IBM Storage Protect vs. IDERA SQL Safe Backup

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Storage Protect
Score 7.4 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
IDERA SQL Safe Backup
Score 5.3 out of 10
N/A
SQL Safe Backup from Houston based software company Idera is a data recovery and protection option.
$1,036
per instance with first year maintenance included
Pricing
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard via eCommerce
1,036.00
per instance with first year maintenance included
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Features
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
IBM Storage Protect
7.9
Ratings
7% below category average
IDERA SQL Safe Backup
8.7
Ratings
2% above category average
Universal recovery8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant recovery8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Recovery verification8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Business application protection8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Incremental backup identification8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Backup to the cloud8.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Snapshots8.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Flexible deployment8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Management dashboard7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Platform support7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Retention options7.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Encryption9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
User Ratings
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
4.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Storage ProtectIDERA SQL Safe Backup
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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It may be cheap but the system stuck in the 90's, the UI\UX are not as you will expected. The alerts are not provide reliable evidence and human supervision is needed constantly. The system not knowing how to backup automatically the secondary server in the availability group, you need to configure that explicitly.
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Pros
  • 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.
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  • History visibility
  • Very intuitive
  • Easy to set up
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Cons
  • 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
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  • When you're adding a new SQL server, sometimes the install from the management server to the SQL server will fail. I'm guessing this happens because of some version difference in Windows components or similar. Not a huge deal because you can just copy the agent to the SQL server and install it there, but considering how easy everything else is, I would expect this to be a little more fluid.
  • I ran into a situation where part of our business decided to move their servers to a third-party data center. When they took away a SQL server that I was managing with SQL Safe, anything having to do with that policy took forever. Click. Wait 10 minutes. Window reacts. I'm guessing this is because the Management Console is trying super hard to contact the server in question, but I wish it handled losing a server better than it does.
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Likelihood to Renew
Not required, company closed. TSM is not used in my current role at my current job.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
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SQL Safe is the first managed backup solution I've used. Before SQL Safe I used SQL's native backup mechanism and scheduling. And as an extension of that I used Ola Hallengren's SQL Server Maintenance Solution (which is a set of scripts that take amazing advantage of SQL's native capabilities). However whenever changes were needed (moving backups to new storage, adding/removing a server), it just took a long time because I had to touch each server. With SQL Safe, I can seriously change the backup location of every server I have by changing one policy setting. Likewise, I can quickly add or remove a server from being backed up with a few simple clicks.
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Return on Investment
  • 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
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  • SQL Safe allows me to spend less time managing my DR plan and still maintain confidence that my backups and restores are solid. Saving my time means saving money.
  • SQL Safe does an amazing job at backup compression over and above SQL's native compression. SQL backups are probably our single largest consumer of network drive space. Any product that helps reduce my network footprint, saves money.
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ScreenShots

IDERA SQL Safe Backup Screenshots

Screenshot of SQL Safe Backup