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 3.9% 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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

September 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 October 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.1%, 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 3.9%, down from 4.7% 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	4.1%
IBM Spectrum Scale	3.9%
HPE StoreVirtual	1.5%
Other	90.5%

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

MikaelHellström

IT Manager at Regin Dalarna

Has handled backup storage needs reliably and supports seamless upgrades

In environments requiring high throughput and low latency, Pure Storage FlashBlade provides high throughput and normal latency, but we do not have any application that requires low latency right now, so the latency of three to five milliseconds is considered kind of high. Pure Storage FlashBlade's ability to integrate with enterprise applications is not important for us, as we only want to present an S3 bucket for our backup, which we have done, and it works very fast. We use the Purity software's data reduction techniques; we have a backup software that compresses everything before sending it to the S3 bucket, achieving a data reduction of 1.1 to one. I would recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade to other companies because it's a very fast and scalable solution for anyone who needs it. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution an 8.

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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.

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Sachin Prakash

Assistant Consultant at Tata Consultancy

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like its size. It is smaller than the other competitors. We can plug in many blades, and we can have data up to one terabyte."

"The performance of FlashBlade is excellent. It does not necessarily leverage the SOS API that some of the newer products leverage, but I found its speed pretty much on par and comparable. It is fast, and it does what it is supposed to do."

"The solution provides many controllers."

"FlashBlade offers low latency, high throughput, and seamless scalability."

"The tool's most valuable features are data warehousing, speedy recovery, and analytics. Its latest release is cost-effective."

"The product is scalable and easy to expand."

"We have integrated it with VMware. The integration process is pretty good. Especially with VMware, it helps with the capacity of it."

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

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

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

"A company can scale it easily."

"he interface and the installation makes it easy as it's all in one piece of hardware and it doesn't need to be connected to anything else."

"It appears to be very stable and very robust."

"I guess on the top of the list is certainly ease of use."

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

"Data is stored in two different places, leveraging more security and availability. Therefore, network problems are having less affect on iSCSI."

"The seamlessness behind the scenes of block management."

More HPE StoreVirtual pros

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

"It is a scalable solution."

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

"It makes our file system sharing a lot easier, even across different continents. We have had file systems shared across different continents with no performance degradation."

"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."

"GPFS monitoring is the best feature."

"The profile share is a valuable feature."

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

More IBM Spectrum Scale pros

Cons

"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."

"We haven't been able to use much of the cloud area of Pure Storage. We have a storage server and it would be better if it could integrate with other cloud features of this solution."

"Compared to, for example, Hitachi NAS, the solution is not mature at all. It's just in its infancy as far as technology goes."

"I have not seen ROI."

"Its configuration should be easier."

"Recently, while upgrading the version code, one of the controllers failed. Replacing the controller took between 14 to 20 days."

"I would also like to see better support for CIFS workloads."

"I would like to see better integration."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"User interface could be improved."

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

"One of the areas that need improvement is the consolidated management platform, to manage all of the nodes from one place and the licensing around that."

"I would like to have this solution easily integrate with VMware."

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

"Configuration of application integrated snapshots for VMware is convoluted and it did not work immediately."

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

"The management aspect of the solution needs to be improved in order to make the product stronger."

More HPE StoreVirtual cons

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

"Making it a little easier to add bad file sets would help. There is a transition to how you add storage and how you add a file set, so making that a little smoother would probably be my recommendation."

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

"Integration with other vendors is not available."

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

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

"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."

"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."

More IBM Spectrum Scale cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is very expensive."

"We used a reseller for the purchase."

"It is within reason for what you get. From what we have found comparing it to other vendors, it is in the same range as others. Given the choice, we would definitely redeploy it based on the cost."

"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

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

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

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

"It's a costly solution, but Pure Storage FlashBlade doesn't require additional licenses. All of the software is combined into one bundle."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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 solution is costly but reliable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Performing Arts

14%

Transportation Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	8

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.

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Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 19% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 9% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 7% of the time

More Pure Storage FlashBlade Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 38% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 32% of the time

VMware vSAN vs HPE StoreVirtual

Compared 30% of the time

More HPE StoreVirtual Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 18% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 11% of the time

DDN IME vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Gluster Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 9% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Scale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

October 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE StoreVirtual

October 2025

Download HPE StoreVirtual product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale

October 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

September 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: September 2025.

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