IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs IBM Spectrum Scale comparison

IBM Spectrum Accelerate and IBM Spectrum Scale are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. IBM Spectrum Accelerate is ranked #24, while IBM Spectrum Scale is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM Spectrum Accelerate holds a 1.9% mindshare in SDS, compared to IBM Spectrum Scale’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM Spectrum Accelerate users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM Spectrum Scale users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

IBM Spectrum Accelerate and IBM Spectrum Scale compete in the storage solutions category. IBM Spectrum Scale often has the upper hand due to its extensive features and scalability that outperform the affordability of IBM Spectrum Accelerate.

Features: IBM Spectrum Accelerate offers consistent high performance, flexible scaling in all-flash, and hybrid-cloud environments. IBM Spectrum Scale provides enterprise-grade data management, seamless synchronization, and broad scalability, crucial for complex storage scenarios.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Accelerate has user-friendly setup procedures for streamlined deployment. Spectrum Scale, requiring more technical expertise, presents a complex deployment model with numerous configuration options. It provides comprehensive customer service to support its intricate deployment.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Accelerate is seen as cost-effective with lower setup costs and rapid benefits, suitable for budget-constrained environments. IBM Spectrum Scale, while demanding a higher initial investment, offers significant ROI through advanced capabilities for handling large-scale data management and processing.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs. IBM Spectrum Scale Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Accelerate 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 November 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 3.8%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Accelerate is 1.9%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Scale is 3.9%, down from 4.6% 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	3.8%
IBM Spectrum Scale	3.9%
IBM Spectrum Accelerate	1.9%
Other	90.4%

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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reviewer1154616

IS Auditor at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

A robust solution with good performance and support

This is a solution that scales well, although I think that we have stabilized in terms of use. With respect to scalability, we have an open question as to whether we will be able to grow into a cloud-based deployment. We don't know in what ways this solution will assist us with the migration, or whether we can still use it for DR. We don't know about the type of backup, be it full, incremental, or otherwise. We are also looking for a cost-savings if we migrate. These are things that we will find out over time. We have about two petabytes of data.

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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 solution provides many controllers."

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

"It performs well and it is also very fast."

"The initial setup is pretty easy and simple."

"The initial setup is pretty quick."

"It has absolutely simplified our storage because the dashboards on the consoles show a clear understanding of where you are, and it is also very easy to provision. This been a big help for our teams."

"The solution is able to handle workloads and is easy to use. It allows us to actually manage the boxes in less time."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The ease of use is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's very user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature is the robustness, which is typical of IBM because their software generally just works."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"Allows us to share files across multiple environments."

More IBM Spectrum Scale pros

Cons

"It usually comes down to just what you hit and the value you're getting when you spend the money and license the products. I would always go, "If you want to make things better, lower your price and make your licensing simpler." There's always an opportunity around that."

"I would like to see more monitoring capability included in the next release of this solution."

"The features provided for SMB customers are limited."

"Commvault has mainly driven the Analytics, providing data and reports. However, the product has room for improvement, especially regarding storage analytics. Upgrading firmware has caused issues, requiring feature disabling to revert to traditional backups. The firmware upgrades sometimes affect Commvault backups."

"In the realm of micro-services, I think that Pure Storage can do well if they start getting in there and making their arrays more micro-services ready."

"An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."

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

"File storage needs a lot of improvement. Mainframe connectivity also needs improvement because it requires additional components to be integrated with Pure Storage FlashBlade. If you want to keep your backup data, then this becomes an even more expensive solution because Pure Storage FlashBlade will not be able to meet your backup needs."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"The reporting mechanisms need improvement."

"he interface is not user-friendly so the ease of use could be improved."

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

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

"Integration with other vendors is not available."

"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."

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

"Maybe it needs integration with HA."

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

More IBM Spectrum Scale cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."

"Support is a separate line item. Support is a different cost, but whatever your support is now, that's what you're going to pay forever. If your support's $100 today, six years from now it's $100. It doesn't fluctuate unless you upgrade it, or change it, etc."

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

"Licensing fees are paid yearly."

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

"The price is a little high."

"The product is very expensive."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"For a database, on a yearly basis, we pay approximately $3,500 for licensing fees. The solution is sold as a subscription on a yearly basis so there are no other ancillary costs."

"If you are cost-sensitive then this solution is not for you."

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

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

"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

No data available

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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	21

No data available

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 18% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 7% of the time

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StorMagic SvSAN vs IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Compared 27% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Compared 20% of the time

IBM Spectrum Virtualize vs IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Compared 14% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Compared 13% of the time

Veritas Access Appliance vs IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Compared 11% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Accelerate Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 18% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 12% of the time

DDN IME vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 10% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs IBM Spectrum Scale

Compared 5% 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

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

October 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Accelerate product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Scale

October 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Scale product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM XIV

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

IBM Spectrum Accelerate is a software-defined block storage solution designed for rapid deployment across heterogeneous infrastructure for hybrid cloud and delivering consistent service levels to a dynamic workload mix. It is based on proven grid-architecture, enterprise-scale IBM XIV technology. IBM Spectrum Accelerate can be deployed, including as hyper-converged infrastructure, on any x86 server, on pre-installed third-party appliances or on public cloud infrastructure, and is available as a service on IBM Cloud infrastructure.

IBM

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

Silverpop

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs. IBM Spectrum Scale

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Accelerate vs. IBM Spectrum Scale and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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