Dell XtremIO vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

"It's helped us because we've changed fundamentally what we talk about. We don't talk about storage and different tiers of storage anymore nor do we talk about servers. We talk now about applications and how applications impact the business and end users."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."

"The database workloads are pretty fast because I frequently move data from here to there."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

"It offers competitive performance, and the Evergreen storage model of Pure fits well with my organization."

"The solution is scalable."

"It has good, reliable, fast storage."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"Very good IOPS performance"

"Snapshots are valuable because of their seamless nature, as well as the minimal space each snapshot takes."

"Deduplication and cloning capability"

"It is scalable."

"Xtrem10's features are more simple to implement. The integration and interface are also good."

"Performance and deduplication. This is a very robust block storage option that offers both performance and data optimization."

"Initially, we faced numerous issues with our analytical systems. However, we saw performance improvement after the implementation of the solution."

"The performance of the All-Flash System is very good. There is more enhanced performance and data production in the solution, which I appreciate."

"IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution."

"Data deduplication is one of the most valuable features of this solution."

"When it comes to the interface of the solution we did not encounter any challenges. Additionally, the solution has good documentation."

"No queuing and high ops, speed, and performance."

"The most valuable features were the performance of the array, i.e., very low latency and high IOPS. Plus, the management interface is very easy to use."

"The most valuable feature is reliability."

"The FlashSystem 900 consistently delivers performance below 1ms for read/write. This performance is essential for an effective SVC stretch-cluster configuration across two datacenters, and presenting active-active storage to the customer."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

"The tool's pricing is higher than competitors."

"The tool's portfolio is minimal. It is expensive."

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."

"One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them."

"We would like to see VNC integration or be able to use Pure Storage with VNC."

"The GUI could be modified more in terms of how the different components are linked to each other."

"The management should be improved and the GUI interface could be better and easier."

"I would like to see more scalability."

"The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system."

"The product could be improved by reducing the pricing and having better organization in their technical support team."

"Dell's technical support could be better."

"I would like hardware capacity additions to be a little more flexible. The upgrade path for the existing XTremIO units requires you to purchase 2 XBricks at a time and they need to be the same capacity as the existing XBricks."

"This solution is geared toward enterprise-level companies. Small and medium-sized businesses would find it extremely expensive."

"The array level RAID does not seem available."

"The solution is quite expensive. That's one of the downsides to using it."

"The security features can be improved such that the encryption does not affect performance in any way."

"If you want to expand, you cannot expand the disc enclosure. You have to buy a total individual node. Sometimes, this is difficult because we are just looking for capacity and not a node."

"The product could be cheaper."

"I would like to see an improvement in the handling of large amounts of rights."

"They can improve its initial configuration. The initial configuration is currently very difficult. There are multiple choices or alternative ways to configure based on the use case and what you are targeting out of the device, that is, more capacity or more performance. These multiple alternatives cause a lot of confusion. They should increase the processing part of the nodes. Currently, you can cluster up to eight nodes. From my experience and the workload that I am facing in my environment currently, I would like to see either a bigger or stronger node or a larger number of nodes that can be clustered together. We formally communicated to them that we need to see either this or that, and they are working on something."

"They can include Amazon file system S3 protocol in the upcoming releases. It is a cloud file system. IBM FlashSystem doesn't have this feature in the box for high-end or mid-range. We have got requests for this from customers because we need to use S3 for EDI application storage. At the beginning of every year, IBM releases firmware. When I find any bugs in the firmware during the year, I am unable to find any information from IBM regarding the bug. I need to open a ticket, and the IBM engineering team makes a patch only for me. This patch is not public. By creating a customized patch for a client, they don't really solve the issue for everyone. If multiple users have the same bug, IBM should upload the patch on the official website so that we can download it. IBM FlashSystem has a monitoring tool in the box, but it is not advanced. I need a more advanced tool for more advanced equations and monitoring. All top three storage vendors, that is, EMC, IBM, and Pure Storage, don't have a powerful monitoring tool. To monitor our box to show the statistics for I/Os and latency, I need to pay for extra software. The built-in monitoring storage is not mature enough to handle all requests and generate all reports that I need. They can include the functionality to stretch a cluster natively without using any additional boxes. In addition, there are some features that EMC has integrated with the box. These features are not available in IBM FlashSystem."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We sell the hardware, and customers keep using it. They only renew the service part annually. The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"The initial purchase price was good but when you need to upgrade, it's a different story."

"This is the best flash array on the market for high-end workloads, so expect to pay for that. But the support subscription cost is fixed for seven years, which made it easier for us to plan on the maintenance costs."

"The price of the solution should be reduced. The price matches the price of a VMAX service but it does not have the capability of a VMAX service. However, the prices of Dell EMC XtremIO can be reduceable."

"Licensing is approximately $200,000 per year."

"There are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"You can get a two-year or three-year license for the tool. You can also opt for a perpetual-based licensing model, which can be renewed on a yearly or two-year basis."

"It is great when a product can deliver high-end performance capabilities while offering a very competitive price point."

"It is expensive if you need to increase scalability."

"The price is a little bit high so is rated a six out of ten."

"We have no issues with the price as it is very competitive."

"The pricing has been very competitive for the last few years. IBM got to the point where they changed the pricing model and we feel very comfortable with the pricing. It's very competitive. Over the last two years, IBM has been coming up with all kinds of interesting promos, especially for the SMB systems. That makes it very competitive price-wise and in terms of performance..."

"The solution requires a license and could be less expensive."

"There are no licensing fees, it is a one-time purchase of the IBM FlashSystem."

"The price depends of the technology that our customers need. The price can come at a lower cost but this may increase as storage is added."

"You purchase it as a bundle and the price is comparable."

"The price of IBM FlashSystem is a little high because you pay a premium because the solution is from IBM. We had paid for the SLA prior to using the solution."