IBM Storage Protect vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor comparison

The compared IBM and SolarWinds solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #12 in BRS , with an average rating of 7.6, and holds a 1.8% mindshare in the category. SolarWinds is ranked #6 in SM , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

IBM Storage Protect

Read 4 IBM Storage Protect reviews

5,686 Views
4,776 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

Read 3 SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor reviews

396 Views
301 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Storage Protect

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor and IBM Storage Protect compete in the IT management space. SolarWinds leads in pricing and customer service, while IBM's feature-rich nature gives it an edge for those prioritizing advanced capabilities.

Features: SolarWinds offers real-time monitoring capabilities, integration with other SolarWinds tools, and an intuitive interface. IBM provides robust data protection, recovery features, and sophisticated analytical tools, making it suitable for enterprise environments requiring advanced security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds is noted for straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, allowing quick integration into existing systems. IBM's setup is more intensive, reflecting its complex protection measures, but it supports services that enhance user confidence in issue resolution.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds provides competitive pricing and favorable ROI through efficient performance and lower setup costs. IBM, with its higher upfront costs, offers long-term ROI with advanced features, appealing to enterprises prioritizing comprehensive data protection.

To learn more, read our detailed Backup and Recovery Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Backup and Recovery

January 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,821 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

IBM Storage Protect

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Backup and Recovery (12th)

SolarWinds Storage Resource...

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Management (6th)

Mindshare comparison

IBM Storage Protect and SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM Storage Protect is designed for Backup and Recovery and holds a mindshare of 1.8%, down 2.3% compared to last year.
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor, on the other hand, focuses on Storage Management, holds 4.9% mindshare, up 2.6% since last year.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Storage Protect	1.8%
Veeam Data Platform	7.0%
Commvault Cloud	4.0%
Other	87.2%

Backup and Recovery

Storage Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor	4.9%
NetApp OnCommand Insight	6.5%
Dell Storage Resource Manager (SRM)	5.8%
Other	82.8%

Storage Management

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

AbdulKader Mohandes

Senior Systems Engineer at Al Jazeera Media Network

Custom alerts and rich performance metrics have improved server monitoring and storage planning

We use customizable alerts extensively with different services, because the exchange services are different from Active Directory or DNS or anything else. We have customizable alerts for each service. I do not use the historical data trends that predict future storage needs. Perhaps some of my colleagues use it, but I do not. I would like to see a focus on broadcast services in the future to make it better. Broadcast services, specifically TV broadcast services, would be valuable to us because we come from a broadcast technology background and would appreciate having some features related to that. I would rate this review as an eight out of ten.

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

"Scalability: Our customers are able to grow the product without having to buy additional hardware, so it is very scalable."

"The addition of the retention set feature provides a reduction in storage costs. It also reduces RTO and RPO so that you can respond quickly to your clients and services in case of data loss."

"A robust tool which allows us to backup pretty much any environment, virtual or physical."

"The fact that we can take the backup straight onto tape is the most valuable feature."

"I find the whole product useful. The backup archive client, snapshot, spectrum for virtual environments are beneficial features."

"Their GUI has improved quite a bit. It's made the solution a lot simpler and less complex."

"It is scalable beyond anything my customers ever aspire to."

"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."

More IBM Storage Protect pros

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

Cons

"IBM's support hasn't been so good in the last few years."

"We are having a balance issue between the reclamation and the backup function. It has to take the space back from the tapes before it can record to those tapes, but sometimes those two processes are overlapping."

"The most important feature which I wish to be added involves the GUI, the user interface."

"In the next version of the solution, I would like to see cloud support."

"The product should be improved to save more space."

"The usability of IBM Spectrum Protect could be improved, specifically additional features to the product in the operations center. Additional reporting facilities and stronger reporting tools such as build dashboards would be beneficial."

"There needs to be a bit more automation."

"Scalability is poor. As you get to bigger environments, this is where our gaps have been introduced. As we have grown over the past couple of years, the gaps have become more apparent."

More IBM Storage Protect cons

"The solution could always be more easily scalable."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is varied. If we have small environments (not many TB being managed) it is best to license by PVUs (depending on the number of cores of the machine). If we manage many TBs we look at licensing by capacity which allows us to use all the agents of the product."

"We chose IBM Spectrum Protect, because they actually have something called MSP pricing, which means managed services provider pricing. The pricing was attractive, and it seems to be a platform that IBM is totally investing on in terms of new functions and new capabilities."

"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."

"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."

"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."

"IBM Spectrum Protect can be considered an averagely-priced product."

More IBM Storage Protect pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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

881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	95

No data available

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Storage Protect?

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor?

The number of similar alerts is the main area for improvement. Alert noise would be great to reduce.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor?

We are still working with SolarWinds and use the NPM product along with SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor?

See all answers

Comparisons

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

NetApp OnCommand Insight vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

Compared 46% of the time

Huawei OceanStor DJ vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

Compared 36% of the time

Dell VPLEX vs SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor

Compared 19% of the time

More SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Storage Protect

January 2026

Download IBM Storage Protect product report

Buyer's Guide

Storage Management

January 2026

SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor product report

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover

SolarWinds SRM

Overview

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

The storage monitoring and capacity management software from SolarWinds gives you deep visibility into the performance of your multi-vendor storage arrays, and helps you closely watch the application stack for storage issues that affect application performance.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

CEMEX

NetSuite, Youngs Seafood, APS Bank, Sven Meinks

Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Commvault and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: January 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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.