red-hat-ceph-storage-vs-red-hat-gluster-storage

Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage are both software defined storage solutions designed to decouple storage from physical hardware.  Red Hat Ceph Storage provides storage that scales quickly and supports short term storage needs.  In contrast, Red Hat Gluster Storage handles big data needs well and can support petabytes of data.  Both software options are used by businesses of all sizes, and it is possible for a business to make use of both storage solutions.

Features

Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage both help users address storage needs in a software defined way, but they take different approaches to storage problems and have some standout features that set them apart from each other.

Red Hat Ceph Storage is designed around storing data as objects that can be easily shared across a network.  Any device on the network can easily access any data stored on the Red Hat Ceph Storage cluster.  Users will also have an easy time distributing and receiving data using Red Hat Ceph Storage due to it’s easy to use dashboards. This approach to storage makes it easy for businesses to store data that needs to be accessed frequently from multiple devices.

Red Hat Gluster Storage is built to store data in large chunks called blocks, which can scale very quickly as businesses generate more data.  Blocks stored using Red Hat Gluster Storage can be transferred as a unit, so relevant data can be packaged together without risk of losing individual pieces. The block approach to storage makes Red Hat Gluster Storage ideal for businesses that need to store large amounts of data.

Limitations

Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage provide essential storage features, but they also have some limitations that are important to consider.

Red Hat Ceph Storage allows for quick storage and sharing, but is more prone to data loss than a block solution like Red Hat Gluster Storage.  Additionally, data cannot be grouped together as easily as it can with Red Hat Gluster Storage, so it can be a little more difficult to share packages of data using Red Hat Ceph Storage.  

Red Hat Gluster Storage is a more resource intensive program compared to Red Hat Ceph Storage, and doesn’t make it as simple to quickly share data objects.  Because Red Hat Gluster Storage doesn’t provide a simple cluster that multiple devices can receive data from, it isn’t ideal for data that needs to be accessed by multiple users in a short period of time.  For businesses looking to store data that may scale up and down in size, ceph storage may be preferred while Red Hat Gluster Storage performs well as data storage needs become consistently large.

Pricing

Both Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage are open source options that can be implemented at no cost.  For businesses looking for assistance, support is also through Red Hat partners and third party vendors.  In either case, pricing depends on the vendor chosen and the needs of the business.