IBM has been recognized as a storage software Leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions¹. In its Magic Quadrants', Gartner analysts evaluate technology and solutions with an 'Ability to Execute' and a 'Completeness of Vision'.

"IBM believes its leadership in data storage backup and recovery is anchored by our scalable and flexible platform on which we continuous widen and build innovation," said Ed Walsh, general manager, IBM Storage and Software Defined Infrastructure. "IBM Spectrum Protect continues to evolve with our clients' needs to reduce the data footprint with incremental forever backups and deduplication, support more storage types including hybrid clouds and automate data governance across the organization. Modern backup is more than insurance against loss. We feel our constant position as a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant clearly shows IBM's strong position in the Data Center Backup and Recovery market."

According to Gartner, "Leaders have the highest combined measures of Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. They have the most comprehensive and scalable product portfolios. They have a proven track record of established market presence and financial performance. For vision, they are perceived in the industry as thought leaders, and have well-articulated plans for enhancing recovery capabilities, improving ease of deployment and administration, and increasing their scalability and product breadth. A fundamental sea change is occurring in the backup and recovery market. For vendors to have long-term success, they must plan to address the legacy requirements of traditional backup and recovery, while looking to expand their integration with and exploitation of emerging applications, hypervisors, snapshot and replication technologies, and public cloud capabilities. A cornerstone for Leaders is the ability to articulate how new requirements will be addressed as part of their vision for recovery management. As a group, Leaders can be expected to be considered part of most new purchase proposals and to have high success rates in winning new business. This does not mean, however, that a large market share alone is a primary indicator of a Leader. Leaders are strategic vendors, well-positioned for the future, having established success in meeting the needs of upper midsize and large data centers."

1. Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Software by Dave Russell, Pushan Rinnen, Robert Rhame, published: 31 July 2017 ID: G00311191.