IBM Spectrum Scale vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Why PeerSpot?

IBM and NetApp are both solutions in the Cloud Software Defined Storage category. IBM is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while NetApp is ranked #2 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Scale and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Software Defined Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Scale vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

October 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Everpure FlashArray

Featured Reviews

Cristian Ion

Senior Information Technology Engineer at Eta2u

All-flash storage has unified my clients’ workloads and has reduced TCO through efficient data services

The pricing and licensing of Everpure FlashArray is a problem because Everpure is considered more expensive than competitors. IBM, Lenovo, and Dell are more aggressive on prices. It is a very complicated market, especially now, and I understand the prices are higher at Everpure because of the software and all the enhancements it has. However, in this competitive market, we have a big problem selling to customers that are on a tight budget. A product with better pricing would be a win in the end. The RC or C20, for example, was a very good product that I could sell more easily than other options. Everpure FlashArray//C is sufficient for most workloads and virtualization workloads if you do not have very large databases. A product like that helps, and perhaps a new product in the future that is a little cheaper than the current options would be a possibility to gain more market share. I see the return on investment clearly from using Everpure FlashArray, but the challenge is selling it to customers for the first time. There are many customers who fall in the sweet spot where they are too small for an X or even a C model. They need something a little cheaper, they have the money for a cheaper version, and they need the performance of a Pure system. These customers could be more easily approached if Everpure offers a version of a local device in the future that is even cheaper than the C-class. I am trying now to help customers understand the concept behind AG1. I know that AG1 is not profitable if capacity is less than 50 terabytes. However, some customers would be very willing to pay for 25 terabytes in a cloud operated by Pure and to have it accessible with very good speed. We will see what the future brings.

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Sachin Prakash

Assistant Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Has optimized performance using cluster deployment and distributed file access but needs better visibility into network dependencies

IBM Spectrum Scale being software-based storage allows users to utilize any hardware supported or defined by IBM without dependency on physical hardware provided by IBM. This is one of the features I appreciate most because if you have existing infrastructure at your site but don't want to reinvest in hardware, you can purchase IBM Spectrum Scale software and deploy it as software-defined storage. Users can comfortably access data from their host to the storage host without relying on new network setup when deploying GPFS as it uses the existing corporate network. However, high-speed ethernet network is required. By adding switches to the same network where client hosts reside and deploying GPFS storage array, any file system created on the storage cluster can grant export permissions determining which hosts can access specific file systems. These hosts can directly mount them as remote file systems. The process is simpler compared to defining IQN for providing access to client hosts. Creating a cluster for clients with virtual machines or physical Linux/Windows machines requires installing GPFS services on client nodes, which creates a client cluster. Access is defined on the storage cluster for the particular client cluster, allowing all hosts in that client cluster to mount file systems with granted permissions.

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reviewer5948293

Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Offers performance control and cloud integration while supporting data management with granular flexibility

The scalability of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is interesting. We have thought about it, but we haven't used it. I think the scalability is something you scale up rather than respond to peak demand. It wouldn't help with outages either; the scaling is manual, and there are no processes we've used to automate that for unexpected scenarios. We like the scalability; it's enough for what we're planning to use, but we haven't used any advanced features. The standard platform is NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which is their cloud service. In fact, that's probably the most experience I have with NetApp. I've experienced it on-premise, but kind of secondhand.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The pricing of Pure Storage is all-inclusive; it is very fair, very easy, and the solution is a lot easier to install than the Dell EMC product."

"The most valuable feature is replication."

"One could tell, the minute we switched to this program, everything ran a lot faster."

"Everpure FlashArray is very user-friendly, easy to learn, and makes it easy to identify issues while providing more redundancy on both the controller and host sides."

"It benefits our IT organization in the way that it's easier for the administrators to manage."

"I cannot imagine my workflow without Everpure FlashArray because I do not have any other type of storage in use."

"I would recommend Pure Storage, as it is well-established."

"It is very easy to use."

More Everpure FlashArray pros

"Over the past five or ten years, IBM has developed this solution and it has improved a lot."

"It is incredibly scalable; you can add more storage to it, add more file sets, and add it to more servers, making it a robust product that should be able to expand with us."

"We use GPFS Scale for parallel file access, the file management, and it's an essential part of our operations."

"We tested a complete site loss with the initial loss of the complete data center and the system was always up."

"IBM Spectrum Scale being software-based storage allows users to utilize any hardware supported or defined by IBM without dependency on physical hardware provided by IBM."

"The profile share is a valuable feature."

"It is a scalable solution."

"We can have multiple systems within the same file system."

More IBM Spectrum Scale pros

"The solution's high-availability features are cost-effective for us because we are able to use the cloud benefits to reduce the cost of DR."

"One of the features our customers like is that it can be used from one cloud provider to another. They can use it from Azure to AWS or vice versa. That way, they don't need to use the same provider for backups. If something goes wrong on the primary site, having the same data in another cloud service provider is important."

"Its features help us to have a backup of our volumes using the native technology of NetApp ONTAP, so we do not have to invest in other solutions for our backup requirement, and it also helps us to replicate the data to another geographic location, which saves us on the costs of backup products and gives us flexible storage."

"The ease of use in terms of how the product works is valuable. We are able to work with it and deploy the storage that we need."

"It is a good system; it is very stable as far as what I've been using with it, and I find that support from it is really good as well."

"CVO provides all the functionality any customer would need on cloud; it's a single solution that covers everything."

"Replication to the cloud is the most valuable feature. Deduplication and compression are also very important to us. We are in the process of adopting to the cloud. We are going to AWS and we are trying to do a safety technician call out with integration to the cloud. NetApp allows us to move some of the volume to the cloud, at the same time that we continue providing the cloud services that we have on premises."

"If your organization is looking for cost savings, NetApp is the way to go."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"Some of the issues are that it's probably not on a par with other large storage enterprise type products."

"Pure Storage's logs could provide more visibility to the end-user. The logging algorithms are different from those of other vendors. For example, Cisco's logs provide extensive troubleshooting data, whereas Pure Storage logs offer limited information. We have to contact support to get more information."

"I would like to see the NAS add-on component become more fault-tolerant than just a single virtual machine running inside the array. I'm unwilling to use it for that reason."

"I'd like to see a move towards individual VMs for what the performance of each VM is in a VD infrastructure. I can see the overall volume, but I would love to see things in a more granular level on the VM side."

"If I need to change or troubleshoot the dashboard, I cannot do it without calling support. If I want to move something critical, I cannot do it by myself. The dashboard blocks me from changing those critical things."

"For scalability, I rate it a six out of ten. We reach a limit. We never reached this limit, however, the architecture allows you to go until a certain size, and after that, you have to buy another array."

"In some cases, we get into very in-depth conversations around the movement of specific data and, what's more, chunk sizes. The documentation lacked any description or information on that."

"If they could make it cheaper, that would be something."

More Everpure FlashArray cons

"The biggest problem is that it is not able to provide block storage."

"This is probably the biggest challenge, getting everything upgraded, because it just takes time. We wish it was a faster solution to be able to do everything at once, but you have do each node individually. The more nodes, the longer it takes."

"Initially, stability was a concern as we encountered numerous issues and errors."

"Integration with other vendors is not available. This feature would be very helpful."

"I wish there were some graphical user interface to access the GPFS file system creation and monitoring."

"We do not feel as a company that the product can grow with us anymore, so we are not going to use it anymore."

"It would be helpful if there was a graphical user interface that could walk you through the deployment process. The instructions surrounding setup aren't the best. They need to be more step-by-step."

"There is room for improvement in the web interface. There could be more information available, such as charts and graphs to monitor performance."

More IBM Spectrum Scale cons

"Me gustaría verlos mejorar la perspectiva de inicio y búsqueda en los paneles. Esto permitiría una mejor visualización de los contenidos que se capturan en la herramienta."

"The solution is not stable when using single nodes. This is a problem. NetApp should work on this solution to make it more stable with HA nodes and resolve this issue."

"When it comes to support provided by NetApp, they have room for improvement. Every time we go through their support, we end up answering the same routine questions."

"If they could include clustering together multiple physical Cloud Volumes ONTAP devices as an option, that could be helpful."

"I would like to see more information about Cloud Volumes ONTAP using Google Cloud Platform on NetApp's website."

"From what I've seen with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the delivered performance doesn't match the performance that I select; it's about half."

"It does not have tutorials in languages such as French, German, Spanish."

"The support is good in general but the initial, front-line support could be improved. Because I have already been using the product for so long, when I call support I would rather talk to somebody who is a little bit more advanced or senior, rather than talking to the first-level support. Usually, it takes some time to reach out to their senior support."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When I last looked, the prices were reasonable, and we could get an excellent array for about $60,000."

"Pricing is moderate. It is neither cheap nor expensive."

"It could always be lower, but it's okay."

"Price is about the only thing that's wrong with it. A little bit better pricing would be great."

"Cost-wise, I imagine that the product's price would probably give you a nosebleed if you were a younger company."

"Pure Storage FlashArray's pricing is very competitive."

"The price of the solution can be a bit expensive. There is an additional fee for support."

"Our Evergreen Storage subscription is supposed to be good when we go to upgrade."

More Everpure FlashArray pricing and cost advice

"The licensing is based on the number of terabytes."

"The licensing model is complex and depends on factors such as the number of processing cores and the amount of storage."

"The solution is costly but reliable."

"For NetApp it's about $20,000 for a single node and $30,000 for the HA."

"They give us a good price for CVO licenses. It is one of the reasons that we went with the product."

"For enterprise customers, it's a very cost effective. But in the SMB segment, yeah, pricing is a little bit challenge for your time."

"Cloud is cloud. It's still expensive. Any good solution comes with a price tag. That's where we are looking to see how well we can manage our data in the cloud by trying to optimize the costs."

"Our licensing is based on a yearly subscription. That is an additional cost, but because of the storage efficiencies that the NetApp gives, even with the additional cost of the NetApp license, you still end up saving money versus straight Azure native for storage. It's definitely worth it."

"The standard pricing is online. Pricing depends. If you're using the PayGo model, then it's just the normal costs on the Microsoft page. If you're using Bring Your Own License, which is what we're doing, then you get with your sales contact at NetApp and start figuring out what price is the best, in the end, for your company."

"They allow a special price if you are working closely with them. Since we have a lot of NetApp systems, we got some kind of discount. That's something they do for other customers, not just for us. The price was fair. In addition to the licensing fees, you're paying Amazon for your usage..."

"Compared to other storage vendors, NetApp, is not always able to compete with their pricing. Yet, we acknowledge the ease of use ONTAP brings with the AWS integration."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	75
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	162

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	53

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?

Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?

When comparing cost, I find that the cost is either the same or slightly higher, but that is returned by the ease of ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?

The only thing I think could be improved is price. The price is the main concern for our customers.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Scale?

IBM Spectrum Scale functions as software-based storage, allowing users to utilize any hardware supported or defined b...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Scale?

The system relies heavily on ethernet networking, and when issues occur, we must consult with the network team to inv...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Scale?

My personal use of this product is for parallel writing or reading files.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is actually quite reasonable in price compared to other native cloud storage options. For ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

It would be nice to see technology supporting the Elastic Fabric Adapter on Amazon AWS, therefore getting RDMA techno...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

I use NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP mostly in customer companies.

See all answers

Comparisons

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VAST Data vs Everpure FlashArray

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat Gluster Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 3% of the time

Scality RING vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 3% of the time

Amazon FSx vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Everpure FlashArray

November 2026

Download Everpure FlashArray product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale

October 2026

Download IBM Spectrum Scale product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

October 2026

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray

No data available

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

The FlashArray family delivers consistent, high-performance data services across block, file, and object workloads. As part of the Everpure Platform, it provides the foundation for a unified data plane, enabling applications to reliably access, protect, and manage data across environments with simplicity and predictability. With built-in capabilities such as inline data reduction, snapshots, replication, and ransomware resilience, FlashArray ensures efficient operations, protected data, and consistent application uptime.

As the foundation of the (unified) data plane, FlashArray enables policy-driven automation, monitoring, and centralized management while integrating across cloud and on-premises environments. Built on an Evergreen architecture, it supports non-disruptive upgrades and continuous performance improvements over time while simplifying operations at scale.

What Key Features Does FlashArray Offer?

Simplicity and Speed: Easy management and rapid performance enhancements.
Data Reduction: Effective deduplication and compression.
Flash Architecture: Seamless upgrades and outstanding resilience.
VMware Integration: Excellent compatibility with virtualization platforms.
Predictive Analytics: Strong insights for proactive management.

What Benefits Should Users Consider?

Reliability: Proactive support with minimal downtime.
Efficiency: Reduced storage footprint and enhanced data management.
Performance: Faster processing speeds and low latency.
User Experience: Simplified management with Evergreen model.

In industries like finance, banking, and healthcare, FlashArray supports high-performance storage needs focusing on virtualization and database environments. Employed for VMware workloads, disaster recovery, and storage provisioning, it ensures application performance in private or hybrid cloud setups while enhancing management of virtualized environments.

Everpure (formerly Pure Storage)

IBM Spectrum Scale provides scalable, high-performance file management with seamless data sharing across platforms. Highly valued for parallel file access and integration with existing systems, it ensures fast data replication and recovery, minimizing dependence on specific hardware.

IBM Spectrum Scale is ideal for tasks requiring high availability and extensive file sharing across Linux, AIX, and Windows platforms. Its capability to handle large-scale data processing, virtualized storage integration, and fault tolerance ensures robustness in demanding environments. The system's compatibility with existing infrastructure eliminates the need for new network setups, supporting distributed systems effectively. However, enhancements in encryption, block storage, pricing complexity, and network monitoring are areas for growth.

What Are the Key Features of IBM Spectrum Scale?

Reduced Overhead: Enhances performance with low system demands.
Seamless High Availability: Ensures continuous data access and system reliability.
Platform Compatibility: Supports data sharing across Linux, AIX, and Windows.
Data Replication: Provides fast replication and efficient recovery capabilities.
Virtualized Storage Integration: Connects easily with virtual environments for optimal performance.

What Benefits Should Users Look for in IBM Spectrum Scale?

Improved Performance: Handles heavy data loads and parallel file access efficiently.
Scalability: Facilitates growth without compromising system integrity.
Fault Tolerance: Minimizes risk with robust error management.
Cost Efficiency: Utilizes existing infrastructure, reducing additional costs.
Data Processing Support: Enhances capabilities for complex data tasks and regulatory reporting.

In industries like finance and technology, IBM Spectrum Scale is implemented to support shared file systems and virtualization tasks such as SAS work, DR failover, and NFS exports. Its robust architecture aids in handling large-scale banking projects and regulatory compliance, making it a reliable choice for data-intensive environments.

IBM

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an efficient storage management solution for managing and storing data in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with cloud providers, advanced data replication capabilities, and high data protection. With reliable performance, it is ideal for industries like healthcare and finance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas

Information Not Available

1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

October 2026

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Scale vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Scale vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.

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