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Azure Backup 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
2.8
Azure Backup offers cost-effective solutions with immediate security benefits and long-term savings, despite occasionally high licensing costs.
Sentiment score
5.4
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is valued for integration, compatibility, and competitive pricing, with some users seeing quick ROI.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Azure Backup's customer service is well-rated but faces criticism for response times and support quality variability.
Sentiment score
4.6
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus support is generally praised for responsiveness, despite concerns about initial delays and technical complexity issues.
The support from Microsoft is actually good; I have had positive experiences with it.
Project Manager at Capgemini
I think the technical support by Microsoft is good overall.
Senior Analyst at ESRI INDIA
The technical support from Microsoft is good
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at MIC Global
We do not have a good experience with this product.
Architecte Solutions at Novahe
Their documentation, runbooks, troubleshooting articles, and support people are good.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Azure Backup is highly scalable, suitable for all business sizes, and appreciates for seamless expansion and adaptability in varying environments.
Sentiment score
5.7
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus scales efficiently from small to large enterprises, though optimal planning enhances its scalability potential.
Azure Backup is scalable since it is a global solution.
Ambassador at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The scalability of Azure Backup is quite easy and affordable to scale, with many improved features like data transfer.
Project Manager at Capgemini
IBM Data Protect is the scalable solution, not IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
IT Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
The solution does not provide horizontal and vertical scaling.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Azure Backup maintains high stability with few issues, outperforming traditional systems, though minor challenges are efficiently resolved.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is praised for stability and reliability, though some report recovery issues and version-related instability.
I would rate the stability of Azure Backup as nine out of ten; it shows high stability in my experience.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at MIC Global
Azure Backup is stable for Microsoft environments.
AI Solution Architect at Bitscape Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
I cannot determine what benefit IBM Spectrum Protect Plus brings to the organization because we deployed this solution with one customer, and that customer changed the product after one or two years because the product is not stable and it changes with every version.
Architecte Solutions at Novahe
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Backup needs better VM/database support, pricing, performance, third-party integration, notifications, reporting, ransomware protection, and application-level options.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus needs a user-friendly interface, improved security, better integration, efficient backup, and enhanced technical support.
It is not a perfect tool for restoring SQL databases since it requires replacing everything instead of restoring specific files.
Ambassador at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Azure Backup needs improvements for specific backup options beyond just full VM snapshots.
Project Manager at Capgemini
The reporting functionality of Azure Backup needs improvement.
AI Solution Architect at Bitscape Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
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.
Manager - Storage & Backup at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
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 Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
 

Setup Cost

Azure Backup pricing varies by usage and environment, offering integration with Microsoft, and requires management to avoid extra costs.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is costly but offers flexible licensing and is valued for scalability and automation benefits.
The pricing of Azure Backup is fine; it is a low-cost solution.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at MIC Global
Azure Backup is expensive relative to the value we get from it.
Ambassador at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
They are fairly expensive.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.
Manager - Storage & Backup at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Azure Backup is valued for its security, integration, scalability, cost-efficiency, and user-friendly interface, offering enhanced data protection.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers seamless integration, user-friendly features, and comprehensive data protection across multiple platforms and applications.
The benefits I see from Azure Backup are that this solution is beneficial; we can access the data or files in Azure Backup anywhere, anytime.
Project Manager at Capgemini
Another valuable feature is its retention policies, which offer both archive and standard options.
AI Solution Architect at Bitscape Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
Azure Backup does support incremental backups, offering both incremental and full backup options.
Senior Analyst at ESRI INDIA
The biggest benefit of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is that it's an agentless backup product which is very easy to configure and use.
IT Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is the software we work with, and the new name is IBM Storage Protect.
Architecte Solutions at Novahe
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
51st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Azure Backup is 1.5%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.1%, 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 (%)
Azure Backup1.5%
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.1%
Other97.4%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Sanjay Sahu - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Capgemini
Has supported secure data storage with incremental backups and centralized monitoring
Azure Backup supports all the features that we need, so additional features are not an immediate need for me. The documentation for Azure Backup seems okay for me; it is good overall, but it should be more descriptive for each item. It should elaborate more on how backup and restore are fulfilled in different scenarios. One of the reviews indicates that Azure Backup needs improvements for specific backup options beyond just full VM snapshots. I believe it should be improved actually. Regarding specific backup options, I say there should be improvements compared to how they provided them in older days.
AS
IT Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
Has provided straightforward backup and rapid deployment for diverse environments
There is reporting in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but I'm not very familiar with this area. I always concentrated on getting the customer to do the backup, restore, and related tasks, but there is reporting. IBM has made a decision to withdraw the product and replace it with IBM Data Protect. The correct direction is Data Protect, which includes ransomware detection. With IBM Data Protect, you can add more servers for backup. It's scalable, which is a key feature over Storage Protect and Storage Protect Plus, even more capable than Veritas, because Veritas has an option to make different media servers. You can scale the backup process regardless of the load of the customer. This speeds up the backup and restore process for a complete data center, which cannot be done with any other product. I rate IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 9 out of 10.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

How does Azure Backup differ from Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam has a version for Azure but there are organizations, like ours, that are considering moving to an Azure environment and wonder if Azure Backup is better than Veeam Backup and Replication (Vee...
What do you like most about Azure Backup?
Azure Backup is easy to configure and restore.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Backup?
The pricing of Azure Backup is fine; it is a low-cost solution.
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?
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is very simple to deploy for us, but for more clients or competitors, the solution is hard to deploy and to integrate. For our team, deployment of IBM Spectrum Protect Plu...
What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?
We are an IT integrator and we need to have a good vision of all recovery and backup recovery solutions. Most frequently, we use Veeam Backup. We use Cohesity. For some old workloads, we use IBM TS...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Russell Reynolds Associates, Somerset County Council, Kardem, PCL Construction
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Backup vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.