IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe comparison

IBM and Pure Storage are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.4, while Pure Storage is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 6.5% mindshare in AFS, compared to Pure Storage’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

IBM FlashSystem

Read 111 IBM FlashSystem reviews

6,926 Views
2,932 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Read 35 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews

1,458 Views
228 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and Pure FlashArray X NVMe are two competitive storage solutions in the market. Pure FlashArray X NVMe stands out as a superior product overall due to its feature set.

Features: IBM FlashSystem is praised for its high performance, data compression capabilities, and integration with existing infrastructure. Pure FlashArray X NVMe is noted for its advanced NVMe protocol support, consistent performance, and ease of management. The main difference lies in Pure FlashArray's modern NVMe architecture, providing it a performance edge.

Room for Improvement: Users of IBM FlashSystem point out the need for better documentation, more intuitive configuration processes, and more user-friendly features. Reviews of Pure FlashArray X NVMe cite desires for improved reporting tools, lower costs, and additional support tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is considered straightforward to deploy with reliable customer support. Pure FlashArray X NVMe users highlight the simplicity of deployment and highly responsive customer service and find their support experience slightly superior.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem users appreciate the competitive setup cost and favorable ROI. Pure FlashArray X NVMe's setup costs are perceived as higher, but users justify it with superior performance and long-term ROI. Pure FlashArray X NVMe is seen as more cost-effective over time despite a higher initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 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

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

NAS (5th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (2nd)

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

14th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 6.5%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Q&A Highlights

reviewer1942008

Senior Storage Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 22, 2022

Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?

Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.

See all answers

Featured Reviews

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

Offers high performance and dependable support for fast storage needs

The most valuable feature of IBM FlashSystem ( /products/ibm-flashsystem-reviews ) is its robust back code. When integrated properly into the environment and configured according to the guidelines, it provides a very solid infrastructure that does the job on demand. Additionally, IBM FlashSystem offers competitive pricing and reliable performance. The hardware is dependable, ensuring that it functions effectively when the setup is done correctly.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Flash disk with Easy Tier option"

"The performance is very good and we use this product to enhance our core system."

"The performance of the solution is noteworthy."

"We are a 100% satisfied with the stability of the solution."

"The initial customer technical support was efficient and effective."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is compression."

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

"I rate the technical support from IBM as a ten."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"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."

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

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"I use the tool for Oracle databases, Oracle virtual machines, and Oracle Linux databases. I'm on the storage side, not a database administrator."

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

"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."

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

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

Cons

"The design is a little old-fashioned and could be updated. The rack is very primitive and designed in an older style."

"Sometimes the performance is effective but it gets resolved in the process."

"The solution's infrastructure technology level could be PCI Express 5 instead of PCI Express 4 for the next version."

"The technical support in my region is satisfactory but it could improve. Support is very important for customers and downtime is very critical for us. We would like onsite or complete technical support which can help us to minimize our downtime or if problems occur."

"It could be easier to implement."

"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."

"The generic functionality of IBM FlashSystem, IBM always dismisses using file share or sharing protocols inside their storage hardware, and they only focus on the block-level storage."

"It is slightly more expensive, however, it all depends on your supplier."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

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

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

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

"I would like to see replication and DR features in the next release of this solution."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"I find the pricing of the solution to be very reasonable."

"My customers got the IBM FlashSystem bundle offer. It was a one-time purchase for three years of service. The price would depend on the storage size and could reach between $25,000 to $55,000."

"The pricing is competitive in our country."

"The cost of the IBM FlashSystem is lower than the HPE solution."

"Pricing can be considered as per market competition."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

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

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"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."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 banking, often use the latest devices as they are upgrading, indicating they do not ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

The deduplication technology in IBM FlashSystem needs significant improvement. Other vendors like NetApp ( /products/netapp-41749-reviews ) offer better deduplication technology, which is noticeabl...

See all answers

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 should not incur extra charges. This is one of the main things organizations need.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 22% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 9% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 29% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 19% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% 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 8% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

June 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Also Known As

IBM Storwize

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

Overview

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

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

Sample Customers

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

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

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