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IBM FlashSystem vs StarWind Storage Appliance 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
1.0
Organizations reduced costs and improved performance with Pure FlashArray X NVMe, achieving quick ROI and efficient resource management.
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
6.0
StarWind Storage Appliance users saw reduced costs, improved performance, and increased efficiency, with easy scalability and high reliability.
If you wait more than seven years to buy another one, you get a return on your investment.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
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
7.1
Pure FlashArray X NVMe's technical support is praised for responsiveness, despite occasional follow-up issues, earning high 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
9.0
StarWind Storage Appliance customer service is praised for 24x7 troubleshooting, professionalism, high technical support ratings, and helpful videos.
Customers always have their issues resolved promptly.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
Technical support is good at least through vendors, not directly with the principal.
Infrastructure Specialis at a tech services company with 1-10 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
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Pure FlashArray X NVMe offers scalable storage with low latency, easy upgrades, though capacity customization and high costs are noted.
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
7.5
StarWind Storage Appliance is scalable, adaptable, hardware-independent, supports unlimited storage, and is effective in standalone and hyperconverged environments.
It hasn't broken down anytime in the last six to seven years, despite hurricanes, earthquakes, and power outages.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
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
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Pure Storage offers exceptional stability and reliability with outstanding support, consistently achieving high user ratings for performance and service.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM FlashSystem is praised for stability and resilience, with minor issues resolved quickly, earning high feedback for reliability.
Sentiment score
8.9
StarWind Storage Appliance is praised for stability, robust performance, and high user ratings, especially on well-maintained Windows OS.
I would rate the stability of the product at seven out of ten.
Project Manager at a government with 11-50 employees
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
 

Room For Improvement

Pure FlashArray X requires cost-effective improvements in UI, integration, cloud features, multitenancy, analytics, backup, AI, and scalability.
IBM FlashSystem requires enhancements in scalability, integration, user interface, and support, with better deduplication, monitoring, and streamlined processes.
StarWind Storage Appliance requires improved integration, easier setup, better insights, and feature parity between demo and paid versions.
One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert.
Cloud Architect at DXC Technology
Storage replication should be essential.
Infrastructure Specialis at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
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
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers see Pure FlashArray X NVMe as a justified premium investment due to performance and comprehensive licensing.
IBM FlashSystem offers competitive pricing, but evaluating long-term needs and negotiating discounts is crucial to manage costs effectively.
StarWind Storage Appliance is praised for its affordability, straightforward licensing, and excellent value compared to competitors for SMEs.
While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits.
Manager, System Infrastructure & Security at Organik Kimya San. ve Tic. A.S.
The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
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
 

Valuable Features

Pure FlashArray X NVMe offers exceptional performance, reliability, scalability, and seamless VMware integration, enhancing workload efficiency and user experience.
IBM FlashSystem delivers high performance, user-friendly management, and scalable efficiency with robust features like deduplication and virtualization.
StarWind Storage Appliance is praised for its user-friendly interface, high performance, reliability, excellent support, affordability, and robust data protection.
Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen.
Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR
Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed.
Manager, System Infrastructure & Security at Organik Kimya San. ve Tic. A.S.
We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options.
Project Manager at a government with 11-50 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
 

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Sponsored
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
17th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)
IBM FlashSystem
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
NAS (6th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (2nd)
StarWind Storage Appliance
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
31st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
NAS (16th)
 

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256
Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades
I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.
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.
Kishore CA - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineering Assistant at Bharat Electronics Limited
Offers stable performance even with a single node failure and manages everything with just two nodes.
The only drawback is that it takes a bit of time during initial synchronization, especially after restarting the environment. This is a potential area of improvement. There's a synchronization time, but it takes time. Initially, when we start the first environment deployment, it starts synchronizing between the storage. So, it is taking time. One thing is that even when you restart. Let's assume that the synchronization is completed and the storage is synchronized. Both storages are fully synchronized, and it is in sync mode. Now, if we want to restart both nodes, there is a case for maintenance purposes. You took both nodes for maintenance, and we rebooted it. Then, it should not synchronize again. It should be a checksum. And if there is a checksum match, there should be no synchronization again. So, one thing that should be taken care of. Another thing is that I used freeware- the community version, free license, which we deployed using PowerShare. In that case, it was very difficult to bring back another node when one node was faulty. Let's assume that both the nodes are working fine. And we found one node faulty. And we destroyed all the volumes in that and tried to bring it back. So that was a difficult factor. The final solution is that we were not able to bring back the failed node. So, we reconstructed a new data source for that. That is another drawback. In future releases, I would like to see the integration with VMware or some other things as a plugin model for VMware.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?
The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...
What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?
I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...
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 needs improvement with StarWind Storage Appliance?
StarWind Storage Appliance's demo version should be similar to the paid one.
What advice do you have for others considering StarWind Storage Appliance?
The tool is mostly for medium companies and requires no maintenance. It has a good price and performance. I rate the ...
 

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X
IBM Storwize
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Bosch, EC2 IT, Solid Earth Inc., Canon
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. StarWind Storage Appliance and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.