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IBM Storage FlashSystem vs. IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Storage FlashSystem

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AIBM Storage FlashSystem, an all-flash storage array, delivers ~2 PB of effective capacity per single rack unit. Engineered with unique FlashCore Modules, it offloads data services including compression, encryption, deduplication, and ransomware threat detection ensuring optimum performance and resiliency.

    $14,200

    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AIBM Storwize is a family of recognized all-flash and hybrid storage solutions designed to support the virtualization needs and application workloads of mid-sized enterprises.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsEntry-Level IBM Storage FlashSystem: For any organization looking for an all-flash array with features that are both enterprise conducive and budget friendly, the small to entry level offering prices from IBM begin at $18,400. Mid-Range IBM Storage FlashSystem: For businesses wanting to take advantage of an enterprise-quality flash array for critical workloads (such as SQL databases, SAP, ERP, CRM, etc.), list prices start at $104,600. High-Performance IBM Storage FlashSystem: Organizations seeking a storage array with the ability to run multiple instances of critical applications that are both performance intensive and capacity sensitive, can find IBM prices starting at $368,500. Contact IBM for configuration and pricing details.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    IBM Storage FlashSystem is just a all-in-one system feature rich with capabilities and years of design and fine tuning. There is no comparison as it won't be comparing apples with apples. IBM Storage FlashSystem has just been remodeled from the ground up and is a completely …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    The PURE solution has better performance because it exclusively uses flash disks, however it ends up providing a higher cost, which in our institution's use case was an important requirement;
    Incentivized
    IBM
    Chose IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    IBM Storewize is the best among other products available in the market. Many features such as scalability, data configuration, and data security show this system are best for our business. We can't compare it with others.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Storwize does not have the performance of FlashSystem, but it’s low cost and high capacity options make it competitive as an option for point-in-time copies and backups.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    IBM Storwize is a part of a family that is complemented by the products listed. In many negotiations, involving storage is our workhorse to ensure several businesses thanks to its balanced cost and all the benefits that we offer.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Enterprise Flash Array Storage
    Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of IBM Storage FlashSystem and IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Feature
    IBM Storage FlashSystem
    8.5
    120 Ratings
    5% below category average
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    -
    Ratings
    Flash Array Performance9.5117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Flash Array Integration9.3117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Compression8.8116 Ratings00 Ratings
    Non-Intrusive Upgrades8.6112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Simplicity7.6119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Power Savings7.0114 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Pure Storage FlashArray
    Score10 out of 10
    DiskStation
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (131 ratings)
    9.9
    (20 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.4
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (20 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.4
    (20 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Storage FlashSystemIBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    IBM Storage FlashSystems are well suited as VDI storage for Citrix XenServer environments. Our Xen VDIs are much more responsive with the fast IBM storage attached. With the low latency, the users are experiencing much less lag while working in their Windows VDIs hosted on the XenServers. There's also less graphic fragmentation that occurs since moving to the IBM Storage FlashSystem.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    This stuff runs! Hot, cold not wet, but you know where your data is. Reliably in the cabinet turning your data for the next customer request. You need dedupe, get the flash drive models. Long archives with spinning disks can help with all the data modeling the analysts do. Keep up with the dba’s constant need for speed with all-flash! You will get what you pay for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • Data Replication over long distances using Policy-Based Replication and maintaining the RPO.
    • We use snapshot technology heavily and these snaps are easy to create/automate and instantly available.
    • Upgrades/Updates are deployed to the system without loss of data or services.
    • Sub-millisecond latency is maintained and spikes are handled and absorbed by the system during peaks.
    • When connected to the internet via Storage Insights and Cloud Call Home it makes for proactive problem alerting, monitoring and resolution.
    • The fact that Replication and snapshot stuff are hidden under the covers and we no longer have to create mirror pairs or flashcopy pairs ourselves. It does it within the cluster or partnership.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Data processing and IO. The Storwize devices are very resilient in how they process data and do not have a drop in IO when errors occur (common errors such as disk failures and lost paths).
    • Storage efficiency management. We are able to use multiple efficiency techniques such as thin provisioning and data reduction to reduce our budget footprint.
    • Easy to use interfaces. Creating a volume and mapping to a host has proven to be a very easy process and makes onboarding less stressful for our team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • The flexiblity of upgrading the flash modules for a higher capcity needs to be allowed
    • The user interface for the management console is sometimes a bit confusing
    • the configuration of call home can only be done to a specific IP address but not a dns name
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • As a business partner looking to provide services to keep the uptime of the Storwize, I would like to have the capability to pull reports from IBM Storage Insights to assist my clients in managing their system through it's lifecycle.
    • More knowledge out there for partners to best integrate IBM Storwize with IBM Power i. This seems to be lacking in communication from IBM.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    As flash technology evolves rapidly, vendors should [adapt] to the changes and onboard them in their products. IBM is a bit slow in adopting advanced technology in [its] portfolio. Even though the current product is good, my decision is purely based on how the transformation of the product [is] being produced and supplied to [the] end-user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IBM
    I have found the system to very user friendly. We are currently using it for on premises storage only and have not had the need to leverage any of the cloud extensions. Being able to directly connect up to 8 hosts with dual controller fiber channel is a very nice feature for such a low cost SAN, which saved up quite a bit of money by not having to purchase fabric switches. This also keeps maintenance and power costs down and saves room in the rack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    IBM Flashsystems is always available for me, it is fiberchannel storage without the fuzz of what iscsi brings. It is a very reliable storage system, I have almost never issues with this system. The only things which go wrong are the updates because the old updates which have been staged on the disks are not properly cleaned in my opinion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    IBM
    Under normal conditions the performance of the storages is very good, the only thing that can vary the performance is when we use pools with data reduction and the stored space of the pool exceeds 90%, in these cases the performance is very bad
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    Sometimes the knowledge of the support agent is quite limited and the support always has to route through the level 1 agent to screen all the informtion provided. Then its esclated to the next level support with the all collected data . The logs are always uploaded along wiht the case but still its reviewed at the lower level and then escalated / handed over to the next level if its complex issue to solve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    IBM
    THe training is often selfpaced and easy to follow if you have worked previously with other storage products. The content is clear and contains all the information needed for an admin to learn. However the troubleshooting part is not always included and this is dependent on forums or other sources where the information is not accessible very easily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    I was amazed by the way IBM Flash storage provides a huge amount of storage within the limited footprint, it helped us to replace big fat storage arrays, which aided in the process of moving towards lower hardware, carbon, and energy consumption footprint. We can comfortably say that Flash helped us to host applications fast with a blazing speed and user transactions are quite quick.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    For the past six months, we have been utilizing this technology in our projects to manage a massive workload and produce swift business outcomes on a crucial production database. The IBM FlashSystem 7200, which offers high performance and compression, has so far been a great experience for us. The results and functionality of this product have delighted our consumers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    We looked at a Netgear product - Ready Stor 5200, which is a great device and a bit cheaper than the IBM Storwize. However, considering it does not have built-in resilience, has limited capacity in terms of network interfaces and is twice the size (4U), I would choose the Storwize any time. The only advantage the Netgear device has is its lower price, however, performance, reliability, and scalability are limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    We have been able to scale this storage system whenever there has been requirement for additional capacity and performance. with the help of deduplication we have been able to build quite a robust environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • Easy of use is a key aspect, as we do not have dedicated storage staff.
    • Our RPO has lowered near to Zero, using PBR as replication and this is key for us.
    • DR plan testing has become easier and less time-consuming, allowing us to conduct tests more frequently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • I would like to highlight the most positive aspect I have seen in the products of the IBM Storwize family, and it is the ROI that we can choose when we offer real-time compression with the IBM V7000 family. In truth, this feature is excellent, and we have seen how customers save storage resources, rack space, power and management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

    Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5300Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 9500Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 7300Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5000

    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems) Screenshots

    Product screenshot