Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM Storage Protect vs Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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
4
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (12th)
Veeam Agent for Microsoft W...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
Salman Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Habib Bank Ltd.
Functional application availability
There are not many options available for AIX backup. They provide the agent for AIX, but it could be more mature, and they should improve that option. They also provide the AIX agent, which is similar to the Windows and Linux agents. Since we use AIX machines, we need to take backups of those machines. However, the options available in that agent are limited. Therefore, the new version should have improvements in that area.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows us to have one interface."
"I love the TDP for VMware because of the web interface and the possibilities provided by this tool. It's amazing."
"Performance and recoveries are better. Our clients and customers are happier with the performance of it."
"The licensing isn't very clear. They should work to simply or clarify the cost structure."
"Replication processes with container storage pools allow reduction of storage space and network bandwidth, using deduplication and compression."
"Everyone wants a full backup. It gives them safety and peace of mind, like an insurance policy for that rainy day when they may need to restore a system."
"Its flexibility is valuable. It is a very flexible solution. There are always more ways than one to do something. It is a software solution, which means you can buy your own hardware and expand it whenever you want. You are not boxed in or locked into something you've bought and outgrown. You can always expand it."
"The software-defined ability to do data reduction through deduplication and compression, as well as being able to replicate data to a cloud container."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Technical support is good. They're very responsive. It depends on the timezone responding, but I usually get a response within three hours of creating a ticket."
"A full-featured option for managing virtual machines with an instant recovery feature."
"We found the initial setup to be quite simple."
"I don't have any major problems with the agent connectivity with Microsoft applications or Microsoft Azure."
"I like working on the Azure platform."
"The most valuable feature is that it's a VMware environment."
"Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows's most useful features is the ease of use and user-friendly."
 

Cons

"Technical support could be improved."
"I want to see better compression than what it currently does."
"I would like to see the operations center be a lot more functional. It was nowhere near as functional as the admin center, and I'm doing a lot of command line with it."
"For the database side, it does not have object level recovery."
"This solution does not have good support for virtualization and a hyper-converged environment."
"This solution is not mature in terms of disaster recovery and could be improved."
"The administration tools for GI need improvement, as the current assessment suggests shortcomings in the back-end system."
"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 support could be improved a lot, as it is currently non-existent."
"We can't use tape for primary storage on Veeam."
"I can't think of anything that may be missing."
"If you are doing an AIX backup then you have to use the CLI because it doesn't appear on the console, the way that Windows and Linux jobs do."
"I would like to see the capability for remote installation of third party applications added( Like installing WinRar MS Office etc..) , and Firewall for servers."
"Interface could possibly be improved."
"The solution could use some updates to minor details omitted from current reporting."
"A feature I would like to see is universal restore. At the moment, restoration can only be smooth on the same hardware. Let's say you have a server and you back it up with Veeam Agent, in case it fails or crashes. If you later buy a new server because the same one isn't available on the market anymore, there's a high chance that Windows will not boot up if you restore from the Veeam backup because the hardware is now different. Acronis has the universal restore feature, so it will work with generic drivers and you can restore Windows in any dissimilar hardware. As far as I know, Veeam doesn't have this feature yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"The product is low cost. It is very cool when we design it to using licensing based on post capacity."
"IBM Spectrum Protect has a fixed price and includes no additional costs."
"It's very complicated. Licensing is a pain."
"Spectrum Protect is not expensive, and it is simple to use."
"The licensing fees are on a yearly basis, which for us it is about R400,000 (approximately $27,000 USD)."
"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."
"The product is not cheap."
"We are on an annual license to use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows. There are not any additional fees to use the solution."
"The solution is free of cost for end users but for enterprise use, a license per user is required."
"We have a license package."
"The cost for its licenses is reasonable and as per industry standards."
"We have the Community Edition and I believe we bought a license for 200 instances. Veeam Agent is mainly used for our branch offices. Those only have one or two Hyper-V servers, so it's covered with the Community Edition. Basically, it's free. I remember Veeam 7.0 or 8.0 wasn't free, but the Community Edition is."
"The pricing is good."
"We have an annual license."
"For the licensing of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, the customer can choose to pay monthly or yearly. It's up to the customer."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Photography Company
22%
Performing Arts
19%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business53
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise95
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise10
 

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.
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 ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

IBM Spectrum Discover
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CEMEX
ContinuitySA, Landmark Information Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Veeam Software, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Commvault and others in Backup and Recovery. Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.