Carbonite Server vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

OpenText and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. OpenText is ranked #57, while IBM is ranked #47 with an average rating of 6.3. OpenText holds a 0.9% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Carbonite Server

Read 7 Carbonite Server reviews

3,973 Views
2,702 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Read 33 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reviews

4,173 Views
4,131 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Carbonite Server

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and Carbonite Server are prominent data protection solutions. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus has the upper hand with advanced features and robust support, while Carbonite Server stands out for cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment.

Features: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus users value comprehensive backup and recovery capabilities, integration with virtual environments, and a robust feature set. Carbonite Server users find simplicity, quick recovery times, and straightforward deployment beneficial.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus users highlight complexity, occasional performance issues, and a steep learning curve. Carbonite Server users seek enhanced scalability, versatile data recovery options, and broader functionality.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus has a more involved deployment process but offers strong customer service. Carbonite Server provides easier deployment and adequate customer support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus has higher initial setup costs but delivers substantial ROI through extensive capabilities. Carbonite Server is cost-effective, offering reasonable ROI given its feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

August 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 908,834 peers since 2012

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

Carbonite Server

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

57th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (44th)

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

47th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Carbonite Server is 0.9%, up from 0.7% 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 Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	1.1%
Carbonite Server	0.9%
Other	98.0%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Chris Puddy

Backup, storage and disaster recovery technical specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

A reliable backup product which needs little management

For most technical users the setup and initial deployment are fairly straightforward and once deployed it 99% of the time looks after itself. Installation of the agents is similar to most other products in that it has an install wizard to guide you, the accompanying documentation is also very useful to assist wherever you are in the agent install and policy setup process. Normally our customers' IT team does the deployment of agents, however, this isn't a daunting task unless you are dealing with multiple servers to protect the product. On a server-by-server basis, the deployment doesn't take long. From the MSP side of things, the infrastructure sitting behind the scenes doesn't take too much to install, configure and maintain.

Read full review

Christophe LAMAMY

Architecte Solutions at Novahe

Complex deployment has limited adoption but has provided structured backup management

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 Plus may take a couple of days and longer if you have a complex customer solution. The deployment itself is not very lengthy, but the integration in production is more complicated. I assess the efficiency of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus's Advanced Snapshot Technology as not good because they change a lot of things. During multiple versions, we have experienced many changes in the product, and from the customer's view, it is not a good product because with each evolution, we encounter problems. We do not sell this product or advise this product. For SLA management features with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, I utilize file level. SLA management is a good solution and a good idea, but the product does not work well, and customers do not adopt this product. I cannot assess the integration capability of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus using RESTful API. 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. The customer wanted to move away from this solution. The price of the product is good, but the solution does not adapt to the market. The market in France does not adopt IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

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

"Easy verification of things is the most valuable feature."

"The efficiency and convenience are excellent."

"It seems reliable and easy to use."

"The solution is a free engine to help work with the container."

"This solution is very simple to use and I will recommend it to anybody."

"Technical support handled all our issues quickly and effectively."

"I find the BMR/image and the recovery pieces are valuable."

"It does not slow down your computer or use a lot of resources as it works."

More Carbonite Server pros

"Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes."

"We conducted a proof-of-concept on the customer side, and they found the product to be user-friendly and extremely useful."

"The most valuable features are the virtual snapshots that offer incremental backups forever."

"The most valuable feature is how we can easily power speed up the VM even though the VM resides in remote storage."

"If you want to have a strong backup for recovery and restore, you need this solution."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the integration with Oracle."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a good investment."

"Reliability, recovery features, and stability are valuable to me."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros

Cons

"The stability has room for improvement."

"When you have to restore it, Carbonite takes a lot of time."

"The support for object storage isn't quite there yet. Its public cloud support can be improved. I would love to see the public cloud support for object storage, and it would be great, but what I always hear from the folks at Carbonite is that in a lot of cases, it directly competes with their cloud offering. So, I don't know when or where that will go or if that will go anywhere, but we are hopeful to see something. The dashboard is a little outdated. If they gave it a facelift and put some better design around their dashboard, that would be tremendous. I generally care less about the visual aesthetics of an application as long as it does what it needed to do, which is true in the case of this solution. We also have the Microsoft 365 platform. Because they're two separate platforms, I have to log in to my Microsoft platform to manage it, and I have to log into my Carbonite server backup platform to manage it. Having these two coexist together in one management console is really what we're looking for, but we went for it knowing this. We also knew that there would be some integration coming down the road. So, we're again hoping to see some of that coming in 2021."

"The only thing that I would like to see improved is related to marketing. Currently, it is very difficult to find the right paper and stuff for me. Their marketing department should provide better information because currently, it is very difficult to find information on the internet. It was bought over by OpenText, and you won't be able to find a lot of information about this solution on their site. They should also provide training facilities for commercial purposes. Some of my colleagues recently went for pilot training, and they were technical. If I want to get trained, the training has to be more commercial. Currently, there is no such training for users like me."

"It could be a little bit easier or faster to be able to access data files without having to download anything."

"In the next release I would like to see an improvement in the auto failover option."

"The Hyper-V backup has room for improvement."

"The support for object storage isn't quite there yet; its public cloud support can be improved."

More Carbonite Server cons

"The solution should allow for backup of iOS snapshots."

"We have to do a tech refresh, during the migration process and it doesn't allow a straightforward pathway."

"I would like more integration with security. We need to show the value of the product in regards to handling security. For example, how it handles current malware or viruses. IBM should be more proactive in this direction."

"One of the places where the product can improve is in the interface. It is a little cumbersome to interact with and not very user-friendly."

"The tool needs to increase the number of threats."

"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the actual schedule that you get on the policies."

"The security must be improved."

"The solution only supports HyperV and VMware but doesn't support Nutanix."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is between $120 and $150 per year."

"We pay 9,000 dollars per year for our license."

"The solution is open source."

"Its price is reasonable."

"The price offering from IBM is coming down because it is based on number of VM machines. So, IBM is coming to the market to show the added value of the product."

"There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive."

"I rate the price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a one on a scale of one to ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is very cheap."

"The licensing model of Spectrum Protect Plus is more efficient and cheaper compared to the original."

"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."

"Unlike some other solutions, such as Veritas NetBackup where you have to pay for different licenses to use different features, there is a single license that allows you to use all of the features."

"The price is perpetual, but the maintenance cost is annual. That is, we pay once for the product and pay annually for the maintenance and support. The price was much cheaper than what we would have had to pay for EMC or Veritas. The pricing is competitive, and I would rate it at four out of five."

"The solution is too expensive."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE Zerto Software vs Carbonite Server

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Carbonite Server

Compared 5% of the time

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 vs Carbonite Server

Compared 4% of the time

SugarSync vs Carbonite Server

Compared 4% of the time

Carbonite Safe Backup vs Carbonite Server

Compared 3% of the time

More Carbonite Server Competitors

IBM Storage Protect vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 9% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 7% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 5% of the time

IBM ProtectTIER vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 4% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Backup

July 2026

Download Carbonite Server product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

August 2026

Download IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product report

Also Known As

Carbonite Recover Backup

No data available

Overview

Carbonite Server offers robust disaster recovery and data protection, with efficient features for restoring and managing complex server environments.

With capabilities like Bare Metal Recovery and SQL granular restore, Carbonite Server supports AIX and AS/400 Series, making it versatile for different platforms. Its efficient replication and failover processes are particularly beneficial for maintaining business continuity. Users appreciate the straightforward setup, responsive technical support, and automatic updates. There is room for improvement in areas such as instant recovery, more granular user permissions, and enhanced cloud integration. Managed service providers find it useful for offering reliable cloud and on-premises backup solutions.

What are the key features of Carbonite Server?

Bare Metal Recovery: Simplifies full system recovery with minimal user intervention.
SQL Granular Restore: Enhances precision in database recovery operations.
Platform Support: Compatible with AIX, AS/400, VMware, vSphere, and vSAN.
Efficient Replication: Facilitates swift disaster recovery and data transfer.
Automatic Updates: Ensures current software status with less manual effort.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Disaster Recovery: Quick recovery processes improve business resilience.
Easy Verification: Simplifies compliance and data integrity checks.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes system resource usage, enhancing performance.
Reliable Support: Access to responsive technical support mitigates downtime.
Data Protection: Comprehensive solutions for cloud backups and data security.

Industries leveraging Carbonite Server enjoy its ability to support cloud backups, off-site data protection, and complex server restoration, especially in virtualized environments. It is widely used by managed service providers to deliver backup services and ensure application consistency in data transfers.

OpenText

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers seamless integration with major databases and platforms, effective data deduplication, and agentless operation, providing reliable backup and restoration solutions to cater to diverse enterprise needs.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus delivers expansive compatibility with Oracle, Microsoft SQL, IBM Db2, AIX, and Linux. It supports virtual snapshots and cloud backups, ensuring storage optimization and quick deployment. Despite needing enhancements in administration and integration, it effectively manages virtual machine backups for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Its functionality includes data protection, backup validation, disaster recovery, and cost-effective storage capabilities, specifically tailored for different departments in an organization.

What are the most important features of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

Seamless Integration: Works well with Oracle, Microsoft SQL, IBM Db2
Multi-Platform Support: Compatible with AIX and Linux
Virtual Snapshots: Facilitates easy restoration
Data Deduplication: Optimizes storage costs efficiently
Cloud Backup Support: Expands data protection reach
Agentless Operation: Simplifies deployment and management

What benefits or ROI should be looked for in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

Quick Deployment: Saves time and resources in setup
Data Security: Enhances protection against data loss
Storage Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces expenses with deduplication
Robust API Functionality: Flexibility for custom integrations
Ease of Use: Streamlines user experience across departments

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is widely used to secure virtual machines and databases across industries, supporting offline backups and rapid processes. Its adaptability in specific sectors like finance and healthcare aids in maintaining data reliability and meeting compliance standards.

IBM

Sample Customers

INLINE Commercial Construction, Hamilton County

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

August 2026

Free Report: Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Find out what your peers are saying about Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Carbonite Server vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus report.

See our list of best Backup and Recovery vendors.

We monitor all Backup and Recovery reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.