Ceph Storage
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system providing unified object, block, and file storage on commodity hardware, governed by the Ceph Foundation under the Linux Foundation and used by enterprises, cloud providers, research institutions, and government agencies worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2007
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Ceph Storage does
Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system that delivers unified object, block, and file storage from a single cluster built on commodity hardware. Its foundation is RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store), extended through RGW for S3/Swift-compatible object storage, RBD for thinly provisioned block storage with Kubernetes CSI integration, and CephFS for POSIX-compliant distributed file storage. The CRUSH (Controlled Replication Under Scalable Hashing) algorithm enables clients to compute data placement directly, eliminating central metadata server bottlenecks, while self-healing, erasure coding, and cache tiering provide durability and cost efficiency at petabyte-to-exabyte scale. Next-generation components Crimson OSD and SeaStore are under active development to optimize the stack for NVMe and high-performance workloads.
Ceph is governed by the Ceph Foundation under the Linux Foundation, with technical direction held by the Ceph Leadership Team rather than any single vendor. The project has no direct software revenue; value capture happens through tiered foundation membership (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Associate) from corporate members including IBM, Bloomberg, 45drives, CLYSO, Western Digital, Red Hat, DigitalOcean, OVH, Canonical, and CERN, alongside commercial support, hardware, and services revenue at ecosystem partners such as Red Hat (Red Hat Ceph Storage), IBM, Canonical (Ubuntu Advantage), 45drives, SoftIron, and CLYSO. The go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: users discover and deploy Ceph directly via downloads, documentation, mailing lists, GitHub, Ceph Days regional events, Cephalocon, monthly tech talks, and the Ceph Quarterly newsletter.
The user base spans global enterprises, academic and research institutions (CERN, University of Kentucky, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, MeerKAT Radio Telescope), cloud service providers (OVH, DigitalOcean), government agencies (US Air Force, NASA), and storage hardware vendors (IBM, Intel, Samsung, Western Digital). Ceph originated as research at UC Santa Cruz in 2004 under Sage Weil, was formalized in his 2007 PhD thesis, and reached production-grade scale with the 2018 formation of the Ceph Foundation.
Ceph Storage firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ceph Storage
- Legal name
- Ceph
- Website
- https://ceph.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2007
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system providing unified object, block, and file storage on commodity hardware, governed by the Ceph Foundation under the Linux Foundation and used by enterprises, cloud providers, research institutions, and government agencies worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ceph Storage industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Distributed Storage Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Computer Storage Devices (3572), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Storage Virtualization & Software-Defined Storage (SDS) (HDABAEAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Cloud Storage Core Services (Object/Block/File Storage as a Service) (HDABAAAK), Edge Storage & Distributed Caching (KV/Object, Edge Cache) (HDABAGAI)
Keywords
Where Ceph Storage is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Ceph Storage business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Others
Revenue model
- Foundation Membership Fees: Organizations contribute annual membership fees to the Ceph Foundation based on tier (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver) and employee count. The foundation coordinates development, marketing, and community activities.
- Enterprise Support Services: Multiple ecosystem companies (IBM, Red Hat, Canonical, 42on, CLYSO, and others) provide commercial support, consulting, and professional services for Ceph deployments.
- Hardware and Appliance Sales: Companies like 45drives and SoftIron sell Ceph-optimized hardware appliances. Dell, HP, and other vendors offer Ceph-compatible infrastructure.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Open Source Software - Free download |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels12 records
Ceph Storage product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ceph Storage is an open-source, distributed storage system that delivers unified object, block, and file storage from a single cluster built on commodity hardware. It is built on RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store) and uses the CRUSH algorithm for intelligent, decentralized data placement, enabling self-healing, linearly scalable storage for petabyte to exabyte deployments. Commercial monetization occurs through the Ceph Foundation membership program and a partner ecosystem that sells hardware appliances, support, and professional services.
Product overview
Ceph Storage is an open-source, unified distributed storage system that provides object, block, and file storage from a single cluster built on commodity hardware. The core platform is RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store), which is extended through multiple storage interfaces: RGW (RADOS Gateway) for S3/Swift-compatible object storage, RBD (RADOS Block Device) for block storage with Kubernetes CSI integration, and CephFS for POSIX-compliant file storage. Supporting modules include the Ceph Dashboard for web-based management, cephadm for cluster orchestration, the Crimson OSD for NVMe-optimized next-generation storage daemons, Seastore as the native object store for Crimson, and the iSCSI Gateway for SAN integration. The architecture allows organizations to choose storage interfaces independently while sharing underlying unified storage infrastructure.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Crimson: High-performance Object Storage Daemon (OSD) optimized for fast storage devices such as NVMe, built using SPDK, DPDK and the Seastar framework.
- RADOS
- CephFS
- RBD
- RGW
- Ceph Foundation
- SeaStore
- Cephalocon
- Ceph Quarterly
Products and services
- RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store) The foundational distributed object storage platform underlying all Ceph storage types. RADOS distributes data placement, consistent access, redundancy, failure detection, and recovery across clusters of thousands of storage devices at petabyte to exabyte scale.
- RGW (RADOS Gateway) Object storage service providing S3-compatible and Swift-compatible REST APIs for cloud-native object storage workloads, with bucket notifications, Lua scripting, and multi-site replication.
- RBD (RADOS Block Device) Thinly provisioned block storage that stripes virtual disks over objects across the Ceph cluster, with snapshots, clones, mirroring, and Kubernetes dynamic provisioning via CSI driver.
- CephFS (Ceph File System) POSIX-compliant distributed file system with snapshots, quotas, and multi-cluster mirroring. Files are striped across RADOS objects for extreme scale, with metadata served by scalable Metadata Servers (MDS).
- LIBRADOS Native application library providing direct connectivity to RADOS for applications needing direct object storage access. Available in C, C++, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and other languages.
- Crimson OSD Next-generation Object Storage Daemon (OSD) optimized for fast NVMe storage using kernel bypass, shared-nothing architecture, and the C++ Seastar framework. Designed as a drop-in replacement for the classic OSD with better multi-core scalability.
Quantifiable outcome
- Eliminates metadata server bottlenecks through CRUSH algorithm for direct client data location calculation
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Ceph Storage
Customer profileNamed customers16 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Ceph Storage technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration7 records
AI capability3 records
Feature9 records
Ceph Storage partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- IBMcoreIBM is a Diamond member of the Ceph Foundation and a major contributor to Ceph development. IBM employs core Ceph developers and provides enterprise support and services for Ceph deployments.
- 45drivescore45drives is a Diamond member of the Ceph Foundation and manufactures Ceph-optimized storage hardware appliances. They actively contribute to Ceph development and community.
- BloombergcoreBloomberg is a Diamond member of the Ceph Foundation and contributes significantly to Ceph development, particularly in areas related to RGW and testing infrastructure.
- CLYSO (Clyso)coreCLYSO is a Diamond member of the Ceph Foundation. They are a Munich-based company providing Ceph consulting, support, and training services, and have been focused on Ceph since 2012.
- Western DigitalcoreWestern Digital is a Platinum member of the Ceph Foundation and contributes to Ceph development. They provide enterprise storage hardware and are a significant user of Ceph.
- Red HatcoreRed Hat provides significant development resources to Ceph, hosts ceph.com website, and provides enterprise Ceph products including Red Hat Ceph Storage.
- 42onsupporting42on is a Gold member of the Ceph Foundation and provides specialized Ceph expertise, consulting, and support services in Europe.
- Canonical (Ubuntu)supportingCanonical is a Silver member of the Ceph Foundation and provides Ceph support as part of Ubuntu Advantage and MAAS infrastructure management.
- DigitalOceansupportingDigitalOcean is a Silver member of the Ceph Foundation and uses Ceph for their block and object storage infrastructure.
- OSNexussupportingOSNexus is a Silver member of the Ceph Foundation and provides Quantastor, a software-defined storage platform built on Ceph.
- OVHsupportingOVH is a Silver member of the Ceph Foundation and uses Ceph extensively for their cloud storage infrastructure.
- CERNcoreCERN is an Associate member of the Ceph Foundation and uses Ceph for large-scale research data storage. They contribute to development and community activities.
- Linux FoundationcoreThe Linux Foundation hosts the Ceph Foundation under its umbrella, providing governance, financial, and logistical support for the Ceph project.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves1 record
Expansion highlights5 records
Ceph Storage competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- MinIO: MinIO is an open-source, S3-compatible object storage system that competes directly with Ceph's RGW. It targets similar cloud-native and Kubernetes workloads with a simpler architecture focused purely on object storage, often considered the leading open-source alternative to Ceph for object-only deployments.
- OpenStack Swift: OpenStack Swift is an open-source, highly available object storage system. Although older, it remains a directly comparable open-source alternative to Ceph's RGW, particularly in OpenStack-based private cloud deployments.
Broad incumbents
- NetApp: NetApp is an enterprise storage incumbent offering ONTAP-based file and block (and increasingly object) storage. It is the principal proprietary incumbent Ceph displaces in on-prem enterprise deals.
- Pure Storage: Pure Storage offers all-flash enterprise storage arrays (FlashBlade for file/object) used by enterprises seeking high-performance, easy-to-manage storage. It is a commercial alternative to Ceph in environments where operational simplicity is prioritized over open-source flexibility.
- Red Hat Ceph Storage: Red Hat's commercial packaging of Ceph, offered as Red Hat Ceph Storage. As a strategic partner and trademark holder, Red Hat is both the largest commercial distributor and a key commercial competitor to other Ceph-support vendors such as SUSE, IBM, and CLYSO.
- Dell PowerScale (formerly Isilon): Dell's PowerScale is a scale-out NAS platform widely used in media, research, and HPC — segments where Ceph is also deployed (CERN, NASA, MeerKAT). It represents the proprietary incumbent Ceph most directly competes against in scale-out file/object storage.
- SUSE Enterprise Storage: SUSE offers a commercial Ceph-based enterprise storage product. It is directly comparable as a packaged, supported Ceph distribution competing for the same enterprise customers as Red Hat Ceph Storage.
Emerging players
- VAST Data: VAST Data offers a unified, high-performance storage platform combining file, object, and block on a scale-out architecture. It overlaps with Ceph's unified-storage positioning but targets latency-sensitive AI/analytics workloads where Ceph has historically been weaker.
- Scality: Scality provides object and file storage software (e.g., RING, ARTESCA) for exabyte-scale deployments. It competes with Ceph in large enterprise and telco environments where on-prem object storage is required, often as a proprietary alternative to open-source Ceph.
- WekaIO (WEKA): WEKA provides a high-performance, scale-out parallel file system aimed at AI/ML and HPC workloads. It overlaps with CephFS and the emerging Crimson/SeaStore roadmap in latency-sensitive and high-throughput use cases.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Ceph Storage social profiles
Digital presenceCeph Storage financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ceph Storage leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Ceph Storage funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ceph Storage 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 Storage
What does Ceph Storage do?
Ceph Storage is an open-source, distributed storage system that delivers unified object, block, and file storage from a single cluster built on commodity hardware. It is built on RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store) and uses the CRUSH algorithm for intelligent, decentralized data placement, enabling self-healing, linearly scalable storage for petabyte to exabyte deployments. Commercial monetization occurs through the Ceph Foundation membership program and a partner ecosystem that sells hardware appliances, support, and professional services.
Is Ceph Storage a public or private company?
Ceph Storage is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Ceph Storage founded?
Ceph Storage was founded in 2007. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Ceph Storage based?
Ceph Storage is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ceph Storage make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Foundation Membership Fees are the primary driver. The others are enterprise Support Services and hardware and Appliance Sales.
Who are Ceph Storage's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are MinIO and OpenStack Swift. Broad incumbents are NetApp, Pure Storage, Red Hat Ceph Storage, Dell PowerScale (formerly Isilon) and SUSE Enterprise Storage. Emerging players are VAST Data, Scality and WekaIO (WEKA).
Does Ceph Storage have an API?
Yes. Ceph provides multiple APIs: (1) LIBRADOS - a direct application library interface for connecting applications to RADOS; (2) RGW (RADOS Gateway) - provides Amazon S3-compatible and OpenStack Swift-compatible object storage APIs; (3) CephFS - POSIX-compliant filesystem interface accessible via kernel client, FUSE client, or NFSv4 gateway via NFS-Ganesha; (4) RBD (RADOS Block Device) - block storage accessible via kernel modules, QEMU/libvirt, and Kubernetes CSI driver. Developer documentation is at docs.ceph.com/en/latest.
What industry is Ceph Storage in?
Ceph Storage's product category is Distributed Storage Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAEAF, Storage Virtualization & Software-Defined Storage (SDS), with a secondary code of HDABAAAK, Cloud Storage Core Services (Object/Block/File Storage as a Service). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 3572.