IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe comparison

IBM and Pure Storage are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5, while Pure Storage is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 6.6% mindshare in AFS, compared to Pure Storage’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

IBM FlashSystem

Read 110 IBM FlashSystem reviews

8,036 Views
6,139 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Read 35 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews

1,556 Views
769 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and Pure FlashArray X NVMe are two competitive storage solutions in the market. Pure FlashArray X NVMe stands out as a superior product overall due to its feature set.

Features: IBM FlashSystem is praised for its high performance, data compression capabilities, and integration with existing infrastructure. Pure FlashArray X NVMe is noted for its advanced NVMe protocol support, consistent performance, and ease of management. The main difference lies in Pure FlashArray's modern NVMe architecture, providing it a performance edge.

Room for Improvement: Users of IBM FlashSystem point out the need for better documentation, more intuitive configuration processes, and more user-friendly features. Reviews of Pure FlashArray X NVMe cite desires for improved reporting tools, lower costs, and additional support tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is considered straightforward to deploy with reliable customer support. Pure FlashArray X NVMe users highlight the simplicity of deployment and highly responsive customer service and find their support experience slightly superior.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem users appreciate the competitive setup cost and favorable ROI. Pure FlashArray X NVMe's setup costs are perceived as higher, but users justify it with superior performance and long-term ROI. Pure FlashArray X NVMe is seen as more cost-effective over time despite a higher initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

March 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 842,296 peers since 2012

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

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

110

Ranking in other categories

NAS (4th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (4th)

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

15th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 6.6%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Q&A Highlights

reviewer1942008

Senior Storage Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 22, 2022

Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?

Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.

See all answers

Featured Reviews

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

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

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

"The speed, performance, and stability are the best features of IBM FlashSystem."

"This solution is very stable."

"The performance of the solution is noteworthy."

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

"The ability to create LUNs and modify them are the most valuable features of this solution."

"They have a virtualization feature and, even if you do not want to buy that feature, you can have it as a trial for two to three months. If you have another brand of storage from another company, you can use this tool to transfer all your data from the old system to the new Storwize system, which really shortens the migration time."

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

"Flash disk with Easy Tier option"

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"It offers competitive performance, and the Evergreen storage model of Pure fits well with my organization."

"The latency is good."

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

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"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."

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

"Offers excellent features like efficient data reduction, a reliable SafeMode, and a great support model for continuous assistance and updates."

"The system allows for seamless learning experiences, facilitating quick and easy cloning of environments within minutes."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

Cons

"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 price is very costly."

"The solution has a low number of NVME host attachments at 16 per IO group over the fiber channel."

"Our customers have raised concerns about the limitations of the FlashSystem 5200 and 7300, which only offer a 32-gigabyte connection."

"Replication features need improvement. Currently, they are there in the product, but I'm not sure as to how it works exactly."

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

"In IBM FlashSystem, data reduction is an area with shortcomings where improvements can be made in the future."

"We had issues when attempting to do a flash, we hope to resolve it soon."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."

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

"The UI for this solution needs to be improved."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

"It's more multi-tenant functionality in their Pure1 manage portal that is lacking."

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

"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The tool is cost-efficient."

"Its price is very good."

"Our customers would like IMB FlashSystem to be less expensive."

"Overall the price of the solution is expensive and this includes the license."

"My customers got the IBM FlashSystem bundle offer. It was a one-time purchase for three years of service. The price would depend on the storage size and could reach between $25,000 to $55,000."

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

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"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."

"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."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe 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

842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

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.

See all answers

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 banking, often use the latest devices as they are upgrading, indicating they do not ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

The GUI needs some improvement. An additional function that could be helpful is reducing the time it takes to delete volumes, especially if they are compressed or deduplicated.

See all answers

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?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics should not incur extra charges. This is one of the main things organizations need.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 24% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 34% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 16% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 7% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

March 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

March 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Also Known As

IBM Storwize

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

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

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.

Pure Storage

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

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

March 2025

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe 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.