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 8.4, while Pure Storage is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 7.6% 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

8,497 Views
6,506 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Read 34 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews

1,651 Views
839 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

January 2025

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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

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

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

16th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 7.6%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 1.0% 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 most valuable feature is that is supports a high IOPS rate."

"The feature I find most valuable, is the deduplication, because the nature of the data that we are using in our current environment, has a lot of replicated data."

"The storage system is one of the best in the world."

"The performance is very good and we use this product to enhance our core system."

"The performance of the All-Flash System is very good. There is more enhanced performance and data production in the solution, which I appreciate."

"The solution allows for easy migrations from previous products or vendors via its embedded storage virtualization function."

"The technical support for this solution is good. They used to help us when the motherboard of Power Systems broke. Their response times are really fast."

"The most valuable feature is reliability."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"I use the tool for Oracle databases, Oracle virtual machines, and Oracle Linux databases. I'm on the storage side, not a database administrator."

"What I really like about this program, is that it is easy to use and easy to configurate."

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

"It has good, reliable, fast storage."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

Cons

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

"When you provision a datastore auto-format takes a long time"

"The pricing needs to be more competitive."

"The product could be cheaper."

"The GUI for monitoring performance metrics could provide better visibility. For example, it doesn't let me segregate the IOPS per volume."

"The storage capacity of this solution could be improved."

"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."

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

More IBM FlashSystem cons

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

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

"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."

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

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

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

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"The solution has good pricing, but it is not cheaper."

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

"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."

"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 price is a little bit high so is rated a six out of ten."

"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."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

"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 product is expensive."

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

"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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

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 ...

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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. Customers are uncomfortable with remote access, which affects automated remote support. ...

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?

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

See all answers

Comparisons

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

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

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 11% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

January 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

December 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Also Known As

IBM Storwize

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

Learn More

IBM

Pure Storage

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.

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.

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

January 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: January 2025.

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