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The Evolution of IBM Spectrum Scale

IBM Spectrum Scale is software defined storage for cloud, big data & analytics, and NAS solutions. From its first release as GFPS 2.1-2.3 in 2005 to the most recent GPFS 4.1.1 (IBM Spectrum Scale) released this year, this solution has evolved throughout the years.

GPFS 2.1-2.3 (2005)

  • HPC
  • Research, Visualization, Digital Media, Seismic, Weather Exploration, Life Sciences
  • 32 bit, 64 bit Inter-op (IBM AIX & Linux) GPFS Multicluster
  • GPFS over Wide Area Networks (WAN)
  • Large Scale Clusters Thousands of Nodes

GFPS 3.1-3.2 (2006)

  • Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)
    • Storage Pools
    • File Sets
    • Policy Engine
  • Ease of Administration
  • Multiple-networks / RDMA
  • Distributed Token Management
  • Windows 2008
  • Multiple NSD Servers
  • NFS v4 Support
  • Small File Performance

GPFS 3.3 (2009)

  • Restricted Admin Functions
  • Improved Installation
  • New License Model
  • Improved Snapshot and Backup
  • Improved ILM Policy Engine

GPFS 3.4 (2010)

  • Enhanced Windows cluster support – Homogenous Windows Server
  • Performance and Scaling Improvements
  • Enhanced Migration and Diagnostics Support

GPFS 3.5 (2012)

  • Active File Management
  • GPFS Native RAID
  • GPFS Shared Nothing Cluster (GPFS-FPO
  • GPFS Storage Server

GPFS 4.1 (2014)

  • Encryption
  • Performance (LROC, AFM)
  • Usability (Network Monitor, NFS Migration, FPO)
  • Elastic Storage on Linux on System z
  • Cloud Service on IBM Softlayer
  • Elastic Storage Server

GPFS 4.1+ (2015) – Now Called IBM Spectrum Scale

  • Part of IBM Spectrum Storage Software Defined Storage

GPFS 4.1.1 (2015)

  • Enhanced Client Experience
  • New Protocols: NSFv4, SMB/CIFS, Improved OpenStack Swift
  • Async DR

Contact our file system experts to learn more about the key features of IBM Spectrum Scale.