Spectrum Scale: Scale Efortlessly
September 28, 2019
Spectrum Scale: Scale Efortlessly
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with IBM Spectrum Scale
IBM Spectrum Scale is used as a file server box. Due to its many supported protocols, it is a good choice when choosing one box to store all your files, access through NFS, CIFS, and BLOCK. It was mainly used to support file access to hospital images (PACS). When we began using it, we had a steady capacity growth of 4 TB/3 months. Thanks to the technology used by separating metadata from data, we were able to store metadata files on SDD disks making it very fast to search and access files. Before that, searching through a filesystem would take minutes, just to list all files.
- Easy scalability, vertically and horizontally.
- Active-active high availability across datacenters.
- Great to store massive amounts of data.
- Upgrading procedure, many times we had to do manual upgrades instead of the automatic one provided by IBM.
- Many advanced features are only available through the command line, it would be best they would be available on the GUI.
- More easy understanding of its compatibility matrix, regarding support for NFS and CIFS protocols.
- Positive impact: one solution for many years to come. Turn your CAPEX on many many years of OPEX.
- Negative impact: it is an expensive solution.
- It is a door to send your less frequent accessed data to the cloud, and still under the umbrella one solution.
- NetApp FAS series and Dell EMC Celerra (Discontinued)
When we implemented the Spectrum Scale solution, we had in place a NetApp FAS series working in Metro Cluster mode. What is great about NetApp is its low maintenance. On the other hand, it lacks performance, especially on the CPU nodes. We needed a solution that will deliver steady performance while keeping a steady growth.