IBM Storage FlashSystem vs. Pure Storage FlashArray

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Storage FlashSystem
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
IBM 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
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
Pure Storage in Mountain View, California offers all-flash array data storage promising affordability, high availability, and consistent performance.N/A
Pricing
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
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 FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
Considered Both Products
IBM Storage FlashSystem
Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
IBM Storage FlashSystem is a comprehensive, feature-rich solution designed to deliver a wide range of advanced capabilities such as SSO which is the key feature that we were looking for. Along with that the ease of use, easier upgrades, deduplication are few features that made …
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;
Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
Our side-by-side evaluations showed IBM Storage FlashSystem out perform the Pure Storage //FA R3 arrays. Making our selection process easy
Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
IBM Flash System is more compact, provides high performance and better serviceability than Pure
Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
Works well for the application but it requires us to add components to increase resiliency.
Pure Storage FlashArray
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
It's faster and more affordable.
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
We tested Mixed Storage HDD and SSD with De and HP boxes. With HP and Lenovo Full SSD Enclosures.
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
We liked the licensing more with the Pure Array and its performance at the time was better than others.
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray was selected for its ease of use. Aside from the GUI not being the most intuitive when you first get introduced to it, it holds up to that reputation. I do, however, enjoy other vendors approach to no expansion shelves. In the end, that ends up giving …
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
The simplicity of management was the primary factor in the decisions.
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
The 3D array is a big diference, the compression and deduplication are better, also the Active Cluster is included in price. The price is very competitive.
Chose Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage was tested against 3 different arrays as we are a hospital system running EPIC we needed a system that could handle the large database load and still provide sub-millisecond latency. All systems came real close to the SLAs we were looking for, but in the end, Pure …
Features
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
Enterprise Flash Array Storage
Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Product A and Product B
IBM Storage FlashSystem
8.5
120 Ratings
5% below category average
Pure Storage FlashArray
9.3
154 Ratings
4% above category average
Flash Array Performance9.6117 Ratings10.0154 Ratings
Flash Array Integration9.3117 Ratings9.0144 Ratings
Data Compression8.8116 Ratings8.0153 Ratings
Non-Intrusive Upgrades8.6112 Ratings10.0148 Ratings
Simplicity7.6119 Ratings10.0154 Ratings
Power Savings7.0114 Ratings9.0131 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.9 out of 10
Dell Compellent (discontinued)
Dell Compellent (discontinued)
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Dell VMAX
Dell VMAX
Score 9.7 out of 10
Dell VMAX
Dell VMAX
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(131 ratings)
10.0
(207 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.4
(4 ratings)
9.1
(25 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(20 ratings)
9.1
(16 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Performance
9.5
(20 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(4 ratings)
9.3
(75 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(3 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(2 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Storage FlashSystemPure Storage FlashArray
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.
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Pure Storage
When you need speed, it's FAST, especially for MS SQL databases. If you are having bottlenecks, you can spend your time finding it in the code because it's not Pure Storage. Love the data reduction and duplication. We can store so much more on this unit than the base physical size. Love the data snapshots. When you need to complete copy your entire environment for testing etc. Nothing is easier, a few clicks and you are done. Extremely helpful for testing and training.
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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.
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Pure Storage
  • The Pure Array does data reduction particularly well. We've seen a 7x reduction on some of our volumes.
  • It is easy to get used to the system after coming from other storage arrays.
  • It has some welcome additions such as a smartphone app that makes it easier to view your cases, etc.
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
Read full review
Pure Storage
  • Reporting is too general. Being a tech nerd, I want to be able to see the nitty-gritty details. I also need to be able to define canned sets of reports for problem application systems.
  • Pricing is a bit higher then some of their direct competitors .
  • Seriously, I have nothing else.
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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.
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Pure Storage
It has so far been a very fast and stable product. We have had wonderful support when we have needed it and the account manager and engineer attached to our organization have been very responsive with any questions and concerns we have had.
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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.
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Pure Storage
From the day our first array was put in (2017) we have had very little issues using it the way we wanted to and none of the setup or processes we incorporate this into have ever been complex. All of the interfaces in the GUI are very intuitive and do not require any CLI experience to do what we need it to do.
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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.
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Pure Storage
We have never had an outage with Purestorage. Yes we have had 2 drives go out but replacements were installed so fast there wasn't any issues. We have had a NVRAM module replaced but were noticed from Pure they were sending a replacement because they were predicting a failure so pure was proactive preventing any issues. Knowing Pure is monitoring our device 24x7 gives us peace of mind.
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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
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Pure Storage
The corporation has a very diverse data load and when we migrate from a hybrid storage to pure all-flash, significant gains have already been observed. Latency always remains below 1 ms regardless of the load and volumetry used. Application performance also depends heavily on whether or not the code is more permormatic and network access infrastructure. The product has been meeting expectations
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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.
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Pure Storage
Pure Support is timely and communicative. They are always ready to assist and very skilled at what they do, no matter the time of day. Even at 12:10 a.m. on New Years Day when your array has a hiccup that causes some errors in your environment, they will be on the phone with you in an instant. If they are unable to determine the cause right away, because things appear to be normal, they will take your environment's configuration, lab it up in their support environment and then research until they figure out what caused the problem. Even if it takes 3 months. True story.
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In-Person Training
IBM
No answers on this topic
Pure Storage
Excellent training and really you don't need that much. We received training at the Pure offices and also on site when the product was installed. Simple things like how to login to the GUI interface, how to setup users, how to create volume and mount it. How to make a snapshot, how to copy it and mount it. Really is pretty self explanatory on how to do things with the GUI interface. We were expecting complicated base on other vendor products, we got super simple.
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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.
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Pure Storage
Great videos and documentation. There is a common theme with PureStorage, "Keep it elegantly simple". They have great support network and great support user groups. Documentation has been very helpful with providing auditors with methods and procedures on security and other ways the product works. Great documentation on setting PureStorage to be the most effective with VM's, SQL Server, and other products.
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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.
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Pure Storage
The install was very quick. The engineer that Pure sent said that if we started by 10 am we would be done by lunchtime, and he was not kidding.
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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.
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Pure Storage
Pure Storage FlashArray came up as being the most cost-effective of the lot plus the extras added like call-home support were very welcome. The competitors' options were a lot more expensive and the call-home support added a lot more to the already high costs.
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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.
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Pure Storage
The product suite scales well and the FA in particular can service any need for all but the most demanding file protocol environments
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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.
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Pure Storage
  • Thanks to the deduplication that is built into the product we are seeing great reduction in total space required by consolidating similar data types on the same array.
  • Our users are very pleased with the performance.
  • The replication allowed us to move our workload from to another data center with minimal downtime.
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ScreenShots

IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

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