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CA 1 Tape Management vs IBM Spectrum Control comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

CA 1 Tape Management
Ranking in Storage Management
5th
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Spectrum Control
Ranking in Storage Management
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Storage Management category, the mindshare of CA 1 Tape Management is 5.7%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Control is 5.5%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Storage Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CA 1 Tape Management5.7%
IBM Spectrum Control5.5%
Other88.8%
Storage Management
 

Featured Reviews

Beyza Aksöz - PeerSpot reviewer
Mainframe System Programmer at Türkiye İş Bankası
An easy-to-use solution with good technical support services
We use the solution to manage virtual tape volumes The solution is easy to use. The solution's pricing could be better. We have been using the solution for eight years. I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. We have 20 solution users in our organization. Also, we plan to…
JY
System, Storage And Data Administrator at STET
Centralized capacity planning has improved insight into storage consumption for long term growth
Implementing IBM Spectrum Control is complex; we have had several calls to IBM to solve problems about DVM stack size, max memory size, and other issues such as buffer and cloud buffer size. Currently it is working, though we still have swap issues on our Linux Spectrum Protect server.We experience swap issues when we run a big retention set, and we have noticed that on the server we have memory available, but it seems that IBM Spectrum Control is using swap because the DBM max memory size is two gigabytes. This causes IBM Spectrum Control to use swap size instead of using memory, which is an issue we have opened a call to IBM about.We hope to ask why we have no report on the clone because on our storage we have an internal clone, but it is not reported. We will see with the support why it is not reported.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is stable."
"It has become easy to backup and archive all our system data and financial data. It helps us mainly in managing the backup of our databases, and it is easy to retrieve that data and find it in a secure place."
"It has become easy to backup and archive all our system data and financial data, it helps us mainly in managing the backup of our databases, and it is easy to retrieve that data and find it in a secure place."
"The Vault Management function keeps track of where a tape should be and tells the operators which tapes should be sent offsite, and which ones should return."
"Literally everything about the product is great!"
"To me, the CA 1 tool is the industry standard."
"CA 1 is our intake management system, and it's just one of the best products out there."
"The tapes are mounted automatically. You can read a tape automatically without waiting for someone to insert it."
"I would recommend the product, because as a cloud-based tool, you do not have to do any maintenance; everything, including updates, is done, you just log in and it is there, it is easy to configure, as it took me five minutes to set up, and you get a lot of value as far as the data and the performance information."
"Technical support is quite responsive and helpful."
"In my opinion, it's the best monitoring and report creation tool for IBM storage devices. You can do a lot of performance stats and reports with very nice tools for IBM storage devices."
"The benefits would be mostly the ability to diagnose a problem."
"Spectrum Control's scalability is fine - we can extend it for the backup requirement."
"The product keeps historical data for a very long time."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use. The ability to get into a storage device and look at whatever you are trying to look at as far as performance, then obtain the reports that you need to do your analytical work."
"The installation was very easy. You just install an agent on a server, and you give that agent access to your storage device, then it just collects the data. It took five minutes to set up."
 

Cons

"Installation and customization could be improved."
"The product itself is fairly complex so the install is as well."
"The product itself is fairly complex so the install is as well."
"When we want to interface the CA 1 product with other vendors, IBM or others, it is difficult to interface it with them, because you need some exits, you need to compile some assemblers."
"Sometimes it does not detect all chaining errors and the reporting on them could be improved as well."
"When we want to interface the CA 1 product with other vendors, IBM or others, it is difficult to interface it with them, because you need some exits, you need to compile some assemblers."
"The solution's cost needs improvement."
"If we were to add VM level performance being able to monitor VMs on a VM level, then that would be good."
"The solution must support multi-vendor storage."
"The pain points were, and may still continue to be, the fact that there are multiple components of the product which are installed, you might say, somewhat individually."
"I would like to see is more information regarding the copy groups (the replication)."
"Spectrum Control could be more user-friendly."
"The initial setup for IBM Spectrum Control is a bit complicated. They should also make it easier to integrate and use the Cosmos Analytics tool, which is very complicated."
"If we were to add VM level performance being able to monitor VMs on a VM level, then that would be good."
"I would like to see is more information regarding the copy groups (the replication)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price could be better."
"It is pay for the amount of storage that you are monitoring. The more that we use the tool and like the tool, we may want to extend it to other storage platforms. This is just a matter of cost."
"We were already licensing Spectrum Control. This was one reasons why we went to Control rather than using the other product."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Insurance Company
14%
Hospitality Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Control?
Implementing IBM Spectrum Control is complex; we have had several calls to IBM to solve problems about DVM stack size, max memory size, and other issues such as buffer and cloud buffer size. Curren...
What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Control?
IBM Spectrum Control has been in use for more than ten years. It was installed for capacity planning because our manager wants to have insight into the capacity planning of the storage area. We ins...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Spectrum Control?
We are working with IBM products. IBM Spectrum Control is also installed now and we are using it.Currently, we are trying to implement a private cloud, specifically an Amazon S3 compatible cloud.We...
 

Also Known As

BrightStor Tape Management
Spectrum Control
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TravelPort, AlphaServe, Rogers Communication
Nuance
Find out what your peers are saying about CA 1 Tape Management vs. IBM Spectrum Control and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.