IBM Spectrum Protect Reviews

We use IBM Spectrum Protect with another product from IBM called IBM ESS. IBM ESS allows us to open up multiple screens of the backup box or the soapbox when doing backups or restores. 

The feature that I have found the most valuable is that IBM Spectrum Protect is highly integrated with IBM ESS. In addition, it allows us to back up our virtual servers directly to take VM snapshots. It runs on Linux as well.

They can include more cloud-enriching features. I would like IBM Spectrum Protect to have the functionality for backing up a VM directly in Azure. I would like to back up a VM directly in Azure without spinning up a Hyper-V cluster and backing up the virtual server. 

I have been using this solution for over five years now.

It has always been stable. We never had any issues with it.

It is definitely scalable.

Their technical support has been excellent. You always get the support that you require.

I have worked with Veeam Backup and Replication, Backup Exec, NetBackup, and Commvault. We switched because we are an IBM partner, and we preferred IBM technology.

The initial setup was quite complex. 

It was set up by IBM. We have six backup administrators. We have two backup administrators internally in our company, and we have four external backup administrators.

It is fairly reasonable as compared to other solutions in the market.

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect an eight out of ten. It is very robust, stable, and easy to administer. The backup related to the cloud is the only challenge that we have with this product. We're happy with everything else. It is a good product.

There are various use cases. We have managed services, and we have customers on-prem or backing up to our TSM servers. There are different ways.

I work with various versions. I work for a service provider. We manage the service of various customers. So, we have from 8.1.9 to 8.1.14.

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.

They are behind on many things, especially security. They are catching up a little bit now, but the competitors are doing better security-wise. There should be malware detection and prevention and higher security.

The ease of use also needs improvement. There are many products that are easier to use than Spectrum Protect. It is quite complex to manage, and you need an experienced administrator to manage it, whereas other products are easier to get into. You can have somebody with less experience managing them.

I have been working with this solution for about 15 years.

It is very stable. Especially over the last five years or so, it has been extremely stable. I've had very few crashes or very few downtimes. They are almost nonexistent.

It is very scalable. It scales very high as well. It is an enterprise-class solution. It is one of the most scalable ones.

We have 10 to 15 customers who have their own TSM server and products, and then we have about 18 customers who back up to our servers.

It depends. The TSM server is pretty straightforward. Some other parts are pretty complex. The VMware solution is very complex, especially compared to competitors.

Deployment depends on the size and the customer requirements. If you want to set up a small company server, it takes one or two hours. If you have to set up a large enterprise with various wishes and custom demands, it can take days or maybe a week. For a basic customer with VMware, it is set up within a day with a few databases and a few things.

For deployment, one person is enough. A qualified and certified engineer has to do that because otherwise, we won't give the warranty. So, that person has to be a certified engineer.

We have customers who manage their own TSM servers, and we just come in to install it, or if there are any serious problems. We resell it as well as sell our managed services. They can back up to our servers. We have customers who have their own TSM servers, but we manage those for them. We manage the clients and servers. For some customers, we only manage servers, and they manage the clients.

We do A to Z for TSM basically. We are IBM's only business partner in our country. To our customers, we are basically IBM.

We are a managed service provider. Backup makes us money. So, the ROI is always there.

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. That comes with flexibility, and that's the price you pay when you want a solution that can do everything and not just a few things. It is not a simple solution. It is a complex solution, and that requires some management overhead. However, you can automate it pretty easily because it has a SQL interface. If you have a person who can script or knows SQL, you can automate a lot with it. It has a command line interface, and there is also an API. The command line is very much like Linux or Unix. It is really highly automatable.

Even though TSM is a great product, it is a great product for a classic backup solution and not for the future. It is a legacy solution. The newest product is IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, but we haven't adopted it. The legacy TSM server is great. It was the best product around, but now, it is not. For a new solution, it is not the best product. If I am looking to buy a new product, I would look elsewhere. I would look to the competition that is more modern and more up-to-date. 

I would rate it an 8 out of 10. It is still very good. It is good for what it can be used for, but if you need a more modern solution, it is not the perfect solution anymore.

We use this solution to monitor our backup tasks and to manage our backup. It also does retention on archives.

We use it for all of our backups.

It is easy to implement and restores very quickly.

It's very simple.

With the SPVE you can migrate from IBM to a different storage box. For example from IBM, you are going to Dell or NetApp. If you want to carry it over, you can.

You can do restores very quickly. You can mount a drive and restore it right from the drive.

Their plans need to be upgraded. It's a 1.0 and needs to be taken to a 1.4. Other solutions have more; Veeam for example, has 2.0, as well as Cohesity, and CommonVault.

When it comes to virtualization in IBM, it's not perfect.

We are going to switch from IBM to Veeam because Veeam is more accommodating to virtual environments. You can restore your Active Directory or your object to your group policy with Veeam.

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for three years.

We are using version 8.1.

It's very stable.

IBM Spectrum Protect is scalable. There are archives on the flash that goes into a queue, and when it's available, it goes into flash and retains it for seven days then into the normal storage.

We may require support or we may do it ourselves.

Technical support is good, they are responsive. Once you submit a ticket and depending on the level of priority from level one to level four, they will respond to the ticket with a day to the same day to resolve the issues.

The response time is normal. If you compare with Dell at the same priority level, it may take a day or two to get back to you.

I would rate technical support an eight out of ten.

The initial setup was straightforward. When you log in you can explore further. It will provide you with an explanation and how to do restores on the system. 

It will also let you know if you are backing up a C client or backing up a normal VM.

It's not complex. It's easy.

IMB does all of the updates.

We did no use an integrator or consultant. We completed the installation ourselves.

We are paying for support and maintenance on a monthly basis. It is approximately $124.00 USD per month for the entire company.

We are currently reviewing Veeam. After we have installed it, we will know more about it and some of the similarities.

TSM is moving to the cloud and will be much easier.

IBM Spectrum is coming out with a new version with the option of using Kubernetes, it's called IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

It's solid, it helps you protect the IDMS and helps you restore your VMware data and the types of data on your VM.

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect a seven out of ten.

We have two data centers, we have two Spectrum Protect servers, and we do cross replicating between them.

The main use case is AIX. Because AIX is an IBM product, they have their backup software for it, for SysBack and things of that nature that most other companies don't get into because there are not a lot of companies that use AIX. Bigger federal government companies use AIX  but AIX is a big one that always hampers us. That's why the business, over the last several years, we've been trying to encourage them to go into the VMware arena. We're using a lot of different products in VMware that are able to recover things very quickly, versus Spectrum Protect and AIX, you have to drop down the OS, then you have to restore the database, and then you have to roll the logs forward.

All of that takes time, whereas in VMware you can take snapshots, or you can use products like Zerto. We have Zerto in-house where we're doing asynchronous replication from our primary site to our DR site. Our VMware systems that are being protected by Zerto are seconds behind the production world. We're running anywhere from four seconds to 11 seconds behind, whereas in AIX, you have from that last backup. You may be eight hours behind. It's challenges like that, that we run into, that I'm always on the lookout for. I've been using Spectrum Protect since it was TSM for 17 years, but I'm not tied to it. There are other products out there that make your life a lot easier. As far as the data protection admin or business continuity, whatever you want to call the title they have out there, but those are challenges that we run into. And so that's where we're going, but it's just going to take some time to get there.

In the past, we've always been uploading our stuff to tape. We now have disc-based solutions, and those disc-based solutions, one of the neat features of them is when you use what they call TSM for VE, Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environment, you're able to crack those snapshots open and are able to do file-level recoveries out of them. It gives you the ability to get rid of some file-level backups that you're using and gives you the ability to get rid of some SQL data protection backups. 

Instead of taking three different backups of your systems, you're taking only one. You're able to crack that open and get what you need. The incident recovery, where it creates the VM and then you're running it, technically you're running it on Spectrum Protect. But then in the background, it's doing the storage motion and moving it off the Spectrum Protect back to your VMware environment. The users don't know the difference. 

Those are nice really features that we really use. And it's really been helpful since we've gone to an all disc-based solution.

Their support is lacking. I've talked to their developers and stuff in the last couple of weeks and they reassure me that some people have retired, and they're working on getting that bumped back up. But the support lacks a lot to be desired at this point.

Their backups are once a day, they're not doing asynchronous replication. They're doing a one time a night backup. So whereas products like Zerto, every time there's a change in a block, it's immediately written across. They're not doing replication instantaneous, they're doing it once a day. There is a lot to be desired there.

At the company that I'm at now, they've had it since 2004. I've been here since 2010. I used it at my prior company, and I've been using it for 17 years in total.

My impression currently is that stability is not very good. I'm constantly babysitting it. I'm working with IBM right now to do an assessment to hopefully pinpoint if our systems are truly undersized. And if they are, then that's not a reflection on the application. That's a reflection on us purchasing undersized equipment. If it's not, then that's a reflection on the application not performing correctly.

I'll give them a seven out of 10. They've got their niche. The two shops I've worked at have been big AIX shops, and that kept them in there.

It's definitely scalable. 

Support is retiring, they move on, and they just don't have the expertise. I've spoken to some duty managers and they've even told me that they lost a lot of people and that they are trying to rebuild that up, and it takes time. I understand it takes time, but as a customer, I don't have the luxury of saying, "Hey, I'm going to leave my system down for a couple of months because support's working on beefing back up."

I would rate the initial setup on the medium side. It's not totally complex, but there are a lot of moving parts to it. I would give it a medium.

I would say partner up with a business partner, someone who does it day in and day out because installing the application or the server is not something you do every day as a customer. As a customer, you do that once in a blue moon. A business partner is constantly doing these installations over and over so they've got it down fairly well.

I would say partner up with someone who can help you through it. Support's not going to do a whole lot with you as far as installing it. That's not really what they're there for. They're there to troubleshoot issues. A business partner's there to hold your hand and walk you through getting it installed and set up and running.

In the next release, I would like to see better protect storage pool and node replication.

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect as a whole a seven out of ten. 

It is performing very well. However, our customer feedback is the product is very complex, and mainly built for the enterprise customer. They will need to do some developments on the Spectrum Protect, especially on the Plus series. Maybe on Spectrum Protect, they can simplify it, so the admin can get more easily access the console, and generate jobs and alerts.

As a product, it is very nice. People love it, but the only issue is it requires a very unique/rare skill set. 

80% of the core business is running on-prem, and some of the applications which are add-on, go on the cloud. This is a mixture: 80% is on-premise, which is non-critical.

The problem with moving to the cloud is the government compliance agreements. The government says the data should not leave the country, or if the data is leaving Iran, it should be encrypted and no one else can read it. This is why Amazon is coming with their data center. Once it is live, all the Ministry's data should be part of Amazon and it should not go out. Those are the compliance issues with the Ministry.

We manage approximately 20 customers, except Saudi Arabia.

Especially for the banking and ministry sectors, they have core businesses running and they can't have a single bit of data corruption or data loss. This is a very important product for them, because it gives ease of access and the type of data consistency where they can rely on it and its safe on-hand. When there is a need or a disaster, they can get the information back from the archive. So, it is very much required.

The backup on real-time, especially for the virtual machine, archiving, and retrieving the reader from the backup repository and getting it online, getting it validated, then performing the data consistency check over the backup.

• I would like the users to have a better experience with the product.
• Easier recovery
• It needs better connectivity with other non-IBM application hardware and non-IBM platforms. If it can get connected with other applications, the customer would be happier because they would not need to stick to a single vendor, so they could have a backup on multiple environments.

It is very stable. It is meant for the enterprise customer's core business. I have never seen any customer talk about a system crash and not being able to retrieve their backup. 

It takes a lot of time to configure on the first setup. Once setup, you do not need to touch it again. You just need to do a formal check on possibly batch updates.

If you are attaching with IBM products, it is all compatible and very easy. Issues arise when you are working with non-IBM products. Then, you need to find all the APIs with the Spectrum Product. There are some issues with HPE and Dell, because these two do not support Spectrum Protect. You have to be on certain versions before they will support integrations.

Spectrum Protect will meet our customers needs as they grow, because as the data is growing they need to have a backup. We are talking about on-premise backup, we are not talking about cloud backup. We are discussing out of the country backup. There are tapes which are getting shipped out of the country with an encryption key. Spectrum Protect is playing a vital role, because they do the encryption. It is a very reliable, consistent, unhackable product. 

Technical support is okay, but their skills are limited.

Example: Our customer was not able to do certain activities. So it went from Level 1 to Level 2, then Level 3. Level 3 takes a longer time to bring up the batch or find a resolution. I think that is a part IBM could fix something. They should have a proper technical support team serving the customers and get issues resolved earlier.

The initial setup starts straightforward, but as soon as a customer opens the requirements for the backup because they are happy it, they will want to export their system, virtualized platform, or some applications on the databases. This is when it starts getting complex. Then you need to run multiple jobs, multiple consoles, and bring it all together. Of course, customers want to have a single console to connect all their different environments.

I would recommend IBM, but I am a business partner.

Other market competitors include EMC NetWorker, Veritas (Plus Edition), and Veeam (for virtualization).

Customers main criteria when selecting a vendor: presence in the market, and onsite and offsite support.

My primary use case is to back up our data to tape to outsource storage to protect us against any sort of cryptoware attack. We are using our DR recovery scenarios, basically for protection we are backing up to tape. We also back up the disk first. 

Our environment consists of two primary data centers with IBM storage in the thousands along with older and newer generations, and we have backed up everything to TS4500 already. We are still trying to move away from TS3500, but we are working on that. We have a mix of all sorts of databases and Exchange.

One of the recovery methods used to help troubleshoot all of our operations for contractors or the lower tiers, it meets that. Therefore, we are able to run it in an enterprise quite easily with one or two resources. All of the automatic tape deck functions are done well, too. We are able to connect two separate sites relatively easily without any problems. 

Once it is completed properly, it is low maintenance. Most of the functions do not require much deliberation. It is all the blueprints and technologies laid out, and it is straight forward.

The version that we had when I first started made it look really bad. We are talking about commands that should have run in two seconds, but instead took four to eight hours. Other components were sluggish. I noticed it as soon as our database improved. 

Because the database was slow, everything was very unresponsive. I did not know if I was doing anything wrong or if the system was not performing. With support, we were able to get up to a working version. 

Now, we are having issues with some of our underlying hardware. We require a lot of support, which has given us more scripts to get data out to the databases. In my 15 years experience of experience with backups, though not with Spectrum Protect, I could not get enough data out of the system to figure out what is going on. 

It is very scalable for my need, especially when you can just buy the hardware attachment. It is very fluid. To increase, as long as all the performance issues are taken into account, you can add as much you want. You can really scale it up in a lot of areas. The only issue I have with scalability is for the small offsite locations. You have about 50 different companies and you would never consider using Spectrum Protect in them. 

Our primary use centers are using Spectrum Protect instances. We run two Spectrum Protect instances.

We have spec'd out our build, and the cost of it can work quite easily today for our future needs.

I find the Level 1 and Level 2 support spend 80% of the time communicating the same information that I have already provided. 20% of those leads get a resolution. 

Because of our current case, I have had to open multiple cases and had some stagnant delays when answers did not fit the problem we had. It is normal in the industry to have to reach out to our customer rep to get proper support. 

It is not just for the IBM product, but it is on par at the top tier level. We receive the proper amount of attention once the proper communications are opened up with sales. On the lower tiers, I'm reasonably better off without creating communication with support.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

We used a third-party provider to set up the solution. The only problem is the speed of picking it up. There have been some sizing issues now, and we are dealing with those. Afterwards, we can move it forward.

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.

I do not know who they evaluated.

I would not recommend Spectrum Protect at this point.

It serves a diverse range of use cases, catering primarily to enterprise users with multifaceted workloads. This encompasses the backup and recovery needs of various data types, including workloads, databases, file services, and specific applications.

Incremental backup is highly valuable as it allows for significant time and cost savings. By only backing up changed or new data, there is a reduced need for extensive storage space on the backup server. This efficiency contributes to both time and cost-effectiveness in data protection practices.

Enhancements are required for backing up our virtual environment.

I have been working with it for more than twenty years.

I would rate its stability capabilities ten out of ten. Technical instability in many cases arises from hardware or the operating system. For instance, using Spectrum Protect on a Windows platform tends to be more unstable compared to deploying it on AIX or any Linux platform.

The scalability of the system is exceptionally high, making it suitable for deployment in any enterprise environment. It can be utilized in a multi-site and multi-instance setup, with no inherent limitations. In the present project, we manage a user base of twenty-five thousand individuals and the company operates globally around the clock. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Currently, I would rate the satisfaction level at around eight out of ten. Generally, I am content because as an experienced user, I can pose pertinent questions and provide the specific information needed, ensuring effective communication with support.

Positive

I've occasionally utilized different products, such as the one formerly known as Tivoli Storage Manager. In smaller environments, I've worked with solutions like AXA for NETGEAR and some other alternatives. However, for enterprise-level environments, my primary choice has consistently been IBM Spectrum Protect.

The initial setup is straightforward for simple environments, but in the majority of cases where environments are more complex, it becomes challenging. While beginners can use it, configuring it optimally demands familiarity with the product and a comprehensive understanding of its various options. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it around seven or eight.

Deployment time can vary, it could take a day or a few days, contingent on the complexity. The process involves installing and configuring hardware, setting up the operating system, managing dependencies to Spectrum Protect, and then installing and configuring the Spectrum Protect service. The most challenging part is gathering all the necessary information for deployment, such as requirements from application teams and network details. Once you have all the needed information, the deployment becomes relatively straightforward. Around ten individuals are required for maintenance.

Without experiencing a disaster, the need for backup may not be apparent, resulting in no return on investment. However, in the event of a restore or recovery requirement, the return on investment can be as high as one hundred percent. On average, I would estimate it to be around seventy to eighty percent.

It can be perceived as expensive since it is designed for enterprise use. If your company doesn't fall into the enterprise category, the costs may be prohibitive. However, the expense varies based on the license model offered by IBM. For instance, if you opt for a CPU-based license model, the costs rise with each additional client. On the other hand, if you choose a license model based on the volume of backup data, the cost increase is not as significant as with the CPU-based model. I would rate it nine out of ten.

I evaluated Time Navigator and NetBackup.

Making a decision on Spectrum Protect should be a thoughtful process, considering factors such as cost, prerequisites, and alignment with your specific needs. It makes sense to carefully evaluate whether the investment aligns with your organization's priorities before deciding to purchase it. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

IBM Spectrum Protect server runs on Linux and collects the backups from the clients. Either direct clients, backup archive clients, or through a proxy in the case of VM, which is TDA.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the centralized enterprise backup.

The solution could be more user-friendly and provide better monitoring. The monitoring should be improved first since it is a higher priority.

I have been using IBM Spectrum Protect for approximately 30 years.

IBM Spectrum Protect is stable.

I have found IBM Spectrum Protect to be highly scalable, it can scale up to 1,000.

I was in the IBM Spectrum Protect support myself and it is high quality.

The installation could be improved, it takes a lot of effort.

The pricing model of this solution is another difficult area, it's very sophisticated in the way they charge. It's based on PBU, which is a type of processor, how, many processors, and you need to put everything into an equation. However, they have different ways of charging or licensing. One way is a back-end volume or front-end volume, which is quite complicated.

I have evaluated Veeam.

IBM Spectrum Protect is very good for high volume enterprise costs. If you are a small to medium-sized business I would choose a cheaper and more straightforward solution, such as Veeam.

I would rate IBM Spectrum Protect approximately a six out of ten for small to medium businesses but for enterprise companies, I would rate it a ten out of ten.

When combining all factors, I rate IBM Spectrum Protect an eight out of ten.