Huawei OceanStor vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

Huawei and IBM are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Huawei is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.8, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5. Huawei holds a 2.2% mindshare in AFS, compared to IBM’s 6.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Huawei users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

IBM FlashSystem and Huawei OceanStor compete in the data storage solutions category. IBM FlashSystem is preferred for its pricing and support, whereas Huawei OceanStor is chosen for its superior features.

Features: IBM FlashSystem offers performance, reliability, and easy integration. Huawei OceanStor includes advanced data protection, high scalability, and rich functionalities.

Room for Improvement: IBM FlashSystem needs more scalability flexibility, better reporting tools, and enhanced adaptability. Huawei OceanStor would benefit from a more intuitive configuration process, reduced complexity for new users, and easier management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem provides straightforward deployment and robust customer service. Huawei OceanStor requires a steeper learning curve, indicating IBM offers a smoother deployment experience, whereas Huawei's support may need to be more accessible.

Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem is cost-effective with satisfactory ROI. Huawei OceanStor requires higher upfront investment but delivers strong ROI through its extensive capabilities. Each product appeals differently based on user priorities for initial setup costs versus long-term return.

To learn more, read our detailed Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei OceanStor is 2.2%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 6.6%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

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

ChukwuemekaOnyemelukwe

Infrastructure Administrator - Server, Storage & Virtualization at MicroAccess Ltd

Uses a proprietary technology with simple interface and has easy deployment

If you are not generating a substantial amount of data, the available storage space might suffice, making scalability less of a concern. However, if your data generation increases and you require more storage, Huawei OceanStor offers solutions to expand your storage capacity. Expanding storage resources can involve additional costs and configuration efforts. Acquiring more storage solutions and ensuring their integration with your existing setup might require a significant investment of time and resources. While this process can be complex, it allows for seamless scalability as your data storage needs grow. I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

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Raanan Sitton

Vice President Sales at BELOCAL LTD

Offers cost-effective storage for small companies with budget constraints

IBM FlashSystem 5300 is offered at a very low cost in Israel, which is advantageous for small companies. However, other features like deduplication and compression do not perform effectively. The price sensitivity makes it a viable option for clients with budgetary constraints, as it allows us to secure deals based on the cost rather than advanced performance.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe will quickly overcome all the hurdles you face, including network and latency issues."

"The initial setup was extremely simple and straightforward."

"We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options."

"The latency is good."

"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."

"Everything, especially the VMs inside, is pretty fast."

"The high availability of the product is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"I find the scalability features of OceanStor valuable. Additionally, installation is easy, and it only requires one person to install it. Maintenance is also easy and not a big issue."

"The technology seems to be good, especially the performance on their all-flash storage."

"The pricing is very reasonable."

"Huawei OceanStor is a good product. Its interface is very simple. The complexities we encounter with recovery points are gone. We just attach to remote storage, click the application, and it starts."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Huawei OceanStor is the hybrid applications."

"Huawei OceanStor utilizes a proprietary technology known as RAID 2.0. This technology sets it apart from conventional storage solutions. RAID 2.0 offers advantages over traditional configurations. OceanStor's user interface is very simple and easy to use, featuring a graphical interface that enables quick and error-free setup of the storage system. This interface ensures that users can configure the storage efficiently and without mistakes."

"The most valuable features of Huawei OceanStor are the dashboards, bandwidth, and data performance."

More Huawei OceanStor pros

"At the FlashSystem level, customers are especially fond of multi-tier and distributed rate systems, particularly the dynamic rate six arrays."

"Ability to manage third-party arrays and virtualise them: One screen to control multiple arrays. Simplified administration."

"High availability and enhanced security; Proven dependability; Data compression with hardware acceleration; Advanced copy services features are all in this product."

"The maintenance service and support from IBM is very good."

"The Flash core models offer amazing performance."

"The speed of the unit is its best feature. It performs very well."

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

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

More IBM FlashSystem pros

Cons

"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"There are some challenges with data encryption and reduction."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

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

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"They should introduce a feature to Huawei OceanStor similar to a storage controller, allowing for seamless integration of additional storage modules."

"The tool's performance is slow for DBs. We plan to move from Huawei OceanStor to Pure Storage. Its customer service is not good."

"The administration should be simplified because there are a large number of options that make it too complicated, and the customers can get confused."

"When it comes to the technical support team, I feel that the response time is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"The deployment took a little longer."

"The duration of the built-in snapshot technology must be improved."

"I would like to see more integration features with different platforms."

"The security could be a bit more robust."

More Huawei OceanStor cons

"The initial setup is complex."

"They don't offer subscription-based payments."

"The price is very costly."

"The solution is not easy to implement. It takes a lot of time to study the product and it's a little complicated in general."

"I would like to see an improvement in the handling of large amounts of rights."

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

"The array level RAID does not seem available."

"IBM FlashSystems is lagging in optimizing storage technologies."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

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

"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."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"Payment is determined by the amount of storage capacity required, and we have paid 50,000 euros for our usage."

"The product is cheap."

"It's roughly affordable."

"The price of Huawei OceanStor should be less expensive. It is expensive at the moment."

"Pricing is very fair."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. However, there are not any licensing costs."

"The tool's pricing is competitive and affordable. It has the best possible pricing that we can get from Huawei. The prices are fixed and there are no additional costs."

"This product value matches its price."

More Huawei OceanStor pricing and cost advice

"The tool is cost-efficient."

"The total storage capacity vs price is still quite high for the IBM Flash Array."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"Pricing can be considered as per market competition."

"The price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable."

"For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included."

"Its price is very good."

"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."

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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.

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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.

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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 ...

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What do you like most about Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor has the capability of SSDs, high-performance disks, and higher disk support.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor's pricing is very aggressive, making it highly competitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei currently lacks a solution for high-performance AI, unlike other companies like DDN, WekaIO, or IBM BlueStore....

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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

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 9% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 7% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 23% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 20% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 13% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 5% of the time

More Huawei OceanStor Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 22% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Primera vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

May 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor

June 2025

Download Huawei OceanStor 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

OceanStor Dorado V3 All-Flash Storage System, OceanStor 18000 V3 Series Storage Systems, OceanStor 6800 V3 Storage System

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

OceanStor Dorado V3 is the industry's first all-flash storage that puts NVMe into commercial use. It is specially designed for enterprises' mission-critical businesses, meeting the most-demanding performance and reliability requirements of databases, VDI, server virtualization, and SAP HANA.

Huawei

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

Piraeus, Clinique Univeritaires Saint-Luc

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

Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

June 2025

Free Report: Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem

Find out what your peers are saying about Huawei OceanStor vs. IBM FlashSystem and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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