IBM FlashSystem vs IBM XIV comparison

IBM FlashSystem and IBM XIV are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. IBM FlashSystem is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while IBM XIV is ranked #10. IBM FlashSystem holds a 19.2% mindshare in MS, compared to IBM XIV’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM FlashSystem users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM XIV users who would recommend it.

IBM FlashSystem

Read 111 IBM FlashSystem reviews

8,245 Views
1,319 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM XIV

Read 6 IBM XIV reviews

166 Views
156 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

IBM XIV

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

IBM XIV and IBM FlashSystem are solutions in the storage category. IBM FlashSystem offers superior performance, making it more appealing for users prioritizing speed and capacity, whereas IBM XIV balances cost with benefits due to advantageous pricing and support.

Features: IBM XIV offers robust data reduction, consistent data replication, and is highly reliable in performance. IBM FlashSystem provides high-speed capabilities, extensive scalability through NVMe technology, and superior throughput, highlighting its focus on performance.

Room for Improvement: IBM XIV could enhance its scalability and data access speeds. Improvements could also include better integration capabilities with newer technologies. IBM FlashSystem might consider simplifying its deployment process and provide a more cost-effective entry point. Enhanced ease of use and streamlined management features can also be areas for refinement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM XIV is known for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, providing rapid and easy integration. IBM FlashSystem, while requiring a more complex setup, delivers detailed technical assistance and thorough documentation to support deployment decisions.

Pricing and ROI: IBM XIV stands out as a budget-friendly option, aligning well with mid-range storage needs, offering a steady return on investment. Conversely, IBM FlashSystem demands higher initial costs but provides notable performance returns over time, making it appealing as a long-term investment option.

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,170 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

NAS (5th), All-Flash Storage (13th)

IBM XIV

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

10th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 19.2%, up from 16.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM XIV is 1.2%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

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

Ajith Kandaramage

IT Operation Engineer at HNB

Good value for money but issues with modular scaling

IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness I've been using IBM XIV for two and a half years. IBM XIV is stable. IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is straightforward and can be done in an hour and a half by one person."

"IBM products at the enterprise level are stable solutions, with a score of nine out of ten for stability."

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

"This solution is convenient, user-friendly, convenient and reliable."

"Flash disk with Easy Tier option"

"The valuable features of IBM FlashSystem include flash copy mapping, which is a procedure to collect instant point-in-time data for testing real data."

"Installing FlashSystem is very easy. It takes less than half an hour, and I can handle it all myself."

"The most valuable features are, of course, the virtualization of the storage, the performance, and the compression."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"Installation is amazingly easy."

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

"The performance and robustness of the systems are very good."

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

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

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

Cons

"They can improve its initial configuration. The initial configuration is currently very difficult. There are multiple choices or alternative ways to configure based on the use case and what you are targeting out of the device, that is, more capacity or more performance. These multiple alternatives cause a lot of confusion. They should increase the processing part of the nodes. Currently, you can cluster up to eight nodes. From my experience and the workload that I am facing in my environment currently, I would like to see either a bigger or stronger node or a larger number of nodes that can be clustered together. We formally communicated to them that we need to see either this or that, and they are working on something."

"This solution could be improved by offering greater amounts of storage."

"Cloud file sharing is an area that needs improvement."

"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 price is very costly."

"The solution should improve its pricing and the mechanism in the reduction pool."

"When you provision a datastore auto-format takes a long time"

"IBM could do more marketing and improve brand awareness. I had never heard of this product until a colleague told me about it. FlashSystem could add a few features, but it would probably increase the price. For example, Pure Storage offers instant snapshotting and partitioning. That would be nice to have, but I think the cost would go up."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

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

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

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

"Until the drive is replaced, the pool_resizing is locked."

"I encountered stability (performance) issues during enclosure or disk rebuild. Also some power supply issues due to malfunctions of circuits. Sometimes "internal" Snap sessions hang and consume pool capacity."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have no issues with the price as it is very competitive."

"They've been much more aggressive in the last five, six years than they were before that."

"Among IBM, Dell EMC, and Pure Storage, IBM is the cheapest. The price is also based on our location, the size of our entity, and our regular annual purchases from them. We are a very big IBM customer, so we normally get very high discounts. We are not a big customer of Pure Storage. We don't buy that much from Pure Storage per year. Everything is included in the price. There is no extra license for different functions."

"Our customers would like IMB FlashSystem to be less expensive."

"There are no licensing fees, it is a one-time purchase of the IBM FlashSystem."

"The tool is cost-efficient."

"The price depends of the technology that our customers need. The price can come at a lower cost but this may increase as storage is added."

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

More IBM FlashSystem pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is straightforward."

"If you are going to use the product behind an SVC, IBM will price the units lower, since you are likely not to use any of the advanced copy services."

"We have a five-year total cost of ownership where we pay an initial amount and then annually for maintenance."

"No-license-required policy, unlike others where you need a license for everything. Just pay once and forget about licenses."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

861,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 banking, often use the latest devices as they are upgrading, indicating they do not ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

The deduplication technology in IBM FlashSystem needs significant improvement. Other vendors like NetApp ( /products/netapp-41749-reviews ) offer better deduplication technology, which is noticeabl...

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 22% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 9% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

June 2025

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

July 2025

Download IBM XIV product report

Also Known As

IBM Storwize

XIV

Overview

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

IBM XIV is a high-end, grid-scale storage system that excels in tuning-free consistent performance, ease of use and exceptional data economics, including inline, and IBM Real-time Compression. IBM XIV is ideal for hybrid cloud, offering predictable service levels for dynamic workloads, simplified scale management, including in multi-tenant environments, flexible consumption models — and robust cloud automation and orchestration through OpenStack, RESTful API and VMware. It offers security and data protection through hot encryption, advanced mirroring and self-healing and investment protection with perpetual licensing.

IBM

Sample Customers

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

Celero, NaviSite, Technische Universit_t Mªnchen, Netflix Inc., Muhr und Bender KG, Pelephone Communications

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

July 2025

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

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

DOWNLOAD NOW

861,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV report.

See our list of best Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) vendors.

We monitor all Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) 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.