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 #3 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM XIV is ranked #10. IBM FlashSystem holds a 12.5% mindshare in MS, compared to IBM XIV’s 3.1% 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 113 IBM FlashSystem reviews

8,085 Views
1,374 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM XIV

Read 6 IBM XIV reviews

338 Views
335 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM FlashSystem

IBM XIV

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

February 2026

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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

IBM FlashSystem

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

NAS (6th), All-Flash Storage (10th)

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 February 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 12.5%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM XIV is 3.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM FlashSystem	12.5%
IBM XIV	3.1%
Other	84.4%

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 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.

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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…

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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

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

"When it comes to the interface of the solution we did not encounter any challenges. Additionally, the solution has good documentation."

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

"IBM FlashSystem has an easy to use GUI, similar to the IBM Storewize family, which make it one of the best flash storage systems in the market."

"The technical support for this solution is good. They used to help us when the motherboard of Power Systems broke. Their response times are really fast."

"The most valuable feature in demand is virtualization and its support storage of virtualization features."

"The most crucial feature of IBM FlashSystem is compression."

"The speed, performance, and stability are the best features of IBM FlashSystem."

More IBM FlashSystem pros

"Installation is amazingly easy."

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

"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."

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

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

Cons

"Additional licenses might be added for the fundamental licenses, such as those for copying and flash copies."

"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."

"One area for improvement is in the GUI, where host clusters are not properly dealt with. With Hypervisor host clusters, all hosts must see the same volumes in the same order. Using the concept of a “host-group” has been around (even with IBM) for many years, so why not with the V7000?"

"The price is very costly."

"The technical support in my region is satisfactory but it could improve. Support is very important for customers and downtime is very critical for us. We would like onsite or complete technical support which can help us to minimize our downtime or if problems occur."

"Enterprise data storage needs improvement. They should create a feature for data and file storage."

"The solution is not easy to use and could improve."

"AHV is Acropolis Hypervisor – A relatively new Hypervisor, robust and stable as VMware vSphere, has built-in advanced analytics and powerful operations, Self Service Portal and components for DevOps included, managed by a single pane of glass (Prism) via HTML5 and it is free of charge – That is why Nutanix is so advanced and revolutionary."

More IBM FlashSystem cons

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing may be a bit higher than other brands. If you compare the IBM FlashSystems in midrange with Dell EMC in midrange, IBM costs a bit more, but I prefer IBM because it has more specs that I can benefit from."

"It pays to go back and get the best price you can from your supplier. The first offer is not always at the best discount."

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

"This solution is expensive compared to other solutions."

"The price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable."

"The solution requires a license and could be less expensive."

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

"The cost of the IBM FlashSystem is lower than the HPE solution."

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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	59

No data available

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?

The pricing is high; storage solutions are always expensive. I do not know if the price needs to be reviewed, but it is worth considering.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?

As far as I know, IBM FlashSystem has already improved, but I do not see room for improvement. It is simple to use and manage via SVC, simple to configure, and even for the zoning, I do not see imp...

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Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 17% of the time

NetApp AFF vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 9% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 7% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs IBM FlashSystem

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FlashSystem Competitors

XIO Hyper ISE vs IBM XIV

Compared 23% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs IBM XIV

Compared 20% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs IBM XIV

Compared 18% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs IBM XIV

Compared 14% of the time

More IBM XIV Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FlashSystem

February 2026

Download IBM FlashSystem product report

Buyer's Guide

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

January 2026

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

February 2026

Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM XIV

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