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IBM Storage Protect vs NovaStor NovaBACKUP comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

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

IBM Storage Protect
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
18th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NovaStor NovaBACKUP
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
64th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (32nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of IBM Storage Protect is 1.8%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NovaStor NovaBACKUP is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Storage Protect1.8%
NovaStor NovaBACKUP0.7%
Other97.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787573 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Rainer Kummerfeldt - PeerSpot reviewer
IT-Teamleader at Bechtle
Easy to work and offers features for tape backups, disk backups, and whatever you want
NovaStor NovaBACKUP is still working on new features because they listen to the customers and integrate their needs into new versions. You can see they make progress with each new version. They are much faster than IBM, where you sometimes have to wait years for new features. It is very quick and fast. NovaStor have big competitors like Veeam, which is very fast and aggressive. It's good, but it depends on the price. I think NovaStor might be cheaper. They have a direct connection to their developers and sales teams, which makes getting answers very fast. Veeam has a lot of features, like a special reporting tool. However, I've heard from some customers that Veeam wasn't always the right decision because it couldn't work with their environment. But Veeam has aggressive marketing, which is why they are probably in first place at the moment, besides Commvault. IBM has lost its competitive edge and is trying to catch up, but it might be too late.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the product are data deduplication and disaster recovery."
"Forever incremental - allows TSM to optimize storage needs."
"Enterprise-wide type of architecture supports a lot of different platforms."
"We have a long history using Spectrum Protect, and we are working closely together with IBM development to make solutions happen that we need and solve issues very fast."
"Scalability, it lets your company grow without losing confidence."
"The main thing is to keep the data safe and in files, keep it on tape ready for a request from a bank, and it is working perfectly with all our hardware."
"One of the main things that I like about IBM is the versioning of the data - meaning that we can have multiple versions of a file or directory of a server."
"Good deduplication and compression features."
"It's the easiest way to configure it."
"NovaBACKUP protects your entire system with a single solution."
"It is a very good and easy-to-use tool for non-technical people."
 

Cons

"The features should be a little bit closer together."
"We recently had a situation where we quickly got code, and the number of tapes exceeded the library capacity so we were waiting a while to change. We got a fix for this right away."
"Although I am not a technical user, I would say the cloud integration features could be improved."
"IBM Spectrum Protect is expensive."
"For the database side, it does not have object level recovery."
"We are using the Technical Support, and sometimes it's a little bit annoying to come to the Level 3 support."
"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."
"IBM's support hasn't been so good in the last few years."
"The price of NovaStor NovaBACKUP is an area that can be considered as a weakness or drawback, where improvements are required."
"The room for improvement lies in the compatibility of NovaBACKUP with older operating systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have found that the pricing is high in our country."
"It is expensive."
"We have been at our size for a few years. We are not really looking to battle the licensing costs, as this is our primary system."
"The solution's pricing is fair. Price-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"Spectrum Protect is not a cheap option."
"Its licensing is complex, and its price is not really reasonable. It is on the expensive side. IBM, in general, is slightly expensive, but with IBM Spectrum for the virtual environment, they are looking into the aspect of helping customers with the cost and providing a cost-effective solution."
"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."
"My company has to make yearly payments towards the solution's maintenance and support."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise95
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Storage Protect?
IBM Storage Protect is my primary tool for backup and recovery. We also use it for immutable backups to protect against ransomware. We use IBM Storage Protect for everything on-premises. The benefi...
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Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
NovaBACKUP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
Ex'pression College, Osborne Wood Products Inc., REIT Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Storage Protect vs. NovaStor NovaBACKUP and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.