IBM Spectrum Scale vs Portworx Enterprise comparison

IBM and Pure Storage are both solutions in the Cloud Software Defined Storage category. IBM is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.3, while Pure Storage is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8. IBM holds a 26.3% mindshare in CSDS, compared to Pure Storage’s 35.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Scale

Read 12 IBM Spectrum Scale reviews

474 Views
345 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Portworx Enterprise

Read 6 Portworx Enterprise reviews

573 Views
380 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Scale

Portworx Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Scale and Portworx Enterprise 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. Portworx Enterprise Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale vs. Portworx Enterprise

February 2025

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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

IBM Spectrum Scale

Ranking in Cloud Software Defined Storage

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (7th)

Portworx Enterprise

Ranking in Cloud Software Defined Storage

2nd

Average Rating

9.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Storage for Kubernetes (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Cloud Software Defined Storage category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Scale is 26.3%, down from 32.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Portworx Enterprise is 35.5%, up from 32.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Software Defined Storage

Featured Reviews

Bernd Stroehle.

Enterprise Architect at kosakya

Deliver improved performance in data processing and foster extensive AI initiatives

I find IBM Spectrum Scale to be an excellent product known for its fast parallel file system. It achieved the best results when integrated with IBM hardware. Even though it is complex, it provided significant performance advantages in large-scale data management. Its fault tolerance mechanisms and integration capabilities make it popular for extensive AI initiatives and data processing tasks for organizations like Daimler Benz and Bosch.

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Paulo Jose Bosco Otto

Consultant at PBOservicos-Informatica

A solution backed by strong customer support, that is stable and scalable

As a company managed in a Kubernetes environment, being trusted by a Kubernetes vendor, Red Hat creates barriers against using other certified solutions that work. Because IBM is a competitor of Pure Storage, things seem to be getting worse. I don't have plans to use Portworx Enterprise in the future because, at the moment, I am working with Ondat, and I have to follow NetApp's direction on that. When evaluating Portworx, one should make sure their company has already chosen Pure Storage. Still, if they are evaluating the solution on Ondat or Dell or other platforms, they should get a roadmap statement from Pure Storage, that they will continue to develop storage hardware diagnostics. I rate Portworx a nine out of ten.

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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

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

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

"Its great servicing high availability. That is what it is used for."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to share files across different platforms."

"GPFS monitoring is the best feature."

"The high performance of the solution is its most valuable aspect. If you compare it to other storage solutions, it's much better."

"I find IBM Spectrum Scale to be an excellent product known for its fast parallel file system."

"I rate this product ten out of ten."

More IBM Spectrum Scale pros

"Portworx is a simple solution. It's similar to Pure Storage products. They're all easy to use and install. You need to have a little expertise with containers to use Portworx, but it will be no problem for you if you understand containers."

"The best thing about Portworx is the Stork, they have called the VPS (Volume Replacement Strategy) and they also have topology awareness, and these are the three features I like."

"A custom IBM script is designed to tackle the storage management challenges within containerized environments, providing crucial data services and features required for enterprise applications."

"I like that you have a small dedicated file system that is fast and resilient for containerized workloads."

"Portworx virtualizes the aspects of the underlying block storage. That is good because they can also use block storage for their future deployment instead of just NFS."

"The solution is user-friendly."

Cons

"The pricing and licensing model for this solution are complex and it is sometimes difficult to explain it to customers."

"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."

"We do have some issues where Spectrum Scale does not work as expected. We have seen our Spectrum Scale servers go down unexpectedly, but because we have a cluster, it does not take out the entire organization."

"There can be improvements in fault tolerance and making erasure coding faster."

"Maybe it needs integration with HA."

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

"Integration with other vendors is not available."

"I believe there is no graphic user interface, so they should include it."

More IBM Spectrum Scale cons

"The integration has room for improvement."

"I would like to see a more native mapping to mainframe-type systems."

"The documentation could be better."

"They have not integrated Portworx with Ondat since they are too focused now on Pure Storage APIs and not on users like us."

"I think the vendor could provide more training for new users who may not be familiar with containers."

"It would be highly advantageous to include an integrated backup solution within the same license, rather than purchasing backup separately."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is costly but reliable."

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

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

"The price of Portworx Enterprise is high."

"The price is competitive, but it is too expensive when paired with Red Hat IBM."

"I'm not sure how the licensing was broken out, but I don't think our offering of the Portworx was more than USD $20,000."

"It has two offerings. One is free, which is limited to only five nodes. The other is enterprise, which is a bit pricier."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Spectrum Scale?

It is a scalable solution.

See all answers

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

IBM Spectrum Scale is very expensive with complex pricing models usually based on the amount of storage used or the number of servers. Using Excelero for mirroring storage helped reduce Spectrum Sc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Scale?

There can be improvements in fault tolerance and making erasure coding faster. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have example configurations or applications that assist in setup and configura...

See all answers

What do you like most about Portworx Enterprise?

A custom IBM script is designed to tackle the storage management challenges within containerized environments, providing crucial data services and features required for enterprise applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Portworx Enterprise?

The price is competitive, but it is too expensive when paired with Red Hat IBM.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Portworx Enterprise?

It would be highly advantageous to include an integrated backup solution within the same license, rather than purchasing backup separately. It would ensure a comprehensive and streamlined approach ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 28% of the time

DDN IME vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 15% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 7% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Scale Competitors

Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation vs Portworx Enterprise

Compared 42% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Portworx Enterprise

Compared 20% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Portworx Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Portworx Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Portworx Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

More Portworx Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale

March 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Scale product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Software Defined Storage

March 2025

Download Portworx Enterprise product report

Overview

IBM Spectrum Scale is a cluster file system that provides concurrent access to a single file system or set of file systems from multiple nodes. The nodes can be SAN attached, network attached, a mixture of SAN attached and network attached, or in a shared nothing cluster configuration. This enables access to this common set of data to support a scale-out solution or to provide a high availability platform. IBM Spectrum Scale has many features beyond common data access including data replication, policy based storage management, and multi-site operations. You can create a cluster of AIX nodes, Linux nodes, Windows server nodes, or a mix of all three. IBM Spectrum Scale can run on virtualized instances providing common data access in environments, leverage logical partitioning, or other hypervisors. Multiple IBM Spectrum Scale clusters can share data within a location or across wide area network (WAN) connections.

IBM

Portworx is the solution for running stateful containers in production, designed with DevOps in mind. With Portworx, users can manage any database or stateful service on any infrastructure using any container scheduler, including Kubernetes, Mesosphere DC/OS, and Docker Swarm. Portworx solves the five most common problems DevOps teams encounter when running stateful services in production: persistence, high availability, data automation, security, and support for multiple data stores and infrastructure.

Pure Storage

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

NIO, GE Digital, DreamWorks Animation, Lufthansa, beco, NEW CONTEXT

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale vs. Portworx Enterprise

February 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Scale vs. Portworx Enterprise

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