HPE StoreVirtual vs IBM Spectrum Scale comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #21, while IBM is ranked #10 with an average rating of 9.0. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 1.5% mindshare in SDS, compared to IBM’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

HPE StoreVirtual and IBM Spectrum Scale are major contenders in the storage solutions category. The comparative analysis indicates that while HPE offers a streamlined, all-in-one package, IBM provides superior performance and flexibility suited for heavy workloads.

Features: HPE StoreVirtual delivers a unified approach by integrating compute, storage, and networking with high availability through network RAID. Its seamless integration with VMware and HP Proliant hardware is particularly advantageous. Users appreciate its ease of storage management and adaptability. IBM Spectrum Scale, however, stands out with high performance and a robust parallel file system, making it suitable for intensive workloads. It boasts seamless integration across diverse platforms, offering exceptional scalability and flexibility.

Room for Improvement: HPE StoreVirtual is criticized for latency issues, complex initial setup, and limited expansion capabilities. Users call for better firmware communication and documentation alongside enhanced clustering for diverse disk nodes. Conversely, IBM Spectrum Scale faces challenges with its complex licensing and setup, limited block storage, and integration issues with other vendor systems. Users seek a simpler interface and more efficient deployment processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both HPE StoreVirtual and IBM Spectrum Scale are deployed on-premises. HPE receives mixed reviews regarding support, with some customers commending the specialized support staff and others experiencing delays. Support quality fluctuates based on regional availability and engineer expertise. IBM Spectrum Scale is recognized for excellent customer service, with seasoned technical staff adept at resolving complex problems efficiently. Both companies provide comprehensive documentation, but consistent support is pivotal for user satisfaction.

Pricing and ROI: HPE StoreVirtual is noted for competitive pricing with all-inclusive licensing, covering features like site-to-site replication at no extra cost, making it attractive for SMBs. However, costs can rise with additional redundancy. Its ROI is favorable if system stability is maintained. IBM Spectrum Scale's complex licensing model correlates to processing cores and storage, yet it is often viewed as reasonable given its performance and reliability. Enterprise agreements usually yield positive ROI, though complexity in pricing models can be a deterrent.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

August 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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.2%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE StoreVirtual is 1.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Scale is 4.2%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pure Storage FlashBlade	4.2%
IBM Spectrum Scale	4.2%
HPE StoreVirtual	1.5%
Other	90.1%

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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Vebjorn Nergaard

Senior IT Engineer at Guard Automation AS

Reliable with helpful support and good replication

The setup is okay, however, it comes with a moderate amount of difficulty. If you are new to the product, it is difficult. You do get used to the process over time and it gets easier. A company just needs one person to maintain the solution as it just runs. You don't need any support staff. It's very, very hands-off except when you do updates. The product is living its own life.

Read full review

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Among its most appealing features are its ease of handling and minimal maintenance requirements."

"We have seen a reduction in the total cost of ownership by around 20%."

"It's very easy-to-use."

"Speed and ease of use are the two most valuable features."

"The initial setup is pretty easy and simple."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is performance."

"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The seamlessness behind the scenes of block management."

"A very flexible solution."

"Thin provisioning lets us get the most value from the hard drives."

"A company can scale it easily."

"The initial setup is straightforward, not a complex procedure."

"It's very stable and it's easy to use."

"The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues with glitches or bugs."

"The solution's most valuable aspect is that it is hardware independent."

More HPE StoreVirtual pros

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

"It is incredibly scalable and stable."

"It has been pretty reliable throughout the years. As far as capacity is concerned, it can handle most heavy loads."

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

"The profile share is a valuable feature."

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

"Allows us to share files across multiple environments."

"We are using it for monitoring all of our storage."

More IBM Spectrum Scale pros

Cons

"I would like to see more deduplication."

"The technical support needs to improve. When we open a case, it is auto assigned to a support tech person. Nine out of ten times, we get an email right back saying that person is off until tomorrow. I cannot handle that. They just did this over the weekend to us, too. I had to call our rep and have them do something about it."

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

"I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."

"There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

"The feature that we're waiting on is better integration with the cell services."

"It's on the expensive side, as expected for a niche product."

"We initially encountered challenges with the assembly process due to issues with the documentation required during setup, an area where Pure Storage needs improvement."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"It is a costly solution."

"Hardware and disk failures are happening frequently."

"Product looks like it is in the end of development."

"In our country, Qatar, most of the industry isn't using too much HP. StoreVirtual doesn't move fast. It's not a popular product."

"The solution needs to ensure it is on par with the industry in terms of availability of features and various other options."

"The penalty for the availability is performance. So, you have to balance or choose between the availability and the performance."

"The GUI is a bit old-fashioned. It should be updated."

"User interface could be improved."

More HPE StoreVirtual cons

"The solution's pricing could be better."

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

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

"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."

"They should probably simply the Red Hat implementation portion. This portion was not as straightforward as I would like it to be."

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

"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."

"The initial setup is complex, especially if trying to avoid erasure coding, as it requires more discs. Avoiding erasure coding can significantly increase costs."

More IBM Spectrum Scale cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be cheaper."

"The price is a little high."

"I feel that the price could always be lowered."

"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

"The product is very expensive."

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"I have seen ROI. It has allowed me to increase the density of my VMs without having to purchase anything additional."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"It costs less than $10,000 for one machine. If it costs more than 15% higher than this, then the customer may change to another solution."

"The prices are OK, so we don't have much difficulty selling HPE in Brazil."

"Licensing is not exactly straightforward, but not the worst I have ever seen."

"If you buy a five-year license, not only does the technical support expire after five years, but you also lose the ability to change and expand the VSA, and the systems won't go down."

"One of the key features about it is that when you buy either a VSA license or a StoreVirtual appliance, all your software's included."

"For our organization, I believe the cost is 16,000 Euros for a three-year license. It costs a bit more to do the maintenance on our servers as well. It's also on an HP ProLiant server and an organization will need to do the maintenance there also. I believe the price for that is around 2000 Euros a year."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

12%

Performing Arts

12%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

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

The pricing of Pure Storage FlashBlade is expensive compared to other products I used from other companies in the pas...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

I believe there is not much improvement needed because they have everything we need, but the interface is a little bi...

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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 n...

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What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Scale?

There is room for improvement in the web interface. There could be more information available, such as charts and gra...

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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

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 20% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

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Red Hat Ceph Storage vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 54% of the time

VMware vSAN vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 46% of the time

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Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 23% of the time

DDN IME vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 12% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 11% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat Gluster Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Scale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

August 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual

September 2025

Download HPE StoreVirtual product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale

September 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Scale product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE StoreVirtual, HPE VSA

No data available

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

HPE StoreVirtual storage ensures that organisations can optimise the benefits of server virtualisation with cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery. The iSCSI-based, scale-out storage platform is easy to manage and change – meeting ongoing business demands without creating IT bottlenecks or application downtime. Overcoming the cost and management limitations of traditional storage area networks (SANs), HPE StoreVirtual nodes use storage clustering to form a single pool of resources that enable organisations to buy only what they need today, scaling non-disruptively to meet requirements in the future.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

NBrIX, WIND Telecom, Netrics

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

August 2025

Free Report: HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.

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