GPFS

Definition

GPFS (General Parallel File System), now marketed as IBM Spectrum Scale, is a high-performance clustered file system developed by IBM. It provides parallel access to data from multiple nodes with strong POSIX compliance, snapshots, quotas, information lifecycle management, and AFM (Active File Management) for multi-site data. GPFS is widely used in enterprise HPC, financial services, and AI environments.

Written by
Daniel Kovacs

Updated Feb 11, 2026

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