IBM Spectrum Computing vs Red Hat CloudForms comparison

IBM and Red Hat are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. IBM is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0, while Red Hat is ranked #31 with an average rating of 6.0. IBM holds a 1.2% mindshare in CM, compared to Red Hat’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 57% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

IBM Spectrum Computing

Read 9 IBM Spectrum Computing reviews

565 Views
350 Comparison Views

57% willing to recommend

Red Hat CloudForms

Read 10 Red Hat CloudForms reviews

670 Views
657 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Computing

Red Hat CloudForms

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

IBM Spectrum Computing and Red Hat CloudForms are competing in cloud and workload management. Red Hat CloudForms has an edge due to its extensive feature set for hybrid environments, despite IBM's competitive pricing and customer service.

Features: IBM Spectrum Computing offers workload and resource management, dynamic resource provisioning, and integration capabilities. Red Hat CloudForms provides comprehensive management features, automation, and governance across hybrid environments with a focus on multi-cloud management.

Room for Improvement: IBM Spectrum Computing could improve in simplifying its interface, enhance support for multi-cloud environments, and expand automation capabilities. Red Hat CloudForms could benefit from streamlining its setup process, reducing initial redundancy, and enhancing out-of-the-box third-party integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Spectrum Computing has streamlined deployment with strong customer service, enhancing user experience with support. Red Hat CloudForms involves a more complex setup but provides extensive documentation and community support, offering expansive deployment options across environments.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Spectrum Computing is cost-effective with an appealing ROI for budget-conscious organizations, offering flexible pricing. Red Hat CloudForms, though requiring higher upfront investment, provides significant ROI with its extensive features and automation efficiencies, reflecting its comprehensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Spectrum Computing vs. Red Hat CloudForms Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Computing vs. Red Hat CloudForms

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

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)

Red Hat CloudForms

Ranking in Cloud Management

31st

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of IBM Spectrum Computing is 1.2%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat CloudForms is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

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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Ilhami Arikan

Cloud Services Automation Technologies Manager at Garanti Teknoloji

A stable solution that helps to provision servers

We use the solution to provision servers. I am impressed with the product's ability to create dynamic catalogs. The solution's provisioning engine needs to be improved. I would rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. I would rate the product's scalability a seven out of ten and…

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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

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

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

"The most valuable feature is the backup capability."

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

"Easy to operate and use."

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

"The comparison was challenging, but the IBM Spectrum Scale offered a balanced solution. Our engineers rated itsanalytics capabilities equally high as Pure Storage. For workload management, Spectrum Computing provided effective solutions that met our needs. Workload management is part of a complete solution that uses different tools. There were the cloud and HPC parts; within HPC, there were parts like liquid cooling, simple computing, storage, and orchestration. The orchestration team handled the workload management."

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

More IBM Spectrum Computing pros

"The most valuable features of Red Hat CloudForms are the benefit of the collective functionality."

"I am impressed with the product's reports."

"They are a very mature product."

"Red Hat CloudForms is a stable product. There is no issue with the stability."

"I am impressed with the product's ability to create dynamic catalogs."

"The stability of the solution is very good. We haven't had any issues with it."

"The solution is compatible and integrates with various infrastructures or providers."

"The multi-tenancy feature has been very helpful for our clients. It has been working fine and seamlessly for them. Its interface is also very simplified, and it is also an open and easy-to-scale solution."

More Red Hat CloudForms pros

Cons

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

"This solution is no longer managing tapes correctly."

"We have not been able to use deduplication."

"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."

"The deduplication software isn't quite up to speed with the market."

"Lack of sufficient documentation, particularly in Spanish."

More IBM Spectrum Computing cons

"The solution's provisioning engine needs to be improved."

"Our clients had challenges or issues with the updates. Its updates should be better managed. They should provide quicker and more stable updates. Its stability can also be better. We initially faced ease-of-use and compatibility issues while integrating it. We had a lot of compatibility issues with other products. Our clients are concerned about whether it is under IBM or it is still Red Hat. Clients are not very clear about the support, and they're not really happy with it. Currently, they're getting support from Red Hat, but going forward, they're not really clear about what would be the life cycle of the product, which is a concern for them."

"All of the areas of Red Hat CloudForms could improve. It doesn't do half of the things that it says it can do out of the box. It takes configuration to make any of it work, which is not uncommon for solutions similar to this. However, it is frustrating."

"It is difficult to create a complete dashboard that includes all the needed features or catalogs."

"Because the solution needs to integrate with other products that surround it, there is a lot of configuration required, and this can be quite complex. It's not as easy as it is with, for example, VMware."

"The complexity of the solution is a bit high in comparison to VMware."

"I have issues with the solution's permissions. Unlike VMware, the product doesn't allow folder-type permissions."

"Red Hat CloudForms could improve by allowing more customization of reports. We have to do a lot of coding to accomplish what we want. Additionally, the compatibility with the multi-cloud could improve. The latter versions of the solution removed Google support and the cost comparison between other clouds was high."

More Red Hat CloudForms cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"This solution is expensive."

"The price of Red Hat CloudForms was not competitive, it was expensive."

"Red Hat CloudForms is a bit expensive."

"The product's licensing is based on the number of servers."

"Red Hat CloudForms has a subscript-based pricing model. The cost is approximately $20,000 annually which allows you to use as many users as you want."

"It is definitely cheaper than VMware. Everything is included. There is no challenge there."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

35%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Transportation Company

Computer Software Company

25%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

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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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Red Hat CloudForms?

I am impressed with the product's reports.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Red Hat CloudForms?

I have issues with the solution's permissions. Unlike VMware, the product doesn't allow folder-type permissions.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Red Hat CloudForms?

I would rate the product a four out of ten since its implementation is not as good as it sounds.

See all answers

Comparisons

Flexera Cloud Management Platform (CMP) vs IBM Spectrum Computing

Compared 32% of the time

Cloudera Data Platform vs IBM Spectrum Computing

Compared 27% of the time

Morpheus vs IBM Spectrum Computing

Compared 25% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs IBM Spectrum Computing

Compared 16% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Computing Competitors

OpenNebula vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 24% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 23% of the time

Morpheus vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 19% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 18% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 18% of the time

More Red Hat CloudForms Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Hadoop

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Red Hat CloudForms

June 2025

Download Red Hat CloudForms product report

Also Known As

IBM Platform Computing

No data available

Overview

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

Manage container, virtual, private, and public cloud infrastructures

Managing a complex, hybrid IT environment can require multiple management tools, redundant policy implementations, and extra staff to handle the operations. Red Hat® CloudForms simplifies IT, providing unified management and operations in a hybrid environment.

As your IT infrastructure progresses from traditional virtualization toward an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, CloudForms evolves, protecting your investments and providing consistent user experience and functionality.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

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

Cox Automotive, Penn State, FICO, G-ABLE, Seneca College, ITandTEL, The Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS), MyRepublic, Macquarie, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, CBTS, Network Data Solutions (NDS)

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Computing vs. Red Hat CloudForms

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Spectrum Computing vs. Red Hat CloudForms

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Spectrum Computing vs. Red Hat CloudForms and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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