IBM Storage Protect vs. Cove Data Protection

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.

Incentivized

Solarwinds Backup is ideal for individuals looking to keep a consistent backup of devices in their environment. We used it primarily for networking equipment. It is easy to set up, as it is one of the steps available when adding a new device to solarwinds. It is probably not an ideal product to use for long-term (1 month+) backups.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Daily backups are easy to create and activate and run on schedule as desired by the client.
• Easy SQL backups no matter your SQL favor, it's just a few clicks to back them up.
• Very good system state backups that several of our older clients have used (out of necessity) to recover systems and data from dead machines.

Incentivized

• 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

• To perform restores on a different location, there's a need to install a standalone application call the Recovery Console, which makes it too much trouble. Instead, this should have been performed over the same backup management portal, where you should have been able to select in which location you want to restore.
• The business continuity features, available for the system state backups, like restoring a backup as a virtual machine or performing a bare-metal restore, also require to install different standalone applications for each. And in disaster scenarios, both tasks take too much time to get everything running.
• The retention of the backups (the archiving feature) needs to be set up individually for each server at a time, when this is something that should be more easily managed by the service provider (not expecting to be set up by the customer in each device) as a general setting within the Backups Profiles or Product Management.
• There should be a better reporting tool, that would allow to export backup and restore events, as well as user activities.
• The configurations for Backup Profiles and Product Management could be redundant and confusing.

Incentivized

Not required, company closed. TSM is not used in my current role at my current job.

Incentivized

It is suitable for a huge part of our organisation, supports many operating systems (including Windows, Linux and IBM AIX), supports many databases - also for online backups (like Oracle, Db2 and SAP HANA), has an Operational Center for control, command-line and GUI for backup/restore. It just works well, once setup correctly.

Incentivized

Cove Data Protection is very usable as it's easy to tell that it is made to not only do backup very well, but it's also easy to deploy. The agent-based deployment allows for flexible deployment options while ensuring a minimal amount of manual work is needed on the dashboard end. Recovery is also very easy, especially as it relates to one-off file recovery

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.

Incentivized

We have an Italian support partner, they are been very good b7y the first moment.

All the partners are followed with a lot of attention, even the little ones.

there is a site where you can learn everything, the single parts of the product are described perfectly.

Every it specialist should evaluate it.

Incentivized

We have been using TSM (former ADSM), rebranded Spectrum Protect and now rebranded Storage Protect a long time already. The product served us well. Last time we compared it to competitors we found they all had something lacking. And switching backup suites is no small task if there is data you need to keep 5, 7 or 10 years anyway. Commvault gets close, but doesn't match all features.

Incentivized

Solarwinds Backup provides the most comprehensive backup system. After testing all other systems the weaknesses of Solarwinds Backup are much less severe or risky compared to others. As well the overall cost of Solarwinds Backup's value is the main reason for choosing Solarwinds Backup as the primary backup/DR provider.

Incentivized

• It can be used as a disaster recovery solution when you have the right configuration (either replication or tape copies in a safe location). This way it can be a lifesaver for any company.
• It can bring back the information you need if you are hit by ransomeware.
• It is also needed if you are accounting for user error, sometimes people delete the files they need by accident and without a backup solution they are out of luck

Incentivized

• I can't speak to every dollar and cent involved, but I can tell you that the daily task of checking backup status has changed from at least an hour just to check VEEAM and Windows Backup statuses for multiple clients, to checking two pages and then digging into any problems. So as far as productivity goes, it's been wonderful!

Incentivized