IBM Storage Protect vs. BDRSuite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Storage Protect
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
IBM Storage Protect (formerly IBM Spectrum Protect, or Tivoli Storage Manager) provides data resilience for physical file servers, virtual environments, and applications. Organizations can scale up to manage billions of objects per backup server.N/A
BDRSuite
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Vembu BDR Suite is a universal backup solution catering to the backup, recovery, and disaster recovery needs of diverse IT environments. It is also optimized for service providers who deliver BaaS and DRaaS to their customers.
$12
per year per user
Pricing
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Endpoint / Workstation Backup
$12
per year per endpoint
SaaS Backup
$12
per year per user
VMs, Servers & Cloud Backup
$48
per year per VM
Apps & DB Backup
$72
per year Apps
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
IBM Storage Protect
1.8
4 Ratings
127% below category average
BDRSuite
8.2
60 Ratings
1% above category average
Universal recovery3.02 Ratings8.349 Ratings
Instant recovery3.04 Ratings7.950 Ratings
Recovery verification2.02 Ratings9.351 Ratings
Business application protection1.02 Ratings7.442 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations2.03 Ratings7.942 Ratings
Incremental backup identification2.03 Ratings8.357 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression2.03 Ratings8.747 Ratings
Snapshots2.01 Ratings7.944 Ratings
Management dashboard1.03 Ratings7.258 Ratings
Platform support1.04 Ratings8.558 Ratings
Retention options1.04 Ratings8.456 Ratings
Encryption1.03 Ratings8.650 Ratings
Backup to the cloud00 Ratings8.635 Ratings
Flexible deployment00 Ratings7.453 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Small Businesses
Veeam Data Platform
Veeam Data Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Veeam Data Platform
Veeam Data Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Likelihood to Recommend
3.6
(10 ratings)
8.9
(62 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(1 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(3 ratings)
8.6
(60 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(5 ratings)
7.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Storage ProtectBDRSuite
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
Tivoli does well running file-level backups, but Exchange is clunky and restores are really hard. With no SharePoint agent, if you use SharePoint you will need another product like AvePoint DocAve. The web-based GUI console is MUCH improved over earlier versions, but you will still need to be a command-line guru to make Tivoli do everything, and local (node) config files still rule. This product was originally ported from Unix and retains may of its 'nix roots.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
First of all Web UI makes it so much easier to manage, with few clicks you can schedule a backup, you can see the progress and you can instantly recover it. There is a multiple environment support which is great for hybrid environments. Pricing is more reasonable than other high priced backup solutions
Read full review
Pros
IBM
  • Tight integration with Db2. As an IBM product, it works seamlessly with Db2. You can query what is stored in TSM via Db2 itself. You can also use DB scripts to maintain the items being stored there.
  • Like most of its competitors, Tivoli handles deduplication well.
  • Provides a GUI for browsing and maintaining items stored there. I rarely use this feature, due to the next item I will post:
  • Command-line interface directly from my Db2 database servers.
  • Both client and server-side deduplication, compression and encryption are available.
  • If the requirements are zLinux and DB2 support then it's the most solid solution.
  • Can be complex to implement, but once up and running, it is rock-solid and immensely scalable.
  • Scalability is huge. Can be added onto easily.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
  • Seed an offsite backup. A simple checkbox to seed a large backup prior to backing it up to our datacenter. Previously with another well knows backup provider this was convoluted and time-consuming.
  • Backup Speed. Vembu BDR is fast and allows me to schedule multiple jobs within time constraints that prohibit some backup products from working.
  • DR - Vembu BDR provides an option to mirror your backups to an offsite datacenter without taxing production servers with a secondary backup job.
  • Bare Metal Recovery: the ability to create a custom bootable ISO that you can quickly recover a failed physical server or workstation.
  • Ease of use: The console is consistent and very easy to use. From initial install to being fully configured takes just a few minutes.
Read full review
Cons
IBM
  • Deployment and configuration is not easy for an unexperienced IBM Spectrum Protect administrator
  • Operations center uses a lot of data and needs a lot of storage for larger environments
  • Have not seen a redbook about it in the past 10 years
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
  • User interface on the servers do not have enough tools to better monitor the systems and finding information is difficult.
  • User interface at portal is difficult to navigate and confusing
  • Support documentation is too generic and rarely answers my questions.
  • Licensing and acquisition. As a reseller and partner the licensing model is confusing and the portal interface to manage licensing should be scrapped and rebuilt. It is difficult to navigate and the available information is too vague.
  • Recently, communication with new channel contact. My previous contact was articulate and answered my questions.
  • Did I mention licensing? This is the most confusing and difficult process I've dealt with in 25 years. Makes Microsoft look simple.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
IBM
Not required, company closed. TSM is not used in my current role at my current job.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
Because of the product functions and possibilities: - it's easy to use through WEB browser - installation process is not complicated - Vembu BDR solution is reliable, and works properly. It does the job. This product could get extra points for the appliance that could be imported to virtual environment (no need for windows server license or some linux knowledge).
Read full review
Usability
IBM
In the present, a backup solution is a must-have, but then companies start using a solution for virtual machines, another solution for bare-metal servers, and another solution for their ERP. By using Spectrum Protect you can have all of that in a single pane of glass. This way you can have a simple recovery plan for all your information assets.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
As outlined in are parts of this review, I have various issues with the way their KB center is structured and how error codes aren't documented or KBs for a specific error provide steps for older versions of the software and aren't applicable to the current version because of a design layout change. "Go here and select Y" where the "here" has been removed and doesn't exist anymore. Or they release a new version without any supporting documentation even though they restructured a lot of the interface and updated the error messages.
Read full review
Support Rating
IBM
The few times we've called for support we eventually got an answer, but it's IBM and a very big company and getting to a support agent is hard.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
It often takes a very long time to get an issue fixed. the support folks seem committed to getting it fixed but they often seem to be trying different things and hoping something works. I did not get the sense that they had a clear idea what was wrong.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
IBM
No answers on this topic
Vembu Technologies
It wasn't difficult at all, it fact, it was mostly simple, implementation doesn't require much skills and knowledge, but the configuration part does require some skills to create the jobs and configure certain settings, overall, its an easy implementation, especially for experienced IT People
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM Spectrum Protect is related to the other IBM Spectrum products listed because it is part of the suite and is also the main backup product for backup and restoration of information. With Veeam it is related as they present competence in different lines of technology, often the integration of both tools can be the best solution for clients looking for a successful backup strategy.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
I tested Vembu against Veeam and for the price, Vembu was the better option. I also had a great support experience as I had to contact Vembu twice after mistakes I made. While using Veeam the software was not as intuitive and support responses were not as swift and accurate.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
IBM
Not at the moment, but it can leverage the billing outcomes as per the scales.
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
IBM
  • Simple, care free backups, especially if you do not use tapes and do not have to manage those.
  • Very fast restores as the libraries have everything available online.
  • Ease of locating the necessary data to restore
Read full review
Vembu Technologies
  • For organizations that use different tools for Backup and recovery, this could be the single tool for Storage and Backup Administrators to automate and work effectively.
  • Software cost is lesser thus the money can be invested for other tools/software procurement
  • I don't think there is any negative impact as of now
Read full review
ScreenShots

BDRSuite Screenshots

Screenshot of EncryptionScreenshot of SchedulingScreenshot of vm selectionScreenshot of RetentionScreenshot of Multiple Recovery