Cisco MDS Series vs Everpure FlashArray comparison

The compared Cisco and Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #4 in ES , with an average rating of 10.0, and holds a 9.0% mindshare in the category. Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) is ranked #4 in AFS , with an average rating of 8.9, and holds a 7.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 99% of Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) users who would recommend it.

Cisco MDS Series

Read 9 Cisco MDS Series reviews

1,563 Views
1,469 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Everpure FlashArray

Read 217 Everpure FlashArray reviews

15,481 Views
13,314 Comparison Views

99% willing to recommend

Cisco MDS Series

Everpure FlashArray

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco MDS Series and Everpure FlashArray based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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April 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco MDS Series

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise SAN (4th)

Everpure FlashArray

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

217

Ranking in other categories

All-Flash Storage (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco MDS Series is designed for Enterprise SAN and holds a mindshare of 9.0%, up 7.3% compared to last year.
Everpure FlashArray, on the other hand, focuses on All-Flash Storage, holds 7.5% mindshare, up 6.3% since last year.

Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco MDS Series	9.0%
Dell PowerStore	17.3%
Dell PowerVault	15.3%
Other	58.4%

Enterprise SAN

All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Everpure FlashArray	7.5%
Dell PowerStore	10.8%
NetApp AFF	8.3%
Other	73.4%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

OğuzKalaycı

system engineer at Yaşar Holding

Ensures consistent availability during updates and integrates seamlessly

I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections The product is very stable and performs well. During the update periods, the devices do not need to reload, ensuring constant availability. It is easy to set up and use. I do not have a central management…

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Sowjanya MV

Technical Lead at Wipro Limited

Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades

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.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"This solution is required for any type of IT infrastructure for Storage Networking and provides high availability for storage service."

"It enables us to integrate and load balance between multiple layer one fiber vendor links, which is very useful."

"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."

"MDS's reliability is at a high level, the issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."

"The issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."

"The product is very stable and performs well."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."

"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."

More Cisco MDS Series pros

"The most valuable features of Pure Storage FlashArray are management and administration user-friendliness, provisioning, and performance."

"Pure is simple to set up and manage on a day-to-day basis."

"Manageability is its most valuable feature; it is simplified storage, as we don't have to maintain or administer it on a daily basis, which is good, and we can depend on the solution's ability to phone home and leverage the built-in support function of the product."

"The deduplication and compression rates are beyond impressive."

"The pricing of Pure Storage is all-inclusive; it is very fair, very easy, and the solution is a lot easier to install than the Dell EMC product."

"It has simplified our storage."

"Running SAP on Pure Storage helps a lot without doing any further tuning to improve application performance. Our internal clients are happy."

"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."

More Everpure FlashArray pros

Cons

"I find it difficult to operate and troubleshoot."

"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."

"The product is very expensive."

"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."

"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."

"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."

"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling."

"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."

More Cisco MDS Series cons

"It was a little costly."

"Beyond a certain amount of petabytes, you have to have a separate system. Basically, it's not infinitely scalable."

"I would rate this solution an eight. There's always room for improvement, nobody is perfect to get a ten out of ten. They do what they do well. It's not cheap but we it's for uses that we needed."

"Going forward, don't complicate things for the customers."

"The price should be lower."

"Reports of performance and LUN utilization could be improved."

"I would like to see a Nagios monitoring plugin which watches the health and performance of the system."

"The one major gripe I have is that there is no snapshotting enabled by default on the SAN."

More Everpure FlashArray cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."

"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."

"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"In terms of other contemporary arrays, Pure is something you need to have a use case for, as it's not priced for you to buy one off-the-shelf. If you have a use case, heavy lift Oracle Databases, any type of noticeable virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), or need low latency and high throughput, you should consider all-flash at least and probably Pure Storage."

"We have a seen a reduction in TCO. It is definitely a cost-effective solution for us. We have seen ROI."

"Price is about the only thing that's wrong with it. A little bit better pricing would be great."

"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."

"The solution could be cheaper."

"Our licensing is on a yearly basis. So, every year, we renew. We could do a three-year contract, but right now, we only do a one-year."

"The price, in general, is around $100,000, however, I know it costs more."

"It's priced higher than the market."

More Everpure FlashArray pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	65
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	152

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?

The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?

I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?

I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections.

See all answers

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?

Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Storage. It may be more expensive, but it should pay for itself for its functionalit...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?

The only issue is the pricing. Because we have competition, our customers always take another brand and say they can save their investment. We always lose because of the pricing issue.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?

Our customers using Dell storage also use competing solutions. Our customers who have Everpure FlashArray may also have the NetApp AFF series or Dell Isilon.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell Connectrix vs Cisco MDS Series

Compared 16% of the time

INFINIDAT InfiniBox vs Cisco MDS Series

Compared 13% of the time

IBM SAN24B-4 Express vs Cisco MDS Series

Compared 12% of the time

IBM SAN768B vs Cisco MDS Series

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp ASA vs Cisco MDS Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco MDS Series Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

VAST Data vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

More Everpure FlashArray Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise SAN

April 2026

Download Cisco MDS Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Everpure FlashArray

May 2026

Download Everpure FlashArray product report

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700

Pure Storage FlashArray

Overview

Cisco MDS Series integrates and load balances between multiple vendor fiber links, offering seamless SAN connectivity with ease of deployment, management, and configuration. It features VSAN technology and supports LDAP, SNMPv3, and AES for a secure and reliable network environment.

Cisco MDS Series is recognized for its performance and stability in SAN environments, enabling effective fiber channel connectivity across data centers. Adopting its technology ensures simplified deployment and management with options like WebUI and CLI. Its ability to support active-active storage paths fosters efficient server connections in both single-site and metro-SAN setups. While it offers robust features, improvements such as integration with IBM Brocade SAN switches, more intuitive GUI, and lifecycle management are needed to enhance user experience.

What features set Cisco MDS Series apart?

VSAN Technology: Separates fiber links into different groups for enhanced network management.
WebUI & CLI Support: Streamlines deployment and management processes.
Secure Protocols: Supports LDAP, SSHv2, SNMPv3, and AES for secure connectivity.
Performance & Reliability: Known for stable operation in SAN environments with minimal performance issues.
Data Compression: Offers efficient data transmission through cost-effective techniques.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Scalability: Easily adjusts to expanding network needs with reliable infrastructure.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces operational costs with efficient resource utilization.
Quality of Service: Ensures high data transfer quality at layer one.
High Stability: Maintains dependable performance during updates.

In industries such as finance and healthcare where reliable data center operations are critical, Cisco MDS Series supports complex SAN configurations, providing effective connectivity between servers and storage. Its ability to facilitate long and short-distance ISL configurations makes it suitable for diverse operational environments.

Cisco

Everpure Storage FlashArray delivers simplicity, speed, and performance with ease of management and data reduction capabilities. Its resilience and seamless upgrades complement its integration with VMware, while predictive analytics and proactive support enhance reliability.

Everpure Storage FlashArray leverages a flash-based architecture for improved storage efficiency, reduced footprint, and outstanding data management through deduplication and compression. Users appreciate its single pane of glass management and Evergreen model. It supports VMware environments effectively, offering predictive analytics for better operational insights. The system is noted for its user-friendly management and proactive support, ensuring minimal downtime while delivering resilient storage solutions.

What Key Features Does Everpure Storage FlashArray Offer?

Simplicity and Speed: Easy management and rapid performance enhancements.
Data Reduction: Effective deduplication and compression.
Flash Architecture: Seamless upgrades and outstanding resilience.
VMware Integration: Excellent compatibility with virtualization platforms.
Predictive Analytics: Strong insights for proactive management.

What Benefits Should Users Consider?

Reliability: Proactive support with minimal downtime.
Efficiency: Reduced storage footprint and enhanced data management.
Performance: Faster processing speeds and low latency.
User Experience: Simplified management with Evergreen model.

In industries like finance, banking, and healthcare, Everpure Storage FlashArray supports high-performance storage needs focusing on virtualization and database environments. Employed for VMware workloads, disaster recovery, and storage provisioning, it ensures application performance in private or hybrid cloud setups while enhancing management of virtualized environments.

Everpure (formerly Pure Storage)

Sample Customers

National Rugby League

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas

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