Broadberry Ceph Storage

Open, Scalable Storage for File, Block and Object Data

Broadberry Ceph storage combines open source software with hardware designed around your workloads, performance, capacity and resilience requirements.

From shared file storage and virtual infrastructure to object repositories and AI data lakes, Broadberry designs, integrates and validates the complete Ceph environment.

Ceph provides a common distributed storage foundation while allowing applications to access data through the interface they require.

CephFS RBD RGW
File Storage Block Storage Object Storage
Shared POSIX filesystem for files and directories Block devices for virtual machine and applications S3- and Swift-compatible object access
Ideal for: Shared files, research, AI datasets Ideal for: Virtualisation, private cloud Ideal for: Object repositories, cloud-native applications

These are separate access models. Data stored through one service does not automatically appear through another.

Before recommending a Ceph architecture, Broadberry evaluates your workloads, application services, capacity, performance and resilience requirements.

Workload Assessment

Define applications, I/O,
latency, throughput and
concurrency.

Capacity Planning

Calculate usable capacity,
protection overhead,
reserve and growth.

Service Design

Select CephFS, RBD and
RGW services around
application requirements.

Infrastructure Design

Engineer compute, memory,
storage media, networking
and failure domains.

Validation

Test performance, recovery
and application compatibility
before deployment.

Lifecycle Support

Plan monitoring, upgrades,
expansion and ongoing
cluster health.

Ceph can support very different storage requirements. The application determines the service, media and architecture.

Workload Ceph Service Design Priority
Shared Files & Research CephFS Metadata performance and concurrent access
Virtualisation & Private Cloud RBD Random I/O latency and recovery
Object & Content Repositories RGW Gateway scale and usable capacity
Backup & Long-Term Storage CephFS / RGW Ingest, restore and retention
AI Data Lakes & Training CephFS Throughput, metadata and active-data performance

Ceph lets Broadberry tailor storage media, data protection and infrastructure to different workload requirements.

Capacity + Performance Pools

Combine HDD capacity with SSD or NVMe performance pools.

Distributed Protection

Protect data across drives, hosts and racks using defined failure domains.

Scalable Architecture

Add OSD nodes as capacity and workload requirements grow.

Open Hardware

Deploy Ceph on standard, non-proprietary server infrastructure.

Usable capacity depends on protection, failure domains and recovery requirements. Broadberry designs Ceph storage to deliver the capacity your applications can actually use.

Ceph supports a wide range of workloads across file, block and object storage.

Use Case Typical Requirements
Virtualisation & Private Cloud Shared block storage for VMs and cloud infrastructure
Shared Files & Research Common file access for research data and collaborative workflows
AI & Machine Learning Shared access to training datasets and active AI data
Object & Content Storage S3-compatible storage for applications and large repositories
Backup & Long-Term Storage Scalable capacity for backup, retention and recovery
Containerised Workflows Persistent shared storage for distributed applications

Broadberry combines Ceph expertise with workload-led hardware design to deliver a complete, validated storage platform rather than simply supplying the servers.

Workload-Led Design

Designed around your applications, performance and capacity needs.

Complete Cluster Engineering

Compute, memory, media, networking and Ceph services designed together.

Flexible Hardware

Choose HDD, SSD and NVMe configurations.

Deployment and Lifecycle Support

Support from planning through future expansion.


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What is the difference between Ceph and CephFS?

Ceph is the distributed storage platform. CephFS is its shared filesystem. Ceph can also provide block storage through RBD and object storage through RGW.

Can Ceph support virtual machines?

Yes. RBD provides block devices through supported host and hypervisor integrations. The configuration should be sized and validated for the expected VM workload and recovery requirements.

Can Ceph use both HDD and NVMe storage?

Yes. Different media classes and placement rules can be used to create capacity and performance pools. Adding NVMe, however, does not automatically accelerate all data in the cluster.

Is Ceph suitable for AI and GPU clusters?

Yes, when the storage media, metadata services and networking are designed to meet the application's performance requirements. CephFS can provide shared file access across GPU hosts, while flash pools can be used for active training data.

Should every Ceph pool use erasure coding?

No. Replication and erasure coding have different capacity, performance and recovery trade-offs. CephFS metadata pools require replication, while appropriate data pools may use erasure coding.

Does Ceph eliminate the need for backup?

No. Distributed redundancy and snapshots protect against different risks than an independent backup. Backup, retention and off-site recovery should be planned separately.

Can Ceph scale as storage requirements grow?

Yes. Additional OSD nodes can add capacity and resources, but expansion triggers data placement changes and rebalancing. Broadberry plans capacity reserve, networking and recovery requirements as part of the architecture.

Tell us about your applications, capacity, performance and recovery requirements. Broadberry will design a Ceph storage architecture around the services, media and protection policies your environment needs.

Speak with a Storage Expert

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