IBM FlashSystem vs IBM XIV comparison

IBM FlashSystem and IBM XIV are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. IBM FlashSystem is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6, while IBM XIV is ranked #9. IBM FlashSystem holds a 18.2% mindshare in MS, compared to IBM XIV’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM FlashSystem users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM XIV users who would recommend it.

IBM FlashSystem

Read 107 IBM FlashSystem reviews

1,694 Views
1,332 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM XIV

Read 6 IBM XIV reviews

160 Views
109 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

IBM XIV

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM FlashSystem and IBM XIV based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

NAS (4th), All-Flash Storage (6th)

IBM XIV

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

9th

Average Rating

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 18.2%, up from 15.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM XIV is 1.2%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

Abdul-Salam

Sr. Manager - System Analyst (Datacenter Infrastructure) at Sohar International

Feb 3, 2023

An easy GUI and simple provisioning but our model does not support compression

Our company uses the solution for robotic process automation, workflow automation, and document management. The solution is used for certain front-end systems, so users are not aware of the how it operates on the backend. About 30 front-end users access each application across various bank…

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Ajith Kandaramage

IT Operation Engineer at HNB

Jul 11, 2022

Good value for money but issues with modular scaling

IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness I've been using IBM XIV for two and a half years. IBM XIV is stable. IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM FlashSystem is the best solution for storage virtualization."

"FlashSystem offers proven technology in a compact package."

"It is simple to make an update."

"The valuable features for us are the extra add-ons, such as the FIM provisioning, the compression, the disaster recovery capabilities, and the storage pooling functions."

"The most valuable features are deduplication and compression."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is replication...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The most valuable feature is reliability."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness."

"The performance and robustness of the systems are very good."

"Hands down, this is the easiest storage platform on the market to manage."

"Very easy to produce reporting data (Snaps). Very easy and fast for provisioning devices and Remote mirroring."

"Installation is amazingly easy."

"As it spreads, a chuck of 1MB across the board means using all available spindles on the backend."

Cons

"The security features can be improved such that the encryption does not affect performance in any way."

"The installation is not easy. You need to have extensive knowledge to handle it."

"This solution needs a management console where we are alerted to issues and can report them, or escalate them through email or another method."

"The data reduction pool feature sucks and is not recommended for use with heavy workloads."

"In the next release having the next level of high-speed performance would be great."

"I have looked at a few pages of a report I download and I saw a graph there regarding software-defined vendors. IBM is not in a good position on this graph. I know that they are working very hard on this, to make it much better and to get to a level where it's not only hardware but also software to provide a complete solution."

"Sometimes the performance is effective but it gets resolved in the process."

"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."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

"IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger requirements."

"This product was not a good fit for our organization as we have a ton of latency sensitive applications and XIV was not able to keep up with IO + latency demand."

"I would rather have a web GUI served directly from the unit, and a CLI accessible directly through SSH."

"Until the drive is replaced, the pool_resizing is locked."

"The change form synchronous mirroring to asynchronous (and vice versa) without reconfiguration from scratch would be helpful."

"I encountered stability (performance) issues during enclosure or disk rebuild. Also some power supply issues due to malfunctions of circuits. Sometimes "internal" Snap sessions hang and consume pool capacity."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I find the pricing of the solution to be very reasonable."

"The tool is cost-efficient."

"The solution requires a license and could be less expensive."

"You purchase it as a bundle and the price is comparable."

"Among IBM, Dell EMC, and Pure Storage, IBM is the cheapest. The price is also based on our location, the size of our entity, and our regular annual purchases from them. We are a very big IBM customer, so we normally get very high discounts. We are not a big customer of Pure Storage. We don't buy that much from Pure Storage per year. Everything is included in the price. There is no extra license for different functions."

"There are no licensing fees, it is a one-time purchase of the IBM FlashSystem."

"The cost is pretty high in terms of licensing. We pay at least $100,000 USD in licensing fees for the storage."

"The pricing has been very competitive for the last few years. IBM got to the point where they changed the pricing model and we feel very comfortable with the pricing. It's very competitive. Over the last two years, IBM has been coming up with all kinds of interesting promos, especially for the SMB systems. That makes it very competitive price-wise and in terms of performance..."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is straightforward."

"If you are going to use the product behind an SVC, IBM will price the units lower, since you are likely not to use any of the advanced copy services."

"No-license-required policy, unlike others where you need a license for everything. Just pay once and forget about licenses."

"We have a five-year total cost of ownership where we pay an initial amount and then annually for maintenance."

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814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM FlashSystem?

It is simple to make an update.

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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.

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Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 26% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 9% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

October 2024

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

November 2024

Download IBM XIV product report

Also Known As

IBM Storwize

XIV

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IBM

Overview

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.

IBM XIV is a high-end, grid-scale storage system that excels in tuning-free consistent performance, ease of use and exceptional data economics, including inline, and IBM Real-time Compression. IBM XIV is ideal for hybrid cloud, offering predictable service levels for dynamic workloads, simplified scale management, including in multi-tenant environments, flexible consumption models — and robust cloud automation and orchestration through OpenStack, RESTful API and VMware. It offers security and data protection through hot encryption, advanced mirroring and self-healing and investment protection with perpetual licensing.

Sample Customers

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

Celero, NaviSite, Technische Universit_t Mªnchen, Netflix Inc., Muhr und Bender KG, Pelephone Communications

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

October 2024

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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