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Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) 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
3.7
Dell PowerProtect DP offers high reliability, significant ROI, and 90% malware protection, enhancing cost efficiency and data reduction.
Sentiment score
5.4
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is valued for integration, compatibility, and competitive pricing, with some users seeing quick ROI.
The data reduction allows customers to maintain their capacity without needing to purchase new hardware, which is beneficial.
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
In terms of cost, because of deduplication and compression, we can almost say there is a savings of 20% to 30%.
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
I see it as both time-saving and money-saving.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Dell PowerProtect DP's mixed reviews highlight positive technical support but note challenges with delays and communication issues.
Sentiment score
4.6
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus support is generally praised for responsiveness, despite concerns about initial delays and technical complexity issues.
If I were to rate customer service from zero to ten points, I would give it ten out of ten.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Challenges exist in certain Linux-based cases.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
On the one or two occasions where we needed to engage with Dell support, they've been most helpful.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
Their documentation, runbooks, troubleshooting articles, and support people are good.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We do not have a good experience with this product.
Architecte Solutions at Novahe
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Dell PowerProtect DP offers scalability and flexibility, handling diverse storage needs but may require newer models at higher capacities.
Sentiment score
5.7
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus scales efficiently from small to large enterprises, though optimal planning enhances its scalability potential.
Scalability is great here, and it achieves this without downtime.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Because it is all based on the controller, which has a limited number of expansions.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I think it is just a case of putting another node in and slotting it in, adding it to the storage, which is exactly what you would expect from enterprise equipment.
Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
The solution does not provide horizontal and vertical scaling.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
IBM Data Protect is the scalable solution, not IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
IT Specialist at Saudi Business Machines - SBM
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerProtect DP is highly rated for stability, scalability, and reliability, with excellent support despite minor network configuration issues.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is praised for stability and reliability, though some report recovery issues and version-related instability.
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is a stable solution because it's a mature product.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
None of the customers has experienced any downtime.
Senior System Engineer at Tenece Professional services
Regarding stability, I have not really seen any lagging, crashing, or downtime on Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) itself.
Infrastructure Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
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

Dell PowerProtect DP needs improvements in cost-effectiveness, usability, setup, integration, management, scalability, software compatibility, and storage options.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus needs a user-friendly interface, improved security, better integration, efficient backup, and enhanced technical support.
I believe if they could offer options for higher capacity with QLC drives, it would greatly benefit customer pricing and performance needs.
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) requires more updates and innovations in AI-powered cyber resilience.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
You cannot integrate with any other third-party solution or your Data Domain since it is very tightly coupled and has limited licenses with respect to capacity that are integrated directly with Avamar.
DGM at Airtel Digital
It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling.
Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing 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
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
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerProtect DP offers flexible licensing and competitive pricing, appealing to enterprises with partner discounts and value-added features.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is costly but offers flexible licensing and is valued for scalability and automation benefits.
In fact, as I know, even give details inside Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) and how much it costs every single component in it, I am going to say it is somehow a bit expensive, why? Let me tell you.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In terms of quantifiable CapEx reduction, I can estimate a decrease of about 20% to 30% thanks to the efficient deployment and DRE options available in Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA).
Senior Solution Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Pricing is competitive with other software vendors.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
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

Dell PowerProtect DP offers integrated management, scalability, rapid deployment, and reliable data protection with VMware and multi-cloud functionality.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offers seamless integration, user-friendly features, and comprehensive data protection across multiple platforms and applications.
AI integration enhances backup operations by analyzing data and ensuring malware protection.
Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) has a scalable architecture, offering flexibility, so you can always scale the capacity to meet any increased demands.
Senior Systems Engineer at NTT DATA
The concept of pre-integrated solutions was very nice, allowing a customer to have a single dashboard to manage everything, which includes backups for desktops, laptops, enterprise applications, virtual and physical servers, along with comprehensive cloud-based backup capabilities.
Pre Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
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

Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
34th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
49th
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 June 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)0.7%
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus1.1%
Other98.2%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

NimitPuvar - PeerSpot reviewer
A VP Enterprise Sales at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd.
Centralized backup has improved data protection and simplifies secure, compliant restores
The biggest advantage of the product is that it is basically a single appliance which comes with a bundle of backup software and the appliance, as we have a single console to manage it. It also provides other features such as data encryption at rest, along with data deduplication and compression in backup which is very useful. From the centralized dashboard, we can manage the backup job and determine if the backup job is happening appropriately or not. If any backup job fails, we can find out the root cause for the failures. Because it is a hardware-based appliance, we can restore the data immediately, and it provides genuine restore capabilities. In terms of data availability compliance, we are looking for data availability and data security in terms of encryption, data deduplication and compression. It provides data availability as each appliance comes with RAID. If one or two disks fail, then our data appliance is still available for backup. It also provides encryption, so our data is also ransomware protected.
Christophe LAMAMY - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
The pricing for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is quite expensive, but I would say, compared to the work that has been put into the appliance itself, we all know Dell is the most expensive product on ...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
I find it difficult to identify faults with Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA). The only initial issues we had were with bare-metal restores, but their support was absolutely excellent, and we worked thro...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA)?
Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) is used to back up Dell VX Rails, as we have six Dell VX Rail nodes or clusters in our current company, and to have an off-site backup. We have two Dell PowerProtect DP ...
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...
 

Also Known As

Dell EMC IDPA, Dell IDPA, EMC IDPA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, Christian Brothers University, Presidio
PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.