Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs IBM Spectrum Computing comparison

Cloudera and IBM are both solutions in the Hadoop category. Cloudera is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while IBM is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0. Cloudera holds a 14.0% mindshare in H, compared to IBM’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Cloudera users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 57% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Cloudera Distribution for H...

Read 51 Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop reviews

2,002 Views
1,181 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Computing

Read 9 IBM Spectrum Computing reviews

926 Views
194 Comparison Views

57% willing to recommend

Cloudera Distribution for H...

IBM Spectrum Computing

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop and IBM Spectrum Computing based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

February 2026

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Helped 881,515 peers since 2012

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

Cloudera Distribution for H...

Ranking in Hadoop

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NoSQL Databases (10th)

IBM Spectrum Computing

Ranking in Hadoop

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (29th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Hadoop category, the mindshare of Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is 14.0%, down from 27.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Computing is 4.5%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Hadoop Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop	14.0%
IBM Spectrum Computing	4.5%
Other	81.5%

Hadoop

Featured Reviews

Rok Dolinsek

Manager, Bussines Development & Co Owner at Troia d.o.o.

Enables on-premise implementation with powerful data processing capabilities

This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise. Cloudera provides a hybrid solution that combines compute on cloud or on-premises. It includes all machine learning algorithms in the Spark machine learning library. All functionalities needed for a big data platform and ETL are on the platform, eliminating the need for other tools. It is scalable, ready for vertical scaling, and very powerful, offering numerous functionalities and configurations for generative AI.

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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 most valuable feature is Kubernetes."

"The solution is stable."

"In terms of scalability, if you have enough hardware you can scale out. Scalability doesn't have any issues."

"The tool can be deployed using different container technologies, which makes it very scalable."

"Customer service and support were able to fix whatever the issue was."

"The most valuable feature is Impala, the querying engine, which is very fast."

"CDH has a wide variety of proprietary tools that we use, like Impala. So from that perspective, it's quite useful as opposed to something open-source. We get a lot of value from Cloudera's proprietary tools."

"The most valuable feature is that I can use CDH for almost all use cases across all industries, including the financial sector, public sector, private retailers, and so on."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop pros

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

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

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

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

"I have utilized IBM Spectrum Computing's intelligent workload management feature through Insights, which is connected to the cloud."

"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."

"Easy to operate and use."

More IBM Spectrum Computing pros

Cons

"It could be faster and more user-friendly."

"It would be useful if Cloudera had more tools like SQL Engines that offer the traditional relational database. We have to do a lot of work preparing the data outside Cloudera before getting it into the platform."

"The initial setup of Cloudera is difficult."

"The governance aspect of the solution should be improved."

"This is a very expensive solution."

"Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is not always completely stable in some cases, which can be a concern for big data solutions."

"Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop has a limited feature list and a lot of costs involved."

"Currently, we are using many other tools such as Spark and Blade Job to improve the performance."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop cons

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

"Lack of sufficient documentation, particularly in Spanish."

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

"In Pakistan, IBM's disadvantage is the lack of OEM support and presence."

"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."

"This solution is no longer managing tapes correctly."

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

"We have not been able to use deduplication."

More IBM Spectrum Computing cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive product."

"The product’s price depends from project to project."

"The price is very high. The solution is expensive."

"I wouldn't recommend CDH to others because of its high cost."

"The tool is not expensive."

"The tool is expensive...For the SMB market or customers whose environments are not that complex and do not have multiple systems running, Cloudera might not be a good option."

"Cloudera requires a license to use."

"The solution is expensive."

More Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop pricing and cost advice

"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

Financial Services Firm

21%

Marketing Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

17%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Outsourcing Company

Transportation Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	31

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

The tool can be deployed using different container technologies, which makes it very scalable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

The price for Cloudera is average, yet it is very good compared to other solutions. It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?

If they could support modifying the data more easily than the current implementation, it would be beneficial.

See all answers

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

IBM Spectrum Computing consistently offers competitive pricing. When solutioning new implementations, IBM always presents the best solution and price. In a recent comparison with Pure Storage and N...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Computing?

IBM Spectrum Computing had limitations with remote copy services between head office and disaster recovery sites. In the last year, IBM has improved the code by re-engineering it to policy-based re...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Computing?

The typical use case for IBM Spectrum Computing is that it's an all-rounder. It can be used in various scenarios, such as the retailer I work for that has batch processing. It's on-demand when perf...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Hadoop

January 2026

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Also Known As

No data available

IBM Platform Computing

Overview

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is the world's most complete, tested, and popular distribution of Apache Hadoop and related projects. CDH is 100% Apache-licensed open source and is the only Hadoop solution to offer unified batch processing, interactive SQL, and interactive search, and role-based access controls. More enterprises have downloaded CDH than all other such distributions combined.

Cloudera

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

37signals, Adconion,adgooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AMD, Apollo Group, Blackberry, Box, BT, CSC

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

Buyer's Guide

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

February 2026

Free Report: Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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