Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

Dell Technologies and IBM are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and Dell PowerStore are two leading enterprise storage solutions. Dell PowerStore appears to have the upper hand due to its scalability and advanced features.

Features: IBM FlashSystem's valuable features include exceptional integration capabilities, robust performance, and ease of setup. Dell PowerStore stands out with its scalability, automation, and advanced user-friendly features.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest IBM FlashSystem could enhance its documentation, customer training, and user support. Dell PowerStore users point to a need for more detailed error reporting, advanced analytics, and deeper insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is favored for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Dell PowerStore is noted for its efficient deployment process and thorough customer support. Both products perform well, but Dell PowerStore edges out with its supportive infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem is viewed as cost-efficient with a good ROI and lower setup costs. Dell PowerStore, although generally more expensive, offers superior features and long-term value, making it worth the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,390 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

1.0

Pure FlashArray X NVMe reduces costs, enhances performance, and offers quick ROI with efficient management and cost-effective upgrades.

Sentiment score

6.9

Dell PowerStore offers significant ROI through improved performance, cost savings, and efficient storage management, enhancing productivity and minimizing overhead.

Sentiment score

7.2

IBM FlashSystem users reported improved performance, scalability, and integration, valuing ROI, enhanced features, and minimal downtime despite increased pricing.

By opting for the gold subscription every three years, you get a free upgrade to the latest controller release.

SajithEruvangai

IT System Specialist - Operations & Infrastructure at Daman

If you wait more than seven years to buy another one, you get a return on your investment.

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

If you purchase storage with 300 terabytes, you can easily achieve one petabyte of effective capacity.

AdnanAli Khan

Regional Sales Manager at New Horizon Computers

It's been trouble-free the entire time, with very high performance, as it has been designed and built properly.

reviewer2709102

Storage Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We have reduced infrastructure but the same performance.

Rob Morc

Responsable arwuitectura at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

The solution can comfortably be stretched from five to seven years without any failures, ensuring a long-lasting return.

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

Pure FlashArray X NVMe support is praised for responsiveness, effectiveness, and proactive issue resolution, despite some challenges with reach and follow-up.

Sentiment score

6.1

Dell PowerStore's customer service is responsive and knowledgeable, with most users satisfied despite occasional delays and global consistency issues.

Sentiment score

7.1

IBM FlashSystem's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though regional response times and costs vary.

With Pure FlashArray X NVMe, we need to escalate the issue and get an account manager for its resolution.

VijayShankar

Senior Administrator/IT Systems & Cloud Operations at Etisalat

We also had one outage where a controller of one of the products had failed and had to be replaced on-site.

reviewer943512

System and Network administrator at Vodafone

Customers always have their issues resolved promptly.

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

If necessary, they will search for a specialist within their Dell network who we can approach with our questions.

Sander

IT Consultant at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would rate the technical support of Dell PowerStore between nine and ten out of ten.

Tiby Thomas

Solution Architect at CDA

They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.

reviewer2598762

Systems Engineer at a government with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

Customers of alternatives like Dell and Hitachi enjoy more reliable and comprehensive support services directly from vendors rather than third-party subsidiaries.

Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

I rate the technical support from IBM as a ten.

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

IBM customer support is responsible, efficient, and responsive, though it is expensive.

MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

Pure FlashArray X NVMe offers scalable, stable performance, easy management, and simple upgrades, with some cost and scalability limitations.

Sentiment score

7.2

Dell PowerStore is praised for seamless scalability and flexibility, easily supporting upgrades and diverse organizational needs.

Sentiment score

7.4

IBM FlashSystem offers strong scalability and flexibility, supporting expansion with virtualization despite occasional complexity and costs.

You cannot increase capacity if latency is present.

VijayShankar

Senior Administrator/IT Systems & Cloud Operations at Etisalat

It is highly scalable.

Joerg Utesch

Sales Director at systemzwo group

It is suitable for both medium-sized and enterprise businesses.

Jaka Demšar

VAD PLSM Storage - Slovenia & Croatia at ASBIS

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

The solution's scalability is a ten out of ten.

Amjed Antari

Pre-Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The customer likely exceeds 20,000 users globally.

Hamed Mohamed

Adv. Service Manager at ECC Solutions

You can create as many tools as needed, providing scalability based on the use case.

Marc Gaethofs

ICT manager at Thys Bouwprojecten

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

For larger enterprises, scalability is an issue as the price becomes prohibitive.

Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

The problem arises when migrating data to a later IBM FlashSystem version due to issues with firmware compatibility.

MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

The scalability of IBM FlashSystem is exceptional, and I rate it as a nine.

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

Pure FlashArray X NVMe is highly stable, reliable, and efficient, offering seamless upgrades and proactive component replacement in critical environments.

Sentiment score

7.7

Dell PowerStore is praised for its stability and reliability, with high user ratings and effective support mitigating minor issues.

Sentiment score

7.7

IBM FlashSystem is highly reliable with exceptional stability, praised for resilience and quick resolution of occasional issues.

During the eight years, there have been no problems such as hardware failure or stopping.

Gokhan Dikmen

Vice President of product at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

I would rate the stability of the solution as a ten out of ten.

SajithEruvangai

IT System Specialist - Operations & Infrastructure at Daman

I would rate the stability of the product at seven out of ten.

Gary Cheung

Project Manager at a government with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

When I removed all the cables, it failed over within five minutes.

reviewer2707638

Consultant

There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze.

Hamed Mohamed

Adv. Service Manager at ECC Solutions

I would rate the stability of Dell PowerStore as ten out of ten.

Sander

IT Consultant at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

Customers have infrastructure that is 100% stable.

MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

The firmware and software engine have fewer bugs, which enhances operational efficiency.

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Room For Improvement

Pure FlashArray X NVMe needs improvements in price, UI, analytics, software features, integration, and management tools for better competitiveness.

Dell PowerStore needs enhanced replication, stability, integration, user interface, pricing, support, monitoring, and documentation for improved user experience.

IBM FlashSystem needs better storage, stability, GUI, scalability, support, integration, pricing, configurations, data reduction, cloud, and analytics.

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

VijayShankar

Senior Administrator/IT Systems & Cloud Operations at Etisalat

We would appreciate a built-in transparent failover in the next release to eliminate the need for a separate metro cluster.

Joerg Utesch

Sales Director at systemzwo group

I'm eagerly anticipating the roadmap's promise of introducing multiple controllers, which could significantly boost scalability and resilience.

SajithEruvangai

IT System Specialist - Operations & Infrastructure at Daman

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

If you want to delve into where your I/Os are going, the reporting might need more in-depth information to make informed decisions.

Marc Gaethofs

ICT manager at Thys Bouwprojecten

In my organization, we have had to go through two weeks with no replication, which is not very handy for our production environment.

reviewer2318379

Coordinator Team Infrastructure at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Something needs to be done with the caching to ensure that if some issue occurs, there needs to be an ability to disable caching during maintenance to make it static, safe, and good.

reviewer2402940

CISO Admin at a analyst firm with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

Despite marketing promises, these features do not function effectively and can impact performance.

Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

There is room for improvement in the troubleshooting part, specifically related to IBM Spectrum for Insight.

MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

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

Subodh Jaiswar

Storage Specialist at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Setup Cost

Pure FlashArray X NVMe is costly but valued for performance, inclusive licensing, and reasonable support fees compared to competitors.

Dell PowerStore offers value with performance and deduplication; pricing varies by market, with potential expansion cost concerns.

IBM FlashSystem pricing is competitive but variable, with negotiable discounts and potentially high ongoing costs for smaller organizations.

While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits.

Enes SUZER

Manager, System Infrastructure & Security at Organik Kimya San. ve Tic. A.S.

The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there.

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

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

VijayShankar

Senior Administrator/IT Systems & Cloud Operations at Etisalat

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

Likely the cost is $400,000 whereas IBM may be $250,000.

Hamed Mohamed

Adv. Service Manager at ECC Solutions

Based on my experience, the cost of Dell PowerStore for around 500 GB of capacity is very competitive compared to any other platform in the market.

SachinSharma4

Deputy General Manager at HCLSoftware

There's no need to pay for a license; it's all-inclusive.

Marc Gaethofs

ICT manager at Thys Bouwprojecten

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

To install or upgrade any software features, the cost is high, which makes it challenging for smaller companies who do not require advanced features like deduplication or compression typically needed by larger organizations.

Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Valuable Features

Pure FlashArray X NVMe is favored for its high performance, reliability, scalability, and future-proofing across diverse environments.

Dell PowerStore excels with VMware integration, AI management, efficient storage, and NVMe speed, enhancing scalability and energy efficiency.

IBM FlashSystem offers high performance, ease of use, and advanced storage features, making it ideal for efficient business solutions.

Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator.

Gokhan Dikmen

Vice President of product at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The platform's robust features include excellent sustainability tracking, and a comprehensive dashboard offering insights into IOPS, bandwidth, performance, and virtual activities.

SajithEruvangai

IT System Specialist - Operations & Infrastructure at Daman

Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen.

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure FlashArray X NVMe report

The solution promotes data reduction, often meeting the compression ratio.

Marc Gaethofs

ICT manager at Thys Bouwprojecten

The PowerStore's compression ratio is even higher than the Unity system.

Sander

IT Consultant at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

The deduplication part of the solution is valuable since, as a user, you get more space for less money.

Fred Berg

Coordinator at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell PowerStore report

There is a significant amount of data reduction, achieving a ratio of one to three.

Subodh Jaiswar

Storage Specialist at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

There is built-in compression, a data reduction feature, and artificial intelligence-driven insights that calculate warnings and errors to redirect to customers automatically.

MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

When integrated properly into the environment and configured according to the guidelines, it provides a very solid infrastructure that does the job on demand.

OmarIsmail1

Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FlashSystem report

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

Read full review

Hassan_Zaki

Senior Presales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Integrated AI and clustering enhance storage operations effectively

I promote and recommend Dell PowerStore for all workloads to my clients and customers. Most of my customers have one appliance per site. Approximately 80% of my customers have Dell PowerStore implemented in their data centers. We always use CLS as another Dell solution for cybersecurity and data security. The CLS is integrated with the Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain, not with Dell PowerStore. Windows, Linux, and some customers use Red Hat or SUSE. We have many operating systems working with Dell PowerStore in the same environments and data centers. CloudIQ and Storage IQ are used by some customers, but Apex AIOps has not been widely adopted yet. Dell PowerStore has integration with VMware and Kubernetes. Most workloads work fine and have very good integration with Dell PowerStore, except for one or two specific workloads in the market. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore a nine.

Read full review

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

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which NAS solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

861,390 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

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 think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?

PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and...

See all answers

How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?

Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated managem...

See all answers

What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell of...

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

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 9% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 6% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 15% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerVault vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 11% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell PowerStore Competitors

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 9% 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

NetApp AFF vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore

July 2025

Download Dell PowerStore product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

June 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Also Known As

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

PowerStore

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

Dell PowerStore stands out for its high performance, flexibility, and easy integration with VMware. It offers notable data compression and deduplication capabilities while providing powerful NVMe support and machine learning to optimize IT operations.

Dell PowerStore is designed to offer a comprehensive approach to IT infrastructure by enhancing performance and simplifying management. It is particularly suitable for companies that require scalable solutions to increase compute or capacity independently. Featuring built-in intelligence, PowerStore allows efficient storage consolidation and reduced footprint, while integration with CloudIQ enhances monitoring and analytics. However, there are areas for improvement, such as stability, enterprise features, and the user interface. Pricing is high, and support responsiveness needs attention. Organizations primarily use PowerStore for VMware environments, storage, and data protection, supporting high-performance databases and VMware workloads. It is utilized in data centers for disaster recovery and hybrid setups.

What are the key features of Dell PowerStore?

Flexibility: Independently scales compute or capacity
High Performance: Offers powerful NVMe support and machine learning
Integration: Easily integrates with VMware
Data Efficiency: Provides data compression and deduplication
Simplified Management: Built-in intelligence for efficient storage management

What benefits should users consider?

Performance Optimization: Enhance IT operations with machine learning
Scalability: Increase compute or storage capacity as needed
Integration Potential: Improve efficiency with VMware and CloudIQ
Data Protection: Reliable for disaster recovery and hybrid environments

In industries like IT, finance, and healthcare, Dell PowerStore supports efficient data management and enhances infrastructure performance. Organizations leverage it to manage extensive data, streamline virtualization processes, and facilitate migration from legacy systems, while integrating cloud and on-premises infrastructures for improved operations.

Dell Technologies

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

Information Not Available

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

Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem

July 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

861,390 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem report.

See our list of best NAS vendors and best All-Flash Storage vendors.

We monitor all NAS reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.