Pure Storage FlashArray Reviews

I'm a Pure Storage partner and I have implemented two use cases for my customers. In one case, my FlashArray works like storage, but my CPU is in my other servers. In my other case, it works only as a backup.

FlashArray helps us reduce our storage footprint. FlashArray says that it can hold 10 terabytes, but I have 13 terabytes on one FlashArray in one case. We have 3:1 compression. When FlashArray says it's at 16 percent, it's a note, but it isn't helpful for our company and customers.

We see the benefits maybe a week after deployment. In that week, the publisher has to do data reduction. We have to work with FlashArray, but FlashArray has to do its work. After a week, I can see FlashArray is reducing the storage usage.

FlashArray's data reduction and NAS features are incredible. Its performance is the best I've worked with. FlashArray's admin page offers a single pane of glass view. It's the best administration page. It's the easiest to use and understand. 

If I need to change or troubleshoot the dashboard, I cannot do it without calling support. If I want to move something critical, I cannot do it by myself. The dashboard blocks me from changing those critical things.

I have used FlashArray for around a year. 

I rate FlashArray nine out of 10 for stability. Our uptime has been 100 percent for the past year. 

We don't use Evergreen to scale up Pure Storage, but it can help us if our FlashArray is old or full. When that happens, it enters Evergreen and allows us to renew our architecture without downtime. 

I rate Pure Storage support 10 out of 10. We called support with one problem. Technical support was fast. 

Positive

I previously used Dell Data Domain. I switched because our Data Domain was old and FlashArray provided better service than the new Data Domain, so we decided to switch.

FlashArray is the easiest thing I've ever deployed. You just rack it and connect it to the network. There isn't any more configuration. Including pre-deployment, one of my more complex jobs took two or three days. I deployed it with one teammate. 

FlashArray is expensive, but the quality justifies the price. 

I rate Pure Storage FlashArray 10 out of 10. Pure Storage is the best in the world for IT companies. If you want the best performance, you have to choose Pure Storage.

We use Pure Storage FlashArray as our client storage solution. We create dedicated hosts and allocate appropriate storage space to each host server to accommodate their needs.

Our clients were experiencing difficulties running jobs and encountering storage limitations. By implementing Pure Storage FlashArray, we can remotely access the host server and expand the storage capacity to meet our clients' needs.

The FlashArray's single pane of glass is crucial for providing clients with easy access to IOPS and other essential features. This means the FlashArray must be highly accessible, with increased bandwidth, but no additional requirements.

Compared to Dell Unity, Pure Storage FlashArray offers a more comprehensive port configuration, providing eight front-end and four back-end ports. Dell Unity limits connections to two front-end and two back-end ports. Furthermore, Pure Storage FlashArray includes an Ethernet, USB, and management port, enhancing its connectivity options. In contrast, Dell Unity uses a heterogeneous storage environment, combining flash arrays and SAS arrays, which requires manual configuration and assignment based on specific requirements. Pure Storage FlashArray, on the other hand, exclusively employs Pure FlashArray components, eliminating the need for heterogeneous storage and simplifying management.

Pure Storage FlashArray helps save our clients a maximum of 30 percent in resources.

Pure Storage FlashArray has to be available for our clients 24/7, which has significantly reduced downtime.

I work with Pure Storage FlashArray models 2K and 8K. Compared to Unity, these arrays offer significant advantages, such as NVMe technology and higher IOPS. Additionally, they provide more storage capacity and are easier to access than other models.

I want to improve the overall service level of the solution.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for two years.

Pure Storage FlashArray is stable. The arrays are good for four years, after which we must destroy them and migrate the data to a new one.

I would rate the scalability of Pure Storage FlashArray nine out of ten.

We use NetApp for file-level access and EMC, VMAX, and PowerMax. We will continue using NetApp for file-level access, which requires us to provide a shared folder or create a new one. We will allocate storage space to this specific folder, not the entire cluster. This minimal storage is necessary for administrative access and small activities or groups using NAS storage. For larger datasets, high IOPS, or big data storage, we use Pure Storage FlashArray.

The deployment process is straightforward. We will access the GUI, partition the volumes, isolate the host group, and segregate the host. As part of my previous work, I was also involved in decommissioning Pure Storage systems. When dealing with Pure Storage, it's essential to verify the status of the volumes. Ensure that all volumes are offline before proceeding with the decommissioning process. Once the volumes are offline, we will delete them, remove the WWPNs, destroy the volumes, and finally delete the host server. We can deploy around 30 servers per month.

While Pure Storage FlashArray may carry a higher price point, our clients observe a return on investment due to the significant time savings enabled by its exceptional IOPS performance. This increased efficiency more than justifies the initial cost.

Pure Storage FlashArray offers higher performance and IOPS than Dell Unity, thanks to its use of 32-gigabyte cables. While it comes with a higher price tag, this investment often translates to significant improvements in performance.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray nine out of ten.

Pure Storage FlashArray offers exceptional accessibility, ensuring our clients experience minimal to no performance issues, even during intensive I/O operations. Our clients have consistently reported high IOPS and successful job execution without encountering any errors or delays. This rapid response time, measured in milliseconds, underscores the FlashArray's ability to provide seamless storage access.

Our clients are enterprise clients.

Maintenance is necessary for ports, DIMs, fans, power units, and arrays. If a power unit fails, a redundant unit will access the data. We will notify the client of any issues and submit a service request for resolution. After the replacement, we will verify the GUI and log into the Pure FlashArray to check the status of the specific disk. If it's online, we'll take a screenshot and close the case after making the changes.

I recommend Pure Storage FlashArray to others due to its exceptional IOPS performance and user-friendly interface.

I had four or five Flash Arrays. I used it primarily for virtualization and video media, depending on the workload. 

It's simple to use. Upgrading is easy, as is the user interface. The connectivity is simple. 

The performance of the product is phenomenal. 

Pure was open to be checked out by any observability platform. It integrates well with Splunk, for example. 

Its single management pane of glass and dashboard are excellent. At first, it was hard to get used to since I was used to other types of dashboards. However, once I figured it out, it was great. It was very easy to work with. 

The benefits were realized right away. Between the flash array and the compression, you can really see how good it is. Our databases run a lot better now.

Pure hasn't helped us decrease our storage footprint. However, I was at a company that demanded storage when I was using it. We had different solutions for different storage needs. We always needed more storage for video, for example. The capacity was great in that sense. 

When I used Pure, I worked in an environment that was 24/7. Everything we ever built was designed to be damn near bulletproof. I wasn't dependent on a single unit at any point. Everything we did had to be doubled, tripled, quadrupled up. Sometimes, multiple sites with multiple doubles based on the requirements. We've never had downtime.

The evergreen architecture is great. You can interchange things and move up. That never happens with other storage solutions. 

Sometimes you don't realize that the capacity on offer is actually because of compression and all those things. It's just not as visible as it is on a NetApp or some other platform. You don't get the full view. You get the view that they give you, which is fine, but you don't get the full view. You don't get the nuts and bolts. Once you dig in and you learn how to read it, then it makes sense. However, when I first started, it didn't make sense to me.

For large storage needs, it is expensive. When we got too big, we didn't go for more Pure, we went with Isilon, since we were working into the petabytes range.

I've used the solution for three to four years.

I've contacted technical support to run upgrades. They are professional, easygoing, and answer me on time. They know their stuff. I've never had issues. I can contact the right people directly; I never had to roam around looking for someone. Sometimes it will take some time for someone to get back to me once I put in a ticket. 

Positive

We used HP Nimble. That was a full all-flash array. The difference between Nimble and Pure was that with Pure, the upgrade process had to be done by tech support, which I didn't mind at all. In the Nimble, it was just a file, and I could upgrade it. Upgrade-wise, Nimble was better. Beyond that, they were pretty on par with each other. 

I have a lot of experience with Pure and find the solution easy to deploy. 

The only real maintenance is upgrading. There isn't a whole lot we need to worry about. It's one of the easier solutions to deploy with the least amount of failures. Things seldom went wrong. 

Pure is not cheap. Of course, cost isn't everything. If you can buy a really cheap piece of hardware, however, when it comes to being able to get data, doing upgrades, navigation, and all kinds of stuff, you spend more time and effort trying to do that than just doing the work and letting Pure handle a lot of this stuff. So, you can pay it upfront or later. One way or another, you're going to pay for it.

Now, everything is coming down in price since there's more need and competition. I don't see a huge difference in the market. Everything is comparable, size-wise, and everything else is comparable in cost. Storage is storage. It's going to cost you no matter what. That said, those features, those extra things that they put out there, those extra parts are really where the expenditure really comes from. 

I'm a customer and end-user. 

If a company has the money and they want to do it, I don't understand why they wouldn't. From an administrator's perspective, not from a business point of view, it's great. However, users need to check the numbers. 

From an administrator perspective, they handle the upgrades, they do all these things - you don't have to do it. That's a whole lot of time you don't have to spend. For the performance, you get better monitoring. You don't have to spend extra time, money, and effort getting an extra monitoring solution. You can get that from them. Observability and monitoring are extremely important when it comes to this. Pure gives you a great way of connecting it to anything and getting information. The API works great. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. The only issue is it is really expensive. 

In terms of Pure Storage FlashArray, I am using the iSCSI protocol. We are building virtual machines on it. It is like a data store on the ESXi hypervisor. VMware virtual machines are built on it.

Its compression ratio helps to reduce the storage footprint. We have bigger models such as FlashArray XL 150 for one petabyte of requirements in my organization. In a single pane of glass, I can see latency, IOPS, and performance data for 24 hours.

We can easily register the hosts and host groups for clusters. If there are multiple hosts in the cluster, I can group them. There are also features for volumes and volume groups.

We were able to realize its benefits after some time. If there is enough data, you can realize its benefits quickly, but when data is not enough, it will not give the expected results. It can take four to six weeks for the data to be added by different business lines.

The deduplication and the compression, particularly the compression ratio, are important features.

The dashboard is nice. It is easy to manage compared to other storage solutions such as Dell EMC.

Currently, Pure Storage support does health checks. It would be beneficial to have a health check command that can be run from the CLI to ensure that all hardware components are functioning properly rather than having to enable remote access and connect to support for a health check.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for about one year.

I have not seen much downtime with Pure Storage FlashArray.

Scaling FlashArray is not difficult and is relatively easy.

The support is very quick, with account managers available around the clock due to the global nature of the company. They are spread across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions. We have multiple account managers available and designated support engineers as well. We get an initial response to our email within 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Positive

I have experience with Dell Storage solutions like PowerMax and PowerStore, which use FlashArray disks. Dell's Extreme IO was a product similar to FlashArray that I used in the past, but its success is uncertain.

Dell has more hybrid solutions. Pure Storage is mostly focused on the FlashArray line of products. The firmware upgrades with Pure Storage are seamless and pretty quick. Pure Storage might also have an advantage from a cost perspective.

The initial setup is not difficult. After I have the management and other things in place and the box is available, with the help of Pure Storage support, it just takes about 45 minutes to an hour for a small capacity storage, such as 100 terabytes. For a larger capacity storage, it takes a couple of hours.

I have done the re-IP as well and moved the storage from one data center to the other data center. It is not that difficult.

The hardware maintenance is taken care of by Pure Storage support. We do not need to do any maintenance ourselves.

One person is sufficient for deployment, handling tasks like management and connectivity set-up.

Dell and Pure Storage offer competitive pricing, but Pure Storage might have a slight advantage.

As primary storage for structured data, Pure Storage FlashArray with the NVMe protocol is great. It works well for enterprise databases such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database.

For those considering FlashArray, ensure that from a networking standpoint, three management IPs are available. Determine connectivity requirements, whether using FC or iSCSI, and have the necessary switches ready.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray a nine out of ten.

We use Pure Storage FlashArray as storage in our VMware environment.

Pure Storage FlashArray's single management dashboard is important to us.

We saw immediate benefits with Pure Storage FlashArray in the areas of ease of use and performance. 

Pure Storage FlashArray has significantly helped us decrease the overall storage footprint in our company by approximately 70 percent or more.

Pure Storage's FlashArray with Evergreen architecture is essential for our organization to maintain continuous uptime. Our previous experience with NetApp required costly upgrades and disruptive downtime. With Evergreen, we have non-disruptive upgrades at no additional cost as long as we maintain our support contract with Pure Storage. We have undergone several upgrades without impacting our customers, which has been a significant benefit.

We have not had any downtime with our storage systems since switching to Pure Storage, whereas with previous vendors, we experienced downtime primarily due to performance issues. 

Pure Storage FlashArray has allowed us to expand substantially over the last ten years with no downtime. The cost has been manageable, and we have encountered no issues with scaling.

The most valuable features are the ease of use and support. Specifically, the snapshotting abilities of Pure Storage FlashArray are features we like a lot. The FlashArray management pane of glass, or the dashboard, is also helpful for us and is considered important.

On the technical side, the way that the array performs cleanup and garbage collection sometimes pushes it close to 100 percent utilization, causing some stress. A little more transparency about what's happening and why, would help us feel more comfortable.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for about ten years.

Stability has been great. We have not experienced any issues with stability, and we have not had any downtime in our operations since using Pure Storage FlashArray.

Pure Storage FlashArray has demonstrated excellent scalability, allowing for substantial expansion over the past decade without any downtime and at a reasonable cost.

Customer support has been excellent. We have used support multiple times for various issues, including failed disks, replacing failed FlashArray modules, controller upgrades, technical questions, and guidance for using their APIs and best practices. Their performance and speed have been outstanding, and I consider their customer service to be a ten out of ten.

Positive

Previously, we used NetApp and Nexenta, an open-source product. Our experience with Pure Storage has been better than NetApp, specifically around ease of use and cost.

The initial deployment of Pure Storage FlashArray was extremely easy. Deploying our first Pure array took about two hours compared to a week for deploying a single array with Nexenta.

One person is required for the deployment of FlashArray.

The pricing of Pure Storage FlashArray is reasonable. We spend a lot less time managing storage than with other vendors. Compression and deduplication mean we need a lot less capacity to support the same amount of data. The Evergreen support model provides new controllers every three years at no cost, significantly reducing operational expenses.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray nine out of ten.

Pure Storage FlashArray maintenance is handled by Pure Storage and includes software upgrades, security patching, and replacing failed storage media. We monitor performance using Pure Storage's provided tools.

Pure Support and sales engineers are readily available to assist with defining best practices and optimizations, offering valuable guidance for configuration, especially with third-party tools like VMware. So don't hesitate to reach out to their support. For instance, they have helped optimize VMware configurations for peak performance.

Our VMware infrastructure uses a Pure Storage FlashArray as its primary SAN storage solution.

Our organization values the single management pane of glass because it simplifies administration by consolidating all necessary tools and functionalities into one location, eliminating the need to navigate between different systems. This streamlined approach increases efficiency and allows us to manage our operations effectively.

The benefits of Pure Storage FlashArray were immediately apparent, with its speed dramatically reducing machine deployment times from several hours to mere minutes.

Pure Storage FlashArray significantly reduced our storage footprint. Moving from older three-point five-inch SAS disks to Pure's smaller disks and utilizing deduplication and compression, we condensed our storage from 12 racks to just four.

Pure Storage FlashArray reduces downtime compared to our previous storage solution. While our previous system was reliable with minimal downtime, it still required occasional maintenance, whereas Pure Storage FlashArray operates seamlessly without any maintenance requirements.

The Evergreen architecture provides a fantastic refresh cycle where storage, including the crucial controllers at the system's core, is replaced every three years during maintenance renewals. This effectively means that even after nine years, the system remains equivalent to a brand new one. This is greatly important to our organization's ability to maintain uptime. 

I appreciate the ease of provisioning storage on Pure Storage FlashArray. The deduplication and compression features make it cost-effective and remarkably straightforward to use.

Pure Storage FlashArray is fantastic. It shows and does everything I need, which is why I've used it for so long. However, improved reporting on the deduplication and compression functionality would be beneficial. While a general reduction in space usage is evident, it's impossible to determine the specific deduplication or compression rates for individual disk systems.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for nine years.

I rate the stability of Pure Storage FlashArray ten out of ten.

Although we haven't needed to scale significantly yet, the system appears capable of scaling.

The technical support always replies quickly, and the support quality has been fantastic.

Positive

We previously used HPE non-flash storage, but they did not offer the deduplication, compression, or SSD options that the Pure Storage FlashArray provides.

The initial deployment is straightforward, even for someone who has no experience with Pure Storage FlashArray. It takes less than one day.

Deploying a Pure Storage FlashArray can involve various infrastructure components, making it more efficient to use a team. In most organizations, a single person would lack the necessary access to all the systems involved in the deployment process.

We implemented Pure Storage FlashArray nine years ago when it was new to the market and obtained it at a preferential price. However, the current retail price may be relatively high, and discounts may not be available.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray ten out of ten.

Pure Storage handles all maintenance. Upgrades are initiated by simply sending an email request to Pure Storage, which manages the upgrade process.

Pure Storage FlashArray offers fantastic performance and is easy to set up, but it's important to consider the types of workloads you'll be using, as this can impact its data deduplication and compression efficiency.

We use FlashArray for enterprise block workloads, especially VMware databases. Everything is a virtual environment these days. We work with companies in partner countries in industries like telecom and banking. 

You can see Pure Storage's performance benefits as soon as you have deployed the solution. In terms of compression and deduplication, you can see the benefit once you've migrated 25 to 30 percent of your workload to FlashArray. The algorithm needs that much to see how much duplicated data is inside the array. It has reduced the client's storage footprint 100 percent. 

One feature that's particularly valuable for our finance customers is Pure Storage's safe mode. It protects against ransomware attacks by taking snapshots. Our customers were very impressed with this capability. The data reduction is also impressive compared to other providers. 

The single pane of glass management is simple and easy to operate. It also seamlessly integrates with VMware and cloud environments. Pure Storage is hosted on the public cloud, so it's easy to monitor the array from your mobile phone.

Pure Storage's logs could provide more visibility to the end-user. The logging algorithms are different from those of other vendors. 

I have used Pure Storage for three years. 

Pure Storage FlashArray is reliable, and I've had no problems with hardware or software failures. 

I rate Pure Storage support eight out of 10. Their support is excellent, and they respond quickly. 

Positive

We recommend different solutions based on a questionnaire on the customer's needs. Are there performance or resource crunches? Is their current solution becoming obsolete? This isn't a problem with Pure Storage because it will last forever. 

Pure Storage builds its own drives using direct flash modules. Pure Storage has solutions for all scales from small businesses to the enterprise level. 

FlashArray is pre-deployed on hardware. It's very easy to deploy using one person. 

Pure Storage offers a good long-term ROI. You will get the new technology and the same level of support on an initial capital investment. It's a cost-effective solution for customers of any size for long term.

The Evergreen program is critical for our customers who would like to stay on this platform forever, control operating costs, and adapt to new technologies. 

The most important feature is that you get support services forever for a flat annual renewal cost.

I rate Pure Storage FlashArray eight out of 10. 

The tool provides storage to new servers and maintains provision storage volumes like creating new servers for Windows and Linux, which are the system administrations of the storage system.

We have hundreds of servers that use the tool for the storage of Oracle and SQL databases. It also provides tier-one storage for systems and production servers.

The tool is simple and easy to use. It has neat features like protection from device removal. Moreover, you can undo the deletes. The solution is easy to work with and not as complicated as CAC.

I want to learn more about command line usage which I have not explored much yet. However, there are many automated solutions for repetitive tasks. I would like to see additional features like performance monitoring, configuring of alerts, and the customization of alert thresholds in the next release.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for the past three years.

I would give a nine out of ten for the stability of the tool.

I would rate the scalability of the tool as nine out of ten. The solution is very scalable. There are 12 users of the tool in our organization. We have no plans to increase the current usage unless we merge with another company.

I would give a ten out of ten for the technical support of the tool. The solution has got good support and has always been able to help us.

Positive

I have previously used EMC PowerMax. I chose Pure Storage FlashArray because it was of lower cost. Also, we wanted to keep competition between the vendors.

The implementation of the tool is straightforward.

The company must be having ROI but I am not sure since I am not involved in strategic decisions. I do not have access to the metrics to analyze the ROI.

I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I am using the latest version of the solution and it is deployed on-premises. The tool is easy to implement and does not require much training. Moreover, it has good support.

I would rate the pricing of Pure Storage FlashArray a five out of ten. It is expensive but not too much.