How has it helped my organization?
The primary benefit is that we only pay for what we use. That's one of the main things that attracted us. We didn't want to buy a lot of storage and not use it. So now we have a storage solution where we only buy what we use.
The next big positive thing about this solution is that every three years, we get new controllers with better CPUs, faster memory, and so on. So if the load goes up at our end, we get new hardware within the contract – no extra charge. The solution can handle it better within the price that we're currently paying.
Moreover, there is a night and day difference between Pure FlashArray's simplicity and management compared to our previous solution.
With this solution, you actually understand why they've chosen to do certain things. Of course, you might have to Google something or read the manual occasionally, but overall, it's very easy to work with. That's Pure Storage's half-day workshop. If you do this half-day, you understand how the product works.
Compared to Dell, you either have to go to Dell or take an online course for maybe five or ten days just to be able to work with the product. And that's horrible. Even then, it's very hard to work with. You have to have a huge knowledge of the Dell product to make sure you work with it correctly.
Pure Storage has removed all the possibilities of doing things wrong. They make sure that when you do stuff, it's very hard to do anything wrong and very easy to do it right. That's their main focus.
What is most valuable?
There are two major advantages:
- One, it's easy to use and understand. You don't have to be an engineer or an expert to use this storage solution. That's the bad part of Dell PowerMAX. You have to go through very expensive education for one or two weeks and pay ten thousand dollars just to be able to use the product.
With Pure Storage, you have a half-day workshop, and you know everything you need to know.
- And the second major thing is the price. That was actually why we had to change. If we wanted to change to the next solution from PowerMAX, it was going to cost us around 3.2 million dollars. This solution is maybe around 300K to purchase, and we pay around ten thousand dollars monthly over five years. So, in total, we are going to pay around 1.5 million dollars for the same time that we'd have to pay around 3 million dollars for Dell. It's half the price for the same amount of storage.
What needs improvement?
In fututre releases, some focus on anti-malware should be there. I understand this isn't something we expect from this product. But, if the product could recognize hackers, malware, viruses, and so on just by monitoring the storage, that would be awesome.
I also understand that this is a storage solution, and they shouldn't be seeing what customers are using within the hardware. Still, it's something that could be useful.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for exactly one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's exactly what we expected. We've had it for one year, and we sized it as we wanted to. While we did this, a couple of departments actually requested more storage than we anticipated. So, we had to increase our use of the storage, and that was very easy – we just gave the vendor a call and said that we wanted more storage. They unlocked it for us.
We are four people, and we may put in four hours total each week on this product. Maybe even less. So, one hour for each person each week. That's the most we work with this product in total.
How are customer service and support?
We contact customer service and support all the time. Not because we have any issues but because we are growing. Right now, we have another FlashArray in our place that we are testing out – a POC that Pure Storage sent to us.
So, we actually have another FlashArray X with us that we are testing out. In this testing phase, we need constant contact with them to change things, set things up, and do some more new work.
We've had a lot of contact with their support in the last two weeks. They are very professional, fast, and easy to work with.
There was some miscommunication that I had to step into and correct. One of our guys tried to get some help with one specific thing regarding this POC, and they misunderstood him. I had to make sure that they understood each other. After that, everything was okay.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We considered getting an offer to upgrade our current PowerMAX to the next version. But, that version was very expensive. We knew what we were going to get, and we knew that we would have to send more people for training so they could understand the product.
We have some knowledge of other regions here in Sweden– other healthcare organizations and governments that are using PowerMAX and are satisfied with the product, even though it is very expensive.
So, if we had a lot of money and people who could go to the training and learn everything, we probably would have stayed with PowerMAX. But because of the price, the enterprise-grade quality, and the ease of use, we wanted to change. We wanted to do something different. That's why we chose Pure Storage.
How was the initial setup?
It is very easy to deploy, but it was easy to deploy for one reason – we requested help from the beginning.
What about the implementation team?
A Pure Storage engineer and one person from the people who actually sold this to us, those two people came over and did the installation of the hardware and the software and set everything up. That was a request from us when we bought it, so it wasn't something they just wanted to give us for free. But with that in mind, they did a very good job to set it up as expected.
What other advice do I have?
It's a very good service. The product itself is very easy to use, having very high quality, and very high performance.
It's an enterprise product to handle our load. So, if we are trying to slow it down, it doesn't slow down. It just delivers what we ask.
Overall, it's actually very easy for me to say because the product is easy to use, an enterprise product, and has a very good price. So, I would recommend using this solution.
The vendor has a product that can support up to a hundred to a million users. However, this product is mainly for enterprise use, so it is better suited for large companies.
I would rate it a ten out of ten because of everything I said: it has a good price, it's easy to use, and it's an enterprise product.
It delivers what it's expected to deliver.
We actually had a call with a healthcare system in Holland, and they have a larger version of what we bought. They said that it delivers exactly what it should and they haven't had any issues at all for a couple of years – and they have double our size. That's why I didn't hesitate to get the system.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.