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Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs IBM Spectrum Computing comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cloudera Distribution for H...
Ranking in Hadoop
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (10th)
IBM Spectrum Computing
Ranking in Hadoop
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (30th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Hadoop category, the mindshare of Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is 14.7%, down from 25.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Computing is 5.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hadoop Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop14.7%
IBM Spectrum Computing5.0%
Other80.3%
Hadoop
 

Featured Reviews

SA
Head of Advaced Analytics & Intelligence; AGM at Alinma Bank
Integration of multiple features supports data analytics and processing
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop provides numerous features and capabilities combined into one platform.The solution offers power processing and supports different file systems and query engines. It provides parallel processing for handling many requests. The platform includes role-based access control in Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop. It secures the data itself and provides users with different roles and privileges.
OmarIsmail1 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Very good end-to-end security features."
"The most valuable feature is Kubernetes."
"Cloudera won as it had more functionality with HUE, Sqoop, and Solr as built-in functions."
"The product is completely secure."
"Professional support enabled us to provide great customer service and our clients are able to perform proactive maintenance in an efficient manner."
"This is the only solution that is possible to install on-premise."
"The pricing is very competitive, it's not bad."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the enterprise data platform."
"IBM's ability to cluster compute resources is impressive, with built-in support for scenarios like VR and active-active configurations,"
"The best features of IBM Spectrum Computing are common across many of their storage products."
"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."
"This solution is working for both VTL and tape."
"The most valuable feature is the backup capability."
"Easy to operate and use."
"Spectrum Computing's best features are its speed, robustness, and data processing and analysis."
"I tell everyone that they should go with IBM Spectrum Computing."
 

Cons

"We found some difficulties when importing Hive tables from another cluster."
"The governance aspect of the solution should be improved."
"The competitors provide better functionalities."
"We're currently trying to perform a failed installation and it's little bit difficult. It should restart the installation where it left off."
"It is quite complicated to configure and install. Integrating the platform into an information system is always a challenge, especially when starting with on-premise implementation."
"The areas of improvement depend on the scale of the project. For banking customers, security features and an essential budget for commercial licenses would be the top priority. Data regulation could be the most crucial for a project with extensive data or an extra use case."
"The Cloudera training is terrible."
"The pricing needs to improve."
"SMB storage and HPC is not compatible and it should be supported by IBM Spectrum Computing."
"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."
"Spectrum Computing is lagging behind other products, most likely because it hasn't been shifted to the cloud."
"Lack of sufficient documentation, particularly in Spanish."
"We'd like to see some AI model training for machine learning."
"In Pakistan, IBM's disadvantage is the lack of OEM support and presence."
"Software sometimes is a little slower. It takes two or three days sometimes."
"We are not fully satisfied with this product at the moment because we are having issues with reliability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cloudera requires a license to use."
"It is an expensive product."
"Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop is expensive, with support costs involved."
"The product’s price depends from project to project."
"The pricing must be improved."
"The price could be better for the product."
"When comparing with Oracle Sybase and SQL, it's cheaper. It's not expensive."
"The tool is expensive...For the SMB market or customers whose environments are not that complex and do not have multiple systems running, Cloudera might not be a good option."
"This solution is expensive."
"Spectrum Computing is one of the most expensive products on the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Construction Company
10%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
The price for Cloudera is average, yet it is very good compared to other solutions. It can be deployed on-premises, unlike competitors' cloud-only solutions.
What needs improvement with Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
If they could support modifying the data more easily than the current implementation, it would be beneficial.
What is your primary use case for Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop?
We use Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop for many use cases including analytics, storing huge data sets, and various data processing tasks.
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...
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Platform Computing
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

37signals, Adconion,adgooroo, Aggregate Knowledge, AMD, Apollo Group, Blackberry, Box, BT, CSC
London South Bank University, Transvalor, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Genomic
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop vs. IBM Spectrum Computing and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.