IBM FlashSystem vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800 comparison

IBM and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.4, while NetApp is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 7.6% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and NetApp NVMe AFF A800 are high-performance storage solutions. IBM FlashSystem is preferred for pricing and support, while NetApp NVMe AFF A800 has an edge in features despite higher costs.

Features: IBM FlashSystem offers efficient data reduction capabilities, high performance, and scalability. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 provides superior throughput, low latency, and comprehensive data management features.

Room for Improvement: IBM FlashSystem could improve its integration processes and analytics capabilities. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 users suggest enhancements in software updates and reducing complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is noted for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer service. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 has mixed feedback on customer service with some indicating longer response times.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem is viewed favorably for its better pricing and quicker ROI. NetApp NVMe AFF A800, despite higher costs, offers long-term value due to its extensive features.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

December 2024

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 7.6%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

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.

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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.

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Tanveer Rahman

Chief Technical Office at Novotel Ltd.

A scalable solution that serves as a storage for the cloud services opted by organizations

My company uses NetApp NVMe AFF A800 as storage for our cloud The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O. The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better. I don't expect to see additional…

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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

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"It has good, reliable, fast storage."

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

"One of the best features is the support, which is excellent."

"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."

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"The initial setup was extremely simple and straightforward."

"FlashArray has some fresh efficiency features. I've never seen a storage solution with a compression rating this high before. It's at least 4-to-1 on Oracle databases. It's the best flash storage for Oracle."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"IBM FlashSystem is a powerful effective storage solution. Additionally, it is user-friendly, anyone can use it."

"Speed (IOPS/second) – It is most vital for applications that need low latency and high speed for transferring the data."

"The performance of IBM FlashSystem is very good. The new technology and high throughput have given us more confidence in the solution. The management of the system has improved and we can control the monitoring system alerts and multiple FlashSystems with the Enterprise Cloud Edition, which is free. The migration of recently stored data to a new flash is much easier. You can move your data because you can utilize it externally."

"The most valuable features are, of course, the virtualization of the storage, the performance, and the compression."

"The GUI is very easy and performance is also good."

"When it comes to the interface of the solution we did not encounter any challenges. Additionally, the solution has good documentation."

"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 Flash core models offer amazing performance."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O."

"The storage features are valuable."

"We find the product to be very flexible."

"NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is easier to use than some other solutions and the UI is very good to use for day-to-day activities. Overall, the solution has good technology."

"The most valuable features are stability and performance."

"The product can be scaled vertically as well as horizontally."

"During the use cases of the solution, its reliability and suitability are the best."

"Over the eight years, we've been using NetApp with ONTAP, we've never lost a bit of data, and we've only experienced a few minutes of downtime in that entire time."

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 pros

Cons

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

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

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

"The tool's pricing is higher than competitors."

"We would like to see VNC integration or be able to use Pure Storage with VNC."

"It feels more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses rather than enterprises."

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

"There are some challenges with data encryption and reduction."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"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."

"It is slightly more expensive, however, it all depends on your supplier."

"The technical support in my region is satisfactory but it could improve. Support is very important for customers and downtime is very critical for us. We would like onsite or complete technical support which can help us to minimize our downtime or if problems occur."

"The ease of installation should be improved. We had issues with the configuration model."

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

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

"I would like to see bigger modules."

"The interface could improve in IBM FlashSystem."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

"The cost of the solution is quite high. It would be ideal if they could adjust it so that it's a but less."

"The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better."

"The support can take a few days to have a response. However, the response that we do receive is very informative."

"Sometimes, it takes a while to get somebody competent on the other end of the line. They do have engineers in multiple time zones around the world. However, their level-one support is not always the best."

"Increasing the RAM, and including physical cords would be beneficial."

"The technical support has room for improvement."

"The product’s UI could be better."

"Stability is an area with a certain shortcoming where the solution needs to improve"

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"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."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

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

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The tool is cost-efficient."

"Its price is very good."

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

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

"Regarding licensing make sure you add at least three years software maintenance from IBM at the beginning, because you will not be able to download firmware updates or any fixes/patches without this."

"The price of IBM FlashSystem is a little high because you pay a premium because the solution is from IBM. We had paid for the SLA prior to using the solution."

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

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

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

"There are licenses for the use of this solution, such as commercial licenses."

"Considering the requirements and the situation, I don't feel that this is an expensive product."

"Though NetApp NVMe AFF A800 may seem like a highly-priced product, it is not extremely expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Educational Organization

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.

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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?

Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive.

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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?

Many factors affect purchasing directly from IBM, often involving a multi-step process. Customers, especially in bank...

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What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

There is room for improvement in the troubleshooting part, specifically related to IBM Spectrum for Insight. Customer...

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What do you like most about NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

Though NetApp NVMe AFF A800 may seem like a highly-priced product, it is not extremely expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better. I don't expect to s...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 38% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 17% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 15% 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 9% of the time

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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

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

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NetApp ASA vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 28% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 19% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 16% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 14% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 7% of the time

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

December 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

December 2024

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Also Known As

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

IBM Storwize

No data available

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Pure Storage

IBM

NetApp

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.

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.

Your data is a gold mine. Get the most out of it - faster - with AFF A800. Designed for NVMe media, further accelerated with NVMe/FC connectivity to the host, AFF A800 all-flash systems deliver an incredible sub-200 microsecond latency. Providing more than 11.4M IOPS and 300GB/s throughput in a single cluster, AFF A800 redefines the limit of what’s possible with artificial intelligence and deep learning.

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

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

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Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

December 2024

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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