Carbonite Server vs IBM Storage Protect comparison

OpenText and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. OpenText is ranked #57, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.6. OpenText holds a 0.9% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Carbonite Server

Read 7 Carbonite Server reviews

2,041 Views
1,470 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

Read 4 IBM Storage Protect reviews

5,686 Views
4,776 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Carbonite Server

IBM Storage Protect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

Carbonite Server and IBM Storage Protect compete in the data backup and recovery space. IBM Storage Protect stands out due to its comprehensive features, even at a higher cost.

Features: Carbonite Server provides automatic cloud backup, centralized management, and local backup options, catering to small to medium businesses. IBM Storage Protect offers enterprise-grade features, including advanced data recovery, security protocols, and impressive scalability.

Room for Improvement: Carbonite Server could enhance its scalability and data protection capabilities to better serve larger organizations. IBM Storage Protect might improve ease of deployment and simplify user interfaces to aid smaller businesses without dedicated IT resources. Both products could benefit from further price optimization and efficiency enhancements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Carbonite Server offers an easy setup process with responsive support, ideal for small businesses with minimal IT staff. IBM Storage Protect is more complex to deploy but offers robust support services, suiting larger organizations with dedicated IT teams.

Pricing and ROI: Carbonite Server is competitively priced with substantial ROI for cost-conscious businesses. IBM Storage Protect, despite a higher upfront cost, delivers a strong ROI through its advanced feature set and scalability, appealing to enterprises seeking extensive data management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect

February 2026

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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

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 (46th)

IBM Storage Protect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Carbonite Server is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect	1.8%
Carbonite Server	0.9%
Other	97.3%

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.

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reviewer2787573

Interim Head of Infrastructure at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Backup coverage has supported immutable protection and now needs a more modern, intuitive interface

IBM Storage Protect is from a previous generation of backup software. In those days, backup software was complex in setting up and complex to manage. The new software, such as Rubrik, is very easy to use and more relatable to younger engineers because its interface design is more similar to Office 365 and the newer controls and labels that we are accustomed to. The difficulty that we now have with IBM Storage Protect is that for this day and age, compared to other products that are out there, it seems complex. If we look back 15 years ago, all enterprise class backup software was complex, so IBM was not any different. However, many of these older systems, such as Commvault, still have the same complaint that they are very complex because they have tried to keep that same interface and the same way it works. This suits them, but it probably needed a complete overhaul to bring it into the ease of use that we have with modern software. However, that upgrade has not been done. IBM Storage Protect has not been upgraded into a modern platform. It still looks a legacy platform.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

"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."

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

"The Granular Restore of SQL feature has been a lifesaver more times than I can count. One of the main reasons for looking at Carbonite was their support for platforms like AIX and AS/400 Series."

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

More Carbonite Server pros

"This solution has improved our organization through better file and database recovery."

"You can do restores very quickly. You can mount a drive and restore it right from the drive."

"It protects our data. That is what it is there for."

"Incremental forever: This feature helps us reduce backup time and backup storage space."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the centralized enterprise backup."

"It is good in terms of functionality. My clients are very satisfied with this solution."

"It is very stable. A plus is to use POWERAge for the SNR copy of the Spectrum Protect, then it is more reliable."

"The solution can back up every kind of workload in the environment."

More IBM Storage Protect pros

Cons

"They do not yet have USB recovery but they are adding it in coming releases."

"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 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 stability has room for improvement."

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

"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."

"Probably educating the virtual group who are not as used to the product. Most of our expertise is with AIX servers and virtual server backups."

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

"I would like to see more technical training online. Sometimes, it is a little bit difficult to find, or that I do not really know what I am looking for as somebody who is starting off finding their learning curve."

"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."

"The user interface (UI) for the admin is still not good. It is way too complicated to manage the product, as we still need to use command line. IBM launched the Operations Center (OC), but there are still functions lacking, especially since we cannot manage all our scheduled tasks by using the GUI."

"The difficulty that we now have with IBM Storage Protect is that for this day and age, compared to other products that are out there, it seems complex."

"They can include more cloud-enriching features. I would like IBM Spectrum Protect to have the functionality for backing up a VM directly in Azure. I would like to be able to back up a VM directly in Azure without spinning up a Hyper-V cluster and backing up the virtual server."

"Its management part can be better and simplified. It is kind of a beast as compared to Commvault or Veeam, but they are more user-friendly. They are also easier to learn, whereas Spectrum Protect definitely takes time. They should simplify it. Our teams are pretty comfortable with it because we have been using it for a long time, but from the perspective of a new user who is evaluating or using this solution, it is definitely more complex in terms of manageability. Its monitoring could be improved so that it can even monitor the jobs that are scheduled by external schedulers. There are situations where a database team might decide to use their own schedulers, but currently, Spectrum Protect is not able to catch those jobs in the Operation Manager console."

More IBM Storage Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open source."

"Its price is reasonable."

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

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

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

"I rate the pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is not cost-effective, and ten is cost-effective."

"We have found that the pricing is high in our country."

"The pricing is a little expensive for our current employer, so they want to move to a cheaper solution."

"There may be an advantage to going with IBM in terms of pricing. They have a pay-as-you-grow policy, so there is no need to take one license for the entire datacenter. You can start with small licenses and then grow, and pay, as you use more."

"It can be perceived as expensive since it is designed for enterprise use."

"The licensing fees are between $8,000 and $10,000 per year."

"Customers need to pay for licensing in order to use IBM Spectrum Protect. The customers that have been using it for a long time are okay and happy with it. From a cost point of view, it's better for them to renew their licenses than to go through the difficult process of changing a backup product in their environment, and migrate from one product to another."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

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	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	95

Questions from the Community

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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.

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

I do not know the current licensing cost for IBM Storage Protect and how we get our support because our licensing model is not quite standard. We do not buy IBM Storage Protect direct from IBM. We ...

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What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?

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Comparisons

HPE Zerto Software vs Carbonite Server

Compared 9% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Carbonite Server

Compared 6% of the time

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 vs Carbonite Server

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs Carbonite Server

Compared 4% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office vs Carbonite Server

Compared 3% of the time

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IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 8% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 7% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 6% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Storage Protect

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Storage Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Backup

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

January 2026

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Also Known As

Carbonite Recover Backup

IBM Spectrum Discover

Overview

Carbonite Server securely replicates data to the local backup server while securing a second copy in the cloud. Granular restore and local failover options ensure rapid recovery and minimal data loss. With integrated hardware and cloud failover for critical systems, Carbonite Server provides reliable data protection.

OpenText

IBM Storage Protect offers data protection and management to secure critical business information efficiently. It's designed to be a scalable and flexible solution for data backup, recovery, and archive needs in complex IT environments.

IBM Storage Protect delivers comprehensive data protection by integrating backup, recovery, and archiving functionalities. It supports a range of workloads and infrastructures, from on-premises to cloud environments, facilitating efficient data management. Its platform provides seamless scalability to meet evolving business needs, underpinned by reliable security measures. Organizations leverage its capabilities to ensure business continuity and minimize data loss risks, making it vital in a data-driven world.

What are the key features of IBM Storage Protect?

Advanced Data Protection: Offers robust encryption and data integrity for secure backup processes.
Scalability: Grows with your data demands, supporting large data volumes without compromising performance.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly integrates with cloud platforms, enhancing backup strategies with hybrid options.
Automated Operations: Simplifies management tasks with automation, reducing manual intervention and errors.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating IBM Storage Protect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces storage costs by optimizing backup processes and data retention strategies.
Data Safety: Ensures data accessibility and integrity during recovery efforts, building trust in data protection strategies.
Operational Efficiency: Boosts productivity through streamlined and automated backup management workflows.
Compliance Readiness: Helps maintain compliance with data protection regulations by providing thorough reporting and audit trails.

Industries like finance and healthcare implement IBM Storage Protect to safeguard sensitive information against threats. In financial services, it's crucial for maintaining client data confidentiality, while healthcare institutions use it to protect patient records, ensuring both accessibility and compliance with regulations.

IBM

Sample Customers

INLINE Commercial Construction, Hamilton County

CEMEX

Buyer's Guide

Carbonite Server vs. IBM Storage Protect

February 2026

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