Ceph
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system providing unified object, block, and file storage from a single RADOS cluster, governed under the Linux Foundation with the trademark held by Red Hat. It serves enterprises, research institutions, government, and cloud providers with deployments scaling to hundreds of exabytes.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Ceph does
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system that provides unified object, block, and file storage interfaces from a single RADOS cluster. Originating as Sage Weil's 2004 PhD research at UC Santa Cruz and commercialized through Inktank (acquired by Red Hat in 2014 for approximately $100 million), Ceph is now governed as an open-source project under the Linux Foundation via the Ceph Foundation (established 2018), with the Ceph trademark held by Red Hat. The architecture is built around the CRUSH algorithm for controlled, scalable, decentralized data placement and includes sub-products such as RADOS Gateway (S3/Swift-compatible object storage), RADOS Block Device, CephFS, BlueStore, and the next-generation Crimson OSD with SeaStore backend optimized for NVMe and multi-core hardware via the Seastar framework. Self-managing and self-healing capabilities target reduced operational overhead at exabyte scale.
Ceph serves large enterprises (Bloomberg, IBM, Intel, Samsung, Western Digital, OVH, US Signal, THG), academic and research institutions (Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Kentucky, CERN), government and defense agencies (US Air Force), and cloud service providers, with documented deployments spanning the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. The project scales to hundreds of exabytes and is supported by a global community reaching over 15,000 newsletter followers.
The Ceph Foundation generates revenue through tiered annual membership fees (Silver $10-15K, Gold $24-30K, Platinum $40-50K, Diamond $80-100K), with Diamond members including Bloomberg, IBM, 45drives, and Clyso. The project itself is distributed free via ceph.io and GitHub under open-source licensing; commercial support, training, and managed services are delivered through ecosystem members including Red Hat, IBM, Canonical, and SoftIron rather than by the Ceph Foundation directly. The Ceph Foundation operates with 1-10 employees.
Ceph firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ceph
- Legal name
- Ceph (maintained by Red Hat, Inc.)
- Website
- https://ceph.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system providing unified object, block, and file storage from a single RADOS cluster, governed under the Linux Foundation with the trademark held by Red Hat. It serves enterprises, research institutions, government, and cloud providers with deployments scaling to hundreds of exabytes.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ceph industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Distributed Storage Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Computer Storage Devices (3572)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Edge Storage & Distributed Caching (KV/Object, Edge Cache) (HDABAGAI)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Edge Compute & Edge Caching Platforms (MPAHAIAC)
Keywords
Where Ceph is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Ceph business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Foundation Membership Fees: Organizations pay annual membership fees to join the Ceph Foundation at various tiers (Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond) to support the project and gain governance participation.
- Enterprise Support Services: Commercial support and services provided by member organizations like Red Hat, IBM, and other ecosystem companies that offer enterprise-grade Ceph support contracts.
- Training and Professional Services: Foundation organizations provide valuable training and professional services for users of Ceph, creating revenue opportunities for members.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Silver Membership - $10,000-$15,000/year |
| Subscription | Annual | Gold Membership - $24,000-$30,000/year |
| Subscription | Annual | Platinum Membership - $40,000-$50,000/year |
| Subscription | Annual | Diamond Membership - $80,000-$100,000/year |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels10 records
Ceph product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system that provides unified object, block, and file storage from a single RADOS cluster. It uses the CRUSH algorithm to distribute data across commodity hardware with self-managing and self-healing capabilities, eliminating vendor lock-in and supporting deployments from small clusters to hundreds of exabytes.
Product overview
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage platform that provides unified object (via RADOS Gateway/RGW), block (via RADOS Block Device/RBD), and file (via CephFS) storage interfaces from a single RADOS cluster. The core Ceph platform uses the CRUSH algorithm for intelligent data placement and offers self-managing, self-healing capabilities. Key components include Crimson OSD (high-performance OSD for NVMe using Seastar framework), SeaStore (new native object store for Crimson), BlueStore (default object storage backend), RGW (S3/Swift-compatible object gateway), RBD (block storage), CephFS (file storage), and the Ceph Manager for cluster monitoring. The platform runs on commodity hardware with no vendor lock-in.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Ceph (Core Platform) Open-source distributed storage system providing unified object, block, and file storage from a single RADOS cluster for enterprises, cloud providers, research institutions, and government organizations. Features self-managing and self-healing capabilities, runs on commodity hardware with no vendor lock-in.
- RADOS Gateway (RGW) Object storage interface providing Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift API compatibility for object storage workloads with platform and hardware independence.
- RADOS Block Device (RBD) Thinly provisioned block storage with snapshotting, replication, and striping capabilities providing block device images through the RADOS cluster.
- CephFS POSIX-compliant file system interface with dynamic metadata rebalancing and high performance, operating within the same scalable system as object and block storage.
- Crimson OSD Next-generation high-performance Object Storage Daemon optimized for NVMe storage devices. Built on the Seastar framework with kernel bypass, shared-nothing architecture, and run-to-completion model for multi-core scaling. Designed as drop-in replacement for classic OSD with librados protocol support.
- SeaStore Native object store backend for Crimson OSD developed with the Seastar framework. Supports segmented backend for sequential writes, random-block backend for random writes, ZNS devices, and device tiering.
- BlueStore Default object storage backend for Ceph OSDs, providing efficient storage of objects on disk with improved performance over the legacy Filestore backend.
Quantifiable outcome
- Self-managing and self-healing reduces operational overhead by automatically finding and rectifying issues before users are aware
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Ceph
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Ceph technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Ceph partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Linux FoundationcoreCeph Foundation is organized under the Linux Foundation umbrella. Linux Foundation provides financial, logistical, and governance support for the Ceph project. Founded in 2000, Linux Foundation supports open source communities through infrastructure, services, events, and training.
- Red HatcoreRed Hat owns the Ceph trademark and provides primary hosting for ceph.io website and project infrastructure. Red Hat's involvement includes maintaining trademark policy and providing platform for community collaboration.
- IBMcoreDiamond member of Ceph Foundation providing significant development contributions including Crimson project work, performance benchmarking, and enterprise storage solutions. IBM provides technical support professionals for Ceph Storage.
- BloombergflagshipDiamond member of Ceph Foundation supporting the open source project and utilizing Ceph for enterprise storage solutions.
- 45drivesflagshipDiamond member providing Ceph-based storage solutions with specialized hardware appliances.
- ClysoflagshipDiamond member offering Ceph consulting and managed services for enterprise deployments.
- Western DigitalflagshipPlatinum member providing storage hardware expertise and integration support for Ceph deployments.
- CanonicalcoreSilver member providing Ceph integration with Ubuntu and offering Ceph software engineering positions. Canonical distributes Ceph as part of its open source infrastructure solutions.
- DigitalOceancoreSilver member utilizing Ceph for cloud infrastructure storage needs.
- OVHcoreSilver member offering Ceph-based cloud storage services.
- IntelcoreFeatured on ceph.io users page providing hardware expertise and integration support for Ceph deployments, contributing to Crimson project development.
- SamsungcoreFeatured on ceph.io users page contributing to Ceph research and development, particularly in deduplication architecture.
- SoftIroncoreHardware vendor providing HyperDrive storage appliances optimized for Ceph, featured in multiple case studies (US Signal, THG, US Air Force, universities).
- CERNcoreAssociate member representing major research institution utilizing Ceph for large-scale data storage in particle physics research.
- OpenInfra FoundationcoreAssociate member representing open infrastructure community collaboration.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Ceph competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MinIO: Open-source S3-compatible object storage system offering high-performance distributed storage. Comparable to Ceph's RADOS Gateway as a leading open-source distributed storage project targeting enterprise and cloud-native workloads, though focused purely on object storage.
- Rook: CNCF open-source storage orchestrator for Kubernetes with primary support for Ceph deployments. Highly comparable as a Ceph-coupled open-source storage project in the cloud-native ecosystem, serving the same Kubernetes-adopting enterprise base.
- GlusterFS: Red Hat-maintained open-source distributed file system historically positioned alongside Ceph in Red Hat's storage portfolio. Comparable as open-source distributed file/block storage with a similar self-managed, commodity-hardware deployment model and overlapping user base.
- Apache HDFS: Apache Hadoop's distributed file system widely deployed for big data and analytics workloads at petabyte/exabyte scale. Comparable as open-source distributed storage handling massive data volumes, often used as alternative or complement to Ceph in enterprise data architectures.
- OpenStack Swift: OpenStack's open-source object storage component offering S3-like API with strong multi-tenancy. Comparable as open-source distributed object storage serving similar cloud provider and enterprise use cases, particularly in OpenStack-based private clouds.
Emerging players
- OpenEBS: Open-source container-attached storage (CAS) for Kubernetes workloads with a focus on cloud-native storage scenarios. Comparable as newer open-source alternative increasingly competing with Ceph's Kubernetes-orchestrated RBD deployments.
- Longhorn: SUSE-maintained open-source lightweight block storage system for Kubernetes providing persistent volumes for containers. Comparable as open-source Kubernetes-native block storage alternative competing with Ceph's RBD in cloud-native deployments.
Broad incumbents
- Scality: Enterprise object and file storage vendor offering Zenko (open-source multi-cloud data orchestration) and proprietary RING/CONNEC software-defined storage. Comparable as larger commercial player offering distributed storage at petabyte/exabyte scale to enterprises and service providers.
- NetApp: Major enterprise storage incumbent offering ONTAP-based unified block/file/object storage arrays including NetApp StorageGRID for object workloads. Comparable as established vendor with overlapping unified storage story competing for enterprise data center consolidation budgets.
- Dell PowerScale: Dell's enterprise scale-out NAS platform (formerly Isilon) for large-scale file and unstructured data workloads. Comparable as established enterprise storage incumbent competing for unstructured data workloads including those addressed by CephFS.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Ceph social profiles
Digital presenceCeph financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ceph leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Ceph funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ceph M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ceph
What does Ceph do?
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system that provides unified object, block, and file storage from a single RADOS cluster. It uses the CRUSH algorithm to distribute data across commodity hardware with self-managing and self-healing capabilities, eliminating vendor lock-in and supporting deployments from small clusters to hundreds of exabytes.
Is Ceph a public or private company?
Ceph is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Ceph founded?
Ceph was founded in 2004. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Ceph based?
Ceph is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ceph make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Foundation Membership Fees are the primary driver. The others are enterprise Support Services and training and Professional Services.
Who are Ceph's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are MinIO, Rook, GlusterFS, Apache HDFS and OpenStack Swift. Emerging players are OpenEBS and Longhorn. Broad incumbents are Scality, NetApp and Dell PowerScale.
Does Ceph have an API?
Yes. Ceph provides librados, a parallel, fault-tolerant object storage API that allows applications to connect directly to the RADOS cluster. The librados API supports object operations and is used by other Ceph components (RBD, CephFS, RGW) and third-party applications. Ceph also supports Amazon S3 and Swift APIs through the RADOS Gateway (RGW). The GitHub repository is available at https://github.com/ceph/ceph and issue tracking is handled via Redmine at https://tracker.ceph.com. Developer documentation is at docs.ceph.com.
What industry is Ceph in?
Ceph's product category is Distributed Storage Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAGAI, Edge Storage & Distributed Caching (KV/Object, Edge Cache), with a secondary code of MPAHAIAC, Edge Compute & Edge Caching Platforms. Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 3572.