4.5 | I find IBM ProtectTIER a great, easy-to-use solution for database backup. It offers very good stability, good scalability, and straightforward setup. Although expensive, I highly recommend it, rating it nine out of ten. |
We use IBM ProtectTIER as a short-term backup and archive. This solution is used in internal IT, so we provide it to our company. We're using the latest version of the solution. It's deployed on-premises.
There are at least 20,000 people using this solution. The number of clients is close to 1,500. All of the clients connect to the backup server and data.
The cataloging is the best feature. It takes millions of frames for the backup. It's incremental, so it takes less time to complete.
The backup for a large amount of data is slow. When there's a large amount of data, sometimes the backup isn't completed in time. I have a 24 hour cycle, so it doesn't get completed in 24 hours with the large amount of data. With Veritas NetBackup, I can take 20 terabytes of backup in a day.
I have been using this solution for 15 years.
The solution is stable. I would rate it as four out of five.
It's scalable. If our account is getting full, we can create a new account and continue from there. I would rate it as four out of five.
The documentation available on the internet isn't that good. Plus, whenever we log a case, there are so many laws. They will never come onto WebEx to see what is happening and try to resolve it there. They will ask for the log, and then they will do whatever they do in their environment. When we have a problem, they should go to WebEx and check the issue.
We're using NetBackup in our company for different workload purposes. We're also currently shifting from Azure Backup to Commvault.
Initial setup is easy, but it needs more resources on the system side and human resources to manage it.
We have two people who are primarily maintaining the solution.
Deployment was completed in-house. We upgrade it almost every year.
We secured the hardware, installed the new server, and then installed the old catalog on the new server.
We are a team of five people. At least two guys were involved in deployment. We recently upgraded to the new version, so it took around two days.
We have a capacity-based license, which is managed centrally for all the sites in my company.
I'm managing one of the centers, and there are multiple small sites as well. Everything is managed centrally. We manage how many backups we're doing in a month, and then we send a report. On that basis, we know how much more data we need to procure.
I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. I would definitely recommend this solution to those who want to use it.
My advice is to understand what you need to back up and what kind of environment you have. Every solution provides you with different agents to go with Oracle backup, SQL backup, file level backup, etc. First, you need to analyze your environment to know your workload and what kind of RPO you want. On the basis of that, I would recommend going with any solution, like PSM, Veritas, or Commvault.
One of the most valuable features in IBM ProtectTIER is the ability to automatically move a workload to the different tiers in the storage without the need for human intervention.
IBM ProtectTIER could improve by being more user-friendly.
I have used IBM ProtectTIER within the last 12 months.
The solution is highly stable.
I have found the solution to be scalable.
IBM has put a lot of effort into ProtectTIER for enterprise companies and if you are a small to medium-sized business this solution might not be the best fit.
The initial setup is not very complex.
Depending on the complexity of the environment we have a team of up to five storage administrators that do the implementation, updates, and maintenance of the solution.
IBM ProtectTIER is an expensive solution.
If you are looking for a reliable and scalable enterprise-class solution, you should consider this solution.
I rate IBM ProtectTIER a nine out of ten.
I am in charge of the storage and backup administration at my company. The primary use of this solution is backup and recovery.
The most valuable feature is the incremental backup.
The command-line interface is good.
Technical support needs improvement.
Setting up the system to work with legacy equipment is a bit complex at times.
I have been using IBM ProtectTIER for a few years.
This is a stable solution.
It is scalable. We have five people who use it for administration and support.
I am somewhat satisfied with the support but they need to improve on addressing issues more directly. As it is now, there are many steps and getting support is not easy.
I have experience with Veritas and Symantec Backup solutions and they are somewhat more user-friendly. With IBM solutions, you need a product specialist.
The initial setup is easy.
My advice to anybody who is considering this solution is to conduct a proof of concept first because everybody's needs are different, and this product is not suitable for every kind of backup.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
The solution reduces the risks with regard to the data domain we're running. The way it shrinks data is adaptable. With regards to the raw capacity, the ratio is quite high.
The learning curve for the solution is quite high. This has always been an issue. If they could just open up a bit, with regards to gaining knowledge on how to configure this solution apart from just having official IBM tech would be helpful.
The configurations wizards are still complex and hard to navigate. These should be easier to manage.
In terms of stability, I've found it to be very stable. I've walked into the server room when it was at 60 degrees Celcius, and it was still running fine.
It's possible to scale the solution. The vendor was busy scaling it up with additional capacity during implementation. It was very straight forward for them. They did it in one day. My impression was that it was not something that was too complex for our business partner to be able to scale out with the digital capacity we purchased.
Technical support could be better. The turnaround times can be slow.
From my understanding, the implementation was complex. IBM and our business partner always have competent engineers, which makes it easier for them to handle the setup. Much of what they're configuring and what they need to configure for the things to work is not smooth sailing in comparison to what you would have with other solutions.
It is not a point and click setup. You have to know what protocol or technology you're considering to make a certain portion of the component work.
We used a business partner to assist in the implementation.
The licenses are capacity based. We have a certain capacity, but we are able to condense it.
We use the on-premises deployment solution.
The solution has a steep learning curve. It's not for the faint-hearted.
I would recommend the product. however, if it is right for an organization or not depends on the type of setup. It's great for banks or the financial industry. For general enterprise use, there are other less complex solutions like VEEM. Other solutions can do more or less the same actions. In our case, however, during our initial feasibility study, VEEM wasn't plausible yet.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
We are an integrator and this is one of the solutions that we offer to our clients.
It is used to protect data for our customers, in hybrid infrastructures that are both physical and virtual. Some customers use the IBM Power Systems, for example. We have many use cases in our country.
We are using the on-premise deployment model.
The most valuable features are the self-service features and the ability to search the data.
The main challenge for our customers is to replicate the virtual environment upon restart, without using any additional solutions such as VMware SLM. I would like the possibility to back up the infrastructure and then replicate it upon on restart, without having to orchestrate the starting of the VM. It would be much better for us.
This solution can be made easier to use.
Technical support is very frustrating and we are considering other solutions because of it.
Stability is something that should be improved.
The product is expensive and the licensing should be changed.
The stability of this solution can be improved.
Scalability depends on the requirements of our customers.
I have a lot of frustration when it comes to technical support from IBM for this solution. There is very little responsivity, and this solution is very, very complex.
The initial setup of this solution is very complex. The deployment takes approximately five hours, and two people are required for the process.
One person is sufficient for maintaining this solution.
We implemented this solution in-house.
This solution is very expensive.
These days, we are thinking about pushing another solution because of the poor support from IBM. We do not want to invest in training, and our customers are very frustrated with the complexity of this product. It is also very expensive.
I would rate this solution a four out of ten.
I will highly recommend this product for excellent and quick backup solution in small and large IBM I Series environment
This product for excellent and quick backup solution in small and large IBM I Series environment. Completed all the 70 No's LPAR backup without any manual intervention and also in very less time in comparison with Tape Backup solutions. No manual intervention required all automated backup process.
This protector is very safe and VTL. It is the 7650 protector. The model is 7650.
The one system is VTL, the IBM protector 7650 is configured VPL, so it is important to make the backup be configurable for multiple drives.
On the redundant standpoint, if we have two ProtectTIER, it makes the product running too redundant, because it is a very critical backup solution. It is handled by ProtectTIER so there should be some redundancy between the two sides. For example, we have side A and side B, and if anything happens on side A, then side B protector should be able take care of the issue.
There is only one issue on the VTL side, we cannot restore the entire system of AS/400. We cannot restore the data by using ProtectTIER on VPL. The new protector is good, but it is not possible to restore the full system. We can restore the data but we cannot do the full restoration. Hope this issue also been resolved with new solutions.
No, as I said, we had fixed the issues, so that it was stable. Once we replaced the child guard, then it was stable. Now, we don't have any problems. So earlier it was not, but later on it was stable.
It is now working for us well.
It is a scalability product. It is a really good solution for end user clients.
It is unmanageable.
Support would be good. Support should be quick. My other friends are also using this ProtectTIER in other companies. They are not hitting these types of issues. This is integrated because once you use the VPL, then ProtectTIER, several things are well-integrated. If any issues happen, they should be quick to investigate, because there might be a problem on the V7000 side, a problem on the ProtectTIER side, or a problem on the switchboard side. So the support should be more practical and fix the issue quickly.
Before ProtectTIER, we used tape solutions. It was good, we didn't have any issues with it. Only thing was it took more time to take the backups because the simultaneous backup would not happen if we use the single drive, and if the 7080 passwords were there earlier than Monday, we definitely needed the VPL and ProtectTIER for quick backup.
It is very easy now a days to setup and get support.
in house one.
We used the data domain that is EMC Data Domain Storage. We compared with the Data Domain. EMC Data Domain Storage was tried using a robot. It is a health system product that is integrated with DataBot and the data domain.
It is an excellent product, and the product is supposed to go far because everyone has less time to pick up the backup.
We did fixed one issue on the ProtectTIER in the last one or two years. That is the child card. It took more time to replace the faulty child card as they are not on the higher level. IBM can diagnose the problem as more than they took the time. In that way, we can use ProtectTIER more easily and more comfortably. Once IBM changed the child card, the ProtectTIER issue had been fixed. IBM support is supposed to IBM support is more quick and they can also analyze in depth to fix the problem.
The solution can be deployed in many ways, such as hybrid or on-premise. The deployment method depends on the customer's environment.
IBM ProtectTIER is used mostly to back up the customer's databases.
Overall IBM ProtectTIER is a great solution. It is easy to use.
I have used IBM ProtectTIER within the last 12 months.
The stability is very good.
The scalability of IBM ProtectTIER is good.
We have approximately seven customers using this solution.
The initial setup is straightforward. The time it takes for the implementation is typically a day or two. However, this depends on the customer's environment.
One engineer is good enough to do the implementation of IBM ProtectTIER.
The customer can decide how they want to purchase a license. However, the price of the solution is expensive.
I would highly recommend this solution.
I rate IBM ProtectTIER a nine out of ten.
