IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Reviews

Our primary use case for this solution is for backup and recovery.

The first advantage of using this solution is that it saves us money. Because with this product, we basically use this solution for data management or the backup management we are using. It reduces our multiple copies of data. If you do a daily backup on Spectrum Protect, you will get a longer retention feature.

I also like the speed of the duplication copy of the storage pool under IBM TSM libraries that this solution offers. You can make multiple copies of the same storage for and across multiple tape libraries, while in other solutions it's not easy to do.

Some of the features we find very valuable and use a lot are retention sets. There is a lot of content validation of the data that we use, and that is very helpful. Apart from this data retention technology, Spectrum Protect duplicates things which is useful.
We have an environment that is not only the raw file system, but the databases also. Different Exchange, SQL and all these kind of different applications are integrated with the Spectrum Protect. So it's a free functional kind of environment. Other features like centralization, data retention technologies, and retention sets are the very useful in our environment.

An area that needs improvement is data validation. We currently use another product that gives us immediate validation, information about when the last backup was, and no risk of corruption happening. TSM in IBM Spectrum is not mature so that you can validate on the spot.

There is no doubt that the solution is really stable. When I was working for IBM a few years ago, I have been involved in implementing it at a couple of places. Once implemented, you don't need to worry about it. Other solutions have to be updated regularly, but that is not the case here. 

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is fully scalable. Whenever I interact with a customer I tell him that this is not only a backup solution, it is a total data management solution where you get protection, data protection, plus archiving and many other things. This is quite a huge portfolio so I do believe it is a scalable product.

The technical support is very good. A customer can just raise a support ticket online and IBM will be available and check in to give support - either by getting in contact or by sending a solution email. When I used their technical support a while back, a technical engineer came back to me within a day. 

I worked with a net backup solution (EMC) at the previous organization where I worked. They offered specific benefits in terms of a user interface that was easy to use. They also have a very good graphical interface and users could easily perform tasks, do backups and do data retention. That was easy in those products.

At that time IBM Spectrum Protect was not that easy to use. It was only in 2014 that IBM Spectrum Protect mad their user interface easier and then this product became more popular. Today IBM Spectrum Protect is easier to use than other products. Other products are still at the same level of use as they were 7 or 8 years ago.

IBM Spectrum is also fully integrated with IBM products and that is why we went for the IBM Spectrum Protect. We liked that they were integrated with existing middle-ware and other products they are using. 

Five or six years ago it would have been complex. But now it's no trouble and not that much complex at all. It is user-friendly - from the interface point and from the intelligence point of view. So now it's not that much difficult.

I would recommend this solution for others who are looking at buying a data recovery and backup solution. But this product is not just for backup and recovery. This is far bigger than that. Backup and recovery is only one component of this product, as it also offers data to life-cycle management. I rate this a nine out of ten.

It is a new product coming out from IBM to compete mainly against Veeam and Backup Exec software. It is mostly for the virtual environment, which is either VMware or Hyper-V.  

Our starting customers have approximately 30 to 40 VM machines. This is our target per customer, which may grow in the future, but cost-wise, it should be less for them.

Mostly, in our region, they are implemented on-premise with a mix of disk or tape. Some of them are looking for cloud, and this product is fully integrated with all cloud vendors, like IBM Cloud or Amazon Cloud. Therefore, there is no problem if the customer would like to have type of of cloud backup to keep his data.

I would like more integration with security. We need to show the value of the product in regards to handling security. For example, how it handles current malware or viruses. IBM should be more proactive in this direction.

The solution's stability is high because it is derived from Spectrum Protect.

It is scalable. It starts from a small customer and grows with them as they develop and build up their business in the future.

Our company is managing small customer to large enterprise customers. This is because Spectrum Protect or Spectrum Protect Plus database can support very large enterprise customers with more than 4 billion objects. Thus, the solution is scalable and can be fitted for any customer.

We use them to support customer problems. The customer can open a ticket with a PMR with IBM for support. The customer can open it directly or we have our support line on GBM, so it will help the customer at a first stage or step before getting to IBM support. However, in a lot of cases, IBM is already supporting the customer, and the support is very good. The total fix time is recognized, and they can help our customers very well.

I sell the product, but we have client engagement with the customer during the project planning. This explains to the customer the scope of work and how much it will take. So, our implementation guy already creates this scope after discussing the customer requirements and understanding the customer infrastructure, or customer components, then they decide the scope of work. We have to execute the project plan to be ensure that the product is delivered and installed correctly.

If the customer is new, maybe the older version of Spectrum Protect was little bit complex because it did not have full gateway interface interaction. However, the newer version of Spectrum Protect is easier, and the customer is likely to see the gateway interface. It is much more user friendly.

The price offering from IBM is coming down because it is based on number of VM machines. So, IBM is coming to the market to show the added value of the product. The product can be extended again on for a short-term retention on disk if you are going only on a virtual environment, only on VM base licensing. However, if you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive.

Our customers do evaluate other vendors, especially Commvault. We also cannot ignore Veritas and EMC NetWorker Solutions. These solutions sometimes evaluate our base on pricing or function. It depends on the customer situation. It is different from customer to customer, as it is a bit difficult to change the backup software on the customer side. This is because it requires a lot of migration.

We use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for our customers, specifically for backups.

What I like about IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its integration, plus it has very good technical support.

Rooms for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are installation and configuration because those were difficult. They should try their best to improve those areas.

In the next release of the product, better implementation and administration are what we're expecting.

I've been working with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for two to three years now.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a stable product.

The technical support for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is very good.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a product that's difficult to install.

Four to six customers use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

My company doesn't have plans of increasing the usage of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

My advice to people looking into implementing the product is to check the prerequisites and manuals and ask for assistance from technical support before implementing IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

My rating for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is seven out of ten.

My company is a partner of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.