We performed a comparison between Dell EMC PowerStore and IBM FlashSystem based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: When compared, both solutions received similar ratings in all categories except for service and support. Users of IBM FlashSystem were more satisfied with the service.
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the most comfortable pricing, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Pure Storage FlashArray's overall speed is its most valuable feature."
"At this point, I don't know anything that they could provide in a better way."
"The scalability options are very nice because you can scale it much better and faster. The scalability was there in the previous environment also, but this is far better than what we had before. It basically helps the user in case they are looking for more storage. We can scale it much faster."
"The ease of management is one of the most valuable features of this solution. I would have also said that it's pretty fast but now our SQL servers are starting to beat it up pretty bad."
"The most valuable feature is how it simplifies the management of the SAN."
"The amount of data that I have moved to it from legacy storage has enabled us to retire units that are three or four times the physical size."
"It is fast and reliable. It works."
"The compression is excellent."
"The administration tools take advantage of machine learning and make recommendations to the admins, and that makes the administration easier."
"The most valuable features of Dell PowerStore are the support for NVMe and SCM, which provides end-to-end performance and high IOPS, minimizing latency. It is a full-fledged storage solution."
"It is very easy to use. Access is very friendly. It shows you a lot of important information at the first glance. It has been very easy to use."
"The solution is extremely stable."
"I like the performance of the PowerStore. When you talk about PowerStore, it's mainly about flash systems and high-end IOPS. The 1000T is a midsize box, in terms of the way the vendor positions it, but it is more than enough for our needs."
"The PowerStore's compression ratio is even higher than the Unity system."
"It has its own file formatting protocol, which saves a lot of space."
"This solution is convenient, user-friendly, convenient and reliable."
"This solution is very stable."
"IBM's technical support do excellent work."
"When it comes to the interface of the solution we did not encounter any challenges. Additionally, the solution has good documentation."
"IBM FlashSystem is flexible, quick, and has a solid design."
"The compression and deduplication features are the most valuable."
"The performance of IBM FlashSystem is very good. The new technology and high throughput have given us more confidence in the solution. The management of the system has improved and we can control the monitoring system alerts and multiple FlashSystems with the Enterprise Cloud Edition, which is free. The migration of recently stored data to a new flash is much easier. You can move your data because you can utilize it externally."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is replication...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"It's too early to tell if we've seen a reduction in total cost of ownership. The solution is expensive."
"The way Pure Storage does the controller storage warranty or replacement has been an issue for some people who just replace the controllers every couple of years, and that's where some of the confusion with pricing and support has come in. They should be clear on the way the controller replacements happen, as it is important to know whether or not you can get a good return on them, because it can be a little confusing."
"The product should improve its response time. I have also encountered issues with its configuration."
"On a couple of occasions, the waiting time for an upgrade has been pretty substantial."
"It took us a year to get it to stabilize and to get the best out of Pure."
"I would love for them to have a hyper-converged solution."
"It is a bit expensive."
"We need to add more storage in Pure Storage FlashArray with the cluster mode activated for us to have better performance."
"Dell PowerStore is a good solution overall, but some models could support hypervisors better by allowing for more customization and flexibility for customer needs."
"I have not seen anything specific. The only thing I can think of that needs improvement is the price."
"It was very new when we first deployed it a year ago. Even the upgrade processes and knowing what to expect, as well as documentation, could be more robust."
"When it comes to Dell PowerStore, I would like to see more integration and more security features included. It's unfortunate that the solution does not feature Flash trace."
"After the smooth launch of the product in our company, only the areas around upgrades are a bit problematic. In our organization, we face difficulties when updating the product."
"While using Dell PowerStore's interface in our organization, we sometimes miss out on some information."
"The UI should be a little more user-friendly to manage."
"The storage could be improved. I would like a feature for how to best secure an appliance and the storage since we are connecting the container to the public cloud. I would like them to develop another level of security, making it more secure than from what they have now."
"When you provision a datastore auto-format takes a long time"
"They can include Amazon file system S3 protocol in the upcoming releases. It is a cloud file system. IBM FlashSystem doesn't have this feature in the box for high-end or mid-range. We have got requests for this from customers because we need to use S3 for EDI application storage. At the beginning of every year, IBM releases firmware. When I find any bugs in the firmware during the year, I am unable to find any information from IBM regarding the bug. I need to open a ticket, and the IBM engineering team makes a patch only for me. This patch is not public. By creating a customized patch for a client, they don't really solve the issue for everyone. If multiple users have the same bug, IBM should upload the patch on the official website so that we can download it. IBM FlashSystem has a monitoring tool in the box, but it is not advanced. I need a more advanced tool for more advanced equations and monitoring. All top three storage vendors, that is, EMC, IBM, and Pure Storage, don't have a powerful monitoring tool. To monitor our box to show the statistics for I/Os and latency, I need to pay for extra software. The built-in monitoring storage is not mature enough to handle all requests and generate all reports that I need. They can include the functionality to stretch a cluster natively without using any additional boxes. In addition, there are some features that EMC has integrated with the box. These features are not available in IBM FlashSystem."
"It is slightly more expensive, however, it all depends on your supplier."
"Additional licenses might be added for the fundamental licenses, such as those for copying and flash copies."
"The pricing needs to be more competitive."
"The solution is quite expensive. That's one of the downsides to using it."
"The security features can be improved such that the encryption does not affect performance in any way."
"The array level RAID does not seem available."
Dell PowerStore is ranked 1st in All-Flash Storage with 46 reviews while IBM FlashSystem is ranked 6th in All-Flash Storage with 106 reviews. Dell PowerStore is rated 8.6, while IBM FlashSystem is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Dell PowerStore writes "It has a very strong NAS that can support a lot of big, heavy environments". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem writes "An easy GUI and simple provisioning but our model does not support compression". Dell PowerStore is most compared with Dell Unity XT, NetApp AFF, Dell PowerMax NVMe, HPE Nimble Storage and Huawei OceanStor Dorado, whereas IBM FlashSystem is most compared with Dell Unity XT, NetApp AFF, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, HPE Nimble Storage and Dell PowerMax NVMe. See our Dell PowerStore vs. IBM FlashSystem report.
See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.
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