TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FreeNAS

    Score5.4 out of 10
    N/AFreeNAS is an open source operating system that allows nearly any hardware serve as a network-attached storage device. It was developed by iXsystems.N/A

    IBM Storage Scale

    Score9.9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    IBM Storage Scale (formerly IBM Spectrum Scale) supports storage management of unstructured data for big data analytics.N/A
    Pricing
    FreeNASIBM Storage Scale
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FreeNASIBM Storage Scale
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    FreeNASIBM Storage Scale
    Small Businesses
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    StarWind Virtual SAN
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    StarWind Virtual SAN
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    IBM Storage Fusion
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FreeNASIBM Storage Scale
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreeNASIBM Storage Scale
    Likelihood to Recommend
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS is well suited for most storage serving scenarios, whether it be for an office file server, backup destinations, data replication across the internet, or as backend storage for virtual machines. It can serve various types of clients via a plethora of standard protocols and can easily integrate with existing infrastructure using LDAP authentication and so on. It's pretty simple to use (it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the underlying technologies) and almost maintenance-free. One scenario that springs to mind that it may not be appropriate for (yet) is as S3 storage. However, S3 functionality was added in a recent release and may have improved greatly since then. I'm sure it will eventually work very well for this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    When you get a Spectrum Scale solution from IBM you are certain of two things. 1) You will need a specialized storage admin who will be able to take all of its advantages and make available for your organization. It is an appliance that not so many storage admins would be comfortable working on. Invest properly on both hardware and human resources. 2) You will scale forever. We started with a couple of hundred of Terabytes and grew to dozens of Petabytes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    iXsystems
    • The FreeNAS web interface is modern looking. It makes tasks like provisioning drives into raid volumes easy.
    • The ZFS raid option allows you to add in an SSD as a cache drive to increase performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Secure data storage platform.
    • Secure environment to handle big data through.
    • Creating reports from multiple platforms easily.
    Read full review
    Cons
    iXsystems
    • Not good for beginners as it requires deep understanding of networking and storage.
    • Most of the good and required features are not available in free version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Not suited for HPC.
    • Doesn't work well for retail.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    iXsystems
    There were some things that can be found by other users on forums and Google and some things that were not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    iXsystems
    FreeNAS effectively uses all resources really well and it is highly recommended for in premises NAS. It has unlimited ROI as it is really free and open-source. The only payment we need to pay is when we need any support from those guys. FreeNAS helps us to effectively do our work with the legacy systems as it manages all the components really well. FreeNAS although rebranded to TrueNAS will still be there until our legacy systems run.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    It was the solution that fit the requirements of our customers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    iXsystems
    • Low-Cost Network Attached Storage
    • Provides additional network storage to support client & business operations
    • FreeNAS secures our data using custom encryption keys
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Allowed reuse of existing storage
    • Flexibility to provision storage quickly, allowing us to right size storage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Storage Scale Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot