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Actifio vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
1.0
Actifio boosts productivity by reducing storage costs, improving data management, and enhancing disaster recovery, offering substantial ROI.
Sentiment score
7.7
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers competitive pricing and integration benefits, achieving mixed ROI within two to three years.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Actifio's customer service is praised for quick response times, helpfulness, efficiency, and high satisfaction ratings of 7-8 out of 10.
Sentiment score
4.4
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus support is mostly praised for efficiency, though complex cases sometimes encounter delays and challenges.
Their knowledge isn't great.
Their documentation, runbooks, troubleshooting articles, and support people are good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.3
Actifio excels in scalable enterprise data management across industries, offering robust performance and flexibility, especially in cloud deployments.
Sentiment score
6.3
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers scalability for enterprises, supporting storage expansion and workload adjustments despite some infrastructure challenges.
The solution does not provide horizontal and vertical scaling.
IBM Data Protect is the scalable solution, not IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Actifio is praised for stability, reliable support, and broad backup capabilities, but infrastructure issues were noted in multiple reviews.
Sentiment score
7.0
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is stable and reliable, handling heavy loads well, but may occasionally require repeated backup restorations.
Once we sorted out all our problems with Actifio and our configuration of our database and other components, I would probably rate stability about a seven.
 

Room For Improvement

Actifio needs better integration, broader platform support, improved recovery, detailed job stats, AIX support, and Portuguese language support.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus needs integration, interface, automation, and security improvements, alongside enhanced installation, support, and data protection features.
The most concerning issue is IBM support.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score.
I used IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but IBM is now replacing it with IBM Data Protect, which is a giant product now in common development with a well-known company in backup solutions.
It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers strong value with scalable pricing, though some find it expensive for corporate use.
They are fairly expensive.
Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.
 

Valuable Features

Actifio offers cloud integration, rapid recovery, robust backups, user-friendly interface, efficient database management, comprehensive reporting, and strong support.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is praised for its integration, ease of use, scalability, and robust disaster recovery features.
What really stands out in Actifio is that it can provide us full copies of the database without having full copies of the database.
The biggest benefit of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is that it's an agentless backup product which is very easy to configure and use.
 

Categories and Ranking

Actifio
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
50th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Test Data Management (8th)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
49th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Actifio is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.0%
Actifio0.5%
Other98.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Jeff Poulton - PeerSpot reviewer
Has reduced storage requirements for development environments but presents challenges during upgrades and support interactions
The most concerning issue is IBM support. The issue I have with IBM support is that sometimes they don't seem to know their product very well at times. I don't know where the support is coming from, whether it's from IBM or from Google through IBM. I'm not sure who physically does the support. Their knowledge isn't great. Plus, the way we use it is not the focus of Google nowadays. Google, as I understand it, bought the product as an add-on to Google Cloud or whatever as a backup and that's not how we use it. I do see some problems with Actifio, specifically keeping current with operating systems. It can be tricky to upgrade Actifio. It can be a challenge. When we've had to do it, we've had to work with their support people, and some of them are just people reading a sheet of instructions. When those instructions are obviously wrong at times because you can tell if you have half a knowledge of what you're doing, it takes ages for them to go off and find someone to explain what's going wrong. So it can be very laborious.
Atif Najam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables organizations to make large-scale recoveries easily, but the security must be improved
The security must be improved. We face a lot of cyber threats like ransomware. It impacts data availability and protection. The tool must provide a mechanism to make resilient backups. The tool must ensure that the recent backups have no ransomware. The backup must be immutable. They must be cyber-resilient backups. Finding a good resource person for IBM Spectrum in Pakistan is difficult. We have to rely on the support team. Resource availability is a challenge.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Retailer
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Actifio?
Actifio is cheaper than other tools. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Actifio?
The product must provide AI features. Google has stopped supporting the on-premise version of the tool.
What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that the product works and helps with restoration areas whenever there is a need to restore something.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.
What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
Technical support could be improved significantly. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

IBM, Waste Industries, Nasdaq, Verizon, Sharp, Rosetta Stone, Dakine, JBS Australia, Texas Wesleyan University, Cintra, People's Choice Credit Union, Lotto NZ, Electric Insurance, Tyler Technologies, Intility, Corporate One Federal Credit Union, Bryant University, pc/nametag, Isagenix, Sungard Availability Services, Databank, Electrocraft, Lifescript, Westfleisch, Interstate National Corporation, RestorePoint, Net3, Access Community Health Network, Newmarket International, Rezolve Group Inc., Piri Reis University, MC Assembly, Grass-Merkur, dbMotion, Christian Broadcasting Network, Bezeq, Abilene Christian University, CNW Group, Softcat, Migliori, City of South Portland, NaviSite, News-Press & Gazette, Comtec, Equity Insurance, Admirals Bank, Assistra, Dassault, Henry Davis York Lawyers, SAI Global, Audax Group, DSM, Triad Retail Media, Euronet Worldwide, Palm Beach County School District, iGate, Emerald Queen Casino
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Find out what your peers are saying about Actifio vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.