Arcserve UDP vs IBM Spectrum Protect comparison

Arcserve and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Arcserve is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.0, while IBM is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.4. Arcserve holds a 1.2% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Arcserve users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Arcserve UDP

Read 43 Arcserve UDP reviews

2,516 Views
1,455 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect

Read 150 IBM Spectrum Protect reviews

3,616 Views
2,660 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Arcserve UDP

IBM Spectrum Protect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect and Arcserve UDP cater to data protection and recovery, with distinct strengths highlighted by user reviews. Despite Arcserve UDP's strong features, IBM Spectrum Protect appears superior in several facets.

Features: Users value IBM Spectrum Protect for its scalability, reliability, and comprehensive data protection capabilities. Arcserve UDP is noted for its ease of use, flexible deployment options, and integration with cloud services.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect users mention steep learning curves, complex configurations, and a potentially daunting setup process as areas for improvement. Arcserve UDP users cite occasional stability issues, limitations in advanced features, and a need for better user interface enhancements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect requires advanced technical knowledge for deployment, with mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness. Arcserve UDP is generally easier to deploy with more positive feedback on customer service.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect users report high initial setup costs but acknowledge long-term ROI due to comprehensive coverage. Arcserve UDP is commended for cost-effectiveness and faster ROI realization. Pricing perceptions lean favorably towards Arcserve UDP for immediate affordability.

To learn more, read our detailed Arcserve UDP vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Arcserve UDP vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Arcserve UDP

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (11th)

IBM Spectrum Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

150

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Arcserve UDP is 1.2%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect is 2.2%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

TeresitaSabile

Head of Operation and IT at Elgrade Inc

Cost savings and efficient decompression but needs better cloud integration

Our primary use case for Arcserve UDP is its decompression feature, which helped us save money by reducing storage needs. Despite moving to cloud applications, we have been using Arcserve UDP for backup and disaster recovery Arcserve UDP has helped our organization save considerable amounts of…

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Syed Habib

Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd

Manageable and comprehensive and integrates robust backup features for core banking

It's adequate for my core banking, however, I am looking for another solution for all systems. It is not compatible with other operating systems like Windows or Linux, and lacks a consolidated dashboard from Browser Spectrum. This is why I am searching for another solution. The product also lacks any centralized graphical user interface (GUI), such as Jarek Pod, and I am limited to using a console-based text user interface, which my local partner handles completely.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are satisfied with Arcserve UDP. The most important feature that we use and why we choose this product is the RHA feature."

"The most valuable feature of StorageCraft ShadowProtect is the speed and the compression of the backups. The compressed backed-up files do not take up as much storage. Additionally, the incremental backups can be done in one minute and be backed up on a disc very fast."

"The data protection functionality is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"The recovery part of the product is very good."

"The interface is very refined, works fine, and is very intuitive most of the time. Scalability is nice. The multi-tenancy feature is very welcome. The integration with Linux works fine too."

"The ability to switch between different hardware platforms and utilization tools are some of this solution's most valuable features."

"I would recommend it if there is a general case."

"I like the tool's speed."

More Arcserve UDP pros

"Good user interface."

"A robust tool which allows us to backup pretty much any environment, virtual or physical."

"Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings."

"The technical support for Spectrum Protect is very mature. It is very committed to giving a top-notch support experience."

"The components of IBM Spectrum Protect explain how the data is protected. The administration is very easy, and the vertical migration is intuitive."

"Regarding stability, it's been rock solid."

"It's a very stable product, and we've never had any downtime with it."

"The solution is not complex, it's very easy to configure agents or VM backup and restore. Upgrades from one version to another are very fast and the product is very stable."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pros

Cons

"We cannot restore each user's mailbox. Each user's mailbox should be independently restorable. Also, this solution is very slow. If you select all of the servers, it runs for a long time... It needs to be faster. Finally, If anything happens to one server we should be able to switch to another server."

"Licensing can be quite difficult."

"The initial setup was complex."

"The solution could improve by being more user-friendly. It can be difficult to assign destinations and choose which files and folders we need to back up. There are some aspects that are unclear."

"The technical support of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The only problem with the solution is that when I change the drive capacity, it has to do a full backup. It's a problem when I have five servers to backup. When I only want to change the size of the drive, I have to do a full backup that can take one week."

"In the most recent version of premium plus the replication has been removed, and it should re-added to the solution."

"It should be easier to switch between backup locations. We have multiple data storage locations and sometimes one of those storages need to be replaced. It would be nice if they made it easier to reconfigure the backup configuration."

More Arcserve UDP cons

"It's difficult in terms of the configuration at set up. In our case, it required another admin, one person dedicated to the backup."

"The Hyper-V and SQL Server backup could be improved. In the 2016 version there was a significant improvement, but I think IBM has a big challenge with these technologies."

"Scalability is poor. As you get to bigger environments, this is where our gaps have been introduced. As we have grown over the past couple of years, the gaps have become more apparent."

"Our new leadership has pushed us to go more toward the cloud, so we are definitely going to leverage anything we can in that direction."

"The software is very complicated. You have to do a lot of configurations to build a server, and you would need to backup and restore."

"Any feature that is compliant with virtualizing the application should be improved."

"It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms."

"The solution's initial setup process wasn't easy...The solution is overly complicated in terms of architecture, especially compared to other tools in the market."

More IBM Spectrum Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"Normally our customers purchase the premium plus license, rather than the standard one, which provides more options."

"I do not work with the pricing or licensing issues of the solution for our organization."

"The pricing of the product can be considered to be reasonable enough for the Asian region."

"The solution is expensive."

"We only have the maintenance of three standard UDP licenses. Each license is 50 Euro. There are some additional costs for the storage and software but it has nothing to do with the UDP."

"It is approximately $400 to purchase a virtual service outright."

"The solution is not very expensive, but it is not cheap."

More Arcserve UDP pricing and cost advice

"The pricing of the solution is high in comparison to other products on the market. For example, IBM and Symantec have less costly options."

"We have capacity licensing. We use the front end. The capacity licensing is pretty okay on the licensing price. I used to use the old PVU-based licensing in the early environment, but now we use capacity-based licensing."

"We are paying for support and maintenance on a monthly basis."

"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."

"Licensing IBM Spectrum Protect can be somewhat confusing for new users due to the options available, such as licensing on a capacity or per server basis."

"The solution is not cheap."

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

"Regarding retro-compatibility of the product between versions, your data is always available and the ROI is unquestionable."

More IBM Spectrum Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Non Profit

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Major Differences Between These 4 Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions?

Comparing the features of the four is not the right approach. You need to develop a list of requirements for backup and DR that are specific to your organization and then compare each of the four ...

See all answers

What do you like most about StorageCraft ShadowProtect?

The interface is very refined, works fine, and is very intuitive most of the time. Scalability is nice. The multi-tenancy feature is very welcome. The integration with Linux works fine too.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StorageCraft ShadowProtect?

Pricing for SPX MRP/MSP is under $400 per server (Single VM) with a 1-year subscription. After discounts, it could decrease by 20%-30%, and opting for a 3/5/10 server pack may offer even better (lo...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Protect?

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect?

It's expensive. I acknowledge the cost associated with it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect?

See all answers

Comparisons

Veeam Data Platform vs Arcserve UDP

Compared 36% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs Arcserve UDP

Compared 11% of the time

Rubrik vs Arcserve UDP

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Arcserve UDP

Compared 5% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs Arcserve UDP

Compared 5% of the time

More Arcserve UDP Competitors

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 16% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 16% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Arcserve UDP

June 2025

Download Arcserve UDP product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect

June 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Protect product report

Also Known As

StorageCraft ShadowProtect, StorageCraft Backup Analyzer

IBM TSM, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Overview

Arcserve UDP is a comprehensive solution that empowers even a one-person IT department to protect virtual and physical environments with a high degree of simplicity. It allows you to design and manage your entire data protection strategy with a unified management console, and enables you to scale your data backup coverage as your organization grows with the push of a button.

Arcserve

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It is the flagship product in the IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) family. It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical and cloud environments of all sizes.

IBM

Sample Customers

ITPS, North Hertfordshire Homes, SEMIKRON, Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, Test Valley Borough Council, EK Services

CERN, Einstein Healthcare, Nyherji, Allianz Australia, TZM, ABT Online, NCT, Kindred Healthcare Inc., Cobalt Iron, TransGrid, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Cash America, Piedmont Healthcare, RWGV, Arkansas Tech University, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Buyer's Guide

Arcserve UDP vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

June 2025

Free Report: Arcserve UDP vs. IBM Spectrum Protect

Find out what your peers are saying about Arcserve UDP vs. IBM Spectrum Protect and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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