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IBM FlashSystem vs NetApp AFF comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.6
Everpure FlashArray enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and offers seamless upgrades, optimizing storage performance and return on investment.
Sentiment score
6.3
IBM FlashSystem offers high ROI with efficient migration, scalability, and performance, despite post-acquisition price increases; valued for reliability.
Sentiment score
6.7
NetApp AFF boosts ROI with improved performance, efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced productivity through flash technology and reliability.
In the long term, spanning three to five years, the total cost of ownership becomes cheaper, considering power consumption, data center footprint, and NVMe technology usage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
Our current workload, particularly the SQL use case, would not be possible on mechanical storage, and the ease of use for the small team for the array is important for supporting that workload.
Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Pure Storage FlashArray integrates with APIs and other systems.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
The solution can comfortably be stretched from five to seven years without any failures, ensuring a long-lasting return.
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
We have seen return on investment compared to other OEMs, which took approximately three years after implementing IBM FlashSystem.
Technical Lead at Tomia
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Everpure FlashArray excels in customer service with proactive support, knowledgeable experts, and rapid issue resolution, ensuring customer satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.9
IBM FlashSystem's customer service is responsive, yet technical expertise and support vary by region, with contract complexities noted.
Sentiment score
7.7
NetApp AFF's customer service is praised for responsiveness, though some users highlight delay issues in technical support escalation.
Pure's support organization is responsive with minimal bureaucracy, making support a key factor in customer retention.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate the technical support an 11 out of 10.
Cyber Security Consultant at Jonkoping Energi AB
The support from Pure Storage is excellent.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Customers of alternatives like Dell and Hitachi enjoy more reliable and comprehensive support services directly from vendors rather than third-party subsidiaries.
Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD
I rate the technical support from IBM as a ten.
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
IBM customer support is responsible, efficient, and responsive, though it is expensive.
Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral
The support for NetApp AFF is comprehensive—not just the documentation for self-guided reading, but for simple questions, spare parts, or urgent needs, you can have a contract that enables delivery the next business day or within four hours, depending on your process requirements.
Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have communicated with them, and they are effective and responsive.
Presales Manager at Spartec
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Everpure FlashArray scales well with modular design, impressive data reduction, and seamless upgrades, though large companies may face limitations.
Sentiment score
7.3
IBM FlashSystem offers scalable storage solutions with dynamic upgrades and flexibility for medium to large enterprises despite some hardware limitations.
Sentiment score
7.6
NetApp AFF offers scalable, non-disruptive expansion, ideal for various enterprise sizes, despite some cost concerns with controllers.
A big banking client had around 300 petabytes of data on Pure Storage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
Our customers can scale up or scale out, raise the performance, and expand the storage spaces by investing every year.
Senior Ai Architect at Logicalis
The solution is highly scalable, particularly when there is a need to expand capacity.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
For larger enterprises, scalability is an issue as the price becomes prohibitive.
Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD
The problem arises when migrating data to a later IBM FlashSystem version due to issues with firmware compatibility.
Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral
The scalability of IBM FlashSystem is exceptional, and I rate it as a nine.
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
You can add more disks, more disk shelves, or migrate the data seamlessly.
Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would assess the scalability of NetApp AFF as excellent in handling massive data volumes.
Presales Manager at Spartec
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Everpure FlashArray is reliable, low-maintenance, and efficiently performs with minimal downtime, despite occasional compatibility issues with VMware ESXi.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM FlashSystem is praised for stability and resilience, with minor issues resolved quickly, earning high feedback for reliability.
Sentiment score
8.4
NetApp AFF offers exceptional stability and reliability, with minimal downtime and responsive support, ensuring seamless operation and high availability.
For stability, I rate it a ten out of ten.
Senior Storage Administrator at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
We have continuous 99.9% uptime and do not experience any users reporting performance issues due to latency.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
The vision Pure Storage FlashArray offers through the GUI is clearer; we can discern the status, what is cabled, and how direct flash is enabled.
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Customers have infrastructure that is 100% stable.
Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral
The firmware and software engine have fewer bugs, which enhances operational efficiency.
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
They have always been upgrading very fast and implementing patches to resolve these issues.
Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Everpure FlashArray requires upgrades in deduplication, integration, GUI, encryption, cloud support, and customer service for better user experience.
IBM FlashSystem requires enhancements in scalability, integration, user interface, and support, with better deduplication, monitoring, and streamlined processes.
NetApp AFF needs improvements in setup, support, integration, performance, flexibility, latency, monitoring, and management for competitive advantage.
Integrating object storage into the FlashArray would benefit entry-level and SMB customers by offering a more unified solution.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
Storing cold data on expensive arrays doesn't make financial sense, and tiering to any of the big three cloud providers would be advantageous.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
As a technical professional, I lack visibility into the system logs.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Despite marketing promises, these features do not function effectively and can impact performance.
Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD
There is room for improvement in the troubleshooting part, specifically related to IBM Spectrum for Insight.
Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral
An additional function that could be helpful is reducing the time it takes to delete volumes, especially if they are compressed or deduplicated.
Storage Specialist at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The GUI of ONTAP Command Manager could be better, but the CLI is perfect.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Our backup system, Commvault, has an amazing capacity to do compression and deduplication better than NetApp AFF by itself.
Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
All of this is the same for all product ranges, whether E-series, NetApp AFF, or FAS series, because they are very efficient to respond.
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Everpure FlashArray a valuable investment for its superior performance and inclusive pricing, despite higher costs.
IBM FlashSystem offers competitive pricing, but evaluating long-term needs and negotiating discounts is crucial to manage costs effectively.
NetApp AFF offers competitive value with features included, often more cost-effective than Oracle and EMC for comparable performance.
They're expensive.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
While they say it's free, we actually pay for support upfront.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Some smaller organizations may find it slightly expensive, but for enterprises, when considering performance, future hardware investments, and overall benefits, it is a very cost-effective solution for mid and enterprise organizations.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
To install or upgrade any software features, the cost is high, which makes it challenging for smaller companies who do not require advanced features like deduplication or compression typically needed by larger organizations.
Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD
The pricing is high; storage solutions are always expensive.
Freelancer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
NetApp support is cheaper than Dell support.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
While it is not cheap, they have introduced a new series of AFF that are more affordable.
Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The licensing cost of the product is expensive, and when combined with support, it becomes quite costly.
Presales Manager at Spartec
 

Valuable Features

Everpure FlashArray boasts exceptional performance, ease of use, data reduction, high availability, intuitive management, scalability, and excellent support.
IBM FlashSystem delivers high performance, user-friendly management, and scalable efficiency with robust features like deduplication and virtualization.
NetApp AFF excels in speed, low latency, and integration, offering efficient storage, high reliability, and scalability for varied needs.
FlashArray's integration with the Pure One instrument provides a centralized platform for efficient management of all arrays.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Another noteworthy aspect is their platform, Pure One, a cloud-based analytics platform that automatically creates a case and sends out a part if a disk or controller fails.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
It handles internal data migration seamlessly in the background without going offline, achieving a hundred percent uptime.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There is a significant amount of data reduction, achieving a ratio of one to three.
Storage Specialist at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable features are performance and reliability.
Freelancer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
There is built-in compression, a data reduction feature, and artificial intelligence-driven insights that calculate warnings and errors to redirect to customers automatically.
Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral
You can even download the ONTAP simulator and deploy it on your virtualization platform and test almost all features.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Data reduction capabilities such as deduplication, compression, and compaction are standard features included with the license in NetApp AFF.
Presales Manager at Spartec
They have 4:1 data reduction techniques, which is really very high. If you have a size of 100 terabytes, you will get 400 terabytes of usable capacity when applying compression, deduplication, or other data reduction technologies.
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
 

Categories and Ranking

Everpure FlashArray
Sponsored
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
213
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM FlashSystem
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
NAS (5th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (3rd)
NetApp AFF
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
3rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
314
Ranking in other categories
NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray is 7.9%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 5.0%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp AFF is 8.6%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetApp AFF8.6%
Everpure FlashArray7.9%
IBM FlashSystem5.0%
Other78.5%
All-Flash Storage
 

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades
The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.
OmarIsmail1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
Offers high performance and dependable support for fast storage needs
The most valuable feature of IBM FlashSystem is its robust back code. When integrated properly into the environment and configured according to the guidelines, it provides a very solid infrastructure that does the job on demand. Additionally, IBM FlashSystem offers competitive pricing and reliable performance. The hardware is dependable, ensuring that it functions effectively when the setup is done correctly.
KennethEtsula - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Manager at Spartec
Offers seamless installation and efficient data handling with robust support
NetApp AFF provides an all-flash storage solution for unified SAN solutions, supporting both SAN and NAS functionalities. Data reduction capabilities such as deduplication, compression, and compaction are standard features included with the license in NetApp AFF. With the storage efficiency from a NetApp AFF installation, users can manage substantial data running on all-flash. The features such as compaction and compression provide storage efficiency guarantees in an all-flash environment.
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Comparison Review

it_user186357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect with 51-200 employees
Jan 28, 2015
NetApp vs. XtremIO
Is there another storage platform as feature rich as NetApp FAS? I think it is fair to say that NetApp FAS running Clustered Data ONTAP is a very feature rich platform – the move to the clustered version of ONTAP has brought many next-generation features including Scale-out and Non-disruptive…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise145
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise242
 

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?
Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?
I don't really know much about the pricing for Pure Storage FlashArray in terms of the absolute cost. Regarding Everg...
What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?
Despite liking Pure Storage FlashArray, there is room for improvement in automation. Pure Storage FlashArray needs to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FlashSystem?
The pricing is high; storage solutions are always expensive. I do not know if the price needs to be reviewed, but it ...
What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?
As far as I know, IBM FlashSystem has already improved, but I do not see room for improvement. It is simple to use an...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
Well, Is one thing NetApp Storage has vs other brand is the mix of protocol CIFS with NFS booth working together in t...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
This question is very dependent on your requirements. Both are among the best in the field. Of course, the intended c...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
The answer depends on your needs and budget. If you want high performance (who doesn't) or let's say the latency matt...
 

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray
IBM Storwize
NetApp All Flash FAS, NetApp AFF, NetApp Flash FAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas
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
DreamWorks Animation, FICO, Yahoo! Japan
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp AFF and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
889,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.