IBM Storage Scale vs Gluster

IBM Storage Scale9.0Visit Gluster7.7Visit

Higher score IBM Storage Scale #1 in Distributed File System Software 9.0/10 Pricing on request ✓ 0 of 3 features Visit site

vs

Gluster #3 in Distributed File System Software 7.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 1 of 3 features Visit Gluster

• IBM Storage Scale fits best

  Enterprises needing clustered file and object access

• Gluster fits best

  Open-source teams needing resilient file storage

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Side by side

Feature	IBM Storage Scale 9.0/10 Visit ↗	Gluster 7.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.0	7.7
Ranking	#1 in Distributed File System Software	#3 in Distributed File System Software
Best for	Enterprises needing clustered file and object access	Open-source teams needing resilient file storage
Pricing model	Paid	Free
Starting price	Not published	Not published
Free plan	Not published	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Windows, Linux	Linux
Support	Community, Docs	Community, Docs
Built for	Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features IBM Storage Scale 0/3 · Gluster 1/3
Data replication	Not published	✓ (best)
Multi-site support	Not published	Not published
Encryption at rest	Not published	Not published
Specs
Deployment model	Hybrid	Hybrid
File access protocols	Not published	Not published
Maximum nodes	Not published	Not published
Our review
Pros	Concurrent clustered access across multiple nodes and locations Global namespace with transparent caching and policy-based placement NFS, SMB, S3 and POSIX access with asynchronous replication	Global namespace with replicated and erasure-coded volumes Geo-replication, snapshots, quotas, and bitrot detection NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, and Swift REST access
Cons	Pricing requires contact with IBM sales Asynchronous replication may not suit synchronous requirements Its broad enterprise scope may exceed simple file-sharing needs	Focused on Linux and self-hosted deployments Commercial support is separate from the community project Requires planning for distributed storage administration
Our verdict	IBM Storage Scale is software-defined file and object storage for enterprises running AI, high-performance computing, analytics and other data-intensive workloads. Its clustered, massively parallel file system supports concurrent access… Read the review →	Gluster is a free, open-source distributed network filesystem that aggregates storage from multiple servers into a global namespace. It is aimed at teams building scalable storage deployments for data-intensive workloads, including media… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• IBM Storage Scale — where it wins

  • Concurrent clustered access across multiple nodes and locations
  • Global namespace with transparent caching and policy-based placement
  • NFS, SMB, S3 and POSIX access with asynchronous replication

  Where it doesn't

  • Pricing requires contact with IBM sales
  • Asynchronous replication may not suit synchronous requirements
  • Its broad enterprise scope may exceed simple file-sharing needs

• Gluster — where it wins

  • Global namespace with replicated and erasure-coded volumes
  • Geo-replication, snapshots, quotas, and bitrot detection
  • NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, and Swift REST access

  Where it doesn't

  • Focused on Linux and self-hosted deployments
  • Commercial support is separate from the community project
  • Requires planning for distributed storage administration

• IBM Storage Scale9.0/10 · Pricing on request

  A clustered file and object platform for enterprises managing distributed, data-intensive workloads.

  Visit siteFull verdict →
• Gluster7.7/10 · Free plan

  A resilient distributed filesystem for Linux-based, self-hosted storage environments.

  Visit GlusterFull verdict →