Cisco UCS Director vs IBM Spectrum Computing comparison

Cisco and IBM are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Cisco is ranked #22 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 1.3% mindshare in CM, compared to IBM’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 71% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 57% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Director

Read 14 Cisco UCS Director reviews

595 Views
559 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Computing

Read 9 IBM Spectrum Computing reviews

565 Views
350 Comparison Views

57% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Director

IBM Spectrum Computing

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM Spectrum Computing and Cisco UCS Director compete in IT infrastructure management. Cisco UCS Director appears to have the upper hand with its extensive features, while IBM Spectrum Computing is noted for competitive pricing and strong customer support.

Features: IBM Spectrum Computing is valued for its robust workload scheduling, resource allocation, and operational efficiency. Cisco UCS Director offers comprehensive infrastructure management, automation features, and extensive integrations, catering to complex IT environments.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Computing could enhance its advanced features and integration capabilities. It might also benefit from additional automation options. Cisco UCS Director could improve its deployment process, simplify integration with non-Cisco environments, and reduce initial setup complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Computing offers a straightforward deployment process with responsive customer service, ensuring smooth onboarding. Cisco UCS Director provides detailed deployment support, although its setup can be intricate, it remains flexible and robust to meet varied enterprise needs.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Computing is linked to lower initial costs and quick ROI due to efficient resource management. Conversely, Cisco UCS Director requires higher upfront investments but delivers substantial long-term ROI, suitable for enterprises eyeing sustained growth.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Director vs. IBM Spectrum Computing Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

July 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

Cisco UCS Director

Ranking in Cloud Management

22nd

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Spectrum Computing

Ranking in Cloud Management

26th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Hadoop (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Director is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Computing is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

Sunny Nair

Solution Architect and Senior Consultant at Keysight Technologies

Good multi-cloud management capability, but third-party and legacy integration needs improvement

Normally, UCS Director is used primarily for orchestration, but when we look at a non-Cisco data infrastructure components, the UCS Director needs a bit more improvement in terms of integration with third-party systems and with existing older systems. I feel that more development or a more integrated road map should be set up so that it becomes a common platform for any infrastructure. In the next release of this solution, I would like to see changes in the navigation controls of UCS Director. That would be helpful. Modifying the icons that are available for use, as well as virtualization aspects.

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OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

Senior Technical Specialist appreciates intelligent workload management, strong support, and scalability

The best features of IBM Spectrum Computing are common across many of their storage products. The software is solid, meaning that the code is stable. They take business seriously, which is what IBM stands for - International Business Machines. They always maintain a business-oriented approach in their software development. It's not simply clicking through interfaces; in IBM software, they consider their actions, process flows, and workflows around business processes. It requires understanding IBM and their methodology, as the software operates accordingly. I have utilized IBM Spectrum Computing's intelligent workload management feature. We use Insights, which is connected to the cloud. This provides AI capabilities for analyzing the configuration, offering smart recommendations on new code, warning about bugs in current code, and suggesting configuration improvements through its advisor tool. The predictive analytics feature in IBM Spectrum Computing enables optimal software performance through Insights. However, being a storage administrator requires foundational knowledge and understanding beyond these tools. For troubleshooting, it's efficient in spotting bottlenecks, but understanding the terms and metrics is essential as it provides answers that need interpretation.

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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 product is flexible and compact. It has a lot of features."

"This is a user-friendly solution that is very good and easy to use."

"UCS director enables us to be more productive and more agile, and also more self-sufficient because we don't have to depend on anybody else."

"An easy and strong configuration, along with its low cost, are some of the features of the solution."

"The reason we went with Cisco is that it comes at a very negligible cost as part of the BOQ. Compared to the competition's products, which are incredibly expensive, UCS Director is low-cost."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Cisco's knowledge base is extensive."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the fabric sharing."

More Cisco UCS Director pros

"The most valuable aspect of the product is the policy driving resource management, to optimize the computing across data centers."

"IBM's ability to cluster compute resources is impressive, with built-in support for scenarios like VR and active-active configurations,"

"The most valuable feature is the backup capability."

"This solution is working for both VTL and tape."

"Spectrum Computing's best features are its speed, robustness, and data processing and analysis."

"Easy to operate and use."

"We are satisfied with the technical support, we have no issues."

"The best features of IBM Spectrum Computing are common across many of their storage products."

More IBM Spectrum Computing pros

Cons

"Currently, Cisco UCS Director is unable to integrate with another product or with a server from another brand."

"The product's pricing needs to improve."

"The tool should be a lot more intuitive and make it easy for us to understand and migrate."

"I would like to see more integration with other solutions."

"Normally, UCS Director is used primarily for orchestration, but when we look at a non-Cisco data infrastructure components, the UCS Director needs a bit more improvement in terms of integration with third-party systems and with existing older systems."

"We cannot depend on this solution to manage all of the data center's infrastructure."

"It is not easy to add or expand the product."

"The product could allow more programmatic opportunities through better development of the API."

More Cisco UCS Director cons

"SMB storage and HPC is not compatible and it should be supported by IBM Spectrum Computing."

"IBM's sales and support structure can be challenging."

"This solution is no longer managing tapes correctly."

"Spectrum Computing is lagging behind other products, most likely because it hasn't been shifted to the cloud."

"We have not been able to use deduplication."

"Lack of sufficient documentation, particularly in Spanish."

"We'd like to see some AI model training for machine learning."

"The deduplication software isn't quite up to speed with the market. While IBM has excellent compression technology, specifically on their FlashCore modules, they lag behind competitors such as NetApp in deduplication capabilities."

More IBM Spectrum Computing cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing around five to six out of ten."

"Cisco UCS Director is expensive...I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"I rate Cisco UCS Director's price a three out of ten. Cisco UCS Director is not an affordable product. With Cisco UCS Director, there is a need to pay an overall price, which consists of the product, software, and support."

"The cost of this solution is significant."

"The budget doesn’t work for the state and local governments."

"This solution is expensive."

"Spectrum Computing is one of the most expensive products on the market."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

35%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Transportation Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Director?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Director?

While the pricing might be seen as expensive, it provides value for money due to reliable service and excellent technical support.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Director?

There aren’t any areas of improvement that immediately come to mind.

See all answers

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

It is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Computing?

IBM's sales and support structure can be challenging. To work on an IBM deal, you often need to involve multiple specialists, each knowledgeable about only part of the product, rather than having a...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Computing?

It is big on resilience and security. Their focus is on providing robust and secure solutions. Due to their high-end server models, IBM products are often more expensive than competitors. While IBM...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Hadoop

June 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

IBM Platform Computing

Overview

Cisco UCS Director enables automated delivery of physical and virtual data center resources, empowering data centers to move at the speed of business.

Cisco

IBM Spectrum Computing uses intelligent workload and policy-driven resource management to optimize resources across the data center, on premises and in the cloud. Now up to 150X faster and scalable to over 160,000 cores, IBM provides you with the latest advances in software-defined infrastructure to help you unleash the power of your distributed mission-critical high performance computing (HPC), analytics and big data applications as well as a new generation open source frameworks such as Hadoop and Spark.

IBM

Sample Customers

Entel, Data#3, Cegal, NESIC, LightEdge

London South Bank University, Transvalor, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Genomic

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

July 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Director vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

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