IBM FlashSystem Reviews

For me, it's the redundancy that the machine provides as that's the most value that I get from this product.

One of the benefits is that when it's doing data extents, it moves them faster than what I was being able to move previously, i.e., by using a flash system.

There is a need for more help with the commands because, from version to version, they change; so what I used to use back in the different version, I can't use now. Thus, it would be helpful if they improve that aspect.

For me, it's stable.

The product is scalable.

I don't use the technical support as much because it's quite stable and scalable.

We weren't using any other solution. Our storage architect is the one who decided for us to have it.

The setup was straightforward, it is pretty easy and I can do it with my eyes closed, if I wanted to.

Reliability is the most important aspect while selecting a vendor.

I would recommend to use it.

It was quite easy to migrate from EMC storage because everything is virtualized. Easy Tier is quite nice to use.

We're a public sector organization. One of the benefits was that it was the lowest bid for us. It basically came down to cost.

I had wish lists, but I found out that they have already been completed.

At our current code level, when I extend any volume that is using Metro Mirror, I have to remove the Metro Mirror relationship. Once the Metro Mirror relationship is removed, I can extend the volumes and I have to re-create the Metro Mirror relationship and sync the entire volume.

For example, if I have a 1TB volume and I want to extend to 1.5TB instead of 0.5TB being replicated using Metro Mirror, 1.5TB has to be replicated.

The next version will include an update for this problem.

Stability has been good. We haven't had any issues, besides those that were our own fault when we pushed the work loads too high.

Scalability is quite easy. We've been expanding pretty much every year.

We have always used support. We have a main contact person, and he's a really good technical resource.

We don't really have a choice of vendors because we are public sector. To me, it's history. Our trusted partner is Horizon, and they're great people to work with. When I work with someone else, I'm not sure if they can deliver what I want. But Horizon goes the whole nine yards.

I was not initially involved in the setup. I was tasked with other projects at the time.

If cost is not a factor, I would definitely say IBM is good. Their business partners are good. For instance, they will try to get you vouchers to get training. With EMC, we never really got any training. It was all a cost for us in the public sector. We have to evaluate what training we can take, because I have a jack-of-all-trades type of role.

The ease-of-use and ease-of-setup are the most valuable features. You can get one up and running in a couple hours. I do it quite frequently for customers. The simplicity of it is the big benefit for me, compared to some others that I've used.

A lot of features are beneficial. It's a robust solution from my standpoint. We've got it running on several different configurations. You've got tiering and a lot of nice features to have in today's world. You can put flash in them. It is a good system to use.

As far as for what we use it for, they have got it spot on for our market. I'm sure others might have some additions, but our market is more in the SNB space. It is everything we've ever needed.

With the latest releases of software, it's pretty robust. They've pretty well nailed it. I don't see any further weaknesses with the interfaces or anything.

I have not had any real issues. I think it is very stable. We have not had any outages or any unexpected issues. I would say it’s very stable.

It is definitely very easy to scale. It's like everybody says, "plug and play". It just works.

Technical support is very good.

We had a few customer requests for it. I attended conferences and they showed me that they have really put a lot of time and effort into this. It's a good solution. It was worth our time to push it for our customers.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

We did not look at other vendors. We are a business partner for IBM on the storage side. Primarily, they're the only game we mess around with.

Definitely give it your time. Give it your time, get some IBM folks to show you some benefits and maybe do a demo. It's a great solution.

It is software defined.

It's flexible. You don't need to buy big hardware solutions that are vendor-bound. It's one of the first, fully software-defined solutions on the market available. It's actually built in-house, so it's very robust, tested, and it works right.

I would like it to be more scalable.

It's very stable.

It's not extremely scalable as of today. There are certain limits of the hardware that it runs on. Essentially, it does provide for medium to large enterprises in a single appliance solution.

I have used support and it needs improvement. I don't like the way that levels of support are organized. Level-1 never provides any support anymore. It just relays communication to the actual Level-2 support. Level-1 support barely understands the problem at first.

It's been well established in the market for probably over 10 or 11 years now. This was one of the first solutions available.

The setup was straightforward.

We are open to competitive market solutions, but a single vendor solution is something that definitely makes sense for our enterprise.

When looking for a vendor, support is important, as well as market position.

It is useful for SAP, landscape or banking systems. The product system is good.

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

The setup could be improved.

We have used this solution for 12 years and are using versions 5200, 5300 and 9000.

It is a stable solution.

It is scalable. We have more than 12 customers using IBM FlashSystem in my country.

I am satisfied because we have global technical support and other options. In addition, IBM has two specialized service centers based on the business partners' platform.

The initial setup is complex, and the deployment depends on the project. It could take two hours or two or three months. We usually work with integrators working with companies, service and business partners.

Our clients pay for software licenses or other advanced licenses they need, such as Metro Cluster. The licenses are usually annual.

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. I recommend this solution to others.

I find almost all the IBM FlashSystem features beneficial. The performance and the minimum latency IBM FlashSystem provide to the applications are good.  Parsing is the most valuable feature inside IBM Spectrum Virtualize software, which allows us to virtualize any third-party storage for IBM or non-IBM systems. A lot of features like replication/copy snapshots. All of them are very important and amazing, and we have benefited from them with most of the applications.

The generic functionality of IBM FlashSystem, IBM always dismisses using file share or sharing protocols inside their storage hardware, and they only focus on the block-level storage.

I have been using IBM FlashSystem for 10 years.

IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution.

I have found IBM FlashSystem to be scalable. However, with a specific type of FlashSystems scalability is limited. 

The local support for IBM FlashSystem is very weak. Most of the customers are suffering from the IBM support here inside Egypt.

The initial setup is easy. It is not complex at all.

I price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable and competitive.

We provide this solution to many customers.

I rate IBM FlashSystem an eight out of ten.

We are using FlashSystem 5000. There are about 15 people using this solution in my company.

The deduplication and compression ratio is not very good. It's not reaching a very high ratio.

I would like to see the replication or synchronization between the storage to be IP replication. Right now, the IP replication is only supported in this model. So, the pure IP will be okay.

We have been using this solution for a few months.

Before using this solution, we used Storwize 5000. It was okay, but it's very old, and it's out of the support. So, we are looking for some support.

The solution is only hardware.

The pricing is reasonable.

I would rate this solution 6 out of 10.

We are using IBM FlashSystem as a storage system for core banking operations.

IBM FlashSystem has improved our company. We run multiple reports for management and it would take more than 12 reports sometimes and more than 18 hours to complete. With IBM FlashSystem the report takes two hours or less than a two-hour on a rotation. We can get our reports very quickly and this is something very valuable to our management.

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. Additionally, the front menu of the FlashSystem is very user-friendly and easy to understand.

I have been using IBM FlashSystem for approximately one year.

The solution is highly stable. We did not receive any errors in the two years since we have been using them. We had one occasion when we had to call IBM for a replacement flashcard, otherwise, we did not have and performance impact or any issue with the FlashSystem.

IBM FlashSystem is scalable as per our organization's requirements. We have also upgraded the capacity after two years and it is working fine and it was quite easy to add more capacity to the existing pool. We can use the same capacity to increase the existing two drives or for the new workload.

I work for medium to large enterprises which use this solution.

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 initial setup was straightforward.

I did the implementation myself.

I rate IBM FlashSystem an eight out of ten.