Huawei OceanStor vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

Huawei and IBM are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Huawei is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.8, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.5. Huawei holds a 2.2% mindshare in AFS, compared to IBM’s 6.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Huawei users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and Huawei OceanStor compete in the data storage solutions category. IBM FlashSystem is preferred for its pricing and support, whereas Huawei OceanStor is chosen for its superior features.

Features: IBM FlashSystem offers performance, reliability, and easy integration. Huawei OceanStor includes advanced data protection, high scalability, and rich functionalities.

Room for Improvement: IBM FlashSystem needs more scalability flexibility, better reporting tools, and enhanced adaptability. Huawei OceanStor would benefit from a more intuitive configuration process, reduced complexity for new users, and easier management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem provides straightforward deployment and robust customer service. Huawei OceanStor requires a steeper learning curve, indicating IBM offers a smoother deployment experience, whereas Huawei's support may need to be more accessible.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem is cost-effective with satisfactory ROI. Huawei OceanStor requires higher upfront investment but delivers strong ROI through its extensive capabilities. Each product appeals differently based on user priorities for initial setup costs versus long-term return.

To learn more, read our detailed Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

April 2025

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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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei OceanStor is 2.2%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 6.6%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

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. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

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ChukwuemekaOnyemelukwe

Infrastructure Administrator - Server, Storage & Virtualization at MicroAccess Ltd

Uses a proprietary technology with simple interface and has easy deployment

If you are not generating a substantial amount of data, the available storage space might suffice, making scalability less of a concern. However, if your data generation increases and you require more storage, Huawei OceanStor offers solutions to expand your storage capacity. Expanding storage resources can involve additional costs and configuration efforts. Acquiring more storage solutions and ensuring their integration with your existing setup might require a significant investment of time and resources. While this process can be complex, it allows for seamless scalability as your data storage needs grow. I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

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Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

Offers cost-effective storage for small companies with budget constraints

IBM FlashSystem 5300 is offered at a very low cost in Israel, which is advantageous for small companies. However, other features like deduplication and compression do not perform effectively. The price sensitivity makes it a viable option for clients with budgetary constraints, as it allows us to secure deals based on the cost rather than advanced performance.

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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

"The most valuable features of Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its superior performance compared to other flash tiers, as well as its ease of use, with an intuitive user interface that is simple to deploy and use."

"It has benefited my organization because it has reduced time to insights."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

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

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe will quickly overcome all the hurdles you face, including network and latency issues."

"FlashArray has some fresh efficiency features. I've never seen a storage solution with a compression rating this high before. It's at least 4-to-1 on Oracle databases. It's the best flash storage for Oracle."

"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"There is a 50% code reduction."

"The solution is easy to use."

"If your virtual machine that resides on it completely fills the storage space, thanks to it's built-in function of all-zero data space reclamation, you just have to ask to System Engineer to run a zero-free on hosts (thin provisioned) and you will get more space instantaneously."

"Huawei OceanStor has the capability of SSDs, high-performance disks, and higher disk support."

"The solution works well for non-critical applications that do not require a heavy workload. The tool's all features are valuable."

"Huawei OceanStor is a good product. Its interface is very simple. The complexities we encounter with recovery points are gone. We just attach to remote storage, click the application, and it starts."

"It is a highly available product."

More Huawei OceanStor pros

"We've found the solution to be very stable so far."

"The most valuable features are deduplication and compression, which together, enable you to have more space."

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

"IBM FlashSystem is a flexible solution with plenty of features."

"The most valuable features of IBM FlashSystem are performance and security."

"One of the valuable features is the performance, it is one of the best in the market."

"IBM FlashSystem is the best solution for storage virtualization."

"Stability-wise, this solution is fine."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

Cons

"The UI for this solution needs to be improved."

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

"In the future, I would like to see integration with enterprise backup systems."

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"Efficiency improvements would always be welcome, but I'm not sure if they could get more efficient."

"Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe."

"We need better data deduplication."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The duration of the built-in snapshot technology must be improved."

"Unfortunately, this product doesn't support Flash Disks, but it's IOPS capacity is a great compromise."

"The administration should be simplified because there are a large number of options that make it too complicated, and the customers can get confused."

"The solution could improve by having better integration."

"The deployment took a little longer."

"CFS integration is one area where OceanStor has some room for improvement. The CFS on OceanStor is dedicated, so it's not integrated with the existing active directory domain."

"The main concern is regarding the usability of the data storage."

"Could have a more stable, lighter Metro and better logging system."

More Huawei OceanStor cons

"The product needs to improve their scalability."

"The GUI needs some improvement."

"We had issues when attempting to do a flash, we hope to resolve it soon."

"The GUI needs some improvement. An additional function that could be helpful is reducing the time it takes to delete volumes, especially if they are compressed or deduplicated."

"The only issue my team faced was transferring the data from the old system to IBM FlashSystem, which is an area for improvement in the solution."

"The interface of this solution could be improved."

"I would like to see bigger modules."

"The solution has a low number of NVME host attachments at 16 per IO group over the fiber channel."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"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."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

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

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"Huawei OceanStor is priced very well but is a bit complicated."

"It's roughly affordable."

"Overall, the solution's pricing was cheaper."

"Huawei OceanStor is a cost-effective storage solution."

"Payment is determined by the amount of storage capacity required, and we have paid 50,000 euros for our usage."

"This product value matches its price."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. However, there are not any licensing costs."

"The pricing depends on the features the customer wants, such as storage, RAM, and processors, but in general, Huawei is much cheaper compared to Dell and Cisco."

More Huawei OceanStor pricing and cost advice

"I price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable and competitive."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"Regarding licensing make sure you add at least three years software maintenance from IBM at the beginning, because you will not be able to download firmware updates or any fixes/patches without this."

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

"For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included."

"This solution is expensive compared to other solutions."

"The price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable."

"I would rate the pricing of this solution a four out of five."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

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

See all answers

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

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor has the capability of SSDs, high-performance disks, and higher disk support.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor's pricing is very aggressive, making it highly competitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei currently lacks a solution for high-performance AI, unlike other companies like DDN, WekaIO, or IBM BlueStore....

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM FlashSystem?

It is simple to make an update.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FlashSystem?

Many factors affect purchasing directly from IBM, often involving a multi-step process. Customers, especially in bank...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

The deduplication technology in IBM FlashSystem needs significant improvement. Other vendors like NetApp ( /products/...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 31% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 18% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 15% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 7% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 23% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 20% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 13% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 5% of the time

More Huawei OceanStor Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 23% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Primera vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

May 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor

May 2025

Download Huawei OceanStor product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

May 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

OceanStor Dorado V3 All-Flash Storage System, OceanStor 18000 V3 Series Storage Systems, OceanStor 6800 V3 Storage System

IBM Storwize

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

OceanStor Dorado V3 is the industry's first all-flash storage that puts NVMe into commercial use. It is specially designed for enterprises' mission-critical businesses, meeting the most-demanding performance and reliability requirements of databases, VDI, server virtualization, and SAP HANA.

Huawei

IBM FlashSystem products are enterprise computer data storage systems that store data on flash memory chips. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. This hardware provides performance, reliability, and efficiency benefits versus competitive offerings.

IBM

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Piraeus, Clinique Univeritaires Saint-Luc

Celero, Friedhelm Loh Group, Clarks, Mingkang Natregro Health Food Group, Sofia, Etisalat Fights Fraud, UF Health Shands Hospital, Generali, Elecon Engineering Company Limited, Ventiv , Technology, CPFL Energia, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., SciQuest, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Paddy Power, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Interconnect Services, Severstal IP-Only AB, PVU Group GmbH

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

April 2025

Free Report: Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

Find out what your peers are saying about Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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