Everpure FlashArray Reviews

Pure Storage FlashArray is used for storage devices and provides major infrastructure support for our customers. Our customer is Woolworths, a giant retailer in Australia. We support and manage their data, including how they process their bills, which are all stored in Pure Storage FlashArray. Mission-critical applications are hosted on Pure Storage FlashArray. Our models are R20, and we support FA, which is fully FlashArray, as Pure Storage FlashArray has only FlashArray. The models are FA-X20 R3, R4, and X50, which I have been working with for the last two years. Previously, when I joined, there was an Evergreen shift where the controller module changed as part of the subscription. Every three years, they change the controller model if it is EOL. There were plans to bring in FlashBlade, but due to cost and other perspectives, considering that FlashArray is performing better and the X model is doing well, we decided to continue with X models only.

We are currently using the Evergreen architecture only for upgrades and scaling up.

The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed.

On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer.

Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation.

Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client.

From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.

Regarding documentation, it would be helpful if we could have access to the root passwords for administrative tasks. Currently, all root passwords are managed via Azure, and having access to them would be beneficial for resolving situations where we need outputs. If we were custodians of the passwords upon purchase, that should be provided, especially if we encounter difficulties due to expired support contracts.

I have been working with Pure Storage FlashArray for two years now.

Since the availability is high, Pure Storage FlashArray helps reduce downtime, as you can see every disk in the GUI. If a disk goes down, there is an option for it to self-repair. While other vendors offer similar self-repair options, the vision Pure Storage FlashArray offers through the GUI is clearer; we can discern the status, what is cabled, and how direct flash is enabled. This capability provides us a distinct advantage over other vendors.

Pure Storage FlashArray is reliable, which is why we deploy our critical tier zero applications on it. Reliability and availability are paramount, and the performance and hardware stability never falter. All security measures are in place, and the strength of fiber channel cables and port connectivity is commendable, promoting reliability.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray's technical support as an eight. Pure Storage FlashArray has developed solutions with consideration for customer perspectives. Their support is commendable, showcasing that they understand the operational challenges faced by users.

Positive

I have worked with NetApp CVO, Dell EMC VNX, and Dell EMC Vplex. In comparison to NetApp products, their commands are more user-friendly, requiring just a tab for options, while with Pure Storage FlashArray, full commands must be inputted. The hardware expansion in NetApp is more immediate due to a different architecture, which may provide advantages. Moreover, NetApp's CVO has recently transitioned into a SaaS application integrated with Microsoft Azure, but I haven't explored Pure Cloud yet, so I cannot provide insights from that angle.

Deployment was quite straightforward; the complete controller module was directly sent to the site once we raised a case about the EOL notification. Pure Storage FlashArray provided a tracking ID for the shipment sent to the data center, and we arranged for a Pure Storage FlashArray engineer to come. There was no need to panic as communication was clear regarding when the engineer would arrive on site. Our only requirement was to give them the necessary access to our data center, which we manage.

The implementation was simple; the shipment arrived at the data center ahead of the scheduled date. The assigned engineer reached out, and they completed their work, including updating the module version, in roughly an hour. There was no need to wait and wonder whether the engineer was online or on the way.

Our total cost of ownership is reduced since, with thin provisioning, though we have raw disks of ninety-one TB, we can utilize up to three hundred fifty TB due to overconsumption capabilities. Thus, it saves costs; otherwise, with thick provisioning, you could only use what is provisioned, further impacting TCO.

Billing is managed by the customer, and I don't have much insight into that.

Selecting the appropriate model depends on the applications and the desired petabytes; for example, the XL model is for high throughput. For data center efficiency regarding space consumption, the X series is favorable, but it ultimately depends on specific requirements. The X20 R4 offers better performance, especially for critical applications.

I genuinely cannot think of anything to improve about Pure Storage FlashArray. I have not faced any negative aspects; the performance is good. Overall, the hardware part is commendable, and there is nothing I would specifically flag as needing enhancement. When discussing sustainability, I believe all vendors perform similarly, including Pure Storage FlashArray, but our previous discussions indicate that Pure Storage FlashArray's sustainability practices are good. I recommend other organizations consider transitioning to a complete flash system with Pure Storage FlashArray to enhance performance. Fast read and writes are crucial; thus, performance should always be prioritized. However, it needs to align with budget constraints. This advantage comes from Pure Storage FlashArray's ability to update modules without causing downtime, unlike other vendors where downtime is necessary for such updates. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten overall.

I work as an MSP and integrate Everpure FlashArray while also using it internally in my company. I then moved to a partner role at an Everpure partner and now work as a solution architect for this partner while managing my own devices and clients' devices.

My usual use cases for Everpure FlashArray include VMware ESXi or Hyper-V clusters running on Everpure FlashArray as storage with synchronization of snapshots between two FlashArrays. I have one FlashArray here and one as a DR site, and I use snapshot replication between them.

Everpure FlashArray has helped decrease my storage footprint because of deduplication and compression. I managed to decommission at least four storage systems at one customer and replace them with only one. The 5:1 or 4:1 ratios were very good for the customer.

Everpure FlashArray has helped decrease the total cost of ownership for my clients by at least half.

I cannot imagine my workflow without Everpure FlashArray because I do not have any other type of storage in use. All my clients currently run on Everpure FlashArray. In total, I have around six to eight FlashArrays and two FlashBlades. I am an Everpure FlashArray customer across all the customers I serve.

I have found the most valuable features or capabilities of Everpure FlashArray over time to be automatic deduplication and compression up to SafeMode, immutable data, and snapshots. I use the whole infrastructure that Everpure provides, not just one feature. I fully utilize all the features available.

Evergreen architecture is very important for my organization and for my customers' ability to maintain continuous uptime. This is the main selling point I always explain to customers. I describe to customers that with Everpure, they have a full running system in any condition. I have not managed to get any FlashArray into a state where I cannot access the data or cannot place it in a non-production environment. I perform in-place upgrades, controller updates, software updates, and everything works without any downtime. This is the main feature I sell to customers.

The single management pane of Everpure FlashArray is very important for me and my customers because I have all the FlashArrays from customers and my own clients directly in the same place. I have one Pure1 for partners and one for customers, and I can see the whole fleet. Having that kind of view across the entire architecture is very important for me.

The advantages that Everpure FlashArray has over other similar solutions include a flat rate so you know exactly what you can do with the money and the subscription you have. Deduplication and compression are very important and I emphasize them to every customer. The flat rate of support means that even after three, six, or nine years, the customer knows exactly what to pay. These are the main advantages I express to customers.

The pricing and licensing of Everpure FlashArray is a problem because Everpure is considered more expensive than competitors. IBM, Lenovo, and Dell are more aggressive on prices. It is a very complicated market, especially now, and I understand the prices are higher at Everpure because of the software and all the enhancements it has. However, in this competitive market, we have a big problem selling to customers that are on a tight budget. A product with better pricing would be a win in the end. The RC or C20, for example, was a very good product that I could sell more easily than other options. Everpure FlashArray//C is sufficient for most workloads and virtualization workloads if you do not have very large databases. A product like that helps, and perhaps a new product in the future that is a little cheaper than the current options would be a possibility to gain more market share.

I see the return on investment clearly from using Everpure FlashArray, but the challenge is selling it to customers for the first time. There are many customers who fall in the sweet spot where they are too small for an X or even a C model. They need something a little cheaper, they have the money for a cheaper version, and they need the performance of a Pure system. These customers could be more easily approached if Everpure offers a version of a local device in the future that is even cheaper than the C-class. I am trying now to help customers understand the concept behind AG1. I know that AG1 is not profitable if capacity is less than 50 terabytes. However, some customers would be very willing to pay for 25 terabytes in a cloud operated by Pure and to have it accessible with very good speed. We will see what the future brings.

Everpure FlashArray scalability is sufficient because until now, I have only needed to extend the chassis to add a second shelf one time. The scalability was sufficient for my scenarios.

My experience with the technical support of Everpure FlashArray is positive. Each time I had an issue, my technical problems involved software updates, configuring something, changing a drive, or replacing controllers. I experienced both client and partner support, and each time the team was very good, very willing to help, and very fast.

I will give a 10 for the technical support because they fixed problems that they are not technically supposed to fix. Those problems were outside their area, yet they fixed them anyway.

Before Everpure FlashArray, I used different technology for the same use cases. I have used Dell Unity, Lenovo storage, Qsan, and smaller storages with directly attached storage using TrueNAS. I have been in the storage business for over 20 years, so I really understand what can be done with storage regardless of the product name.

I decided to switch from previous technology to Everpure FlashArray especially for the deduplication, compression, and support. Pure Storage has had the best support to date, and I hope the support will continue this way.

I usually participate in the initial setup and deployment of Everpure FlashArray.

The usual initial setup process I follow involves first talking with customers and preparing a worksheet. After that, I prepare the physical installation of the equipment by ensuring I have space and the necessary environmental requirements. Then I put the equipment effectively in the rack, connect the cables, add labels, and so on. After that, I perform the power up. I install the latest Purity because the latest FlashArrays do not come with Purity installed; they have the factory image. After that, I prepare the IPs and begin the configuration.

I sometimes find challenges in the initial setup process depending on the customer because the problem is on the customer side. Customers do not always have the necessary IPs or the complete infrastructure, but this is not something I cannot manage. It requires more planning than usual, but it is always doable.

I considered other options besides Everpure FlashArray, including Dell, HP, IBM, and Lenovo. I prefer to go with Pure each time the client has the budget for it.

I use Pure Storage's EverGreen architecture for upgrades and scaling up. I am currently having discussions and will be selling Everpure support and also EverOne and AG1 to one of my customers. I am aware of the whole ecosystem and I am trying to implement it.

Downtime was reduced thanks to Everpure FlashArray because the other systems did not have the capability to make a very good upgrade on a running system while performing the upgrade. I had to plan a maintenance window just to make a reboot, or migration from one chassis to another created overload and performance problems. I had to migrate workloads in a different way. This is why we had a very good response after I implemented Everpure.

From my experience, I do not have anything that I need to list for improvements for Everpure FlashArray at this moment. I really do not have a real suggestion. I had waited for the Nutanix integration and it has become available. I use iSCSI, not FC, and this is why I do not have very big problems. I already embraced NVMe over TCP, which is another feature I like. At this moment, I do not have anything that I would like to have and do not have. This is the view from my perspective.

I have not encountered bugs or problems in the software. I know for certain that for one of my customers here in Romania, the Purity team made a special update because they had the ability to put the same volume on both iSCSI and Fiber Channel. After that, they modified Purity to not allow this because it was creating data corruption. However, I do not consider this a problem. I consider it a feature that was discovered after the fact. That is acceptable.

I would comment on how stable and reliable Everpure FlashArray is by stating that I have not encountered bugs or problems in the software. I know for certain that for one of my customers here in Romania, the Purity team made a special update because they had the ability to put the same volume on both iSCSI and Fiber Channel. After that, they modified Purity to not allow this because it was creating data corruption. However, I do not consider this a problem. I consider it a feature that was discovered after the fact.

I see that in terms of performance, power, cost, and sustainability, Everpure FlashArray is in the top layer of performance versus cost of power because power consumption is low. All flash systems have low power consumption, but in the whole environment, FlashArray does not work in a 99% CPU low state. Each time when working with Pure, normally you are under-rated, so you are overpowered. This means lower consumption and fewer hardware failures because of better thermal management.

I would say to a colleague from another company who is considering Pure Storage but already has a flash solution for their high-performance workloads to give it a try because Pure has the ability to conduct a PoC, and 99.9% of PoCs remain in place. Any device that you will have in a proof of concept will remain with the customer because they will like it.

I rate this review 9 out of 10.

I am Shankar Prabhu, currently working at Geodis India Private Limited, where I manage Everpure FlashArray. The main use case for Everpure FlashArray in our environment involves configuring LUNs and host and host groups for multiple servers and virtual machines. Everpure FlashArray makes it very easy to configure hosts and LUNs.

Typical tasks include new provisioning work where we configure hosts and zoning from Cisco or Brocade switches. After creating the host, we either create new LUNs or share existing LUNs by mapping them to hosts or host groups. For single hosts, we configure the host and volume group from our end. For host groups, we configure everything in the Pure environment by allocating binary LUNs and creating setup LUN combinations, then mapping the combination LUNs directly to the host group. In the host group, we add the two hosts and map only the binary LUN to the specific host.

Everpure FlashArray is the main storage running in our environment. We use approximately eight storage platforms in each data center, with four available. We use the models X50, X70, and X550 as well. These models have a significant impact on our environment, and we dedicate some arrays for specific servers. Creating hosts or LUN groups on Everpure FlashArray is very easy compared to other storage scenarios.

On a day-to-day basis, Everpure FlashArray is very user-friendly and easy to learn. We have a monitoring tool called the Pure1 portal where we can easily identify the host latency and volume group latency, which helps us identify any issues that may occur.

The best features of Everpure FlashArray are its user-friendly interface and ease of understanding the work and environment. Compared with other SAN storage, Everpure FlashArray has controllers with six-path redundancy. If something happens, we can easily use the host and LUNs. The upgrade process is very easy, and the Pure team frequently provides new versions. During upgrades, we work with Pure support engineers who provide correct solutions.

Everpure FlashArray makes it easy to identify users, LUN counts, and other information, including where each LUN has been mapped. The two-node devices are very fast. We have access to more models available from Pure, such as X50, X70, and X90. In our environment, we use all three models, and the X90 offers the best features with high IOPS and high usage capability. For non-production environments, we can use X70 and X50 storage.

The Pure1 feature is the main component where we can clearly identify host or host group issues and see volume utilization, latency, and IOPS from both the Pure and Pure1 side.

Everpure FlashArray is very user-friendly, easy to learn, and makes it easy to identify issues. It provides more redundancy on both the controller and host sides. Anyone without prior Pure knowledge can learn Everpure FlashArray very quickly, within about a month.

Everpure FlashArray is in an almost improved state. To improve further, we could include latency graphs and weekly reports in the Pure array. Compared with other storage arrays, we receive reports showing which LUNs have been highly utilized over the last week and utilization information, which could be improved in Everpure FlashArray.

One improvement area is the eradication time delay. Although this would be very useful, Pure states that it needs to be for seven days, which does not help us. We need to reduce the eradication time delay permanently in the array side and Pure1 side to a minimum of one or two days.

I have approximately five years and five months of experience with both SAN and NAS.

The Pure team releases versions on a quarterly basis. During these releases, we reach out to the Pure support or accounts team to confirm the version. Issue-wise, we do not experience many issues—only minimal ones. We have not encountered any problems or hardware failures from the Pure side.

Scalability-wise, Everpure FlashArray is very good storage that we can use anytime, and everyone can use it. We can increase the disk size and bring in other models to combine into clusters with four nodes or more storage. However, since it is SAN storage, we cannot extend with additional nodes; we can only add disks.

The customer support from Pure is very good, and I would rate it 10 out of 10. If we have any query or doubt, we can reach out to the Pure support anytime, and an escalation option is also available on the Pure side. Every time they provide the correct solution and correct response.

This is the primary reason we have chosen Pure. We are also a partner for Pure support, so we can reach out anytime, and the escalation option is available on the Pure side.

We are currently using NetApp SAN storage. We are migrating to Everpure FlashArray because our NetApp storage is going to expire. The migration is very easy, and configuring the host is also straightforward. Compared with other storages, the migration process is very easy for us.

We have validated both NetApp SAN storage and PowerStore. However, compared with other storage solutions, Everpure FlashArray offers very good support from the Pure partner side.

The faster provisioning in Everpure FlashArray is very beneficial. We can immediately create a host or host group volume or volume group and easily map the LUN to the host or host group while easily identifying the LUN. If we do not know the LUN name but only know the serial number, we can identify the LUN serial number in the volume tab, which is very useful. The metrics in Everpure FlashArray are very high, and it is good storage that we can use anytime.

Everpure FlashArray is simple to learn and easy to manage. When I first came to Everpure FlashArray as a new user, I learned everything from the Pure side within a month and found it easy to identify issues. The KB articles from Pure are very helpful, allowing us to fix issues on time without escalation.

I give this product a rating of 9.5 out of 10.

We used Pure Storage FlashArray for the first two or almost three years strictly for VMware block storage. We bought another FlashArray, a C-series, for our file share, and we migrated everything from Isilon to C-series. We have two FlashArrays, X-series and C-series. C-series is mainly for file share and we use shares basically, while X-series is strictly for block storage for our VMware.

Pure Storage FlashArray is a good product with minimal management requirements once set up correctly. It requires less management once set up correctly. It does not require day-to-day work. 

Pure Storage FlashArray helped reduce our storage footprint from EMC, although I'm not sure how large it was before. I know the total capacity since they purchased it. When I checked the initial storage capacity I bought, I realized my Pure Storage FlashArray wasn't big enough. I mentioned that we might need to expand next year, as it barely meets our needs for now. I gathered all the necessary information and presented it to my team. I said, "If we continue with this growth, we'll run out of storage within the next year." They doubled the storage capacity in just one year, and since then, we haven’t purchased any additional storage. It’s been almost three years now since we last expanded.

The main drawback is the support. I’ve been working for four years without a local representative, and although I’ve submitted many requests, nothing has changed. They sometimes call me in the middle of the night, even though I’ve informed them about my working hours. I often raise cases to speak with someone directly because I prefer to discuss issues over the phone rather than via email. I specifically request them to call me when I open a ticket, but they continually reply by email instead. This ongoing situation has been very frustrating in terms of the support I receive.

As a technical professional, I lack visibility into the system logs. Whenever an issue arises, a ticket is opened for us. While I'm glad they take this step, it can be frustrating. They inform me, “Hey, we opened this ticket for you. It’s critical. Call me so we can discuss what’s going on.” However, as a product manager for my institution, I don’t have access to the logs, which are withheld due to, as they say, proprietary code. I understand that, but I have been working in storage for many years and am not new to this field. In fact, I spent 17 years at IBM Storage, dealing with large enterprise systems, not just small vendor products. I wish I could access the normal logs to diagnose issues myself, rather than relying solely on their information. Before I can escalate issues or open a checklist, I need to have a clear understanding of what’s happening based on the logs. Sometimes the situation feels rushed, and I end up having to push my support team for answers. There are moments when I feel like I’m left in the dark about the log details until I actually call them for clarification. It can be quite challenging.

Pure Storage can improve FlashArray by providing more logging visibility to customers. Currently, there is no log visibility. They could include an audit log, but I cannot see any system logs when problems occur.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for almost four years.

The stability of Pure Storage FlashArray is really good; I would give it a ten out of ten for stability.

For scalability, I would give it a six because we did not have to scale that much. Depending on the model, you can scale differently, but we did not run at full capacity yet.

Their support is good, but there are issues with timing. We receive callbacks during off hours or not during my working hours. I work in the Eastern time zone. They often call me at two o'clock in the morning, and I sometimes get emails at ten o'clock at night asking, "Can you do this?" I won't respond to those requests if I don't know who they are without a phone conversation. If it's not an emergency, I won't address anything until the next business day. When I arrive at the office, I will make a call, but before that, I need to speak with someone to understand exactly what we're going to do before granting any access. For example, when they ask, "Can you turn on remote assistance? We'll take care of it," I refuse because I want to know exactly what actions they're taking. If something goes wrong, my management will come to me with questions: "What did you do? Why did you enable that? Who approved this?" I want to ensure that before I turn on remote assistance, I have a conversation with them to clarify everything.

Neutral

Before using Pure Storage FlashArray, the company was using Isilon. They had also used EMC Flex, but I only used it here for a very short time. By the time I arrived, we migrated everything from EMC Flex to Pure Storage.

The deployment model we use is strictly internal storage. We are not on cloud or private; we use only on-prem storage. Everything we have is on-prem, with physical devices sitting in our data center and our co-location at the DR site.

It was already set up by the time I got here, so I cannot speak for the initial setup process. It was already deployed when I started.

Compared to other products, the learning curve is about 50% shorter. The learning curve is not hard, especially if you do a basic setup; it's quick to set up and quick to learn.

Pure Storage FlashArray does require some maintenance. They have a self-service portal. If you sign up for the self-service option, it will update automatically and handle everything for you. While it does require maintenance, I normally prefer assisted service. I like to be on a call during upgrades to ensure that everything goes smoothly because I’m an old-fashioned guy. I want to be involved when they do the upgrades, as issues can arise, and I want to know what went wrong if something does happen. My management will turn to me for answers, especially regarding Pure Storage, because they rely on me. As the subject matter expert (SME), if something goes wrong, I am the first point of contact they will reach out to. If I don’t know what’s going on, it reflects poorly on me. Therefore, I always choose assisted service; I want to be on the phone to ensure that everything is going as expected and to confirm that all processes are handled correctly.

I am not much involved in the pricing.

We're currently utilizing Pure Storage FlashArray on Evergreen. Essentially, they mentioned that we don't need to replace the entire system, but we do have to replace the controllers every three years as part of their support model. While they say it's free, we actually pay for support upfront. What they provide is essentially an evergreen product. We can continue using the same storage backend, but they replace the front-end controllers. So, we get new controllers without having to replace the entire system. In other words, we can keep the same storage chassis but use different controllers.

If a colleague from another company is considering Pure Storage but already has a flash solution, I will be honest; it depends on what their workload is and what they're using. I cannot speak for others' products compared to Pure Storage, as they have to compare their own performance and make their own decisions based on cost and support.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray an eight out of ten.

My use cases for Pure Storage FlashArray revolve around its high performance storage capabilities. For any application that needs high performance storage, it has been coming from a block background, but you can also do file off it now.

My favorite aspect of Pure Storage FlashArray is that it's difficult to pinpoint just one. Pure Storage is seen as a visionary company with leading edge technology.

Regarding the Evergreen architecture, one of the nice things that marks out Pure and the way you can manage the array or storage estate is their Pure1 site, which allows you to do lots of analytics. This is very powerful. One of the major selling points is the fact that you can buy an array and you'll have a certain amount of longevity with it. It can take you through a couple of iterations of hardware in the same chassis, and that's all done non-disruptively. What used to be the lifespan of particular storage environments would maybe be a maximum of five years, maybe less, and then you would typically have to go through a storage refresh project. Pure Storage's approach allows you to not have to do any of that. It can be a seamless upgrade from a lower performing older hardware to a newer platform, which saves a lot of headaches from a customer perspective.

I find the interface of Pure Storage FlashArray to be easy to use. That's one of the attractions for administering Pure Storage FlashArray as it is quite intuitive. If you know what you're doing from a storage perspective, then it's very easy to be productive within a short period of time. That's a crucial factor.

Some of the downsides of Pure Storage FlashArray are being addressed. Some of the issues are that it's probably not on a par with other large storage enterprise type products. Historically, they've not really been big enough to accommodate bigger customers. The solution would be to buy more arrays, but it doesn't help you with managing workloads. If you have one array that provides a certain amount of capacity, then you don't really have a lot of issues with managing the workloads. However, if you have to buy multiple arrays because the products don't provide capacity, it's sometimes challenging to put the right workload on the right array, and sometimes you might end up moving things around, which is a lot of work to do that. Pure Storage has introduced bigger arrays to provide that type of solution, and there are software solutions to managing whole estates rather than individual arrays. That is progressing, but it's probably not there yet. Ideally you want to be able to seamlessly move workloads around, but that's not quite there yet, though it's on the roadmap.

I have experience with Pure Storage FlashArray.

Regarding the stability of Pure Storage FlashArray, there have been issues, but generally around capacity utilization. If the capacity utilization is too high, then it can cause problems. A lot of that is because all storage these days is not what you call thick storage. It's called thin storage or thin provisioned storage, which means that you allocate a certain amount of space from the array. If it's 100 gigabytes, the host system sees 100 gigabytes, but there's zero usage on the backend. As the data gets written more and more, then it uses more space on the backend. This means that you can't predict how much space is going to be used. Sometimes that can cause problems if there is a lot of data written in a short period. That needs to be managed carefully.

Pure Storage FlashArray has decreased the storage footprint in a significant way. That's fairly normal as technology improves. There's a goal towards reducing footprint and reducing power usage. As Pure Storage FlashArray develops, that's one of the key goals of Pure, which is to reduce footprint and power usage. Things like deduplication mean that you get more capacity usage without consuming as much on the backend.

I have had to contact Pure Storage FlashArray's technical support frequently. They're very responsive. You can call them up or you can log a case using the Pure1 interface. They're very good and generally go above and beyond what's within the scope of their technology. If there's difficulties within the environment, they will suggest resolutions to take that forward, which is really helpful. They handle things like upgrades for you. There's a feature called Remote Assist, which allows Pure to connect into your array when you enable it as a customer. Typically, you would schedule an upgrade to be at a certain time, and then from a customer perspective, enable Remote Assist, and then the engineer can go onto the array and do the upgrade. You can either choose to be on a session with them or not at all. They'll let you know when it's completed. It's generally very smooth. I would give their support for Pure Storage FlashArray a nine on a scale from one to ten.

Positive

I have personally used alternatives to Pure Storage FlashArray. I've worked with EMC or Dell for years. I used products like VMAX and VNX and Isilon, which is called PowerScale now. VMAX is now PMAX. I've used all those and lots of different storage solutions. I've worked quite a lot with NetApp as well and independent, more smaller vendor offerings. I've spent a majority of my career with storage.

When I first started using Pure Storage FlashArray, I found it very easy to learn how to use it. Compared to VMAX and things, those are very complicated and not particularly modern either. Pure Storage, both from the GUI as well as using the command line, everything's very logical and very simple. Conceptually, it's very straightforward. It's probably one of the easiest products I've had to administer. It's difficult to remember anything as straightforward. If you run into problems, the support people are very responsive and very helpful, which is a contrast to my previous experience with EMC and Dell.

Pure Storage FlashArray requires some maintenance on my end. Their software or the firmware on the array has updates every month or two. Generally for large customers, they have what they call a long-life release, which is a lot more reliable and stable and doesn't have any new features on it. If you don't need the new features, then it's better to stick with a long-life release, and then you've got probably three years before it's end of life. They cater for different types of customer in that respect. Generally the maintenance, because it's all flash, there's no traditional hard disks or spindles as we used to say. The flash is a lot more reliable, so you get less hardware faults than you would previously. The faults are a lot fewer and far between. It's a lot more reliable.

I don't really know much about the pricing for Pure Storage FlashArray in terms of the absolute cost. Regarding Evergreen, the way they do it, Evergreen One, for example, is a utility model. So there's quite a lot of flexibility in the contracts, and it's kind of tailored to suit customers in terms of how they want to pay for it. Some customers still want to buy the equipment outright, and some would have a different Evergreen offering. There's a couple of different Evergreen offerings. The main one that I've been involved with is Evergreen One, which is where you're effectively paying a subscription. You're paying for a certain level of performance, and if you need more, if the workload exceeds the performance, then they'll basically put more arrays on the floor within the contract without having to pay more. That's a very advanced way of doing it.

In my opinion, the closest alternative to Pure Storage FlashArray would be Dell's XtremIO, but when I used an equivalent product, a flash product which was produced by Dell called XtremIO, I thought it was very poor in comparison. Dell produces lots of different types of platforms, so they can't compete in the same way. Usually Dell is competing on the back of VMAX, now PMAX, which is tried and trusted technology and probably provides something that is perhaps a bit more scalable. There's a company called VAST which are up and coming, which are supposedly a competitor to Pure on performance, but there are lots of other things that you need apart from performance. The all-round support is important. I think Pure's support is on a different level. It's far better than Dell provides. Some of the reason that Pure may not be chosen for certain customers isn't generally because of the technology, it's generally because of financials and the strategic position rather than purely technology, because I don't really think there's anything to beat Pure on the technology front.

I would give Pure Storage FlashArray an overall rating of nine out of ten.

My use case for Pure Storage FlashArray is as our primary storage device where we deploy our enterprise applications. We have backup solutions such as Commvault and Rubrik, but Pure Storage FlashArray serves as our primary storage solution where our applications get their storage.

The best features of Pure Storage FlashArray that I value the most are the safe mode, which safeguards the data from ransomware. We can enable that safe mode feature on Pure Storage FlashArray so that if our data is in the hands of intruders, they cannot encrypt, decrypt, modify, or delete the data.

The VM topology that Pure Storage FlashArray provides allows us to view our entire VMware topology, including how many servers we have, what the data stores are, and what disks and VMs are spinning on those drives. The VM topology feature is top-notch in Pure Storage FlashArray.

We have continuous 99.9% uptime and do not experience any users reporting performance issues due to latency or other factors. Pure Storage FlashArray provides advanced flash drives that are more than enough for our workloads.

I don't have many recommendations for improvement in Pure Storage FlashArray as they completed their research thoroughly, and it is easy to use. However, I would recommend improvements in the graphical user interface, specifically a detailed hardware view that would allow us to see the individual drives and individual controllers more easily, as currently, they are presenting only a higher-level view. Having a complete hardware picture would be much better.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for two years, considering my experience in my previous organization and this organization, spanning the past 24 months.

Pure Storage FlashArray has helped us maintain continuous uptime, and I hardly see any hardware failure in this current organization. The hardware that Pure Storage FlashArray provides means we experience minimal hardware failures compared to HP 3PAR and EMC PowerMax. Hardware failures with Pure Storage FlashArray are minimal, and I haven't seen any drive failure in the past year.

We have continuous 99.9% uptime and do not experience any users reporting performance issues due to latency. Pure Storage FlashArray provides advanced flash drives that are more than enough for our workloads.

Regarding scalability, Pure Storage FlashArray deserves the highest rating.

The technical support for Pure Storage FlashArray deserves the highest rating, as we have never faced any issues.

Positive

When comparing Pure Storage FlashArray with other vendors regarding performance and power, it performs significantly better. Based on my experience with HP and EMC, Pure Storage FlashArray is very compact and does not require much power, especially with the latest NVMe drives, which perform very well.

The deployment of Pure Storage FlashArray is straightforward. We need to schedule an on-site visit and fill out details such as management IPs and replication IPs. The Pure support representative will visit the site and complete the installation, and from there we can take over to configure other aspects.

The solution has decreased our storage footprint as we currently have around one petabyte of storage with Pure Storage FlashArray, and we are deploying three more Pure Storage FlashArrays in our DCs.

Pure Storage FlashArray integrates with APIs and other systems. Regarding resources, it is excellent as we don't need much to maintain them. We are seeing good returns on our contract, around 30%.

Pure Storage FlashArray is cost-effective. Some smaller organizations may find it slightly expensive, but for enterprises, when considering performance, future hardware investments, and overall benefits, it is a very cost-effective solution for mid and enterprise organizations.

Regarding cost and sustainability, Pure Storage FlashArray performs well as we do not face any issues. Hands-on support is not required; we can manage everything, and it is a very reliable storage solution.

We currently have four Pure Storage FlashArray boxes, and all the storage boxes are on an Evergreen subscription model. We don't need to pay for new hardware; whenever new hardware becomes available, they can upgrade without any cost. It is a completely non-intrusive task, and we receive the latest hardware and features.

We have the Pure1 portal, which is a single user interface where we can add all our devices and monitor from there. We don't need multiple standalone applications to monitor each storage array in different locations, as everything is brought under the Pure1 portal. It provides us with complete details, from capacity to support, including knowledge articles and KBs.

I can definitely recommend Pure Storage FlashArray to other users, especially if companies are seeking better performance and want to avoid being tied to a particular model or hardware. Those looking for a future-proof solution when upgrades are coming for drives or controllers would benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray as their single storage solution. Their application technologies and performance are top-notch.

I rate Pure Storage FlashArray a perfect 10 out of 10.

My expertise involves design, taking requirements, and planning workloads on Everpure FlashArray as well as other fleet options we have, including PowerMax, PowerStore, and Infinidat, based on the requirements and SLA we're seeking, particularly response SLA and write and read response times. Based on that assessment, I decide which fleet the workload should be assigned to. On Everpure FlashArray, I also design, plan workloads, plan disaster recovery, business continuity, offsite replication to the DR site, and snapshot management. We perform end-to-end work rather than having L1 and L2 teams where someone handles L1, L2, and someone else handles design. I work on hard drive replacement and design, so I manage end-to-end operations on Everpure FlashArray.

We use Everpure FlashArray for business cases where any application needs critical responses, such as response-sensitive or latency-sensitive applications, which we keep in Everpure FlashArray. Additionally, the other criteria we look for is capacity, because Everpure FlashArray has better inline deduplication and compression, along with better response times. If any requirement matches this criteria, we keep those workloads in Everpure FlashArray.

For another scenario, we are doing a migration from IBM arrays through SVC to PowerMax systems. We choose Everpure FlashArray because we can match the minimum unit size of IBM arrays to Everpure FlashArray. If you take other competitive arrays, PowerMax is good with response times, but the drawback is the smallest unit you can create is in cylinders. We have to calculate the size in cylinders, which does not align with the source IBM array's capacity. Everpure FlashArray allows you to create units with bytes as well, making it another use case we are using Everpure FlashArray for during migration from IBM arrays.

What I appreciate most about Everpure FlashArray is that it performs compression and deduplication fantastically. For example, with 400-500 TBs of physical array capacity, we can thin provision up to 1.2 or 1.3 without any impact, and it still offers a very good compression rate. The response times are also on par with the enterprise giant PowerMax. Moreover, the snapshot technology is excellent and saves considerable space. We can take an unlimited number of snapshots and clones, whereas other competitor vendors require a clone to take up exact redundant space. Here, clones take references instead. Overall, we have a very good deduplication and compression rate along with good response times.

Everpure FlashArray has reduced our storage footprint significantly. We used to have a few Infidats, and we removed three Infidats and onboarded two Everpure FlashArrays. This represents a 3 to 2 ratio. The compression and deduplication helped us achieve this, which is excellent.

What I dislike about Everpure FlashArray is that in the replication, if it is in the pod, we cannot directly add devices to the pod without breaking the relationship. We cannot exempt new devices and add them to the active pod within the replication group. We have to break the replication, disassociate the pod, keep the new device, and then while that's not too big of a deal, it is a bit too much work for a simple task. It should allow for on-the-fly compatibility with exemptions that track their own data deltas.

I have been using this solution for four years and a few months.

I have not experienced any logging or crashing issues. However, I have seen old controllers crash occasionally. It did not happen too frequently, perhaps every two to three months, and the vendor replaced the complete hardware afterward. Since then, there have been no issues.

Scaling is easy with Everpure FlashArray due to how the Evergreen architecture functions. We can upgrade controllers to higher versions and add more disk bays or larger capacity drives in the same slots easily. We have successfully upgraded the controllers, scaled capacity, and scaled arrays without much impact on the system and with seamless planning.

I have contacted technical support many times. An excellent aspect is that they often contact us before we even reach out. When an alert triggers in Everpure FlashArray, it sends an email to the admin teams and the Everpure FlashArray team. There have been times when the Everpure FlashArray team noticed issues before we did and communicated with us to enable remote access for them to fix it, which was very impressive.

Maintenance, if it is under support, is low maintenance. They have a great support system; the moment some alert triggers, the Everpure FlashArray support team acknowledges it and we receive an email about what's happening with the system. They perform hardware upgrades for free if we are in the Evergreen project, making maintenance easy. Since it is flash, we rarely see any drive failures, so it is low maintenance.

I am already using PowerMax, and we have PowerStore as well, so I use other flash arrays.

The initial deployment was easy. Everpure FlashArray takes care of everything, so that was smooth. I did not face any issue except for the scope of work we had regarding the data center rack and PSU setup, which is not Everpure FlashArray's responsibility. Everpure FlashArray handles everything else, including logistics and engineer installation, and they were very supportive. It was smooth. I also had experience with Dell; PowerMax is seamless like Everpure FlashArray, but PowerStore is not as seamless and I had issues.

Pricing is comparative based on the response SLA, latency, and all these factors, and compression rates with enterprise-level storage. I compare it with VMAX, and the price is a little on the budget side. For instance, the new PowerMax array cost us almost 4 to 5 million, and Everpure FlashArray will cost one or one and a half million less. With the Evergreen program, you get non-disruptive and unlimited hardware upgrades for support, as long as you take the support. If an upgrade is feasible, Everpure FlashArray will upgrade your hardware. This is a great feature; with PowerMax and others, you cannot upgrade on the fly—you need to buy a new array and migrate, but with Everpure FlashArray, you can upgrade the controllers without interrupting actual IO.

I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

The main use case for Everpure FlashArray is that it supports the storage environment for a project. As a storage admin, I am responsible for managing the storage systems for daily jobs, such as allocation, de-allocation, commissioning of hosts, decommissioning, port mapping, and all those operations as well as the replications, snapshots, and high availability of the host connections.

I use Everpure FlashArray daily to allocate any storage that is required to the host, which could be sizes of 100 GB, 200 GB, or even in TBs, such as 4 TB, 2 TB, or 1 TB. I am responsible for the expansion as well, in whatever requirement from the OS team or the host side. For daily commissioning, if any host is newly added to my environment, I am responsible for commissioning it on the storage system by zoning on the fabric level and connecting that host to the storage system to provide the disks to the host. In addition, I also handle decommissioning. If any host is no longer in use in the environment, I reclaim those host volumes, preparing them for the array and decommissioning, which means removing them. We also use Everpure FlashArray for storage-based migrations using FlashCopy and remote copy operations, such as ActiveDR and ActiveCluster for taking backups and building new storage for testing.

The best features of Everpure FlashArray include non-disruptive migrations and non-disruptive hardware replacement, which are currently offered. If your hardware needs replacement, the similar canister or chassis can be used to insert your canister and replace the hardware with new hardware.

The non-disruptive hardware replacement works by allowing you to set all scenarios or configurations to your second node, then offline the first node to replace it. Once synchronized with the non-replaced node, which was initially the second node, your workload is handed over to the new hardware, allowing removal of the second hardware while both nodes are up with new hardware, ensuring resiliency and addressing prerequisites before performing these activities.

The features of Everpure FlashArray, such as Pure1, which allows for software-level availability, are valuable because if you are not in front of the systems, you can manage your system via your phone using the Pure1 application. This feature is outstanding and is not available in many other storage technologies, with only Pure Flash storage providing such management capabilities. You can also integrate your storage systems with VMware technologies to manage your whole storage systems and hosts on a single interface.

Each technology has its positives and negatives. The negative aspect of Everpure FlashArray is that migrations can be somewhat complicated.

I recommend that the Pure FlashArray organization improve their storage migration processes concerning non-disruptive migrations by enhancing the technology for creating incremental flash copies or snapshots that can directly merge with target volumes, which would facilitate easier migrations. Currently, I do not recognize any other necessary improvements aside from the migration features I have already mentioned.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for the last 6.7 years.

Everpure FlashArray is very stable.

Regarding scalability, Everpure FlashArray can be scaled to very large infrastructures and can integrate with cloud technologies such as AWS and Azure, allowing it to scale as needed.

The customer support is excellent. It depends on how you prioritize the cases you create with the support team, and they respond empathetically and thoroughly, providing end-to-end help when needed.

Before choosing Everpure FlashArray, I evaluated other options such as IBM, Dell, NetApp, Hitachi, and HP storage systems, but I ultimately recommended Everpure FlashArray for its operational efficiency.

After switching to Everpure FlashArray, we saw significant results. While acquiring the compression licenses, whatever hardware we used before is now compressed to 80%, maximizing space utilization in a single system.

We have noticed Everpure FlashArray is cost-effective. The costs decrease while using this storage solution, reducing administrative and other respective costs compared to other storage systems such as Dell and IBM.

From the pricing perspective, setup cost, and licensing perspective, it is less compared to IBM, Dell, and NetApp, which makes it a very low-cost solution.

I rate Everpure FlashArray a perfect 10 because, as an administrator, I have not encountered any issues with the flash arrays. I chose the number 10 because, compared to other storage technologies, the performance of Everpure FlashArray is outstanding, considering factors such as cost, administrative ease, stability, and overall performance.

If you are buying Everpure FlashArray, my advice is to ensure that whatever warranty you receive on the products is extended, so you won't need to worry about changing vendors in the market, as the flash array will take care of your hardware and software-related support in the future.

If you are establishing your organization, I recommend going with Everpure FlashArray to save approximately 30% of your overall costs from a management perspective, as only one admin familiar with storage and VMware can handle both OS and storage management without needing multiple administrators.

We currently deploy Everpure FlashArray on-premises but plan to integrate it with AWS and Azure for a hybrid solution in the future. My overall rating for this product is 10 out of 10.

The best features in Pure Storage FlashArray are its simplicity; it's simple, but simplicity is key.

Speed is also a key feature. The performance is amazing, and the simpleness of management of the storage is amazing. Support is amazing, and the SEs from Pure Storage are also amazing. The contact with Pure as a partner or end customers is amazing in comparison to other storage vendors.

The solution decreases our storage footprint.

Pure Storage FlashArray has helped decrease the total cost of ownership because we know what the cost is going to be every year. We don't get any hidden fees or upgrade fees; everything is included in the price. We don't do any forklift upgrades, and when we change the storage, we manage it in a way that we replace the controllers, replace the drives, and we do that with zero downtime, without needing to forklift or migrate any data. It resides in the Pure array all the time, so in that way, we earn a lot of money or at least don't lose as much money.

In Pure Storage FlashArray, the area with room for improvement is local MFA login.

Local MFA can't be done, which is why I mention it as an area for improvement.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for almost 10 years.

I would rate stability a 10; there are no downtime, bugs, or glitches.

It has helped reduce our downtime over the years, and with Pure Storage FlashArray, we have zero downtime, approximately 10% reduction.

It fits our scale because the scalability up is perfect. I wanted them to sell me a smaller Pure Storage FlashArray. I want the Pure function but smaller arrays, but I know that's not their business. I want to sell a smaller Pure Storage FlashArray to my customers.

I would rate scalability overall as a 10.

The performance is amazing, and the simpleness of management of the storage is amazing. Support is amazing, and the SEs from Pure Storage are also amazing. The contact with Pure as a partner or end customers is amazing in comparison to other storage vendors.

I would rate the technical support an 11 out of 10.

Positive

We used an HPE 3PAR before using Pure Storage FlashArray.

The deployment for Pure Storage FlashArray was very easy.

It takes hours to deploy.

Almost everything is handled by the Pure Storage support team.

It has reduced our storage usage by minimizing space in the racks and the power consumption.

There is no license fee in Pure Storage FlashArray; you pay something upfront, and you always get any new function in the new products without any hidden license fee.

Pure Storage FlashArray has helped decrease the total cost of ownership because we know what the cost is going to be every year. We don't get any hidden fees or upgrade fees; everything is included in the price.

Management and performance are 1,000% better in Pure Storage FlashArray compared to other products.

In terms of performance, cost, and power, Pure Storage FlashArray is up in the top; it's number one, and you can't compare Pure Storage FlashArray with anything else.

I would recommend Pure Storage FlashArray to other users because it's the best storage solution for the money.

I rate Pure Storage FlashArray a perfect 10 out of 10.

Everpure FlashArray supports our VMware-based virtualization infrastructure. We use Pure all-flash arrays across sites for high availability and efficiency, with the main workload involving application-hosted VMs and databases in a hospitality environment. The main use case for using these flash arrays is utilizing VMware to have a VSAN-like data store.

We have different kinds of databases such as SQL and OCI tenants. Regarding the SQL part, they have a huge amount of tables, but the specific applications are not fully documented.

The main reason we are using all these Pure arrays is for utilizing them as a VSAN in VMware. Additionally, we aim for high availability, efficiency, and consistent performance on both sides, ensuring quick failover whenever there is downtime at the primary site.

When compared to other kinds of SAN devices, we benefit from the pods, which allow us to create separate volumes for different VMware clusters. The best features we have observed are consistently low latency, high performance, simplicity in management both via UI and command prompt, increased reliability, and excellent VMware integration. With Pure plugins, we can easily integrate with VMware vSphere, take snapshots, and create data stores efficiently. Restoring from snapshots is quick and data reduction is also a significant advantage. Additionally, upgrades are non-disruptive and can be performed during production time without taking much time. The proactive support is excellent, as we receive alerts within 5 to 10 minutes, and the support team troubleshoots efficiently.

Regarding VMware integration and snapshot features, we have installed Pure plugins on the VMware vSphere end and configured VMware details on the Pure array side. This means we made a physical connection, and after installation, we saw the pods or volumes created on the Pure arrays, which act as clusters in VMware. It is easier to manage volume expansions on the Pure array end and extend the datastore on the VMware side. For snapshots, we have been taking volume snapshots on the Pure side, but we have not had to restore a snapshot yet, as everything is running fine. A stretch cluster ensures that actions on one array reflect automatically on the other, allowing the secondary array to act as primary without changes needed on our side when the primary goes down.

Everpure FlashArray offers high performance and low latency compared to other solutions. We can deploy it without needing as much hardware as with others. For example, while we had several Dell devices for our workload, we can run everything efficiently with fewer Pure FlashArrays configured with multiple VMware while maintaining simplicity in accessing and managing the devices.

A single management pane of glass is very important in our organization because it significantly simplifies day-to-day storage operations. In our stretch cluster VMware environment, we have centralized visibility across both Pure arrays, allowing us to manage storage, monitor performance, check replication health, capacity utilization, alerts, and system health status all in one interface. This operational simplicity makes storage administration easier, especially during troubleshooting and maintenance, and improves visibility across sites and reduces administrative overhead, allowing us to focus on other operational priorities. The unified management experience offered by Pure increases ease of operation compared to many other traditional enterprise storage platforms.

I would appreciate improvements on daily health checks. Currently, I ask Pure engineers for health check commands but find myself checking manually. If I had commands to run daily and share results with clients to confirm the array's healthy state, it would enhance clarity. Apart from this, I do not see any further improvements needed.

I have been working as a storage and backup administrator for three and a half years.

Everpure FlashArray has drastically reduced our downtime. Once we replaced our previous setup, we have not experienced any failures from the arrays. We have efficient cooling and operation without issues. For maintenance, the normal downtime during a patch or OS upgrade is less than five minutes, often not even needed. We have not required downtime for troubleshooting either, except in a rare case due to a power failure.

Everpure FlashArray is stable, and even if there are issues, the engineers at Pure provide support quickly and effectively.

The scalability of Everpure FlashArray is excellent. As our VMware environment and production workloads grow, the platform scales smoothly without major operational complexities or performance bottlenecks. It allows for easy capacity expansion and performs really well, supporting our virtualization environment with non-disruptive upgrades and consistent operational simplicity.

I have occasionally worked with customer support, and they have been very good. One of their strengths is proactivity and a responsive, technically knowledgeable team compared to many traditional storage vendors. The support experience feels much more streamlined and efficient, with faster response times and effective monitoring.

We previously used Dell hardware, and after receiving a quotation from a Pure sales member, we were impressed by the cost savings and features compared to the Dell products we had, leading us to switch.

We have observed significant improvements on the storage side since we started using Everpure FlashArray. Previously with Dell products, expanding volumes or data stores was complicated, but now, we can easily expand a data store directly within the Pure array and then refresh it in VMware. This saves us time and requires minimal downtime during upgrades, as we can perform upgrades even during production. Automatic ticket creation for alerts also reduces the time to identify issues.

For expansion, with Pure arrays, I cover it in about two minutes. I extend the volume, go to the datastore side in VMware, refresh it, and that is it. As for upgrades, it may take about 5 to 10 minutes with Pure, whereas other hardware devices, such as Dell, could require two to three hours during business hours.

We have seen a positive return on investment with Everpure FlashArray. While it is difficult to quantify every benefit, we have experienced significant operational impacts. Storage management is much simpler than with traditional systems, and our team spends less time on daily maintenance, troubleshooting, and upgrades. Operational tasks such as provisioning storage and monitoring performance happen faster, and less downtime risk and hardware consolidation mean we support more workloads with fewer resources and less data center overhead. Overall, the best returns on investment have been operational simplicity, reliability, and reduced management overhead.

I have knowledge about the licensing part, which we obtained for around 10 years from the time of deployment, but I do not have information on pricing and setup costs.

Depending on storage type, I can suggest Everpure FlashArray for block or file-level needs. However, for NAS, I am not experienced with it in this context, although I know there are NAS devices in the market. For SAN or VSAN storage, I definitely recommend Pure FlashArrays for reducing human effort and cost savings with their best features.

During an ownership call regarding a quotation from Pure, we compared it with Dell hardware and noticed we could save about one-third on costs based on the quotation. However, I do not have information on the exact cost savings since I was not involved in those details.

Everpure FlashArray means less storage space and the ability to consolidate multiple hardware setups into one with huge capacity. It requires less human support and minimizes downtime during activities. It is totally scalable, demonstrates high scalability, and offers good performance, making my recommendation strong.

The arrays have been excellent in our environment. They make managing storage easier, especially with VMware, so everything is good. I would rate this product an 8 overall.