IBM FlashSystem Reviews

In a bank.

- Migration efforts - Site recovery using SRM - Highly scalable while backend storage can be of many vendors - Ideal solution if you have a mixed intel/power infrastructure Ease of use

• Migration effort
• Site recovery plan.

- CLI though intuitive, no other API available - Lacks scheduling or a cron - Has no built in short term performance graphs - IBM TPC overexceeds the montoring needs, had to fall back on Stor2RRd - Support response times are bad -

Node conditions in specific workload conditions might trigger a node reset.

- Multivendor support for backend storage - Clustering and adding in another IO--group - supports many shelves, large disks, several clusters

- Bad response times

IBM SVC -> HP 3PAR -> Storwize v7000f

- Easy and straighforward

- selfserviced

Biggest return is the easy migration/upgrade path as well as the scalability options - IBM added in compression and deduplication in its portfolio, as well as Garbage collection and space reclamation.

- setup cost is cheap as you can do it yourself - IBM SVC licensing on non IBM back-end storage used to cost a lot in terms of licenses per shelf or even per TB. The equipment on itself is relatively cheap. Watch out for license costs !

- HPE 3PAR StoreServe - EMC Unity

The good thing is that it is very easy to use and anybody can allocate Launch to the systems. The GUI is very easy and performance is also good.

It is easy to deploy. We use this product for a variety of the applications and databases. This is one of the best features I think.

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

They are other IBM products that are better than this such as IBM XIV and IBM disk storage (the old one); they have better performance.

It is stable.

We can add more disks or JBODs into it. So, it is scalable and easy to scale.

Technical support is good.

The setup was easy.

You can use this product for your applications, databases or for whatever other solutions that you have.

Cost and performance are the two things that we consider while selecting a vendor.

The V9000 incorporates both the Spectrum virtualization layer as well as flash technology. It does it in such a unique manner that it provides super fast response times. There's low latency for the customers. It's very simple and easy. It uses the same interface as all the Storewize products do, so it's a very short ramp-up time for customers.

Speed. I mean it's flash. It's speed. The benefit is to reduce the amount of workload and transaction time. When customers have put data on the V9000, their response times go down and they can do more work within a shorter span of time.

They've already got one. The clustering host came in 7/8 code, so that's coming in. I would like to see deduplication come very soon. That would be really good to have deduplication built in, not only with compression, but also have deduplication with it.

The stability is awesome. It's based off a mature product line, Spectrum Virtualize. It's a long standing product. It's been around since 1999, so that core technology is there.

The flash system has grown from the old TMS days. It's a well-known and proven technology, so they've combined the two well-known and well-proven technologies to form this solution. It's just very solid.

Scalability is also good because you can add an additional FS900 behind it or you can stack in other V9000s and cluster them together. You can either go deeper or wider with your solution set. It really just depends on how much performance or workload insulation you need, whether you go wide or you go deep.

I haven't used technical support and none of my customers have had to call technical support on a V9000 yet. That kind of speaks to the product itself. It is a relatively new product, but the field time is still good. The resiliency is there.

Our customer was a legacy Storewize customer. We knew that when they were announcing their combination of Spectrum Virtualize and flash that it would be a winning combination. You can't go wrong with that kind of combination.

Our company decided that we needed to train up fast and get on top of it quick. Because of that, we were able to turn out some of the first in the Eastern area.

It can be complex if you don't follow the guide. Follow the instructions that IBM sets forth in the Redbooks and make life simple.

The implementation was very easy. It's almost a "set it and forget it" kind of product.

Read the Redbook.

The most important thing when selecting a vendor for me is how well the vendor works with me. It's a partnership, not just a sales, “here's a product” kind of thing. If you partner with us, you really get in, dive deep with us, and work through the solutions if needed. That's what makes a good vendor.

It allows our organization to provide a more timely response to our customers.

The speed of the unit is its best feature. It performs very well.

I would like to see bigger modules. That's about the only thing that needs improvement.

So far, it's been very stable. There have been no issues.

It is very scalable.

I have used technical support and they have been very good.

We were having performance issues. We decided to find the lowest latency device and this was it.

I was involved in the initial setup and it was very straightforward.

We only evaluated EMC. This was a better performing product.

This is probably the best unit you're going to find out there.

The biggest benefit is the latency. It is so low that it's going to increase your transactions for transactional data. It's going to increase the speed of any block storage on which you're trying to get low latency.

The speed and the ease of installation are the most valuable features. The IBM FlashSystem is the fastest in the industry. You can add it to their other products, such as IBM SAN Volume Controller, and virtualize it. It's a flexible system that you can use purely for speed, where you can add it to a SAN Volume Controller and use Easy Tier to speed up all your disks.

I'm not sure that I want to see any additional features. I like the way they have it. It's simple. It gives you the low latency that you need, so I'm not sure if there are any features that I would be looking for.

I would like to have a larger disk. Right now, you can get 57 terabytes in a shelf. Once they get the larger disk and you get larger capacities, it'll be even better.

To be more specific: The FlashSystem 900 is perfect for providing pure speed and low latency. I am happy that the product doesn’t have Storage efficiencies built into it natively. You can Virtualize the FS900 with the IBM Storwize family and gain storage efficiencies when needed. Today the largest FS900 MicroLatency module is 5.7TB or 57TB per shelf. It will be great when the larger MicroLatency modules are realesed to provide density.

It's been a great product. As they increase the firmware codes and add new enhancements, it just becomes more stable.

It's a good, scalable product with which you can scale out. And you can add it to virtualization. Whether it's a V9000 or you add it to an SVC, it becomes even more scalable.

I have not used technical support.

I actually performed a PoC of multiple flash system products and found IBM FlashSystem to be the fastest one out there.

I was involved in many initial setups. That's part of my job to do post-sales installation. So I've done it for several companies. It's very simple and straightforward.

We looked at Pure Storage and EMC XtremIO. We chose the IBM FlashSystem because it performed the best in the PoC.

If they:

• Have to choose from what's out there in the industry
• Are looking for storage efficiencies where they're going to get deduplication and compression
• Are looking for pure speed

Then the IBM FlashSystem is the way to go.

If they need efficiencies, like compression and deduplication, then they need to look at the IBM A9000.

Support is the most important thing when looking at vendors.

My company is a reseller, we deploy the storage. We use the latest version of IBM FlashSystem with our customers who are in hospital information systems. We use the solution for their data warehousing. We have five customers currently using this solution.

The stability of the product is very valuable. I also like the new system they use that improves the availability of storage.

The product needs to improve their scalability and the price.

I have been using IBM FlashSystem for a year.

This solution is very stable.

I have not had any concerns with technical support.

The initial setup is okay, not easy, but okay. It required two engineers to deploy.

Our customers would like IMB FlashSystem to be less expensive. We recommend that they buy everything when the solution is first deployed so that it is covered by the warranty.

I rate the solution an 8 out of 10 and would recommend IBM FlashSystem to others.

On-premises

I use IBM FlashSystem for all of my VMware and BDI environments. I use a fiber channel network for conductivity.

The most valuable features in IBM FlashSystem are IOPS, performance, duplication, and compression.

Sometimes the performance is effective but it gets resolved in the process.

I have been using IBM FlashSystem for approximately six years.

The implementation is difficult, and the process takes approximately three weeks.

We use a partner that does the implementation of the solution.

I rate IBM FlashSystem a nine out of ten.

On-premises

We use IBM FlashSystem for backing up data.

There could be some extra features added.

IBM FlashSystem is flexible, quick, and has a solid design.

I have been using IBM FlashSystem for approximately three years.

IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution.

We have the technical support from IBM but we have not needed to use them. We do not have any problems.

The initial setup was easy.

I rate IBM FlashSystem a nine out of ten.