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Azure Backup vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2025

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

Azure Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Storage Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Azure Backup is 3.0%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 2.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

RituparnaBhattacharya - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieve cost savings and efficiency with high-level restore capabilities
I use Azure Backup mainly for backing up virtual machines The feature I find most effective in Azure Backup is the high-level restore. Additionally, it has a good impact on our cost savings and operational efficiency as it is a low-cost solution. The area that I believe needs improvement in…
Syed Habib - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup was very easy."
"Setting up Azure Backup is straightforward and the total deployment time was about a month."
"The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is its ease of use and good integration with other Azure services."
"The product is cost-effective compared to other vendors."
"The backup features are very useful."
"With a couple of buttons, we can configure a VM for a backup and use the wall service, the storage wall service, pretty seamlessly."
"It's very simple to configure which is very useful. It's not complex to configure it."
"It offers seamless integration."
"It scales well for the amount of clients that we use with it."
"The tool's backup engine is very powerful. Previously, our client finished backup with HPE product in 48 hours. IBM Storage Protect completes backup in 8 hours."
"It helps our customers protect their data, keep it long-term, and feel pretty secure about it, basically sleeping well at night."
"The backup is very good. In other backup systems, you need a lot of storage to gain the same backup policy."
"It's very robust and has been on the market for a long time."
"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."
"We can use it with any storage for the back-end to save data."
"It has increased our security, scalability, and high availability."
 

Cons

"The length of time it takes to restore is our main source of frustration. It would be beneficial to shorten the time it takes."
"The monitoring and tagging features could be improved."
"Azure Backup is limited to certain workloads. It would be helpful if Microsoft focused on enabling backups for Oracle and other unsupported databases."
"Azure Backup could improve the backup data copies because they are not immutable."
"The compression ratio of the backup data should be improved."
"To make it a ten, it should have the ability to extend the retention and to perform a copy of the data outside of the subscription - with no additional costs."
"In the next release, I would like to see the ability to back up to different cloud providers."
"Azure lacks sufficient solutions for a particular scenario, we may need to resort to using third-party applications. In such cases, these applications can be employed to facilitate backup, replication, and the efficient utilization of internet connectivity and bandwidth. They enable us to effectively manage and transfer data while ensuring optimal utilization of network resources. However, it would be a benefit if we did not have to use third-party applications for these operations."
"I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided."
"They need to reduce the complexity and make the learning curve easier."
"The installation process could be simplified."
"Its price can be better. It is very expensive. Its interface is very old and not user friendly. They can improve its interface. Their support can also be better. My clients are not very satisfied with the support because they are not really quick."
"They do not have a unified GUI, they only work on CLI and operations center, which is really complicated for the installation and configuration."
"Our customers would like to see metadata replication, tearing to tape, and more cloud capabilities."
"The software is complex; setup is complex."
"It seems like they are a little behind on the integration to Azure Cloud as well as Amazon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We do not have any additional costs for Azure Backup."
"It is incredibly cost-effective and offers fixed pricing, with no additional fees for the licensing."
"It is a very cheap cloud solution."
"It's around $10 to $15 per month per virtual machine, along with something extra based on the size of the data."
"Azure Backup can be expensive if you are not vigilant about your storage steering."
"Customers prefer Azure Backup because it has a pay-as-you-go model, and they won't have to pay an upfront amount at the initial level."
"Support payment works by the level of partnership and the number of shares."
"Comparing the pricing with other technologies, Azure Backup is more affordable for customers. It follows a pay-as-you-go model, where we pay according to our consumption."
"Licensing can be either complicated or simple depending on what type of licensing you wish to use and what works best for your environment."
"License-wise regarding IBM, it's licensed per terabyte. And that is after compression and deduplication."
"It is really expensive. Its price is not good for Latin America. Its price is good for the United States or Europe."
"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."
"I don't have an idea about the pricing. They send that over to someone else, but I know that one of the issues they had was the licensing costs. I don't think they were happy with how they were charged."
"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."
"That's no longer my department, but I have some past experience with licensing. It is not cheap. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of licensing. In terms of additional costs, there is management overhead. It is a complex solution and a lot of work goes into managing clients. It has gotten better over the years, but compared to its competitor, it is still heavy on management overhead."
"We chose IBM Spectrum Protect, because they actually have something called MSP pricing, which means managed services provider pricing. The pricing was attractive, and it seems to be a platform that IBM is totally investing on in terms of new functions and new capabilities."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about IBM Storage Protect?
The best point about IBM Storage Protect is that it can use IBM tape environments, which we still use and will continue to use in the future.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is generally an expensive tool. However, with good contracts with IBM or its partners, the cost might not be so high. New customers can expect very high prices.
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
One point for improvement for IBM Spectrum Protect is security, as IBM has not been investing as much as in the past. There is a need for additional layers of security to fill the gaps, which is wh...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Spectrum Discover
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Russell Reynolds Associates, Somerset County Council, Kardem, PCL Construction
CEMEX
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Backup vs. IBM Storage Protect and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.