HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.1, while IBM is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.6. Additionally, 97% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and HPE Alletra Storage compete in the storage solutions market. HPE Alletra Storage has the upper hand due to its advanced management features and superior scalability.

Features: IBM FlashSystem offers robust data protection, high-performance capabilities, and reliability. HPE Alletra Storage provides advanced management, scalability, and intuitive controls.

Room for Improvement: IBM FlashSystem needs better cost efficiency, enhanced analytics, and customer support responsiveness. HPE Alletra Storage requires more comprehensive support resources, improved update processes, and cost-effective solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is noted for its straightforward deployment but has mixed customer service reviews. HPE Alletra Storage is praised for easy implementation and consistently favorable customer support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem has competitive initial setup costs but questionable long-term ROI. HPE Alletra Storage, though initially more expensive, delivers better ROI through advanced features and long-term reliability.

To learn more, read our detailed HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem

December 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 823,795 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Featured Reviews

Paul Pearson

Storage and Backup Architect at Concentrix

Works well, is easy to implement, and has upgrade analysis capabilities

We love the product. Pure Storage works really well. The CAT tool and also the ability to upgrade the unit's place grades are great. It allows for in-place control or upgrades. It's a very simple implementation. They have a good tool to analyze upgrades. The stability is good. Technical support has been excellent.

Read full review

Lisa Whalen

System Engineer at University of Nebraska

Provides a cloud-like operation model on-prem for managing data infrastructure

I've always said I love that it's easy to use. At one point in time, we had a 3PAR. And with 3PAR, I always thought it was a little more difficult. There was so much more to maintaining it, setting it up, and everything. With the [HPE] Alletra [Storage], it's just easy. It's easy to provision space to use and to set up. InfoSight is invaluable to me. With it, I can just quickly go out there and see what is going on. Alletra provides a cloud-like operation model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. [HPE] Alletra [Storage] is very good for predicting problems and preventing them before they occur. InfoSight has really helped with that. I honestly don't have to look at it much. However, there's the alerting and everything that will tell us what's going on. That said, I check InfoSight every once in a while. [HPE Alletra Storage] reduced the time spent on storage provision. It's so much easier than the 3PAR. It's just so much easier. I don't spend time in there at all. The product improved our storage performance experience in terms of IOPS. Our end users that use the SAP environment were a little concerned at first. We said we were going to switch over from the 3PAR to the Alletra since they've always been more familiar with the 3PAR. However, when we moved them over, they noticed a performance increase.

Read full review

Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

Offers cost-effective storage for small companies with budget constraints

IBM FlashSystem 5300 is offered at a very low cost in Israel, which is advantageous for small companies. However, other features like deduplication and compression do not perform effectively. The price sensitivity makes it a viable option for clients with budgetary constraints, as it allows us to secure deals based on the cost rather than advanced performance.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It has benefited my organization because it has reduced time to insights."

"Overall stability is very good. It is a very stable solution."

"The latency is good."

"The most valuable features of Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its superior performance compared to other flash tiers, as well as its ease of use, with an intuitive user interface that is simple to deploy and use."

"The high availability of the product is the most valuable feature."

"I appreciate the performance."

"The solution is very straightforward to set up."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe will quickly overcome all the hurdles you face, including network and latency issues."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The simplicity of use is great."

"It's really easy to use."

"There is ease of use for junior admins. We have VMware integrations for data stores, cloning operations of existing data stores, and InfoSight analytics."

"It's easy to deploy and maintain and it's made everything faster."

"We have improved storage performance."

"The data availability guarantee is great."

"One of the best benefits I can think of is that the support team is top-tier."

"The stability is incredible. We haven't had a single storage event since we put it into production."

More HPE Alletra Storage pros

"The initial setup was really straightforward. It was not complex. Deployment took one month, due to the data migration duration."

"The most valuable features are deduplication and compression, which together, enable you to have more space."

"Most of the features for the reduction in data compression are useful. It is also very easy to use and administer. Its performance is also good."

"The price-performance ratio is most valuable."

"The power systems are very reliable if you are running 24/7 operations. For ongoing mission-critical applications, it's the best solution."

"It is simple to make an update."

"The FlashSystem 900 consistently delivers performance below 1ms for read/write. This performance is essential for an effective SVC stretch-cluster configuration across two datacenters, and presenting active-active storage to the customer."

"We are a 100% satisfied with the stability of the solution."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

Cons

"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."

"I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert."

"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."

"Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe."

"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

"Efficiency improvements would always be welcome, but I'm not sure if they could get more efficient."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"In the perfect world, it would be cheaper."

"Sometimes, with HP, there may be language barriers, and they seem to cycle through tech a lot more. That said, overall, I always get the answers I need."

"They are starting to add more blocking tools. It's lacking natively, however, they seem to be adding in more."

"We faced many problems with HPE Alletra 6000, and we did not understand whether it was because of some issue with the controllers or the disk."

"One problem we had during the installation of HPE Alletra Storage was the connection to the cloud. Our company does not like cloud connections for storage, but it was necessary. It would be a good thing to start without the GreenLake cloud."

"I'd like to see a smaller chassis in the hybrid arrays."

"When you configure it, the system has to be connected to the Internet. Otherwise, you cannot configure it. That is the most difficult part. They need to have something that does not require a connection to the Internet."

"We have more than traditional use cases. If they could explore new configurations for data storage, it would be ideal."

More HPE Alletra Storage cons

"Cloud file sharing is an area that needs improvement."

"A big area for improvement is that the data reduction pool feature is not recommended for use in a production environment because it has stability and performance issues."

"IBM could do more marketing and improve brand awareness. I had never heard of this product until a colleague told me about it. FlashSystem could add a few features, but it would probably increase the price. For example, Pure Storage offers instant snapshotting and partitioning. That would be nice to have, but I think the cost would go up."

"They can improve its initial configuration. The initial configuration is currently very difficult. There are multiple choices or alternative ways to configure based on the use case and what you are targeting out of the device, that is, more capacity or more performance. These multiple alternatives cause a lot of confusion. They should increase the processing part of the nodes. Currently, you can cluster up to eight nodes. From my experience and the workload that I am facing in my environment currently, I would like to see either a bigger or stronger node or a larger number of nodes that can be clustered together. We formally communicated to them that we need to see either this or that, and they are working on something."

"The support could improve by allowing you to speak to someone when you call rather than them calling you back. However, once we do have contact with one of their technicians they are excellent."

"The pricing needs to be more competitive."

"The interface could improve in IBM FlashSystem."

"I would like to see an improvement in the handling of large amounts of rights."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"The product is expensive."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We sell the hardware, and customers keep using it. They only renew the service part annually. The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"It is reasonably priced."

"For us, its price is good."

"It is fairly priced. It is in line with industry standard pricing and cost models."

"Overall, it was good. It had a good price per gigabyte."

"So far, so good."

"There is a license. HPE Alletra uses a cloud-based model."

"HPE was a clear winner on price per terabyte. It was very smooth."

"The solution is expensive and can cost around five lakhs."

More HPE Alletra Storage pricing and cost advice

"If five is a good price and one is a high price, I would rate the price a two or three out of five."

"The pricing may be a bit higher than other brands. If you compare the IBM FlashSystems in midrange with Dell EMC in midrange, IBM costs a bit more, but I prefer IBM because it has more specs that I can benefit from."

"For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included."

"I would rate the pricing of this solution a four out of five."

"It pays to go back and get the best price you can from your supplier. The first offer is not always at the best discount."

"I price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable and competitive."

"The integration is already included in the license cost of IBM FlashSystem. The integration is very easy. You get the IBM storage core with all software, firmware, and upgrades. EMC provides the features in the box, but they are not free for customers. There is a licensing cost for features. We have yearly licensing, but IBM has also provided a new option where you pay as you go. They provide a big box, and I pay, for example, for 10 terabytes. If I exceed 10 terabytes, IBM will charge for the new storage after 10 terabytes. It is a good opportunity in the market for using the storage as a cloud and paying as you go."

"They've been much more aggressive in the last five, six years than they were before that."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

After implementation, there are limitations, such as the number of paths, file systems, and replication options. It f...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Alletra?

It offers rich features and high speed for transferring data.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Alletra?

We work with a vendor partner, and he offers us good service and pricing. Some vendor partners are not so effective.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Alletra?

More training videos would help. We could learn some best practices. Sometimes, people may not follow the best practi...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM FlashSystem?

It is simple to make an update.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FlashSystem?

The product is expensive. It costs around 150k for five years.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

The product could be cheaper.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 37% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 30% of the time

HPE Primera vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 16% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 8% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 6% of the time

More HPE Alletra Storage Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 25% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

NetApp AFF vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

November 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Alletra Storage

December 2024

Download HPE Alletra Storage product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

December 2024

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

No data available

IBM Storwize

Learn More

Pure Storage

Video not available

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

IBM

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

HPE Alletra Storage is designed for high-performance virtualization, data centers, and hyper-converged infrastructures, supporting applications with block storage and databases across sectors like healthcare and finance.

HPE Alletra Storage excels in delivering low-latency, high-I/O operations and data reduction capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with VMware and vCenter, handling large SQL databases and multiple virtual machines efficiently. Its features, such as NVMe drives and predictive analytics with InfoSight, offer a streamlined management experience. However, users seek improvements in NVMe tier integration, a more compact chassis design, and better energy efficiency. The operational efficiency is increased by reducing data provisioning time and enhancing storage performance for complex environments.

What are the key features of HPE Alletra Storage?

Seamless vCenter Integration: Enhances virtualization management.
High IOPS NVMe Drives: Delivers high-speed and low-latency access.
Deduplication & Replication: Increases storage efficiency and protection.
Cloud-like Models: Simplifies operations with intuitive management.
InfoSight Analytics: Provides predictive diagnostics and proactive problem-solving.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Reduced Provisioning Time: Accelerates deployment processes.
100% Data Availability: Ensures uninterrupted access to data.
Simplified Management: Streamlines storage operations and enhances satisfaction.
Reliability and Performance: Supports demanding applications with reliable performance.

In healthcare and financial industries, HPE Alletra Storage supports the storage of sensitive data and operations of critical applications, facilitating quick access to information and maintaining high availability. However, users recommend improvements in training resources, energy efficiency, and integration with backup solutions like Veeam to enhance implementation efficiency and cost management.

IBM FlashSystem products are enterprise computer data storage systems that store data on flash memory chips. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. This hardware provides performance, reliability, and efficiency benefits versus competitive offerings.

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Accenture, Aetna, AIG, Airbus, Allianz, American Express, ATT, Bank of America, Barclays, BASF, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Comcast, Credit Suisse, Dell, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Google, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Kroger, L'Oreal, Merck

Celero, Friedhelm Loh Group, Clarks, Mingkang Natregro Health Food Group, Sofia, Etisalat Fights Fraud, UF Health Shands Hospital, Generali, Elecon Engineering Company Limited, Ventiv , Technology, CPFL Energia, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., SciQuest, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Paddy Power, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Interconnect Services, Severstal IP-Only AB, PVU Group GmbH

Buyer's Guide

HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem

December 2024

Free Report: HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our HPE Alletra Storage vs. IBM FlashSystem report.

See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.

We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.