IBM XIV pros and cons

Name: IBM XIV
Brand: IBM
Rating: 3.8 (6 reviews)

Vendor: IBM

3.8 out of 5

6 reviews
85% willing to recommend

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Pros & Cons summary

IBM XIV, known for being user-friendly, offers excellent performance with features like NVME, de-duplication, and compression. It optimizes storage by distributing 1MB chunks across available spindles, simplifying reporting and provisioning. However, it struggles with latency-sensitive applications and has stability issues during hardware failures. While modular scalability is noted, it can't support larger demands. Pool resizing is limited during drive replacement, and flexibility in mirroring processes is desired.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM XIV is widely regarded as the easiest storage platform to manage.

The performance and robustness of IBM XIV systems are highly praised.

The 1MB data distribution across all spindles enhances performance.

Reporting, provisioning, and remote mirroring are fast and straightforward.

NVME features, including de-duplication and compression, are particularly valuable.

CONS

Until a drive is replaced, pool resizing is locked.

XIV was not able to meet IO and latency demands for latency-sensitive applications.

Changing from synchronous mirroring to asynchronous requires reconfiguration from scratch.

Stability issues occur during enclosure or disk rebuild and power supply malfunctions.

XIV's scalability is limited in meeting larger requirements due to its modular nature.

IBM XIV Pros review quotes

Ajith Kandaramage

IT Operation Engineer at HNB

Jul 11, 2022

IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness.

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it_user649086

Sr. System Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Dec 10, 2017

Very easy to produce reporting data (Snaps). Very easy and fast for provisioning devices and Remote mirroring.

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reviewer742986

Systems Engineer

Sep 25, 2017

As it spreads, a chuck of 1MB across the board means using all available spindles on the backend.

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Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

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it_user736191

Senior Storage Engineer with 10,001+ employees

Sep 13, 2017

The performance and robustness of the systems are very good.

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it_user735234

Systems Engineer V, Enterprise Storage Systems at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Sep 12, 2017

Hands down, this is the easiest storage platform on the market to manage.

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it_user523104

Sr. Systems Programmer at Sharp

Dec 21, 2016

For us, the XIV is pretty much set-it-and-forget-it storage.

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IBM XIV Cons review quotes

Ajith Kandaramage

IT Operation Engineer at HNB

Jul 11, 2022

IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger requirements.

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it_user649086

Sr. System Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Dec 10, 2017

The change form synchronous mirroring to asynchronous (and vice versa) without reconfiguration from scratch would be helpful.

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reviewer742986

Systems Engineer

Sep 25, 2017

This product was not a good fit for our organization as we have a ton of latency sensitive applications and XIV was not able to keep up with IO + latency demand.

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Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

April 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell Technologies and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: April 2026.

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893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user736191

Senior Storage Engineer with 10,001+ employees

Sep 13, 2017

Until the drive is replaced, the pool_resizing is locked.

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it_user735234

Systems Engineer V, Enterprise Storage Systems at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Sep 12, 2017

I would rather have a web GUI served directly from the unit, and a CLI accessible directly through SSH.

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