We use Pure Storage FlashArray for databases.
Head of Administration Group at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helpful support, feature rich, and highly stable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Pure Storage FlashArray is the complete set of functions it provides."
- "The price of Pure Storage FlashArray could be better."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Pure Storage FlashArray has helped our organization because it effectively (price/performance) stores databases and we do not need an every day/detailed administration.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Pure Storage FlashArray is the complete set of functions it provides.
What needs improvement?
The price of Pure Storage FlashArray could be better.
I don't think NEW features are needed. And I want to point out that the Pure team regularly updates the functionality.
Buyer's Guide
Pure Storage FlashArray
January 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Pure Storage FlashArray is highly stable. If we experience any issues the support resolves the issue immediately.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Pure Storage FlashArray is good. We are able to upgrade changing disks and controllers and it is simple to do.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from Pure Storage FlashArray is perfect. If we have some trouble or we need to change something, we need to ask for support and they are helpful and answered immediately.
I rate the technical support from Pure Storage FlashArray a five out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used IBM, HDS, LSI Storages.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Pure Storage FlashArray was simple. The process took approximately one week.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation of the solution ourselves and when we had some issues we contacted the support for assistance.
All vendor support engineers are good qualified. In case of escalation it was quick and effective.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of the array includes the cost of the basic functionality. The Evergreen support includes free upgrades. This is not an inexpensive solution, you need to understand the value of your data before you buy it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Dell, IBM, HP, and Huawei solutions before choosing Pure Storage FlashArray, which was the best (3 years ago!).
What other advice do I have?
We are wanting to expand and we are looking at other solutions currently, such as Huawei, which is a very good solution from China. However, the documentation can be difficult to understand and their support was not very good but they successfully try to improve it now.
I rate Pure Storage FlashArray an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CIO at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Speedy monitoring, top level support, and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the Pure Storage Flash Array is the blazing fast monitoring."
- "The price of the solution can improve."
What is our primary use case?
Pure Storage Flash Array is used for data storage.
How has it helped my organization?
Pure Storage Flash Array has helped my organization by having the ability to have access to our data immediately.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the Pure Storage Flash Array is the blazing fast monitoring.
What needs improvement?
The price of the solution can improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Pure Storage Flash Array for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Pure Storage Flash Array is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the Pure Storage Flash Array is good and it is easy to do.
We have approximately 2,000 users in my enterprise that are using the solution. The whole company is using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Pure Storage Flash Array is amazing. I have never seen a vendor support a product this well. They knew challenges even before my team was able to figure them out.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using another solution previously and we switch to Pure Storage Flash Array because we wanted the latest and greatest solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the Pure Storage Flash Array was of a medium range of difficulty. It was not easy or difficult. The full deployment was not very difficult.
I rate the initial setup of the Pure Storage Flash Array a two out of five.
What about the implementation team?
We use a consultant from Pure for the implementation of the Pure Storage Flash Array.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment from using Pure Storage Flash Array.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the Pure Storage Flash Array is too high and there needs to be more contact clarity. We went with the Evergreen plan and I don't have clarity on what am I supposed to pay each year or every three years. There was not much contract clarity.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated every solution at the time before we chose Pure Storage Flash Array.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is to evaluate the Pure Storage Flash Array. Do a proof of concept if you can it is a fantastic solution.
I rate Pure Storage Flash Array a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Pure Storage FlashArray
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Pure Storage FlashArray. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Hardware Architect at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Stable NVMe storage solution with an easy setup, lower response time, and good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "NVMe data storage platform that's easy to set up and easy to use. It's stable, with a lower response time, and quick technical support."
- "The backend of this solution utilizes an Active/Passive architecture, rather than an Active/Active architecture, which is a disadvantage, when compared to some of its competitors. Its storage capacity should be expanded in the next release."
What is our primary use case?
Pure Storage FlashArray is applicable for virtual environments, e.g. CSS, VR, and YouTube platforms. It's an NVMe data storage platform.
What is most valuable?
One of the things I like about Pure Storage FlashArray is that it has a high data reduction average, e.g. 4.5.
Pure Storage FlashArray is also advantageous for data centers in terms of rack space for maximum capacity.
What needs improvement?
Many high-end platforms from other vendors like Dell EMC or Hitachi, their backend has Active/Active architecture, unlike Pure Storage FlashArray which doesn't utilize an Active/Active architecture on the backend. Instead, it has an Active/Passive architecture. Its frontend is Active/Active, but its backend is not. I see this as a disadvantage of this product.
The highest storage capacity of Pure Storage FlashArray is the petabyte, and it should be expanded. This is what I'd like to see in the next release.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This product is stable. It's working very well. Our elementary response time is 0.5 milliseconds, and with 100,000 IOPS in our virtual environments.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for Pure Storage FlashArray is good. Support is quick and responsible. We get quick responses from the team.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Pure Storage FlashArray was easy. It was completed within one hour.
What about the implementation team?
Pure Storage FlashArray was implemented by a local product solutions team.
What other advice do I have?
I'm working for a telecommunication company, and we use different products.
We have five people in our company working with this product.
My advice to people who want to implement Pure Storage FlashArray is that it's a good NVMe solution, has a lower response time, and also good for entry-level storage purposes, e.g. small offices, small to medium-sized business, etc. It's also easy to use, e.g. comparable to an iPhone in terms of ease of use. This solution also works very well on the Active/Active version, for combining two storage.
I'm giving Pure Storage FlashArray a score of nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Manager at a government with 51-200 employees
Its ability to simplify storage is great
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has probably reduced my power use substantially."
- "We have not seen a reduction in our TCO nor have we seen ROI."
What is our primary use case?
We use it as reliable storage.
How has it helped my organization?
The virtual machines hosted on this storage are much faster. It boots so quickly that it is almost inconvenient.
The solution has probably reduced my power use substantially.
What is most valuable?
Reliability and performance are its most valuable feature.
Its ability to simplify storage is great.
I look at the performance metrics periodically, which are spectacular.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is tremendous.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is great.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is great.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using a NAS, and it was not performing.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. I had done the preparation first. I had a good relationship with the presales engineer. It went as expected.
What about the implementation team?
We did use an integrator for the deployment, and our experience with them was good.
What was our ROI?
We have not seen a reduction in our TCO nor have we seen ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have an Evergreen Storage subscription, which I think is a great feature.
It is an excellent choice, if you can afford it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Tegile, Dell EMC, and Pure Storage. We chose Pure Storage for performance and cost reasons.
What other advice do I have?
We have integrated the solution with VMware and vCenter. It went well.
The solution’s inline deduplication and compression works fine.
I don't have the need for the predictive performance analytics.
The company seems to be engineering oriented, and I appreciate that.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Storage Analyst at CLSA
Useful dashboard management, helpful support, but missed guaranteed storage capacity
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Pure Storage FlashArray are simplicity, ease of use, and dashboard management."
- "Pure Storage FlashArray could improve some aspects. There are certain features that are good and there are some features that I see some issues with at the technical level. Those issues are related to replication. They need to resolve those issues, which I have already highlighted to the Pure team. Additionally, there are some issues in the active cluster that could improve."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Pure Storage FlashArray for data protection. We keep our backup data on the solution.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Pure Storage FlashArray are simplicity, ease of use, and dashboard management.
What needs improvement?
Pure Storage FlashArray could improve some aspects. There are certain features that are good and there are some features that I see some issues with at the technical level. Those issues are related to replication. They need to resolve those issues, which I have already highlighted to the Pure team. Additionally, there are some issues in the active cluster that could improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Pure Storage FlashArray has been stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have had some issues with Pure Storage FlashArray capacity. We were guaranteed capacity which we did not receive.
The solution is scalable, all storage solutions are scalable.
We do not have end users of this solution, but all of our data from the company is going to the Pure Storage FlashArray.
We plan to increase the usage of the solution in the future.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Pure Storage FlashArray is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Pure Storage FlashArray is quick and was not a difficult process.
What about the implementation team?
We used the reseller to do the implementation of Pure Storage FlashArray. It took one engineer from the reseller and one engineer from my team.
We have approximately 10 users who are managing Pure Storage FlashArray.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Once you purchase Pure Storage FlashArray it is all-inclusive, you receive all the licenses needed.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Pure Storage FlashArray a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
KYC Quality Assurance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Quick and responsive performance, good compression and deduplication features, responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "The compression and deduplication features help to make the best use of the capacity."
- "The system has dual controllers but does not have a high level of resiliency built-in."
What is our primary use case?
This product is for database usage and consolidating performance.
How has it helped my organization?
The Pure Storage FlashArray provides us with faster data access. Our processing time is faster for tasks that used to take a long time before. Now, it's a lot quicker and more responsive.
What is most valuable?
The low latency and the performance, in general, are very good.
The compression and deduplication features help to make the best use of the capacity.
Replication and active-active features are available.
What needs improvement?
The system has dual controllers but does not have a high level of resiliency built-in. For what the peak says, I'm very happy with it. However, if you compare it to similar devices with multiple controllers that are scaled-out, it's not a true active-active.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Over the past year that we have been using it, the stability has been good. That said, we're still testing it. It is very low maintenance; on the Pure side, they don't have much involvement apart from a bit of monitoring.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've not had to increase the capacity yet but it does have the flexibility to scale if we need to. At this point, we have 25,000 end-users and we don't expect that to increase. Our user base is fairly static.
How are customer service and support?
We have been in contact with technical support a couple of times. They are quick to respond and we are very happy with the customer support team.
The support plan makes it simple to plan ahead.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used other flash arrays in the past.
How was the initial setup?
This initial setup is very straightforward. A couple of hours on-site is all that was needed for the engineer to complete it. It took that long to make sure that everything was in place and available.
Overall, it is very simple.
For the deployment, we didn't need many people but we do have a wider storage team that deals with it.
What about the implementation team?
Installation was included with the purchase. We didn't do it ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are no licensing fees aside from the support. The support plan is simple and quite easy to understand, and it covers issues such as hardware failures.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated all of the options that were presented to us at the time, and Pure won.
What other advice do I have?
Feature-wise, there's nothing specific that is lacking for us at the moment. The features that are there now are really what we need.
Overall, this is a good product and I recommend it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
President and Principal Architect Engineer at Technetics
It has a lot of statistics which help out with capacity planning
Pros and Cons
- "The back-end data reporting for Pure Storage is phenomenal. The data that you can see on the performance of your customers' array, so you can be proactive about upgrades or enhancements, and is a phenomenal tool to have access to as a partner. I haven't seen this type of stuff out of anything of the other storage systems."
- "The setup needs to be improved the most. They can do a little more with the user interface, but the setup is what I would like to see made a bit easier."
What is our primary use case?
Anytime that you need fast storage.
How has it helped my organization?
The back-end data reporting for Pure Storage is phenomenal. The data that you can see on the performance of your customers' array, so you can be proactive about upgrades or enhancements, and is a phenomenal tool to have access to as a partner. I haven't seen this type of stuff out of anything of the other storage systems.
Pure Storage has a lot of statistics which help out with capacity planning.
As a partner administrating the solution, the back-end reporting has positively affected the time involved in managing and administrating.
What is most valuable?
Performance is its most valuable feature. There is nobody else who is coming close, not that I have seen.
They are on the money with the predictive performance analytics. They claim high performance, and they do have it.
What needs improvement?
There are things that they are doing with the interface all the time to make it better. It is not the easiest to work with, but it is getting close. As far as interfaces, I always liked Nimble's interface the best. Though, Nimble's interface has been stuck in the mud for the last three to four years since HPE took them over. There hasn't been a whole lot of changes to Nimble. Whereas, Pure Storage has been continuing to improve, which is pretty good. It is not top of the market, but it is getting there.
The UI reporting is adequate.
The setup needs to be improved the most. They can do a little more with the user interface, but the setup is what I would like to see made a bit easier.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I can't think of a time I've had a problem with a Pure Storage array. You might get drive fail once in a while, but it has never been a problem. Usually, that will get reported in the partner dashboard and we will get an alert. Pure Storage will also get an alert.
Nimble used to be the best if you had a part fail. It would be on your doorstep the next morning. It just showed up, every time. No questions. They have lost some of that with HPE.
Pure Storage is still pretty good. I haven't heard any customers tell me that they just had a part just show up without even knowing anything was down, like I used to hear about with Nimble. However, usually they will get some type of an alert from Pure Storage, such as, "Looks like you lost a drive. Do you want us to send someone out or a power supply?" Then, get it out.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
They are at least 30 percent faster than their closest competitor. It depends always on the differences on how you scale. I had customers get NetApp, who couldn't get anything out of it. They finally added another storage shelf and started getting some decent numbers. Well, instead of adding a couple more storage shelves, I could do that with one Pure Storage array. What if I don't need that much storage and don't want to have five shelves? You don't need that with Pure Storage, because one shelf will strain.
I don't have any massive Pure Storage installs. Probably the biggest ones that I have been apart of are five or six arrays.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have at least three customers who have had other stores solutions and installed Pure Storage. There is no comparison. Their old storage solutions have now been relegated to archive, or they have ripped them out.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup can be challenging. If everything works the way it a supposed to, which it often does, then it is fine. However, when your encounter problems and you have to get into those local admin accounts, that can be a pain. You have to call tech, they need to look up what the password is, then send it to you, which can be a pain.
I would like to see a bit different setup. It would be nice if they have something where you can plug into the thing and see an HTTPS address, like with a bench setup. A couple of other vendors has upped their own Layer 2 protocol for discovery. As long as you are on the same network segment, it pops right up and you can do the base config, then you are ready to log into it in about five minutes. Pure Storage's process is not bad, but it could still be better.
I have never had a problem with a firmware or controller update.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
With the pricing, they have, it is pretty competitive to spinning disk.
I have had a couple of customers who have complained about the cost. It can be a little more expensive than some of the other platforms. After it has been installed, I have never had a customer say, "I wish we wouldn't have spent all that extra money." They have always been happy with the product after it has been installed. They might be on the fence about it because of the price, but everybody who I have ever seen install it, they are always happy with it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The competing vendors are NetApp, Nimble, and IBM. I don't run into a lot of Dell EMC. Customers pick Pure Storage for performance.
There is no comparison performance-wise. I also install Nimble for storage, and Nimble has flash and all-flash, as well. However, if you are looking at the performance numbers, these Pure Storage is just killing it.
What other advice do I have?
I have integrated the solution with vCenter. There is nothing remarkable about it. It works. I have no complaints.
I think all vendors have a pretty decent platform for inline deduplication and compression. There are always little differences here and there, but I haven't seen anything remarkable with Pure Storage.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
Head of Infrastructure Architecture at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
They are proactive with support and open cases for us before we notify them of an issue
Pros and Cons
- "The job of support for the storage engineers dramatically changed. We know more quickly the automation of the provisioning. We can now focus on things that bring more value to the company than just managing storage."
- "We would like to integrate it more with our backup solutions."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is storage for payment platforms.
How has it helped my organization?
We don't have anymore performance issues, which is good.
The job of support for the storage engineers dramatically changed. We know more quickly the automation of the provisioning. We can now focus on things that bring more value to the company than just managing storage.
What is most valuable?
Performance and support quality.
What needs improvement?
We would like to integrate it more with our backup solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have seen through time that it is perfectly stable. It has aged well. We were an early adopter in our company.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is very modular. When you need more storage or power, you change one brick, and you don't have to go through a long process.
How are customer service and technical support?
Pure Storage has proven to be proactive with support. Even when we have small problems, they open a support case before we even notify them that there has been an actual issue.
We receive good quality of support from the first line of support, so we don't need to escalate or wait through a long process.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We clearly have seen the difference between having storage on Dell EMC or NetApp versus what we have now on Pure Storage. The investment was a clear win for us.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very simple. It's basically a few cables with two plugs. Plug it in, and it is that easy.
What about the implementation team?
We did the installation in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen reduction in total cost of ownership.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We would like them to improve the pricing, so we could put them to use some more product, like backup or long-term storage. In the future, if the price goes down, then we could buy different types of products.
What other advice do I have?
If you have doubts, do a proof of concept. Pure Storage is very happy to provide you with storage ahead of time that you can test for a couple of months. This way, you can test the performance and bugs, which makes it easier to sell to your company.
Everything is embedded that is something managed from end-to-end by Pure Storage. This is something really easy for us. We don't have to work with integration and the different subcomponent of the storage that we would have to use if it was SSD.
We are at about 3.0 to 4.0 in terms of data reduction.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: January 2025
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