Everpure FlashArray Reviews

The usual use cases for Everpure FlashArray that I worked with involve the initial setup that I completed along with the configuration of mounting and the configuration of CIFS and NFS for all the projects.

I followed the instructions received from the customer, prepared the scope of work, and completed those projects. After completion, I provided the project plan and prepared the SSD documents for the customer as well.

The most valuable and useful features of Everpure FlashArray include the all-flash NVMe architecture, which provides end-to-end NVMe support, ultra-low latency, inline deduplication, inline compression, and thin provisioning.

These characteristics are beneficial because there is no need for spare disks to be configured in Everpure FlashArray, which is a major feature for us.

Other important capabilities include the Purity operating environment, which offers a simple management interface, REST API support, cluster management, CLI management, and features that make it automation-friendly. Security features are present as well, such as data encryption, secure multi-tenancy, and role-based access control.

Furthermore, multiple protocols are supported, including Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NVMe, as well as SMB and NFS support.

The single management pane of glass for Everpure FlashArray is important to me because it allows for effective storage management without the need for spare disks. We utilize old disks in the storage for metro clustering and active clustering, ensuring fast disaster recovery capabilities.

Everpure FlashArray could be improved or enhanced because it is an evergreen storage solution, permitting non-destructive controller upgrades without full data migration replacement.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for almost two years.

I evaluate Everpure FlashArray's solution stability as quite high since most organizations are trusting in it and finding it credible.

The zero latency and high IOPS utilization we observe with it are significantly better than other storage solutions.

Features such as replication and metro clusters are available in the storage, and the all-flash NVMe disks provide excellent speed, along with an easy-to-use management dashboard.

The scalability of Everpure FlashArray is good due to its low latency and overall optimization.

The related hardware support for infrastructure is also reliable.

I would rate the scalability at seven out of ten.

I have not communicated with Everpure FlashArray's technical support.

We primarily use commands such as pure list, pure evolve wall list, and pure host list during monitoring, along with pure alert list, pure area monitor, and pure wall monitor for our operational needs.

Before Everpure FlashArray, I used a different technical solution which was NetApp.

The setup process for Everpure FlashArray requires verifying the compatibility of Everpure FlashArray with any incoming infrastructure-related teams.

This includes checking network latency, communication between sites, and verifying FC and IP connectivity.

We also ensure the Purity OS versions are supported, confirming host configurations, and checking active cluster configuration steps.

Connectivity must be verified for communication between both ends, and we create and verify a pod, which is a controller holding volume in an active cluster.

Finally, after completing these tasks, we verify and create volumes to ports while ensuring synchronization.

I was not a customer of Pure Storage but rather an integrator.

I was an integrator for one of the clients which we deployed.

I confirm that I was an integrator.

I find the pricing of Everpure FlashArray to be quite high compared to other storage solutions; however, the reliability and features are commendable.

Most organizations are currently seeking this kind of storage.

I decided to stop using NetApp and switch to Everpure FlashArray because storage prices had recently increased, while Pure Storage's all-flash solution provided better multiple IO at a more competitive price.

Pure Storage has not increased their prices, and it has gained a reputation as a very trustworthy product in the market, which is why many organizations are choosing to adopt this kind of solution.

The last time that I worked with Pure Storage was six months ago.

I have not found any challenges with the initial setup for Everpure FlashArray because all initial setups and verifications from storage went smoothly, and I had an account in the storage system.

I updated everything based on standard practices during the process, so it was straightforward from my end.

I have deployed Everpure FlashArray both on cloud and on premises.

We utilize cloud-based monitoring systems, predictive analysis, and AI-driven performance recommendations along with features for capacity forecasting and health monitoring in Pure One storage cloud management.

If upgrade activities are necessary for Everpure FlashArray, I need to inform the entire team responsible for accessing this kind of storage and ensure we download the related version.

The evergreen storage capability of Everpure FlashArray allows for non-destructive controller upgrades without requiring full replacement of data migration. Everpure FlashArray is directly managed by Pure Identity instead of SSD controllers.

I did not provide an overall review rating for this product.

On-premises

My main use case for Everpure FlashArray is that we were using Pure Storage to be the underlying storage for our vSphere environment, basically to store our virtual machines and backups.

A quick specific example of how I use it in my daily workflow is that we use it as an underlying storage for our vSphere infrastructure where we have some mission-critical virtual machines running using VMware vSphere environment, and all those VMs are currently stored on Everpure FlashArray because of their high speed and throughput and high IOps. We decided to use flash storage because Pure is a market leader at the moment in that technology, which is why we decided to use it.

Their support from Pure Storage is really good. Whenever I needed something, I reached out to them, and they were always available to help us. This is one of the most important reasons we decided to go with them because their support was really good, although it was very expensive as well, since they have different tiers of support available, and the tier we selected was expensive. We decided to go with that because the support was really good and because of the nature of our environment.

The best features Everpure FlashArray offers include flash storage because of its high speed and also the redundancy. We really love that redundancy, which is not only at the storage level but at the array level and at the power level and network level. Everything is redundant, making Pure Storage stand out compared to other tools and technologies provided by different vendors.

These features have benefited my organization in terms of performance and reliability because the redundant array means not only is the storage level such as the disks redundant, but the network cards and power are also redundant. That's why we decided to use that, as our virtual machines run some really critical applications. We needed that redundancy available to us all the time, and in case something goes wrong on one side of the storage, we know that the other side will always be available to help. The redundancy from Pure Storage is really efficient.

One unique feature that stood out to me is that their GUI portal is really helpful to check the status of Everpure FlashArray, all the networks, and all the components. You can actually go and see and view the status so you can proactively monitor them and also ingest the monitoring with different monitoring tools. That's a really good feature of Pure Storage.

Everpure FlashArray has positively impacted my organization by improving uptime and making our job easier, but it obviously comes with a high cost because Pure Storage is an expensive product.

I have noticed specific outcomes related to improved uptime and making my job easier, including a limited number of outages and faster recovery times, as we never had any outage in terms of Pure Storage, so it was always up and available for us.

Everpure FlashArray can be improved by possibly enhancing the user experience by providing users with more access so they can tweak the settings by themselves, which could be suited to their own environment. Currently, Pure does not provide that, so you have to actually lean on Pure support to make changes to the configuration.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for three years.

Everpure FlashArray is stable.

In terms of scalability, it can be tricky because if you're going to scale your storage, sometimes you have to go for another array or maybe you need to change the chassis. Scalability is not an easy option for Pure Storage, so you have to be very careful when you are getting that product for you.

Customer support for Everpure FlashArray is amazing, as they're always available and they are all around the globe, so whenever you need them, they are always able to help you.

I did not previously use a different solution, as we started with Pure Storage.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good, as the account manager was closely in touch with us to decide and design the pricing module for us.

I have seen a return on investment, particularly in that we needed fewer employees.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good, as the account manager was closely in touch with us to decide and design the pricing module for us.

Before choosing Everpure FlashArray, I evaluated other options, including IBM and Dell.

My advice to others looking into using Everpure FlashArray is that it's a really good product, especially if your main purpose is to get high speed with more redundancy and reliability; then go for it. However, it comes with a cost, as it's not cheap.

I rate the customer support a nine on a scale of one to ten.

I rate Everpure FlashArray a ten on a scale of one to ten for being the best.

I chose ten for my rating because of the speed, redundancy, and support—all these three things.

On-premises

We use Everpure FlashArray to allocate space and create disaster recovery setups within our applications. The main goal is to provide storage to our clients, which is the primary purpose for using Pure Storage.

We recently had a request from clients who wanted to migrate their data from one of their storage arrays to Everpure FlashArray. I took up that project and created the zoning between their servers and Pure Storage. After that, I allocated the space to their servers to migrate their data from their ESXi hosts. This was a big challenge because the data is very important for them. We needed to complete the zoning part on time and allocate the space accordingly, and I kept everything in place on time. After that, they migrated their data, and currently, they are using Pure Storage.

As a storage array, Everpure FlashArray is mainly used to allocate storage. Beyond that, I perform upgrades on this Pure array with the help of the vendor. We can also do self-upgrades.

I am not entirely sure about all the features offered by Everpure FlashArray because that is fully taken care of by my management. As an engineering and operations team, we maintain these arrays and perform daily health checks on the array. In case of any issues, we collaborate with the vendor and fix those issues. Additionally, whenever any server cannot access Everpure FlashArray, we fix that issue accordingly. This is our day-to-day work. The best feature is the Evergreen feature, which automatically raises a case and fixes any issue without reaching out to us.

Compared to other vendors, this feature is really helpful. We just receive the alerts without prior knowledge. When we go to Everpure FlashArray and see the alerts, we can see two alerts: one is that the alert is opened and after some time, we can see the same alert is closed, which means the issue got fixed. They automatically fix that issue without our knowledge. This really helps our team maintain high availability at all times and saves our team time.

Cost-wise, compared to other vendors, it is very budget-friendly. Everpure FlashArray is a high-availability storage technology that we are currently using. Whoever is using Pure Storage is happy with it, including the latency and everything. We have not received any complaints related to Pure Storage. Since I have worked here for four years, throughout this entire period I have not received any complaints on Pure Storage, which is really great.

When it comes to Everpure FlashArray ports shown in the GUI, it would be better if, when one of the Pure array ports went down, there was a possibility to highlight that particular port which has gone down. Some kind of features in the GUI related to hardware would be helpful. If it is showing visibly on the ports end, it would really help us to identify the particular port without logging into the Brocade switches or somewhere else. From the GUI itself, we could see that a particular port is down right now, so we need to fix that.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for over four years.

Right now, I have not seen any issues with Pure because, as I mentioned, we have the Evergreen feature on Pure, and they automatically raise a case. When it comes to upgrades, they do not take much time and we do not need any downtime to upgrade our Purity version. That is really good. Compared to other vendors, I would prefer Everpure FlashArray to anyone.

Whenever we need more storage, we have the feature of scalability. Whenever we need more, it happens automatically.

It is very easy for us to reach customer support. Whenever we raise any case, I believe within the next ten to fifteen minutes, we are receiving the response from the vendor. That is really great. They are acknowledging that whenever we need the support, they support us on time and they try to fix the issue within the given time. That is really great from Pure.

We have other vendors as well. I do not want to reveal the names. However, we preferred Pure because, as I mentioned earlier, the cost, the time-wise, and the latency are all better. We compared everything and after that, we switched to Everpure FlashArray. We referred and offered Everpure FlashArray to the application teams where they are satisfied with the Pure setup. After that, we allocated storage from this Pure array for a few clients.

We have another vendor as well with us, for example, NetApp. We compared the costs and everything, so the budget and the setup-wise, everything. When it comes to NetApp, for development and everything, we just need to do the basic health checks on their storage devices. Apart from that, they take care of the entire part, but the budget is very high. When it comes to Pure, we need to maintain the upgrades and all other activities. Compared to the budget, it is very low. The useful thing is when you are taking care of your storage part, meaning Pure, the maintenance and everything is really useful for you because you will learn what is happening on that storage. Every time you have a chance to look into those particular operations. That is why we preferred Pure recently for the clients. Based on this comparison, we offered them to use Everpure FlashArray.

I would advise companies or other clients to use Everpure FlashArray. Cost-wise, performance-wise, and scalability-wise, compared to all perspectives, Pure is going to become number one across all the FlashArrays. I would ask them to use Pure Storage and give it a try. Once they choose Pure, they will never go back to any other vendor. Regarding AI capability, I do not think that applies to our situation because our data is very secure. In some use cases we can use AI, but not in all cases. I would rate this product overall as a ten out of ten.

On-premises

Other

We use Everpure FlashArray for performing allocations and deallocations using the Pure Portal. We also create new LUNs and zoning through this interface.

When a user from Linux or Windows requests a new LUN, we create the zoning using a switch DCNM portal. After that, we use the LUN and create it using a WWPN within the Pure1 portal. We then create the LUN and provide the LUN ID to the user, which allows them to store their data into that LUN. The same process occurs in reverse for deallocation. First, we unmap the LUN from the host, then we delete the LUN, and finally we perform the unzoning.

Everpure FlashArray is very easy to use. Whoever logs in to the portal for the first time can easily adapt to it and use it independently without needing help from other people or documentation.

The information is easily accessible in the portal, and the wordings are simple and easy to understand. It does not consume much space or cookies to load the data, making it very useful and user-friendly.

Compared to other storage boxes, Everpure FlashArray is very useful because it is cost-effective and requires less work. With other storage boxes, we need to do pre-work for everything. With Everpure FlashArray, we do not need to do much work. Even if we do something wrong, it is easy to revert within twenty-four hours. This has impacted our organization in a very positive way compared to other storage boxes.

In terms of improvement, Everpure FlashArray could have more attractive UI/UX design compared to other solutions. This would give joy to work on it, and even if you are tired, it will be very easy and attractive to work on.

I am currently working in this field for two and a half years.

Everpure FlashArray is stable.

I would give scalability a rating of seven.

Customer support is very accessible twenty-four hours a day. Even if we do not get a direct call, we can connect with them within a few hours via email.

Before Everpure FlashArray, we used NetApp for the NAS part and PowerMax for the SAN part.

One day my colleague created a LUN with more space than requested. The user asked for one GB, but instead a one TB LUN was created. If this were another storage box, it would have created a big impact and increased costs significantly because GB and TB are very different measurements. At that time, we immediately found out about this and deleted that LUN without any error or loss of money to the project since we had twenty-four hours to correct it. We deleted the one TB LUN and created a one GB LUN and provided it to the user.

Because I have worked on many storage boxes, I find Everpure FlashArray very useful in comparison. Both the CLI and GUI are very useful to me. It is easy to understand and work with. I do not need to learn additional commands or refer to any documents to access the portal. This was very useful to me in the project when I joined.

Compared to other storage boxes, Everpure FlashArray is easily accessible and more cost-friendly. I would advise others to try Everpure FlashArray when comparing it to other storage boxes. I give this review an overall rating of eight.

The main use case for this solution is block storage. I deal with the transportation logistics industry.

It overperforms both in terms of storage capacity and throughput, and bandwidth capability. The single management pane of glass is pretty useful, and it's nice to be able to get a snapshot of the environment. 

We have a dedicated array for our data warehouse, for our SQL Server workloads, which has allowed us to empower the SQL team to give more frequent updates to the business so they can make data-driven decisions.

Based on the last Pure Storage FlashArray that we purchased, the only thing that could be made better would be the price.

I have been dealing with Pure Storage FlashArray for about two and a half years.

The stability of Pure Storage FlashArray is extremely good, as we have never had any issues during many code upgrades, and the controllers have been resilient.

Whether Pure Storage FlashArray is a scalable solution depends on the product you're in; we ended up buying a second array. Theoretically, we can do controller upgrades and get into a larger chassis, but there was a limit to how far we could go without needing to do a full migration, so I do not have direct experience with that.

I would rate the support with Pure Storage FlashArray an eight out of ten.

Positive

We previously used Dell EMC as a different solution before switching to Pure Storage. The main reason we switched from Dell to Pure was that the management was more difficult, and we needed faster storage, specifically an all-flash solution.

It was quite simple to get online. We were fortunate that our account manager was able to come out and perform the array initialization before our go-live date. So, when we stuck it in a rack and got it online, it was already ready to go. The initial setup was straightforward. 

It's hard to determine the return on investment with Pure Storage FlashArray, as the last array we bought replaced the primary one we had run out of space on, and we moved where the SQL workload had been shipped over. Our current workload, particularly the SQL use case, would not be possible on mechanical storage, and the ease of use for the small team for the array is important for supporting that workload.

The pricing and licensing are straightforward, but I do consider it to be expensive.

I cannot say how Pure Storage FlashArray compares versus other disk or flash storage solutions in terms of sustainability, as it is not something we were interested in. In terms of cost, I believe Pure Storage FlashArray was probably competitive with other all-flash solutions, but the leading competitor had more complex management.

Pure Storage FlashArray has not helped to decrease our organization's storage footprint, as far as the physical storage or the space it's taking up in the rack. Our physical storage has not decreased because we have actually increased the number of arrays since moving to Pure, but our overall amount of data has also increased. Pure Storage FlashArray has not helped to decrease the total cost of ownership, and I believe our total cost has probably gone up, but that's balanced by our increased amount of data and number of use cases. I cannot say how Pure Storage FlashArray differs in terms of power. 

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray a nine out of ten. It’s really good. The only negative experience I had was related to getting a replication figured out. We encountered a couple of issues with that once, but those problems were compounded by issues with our network architecture. 

On-premises

My main use case for Everpure FlashArray is as a block storage device.

I can give a quick specific example of how I'm using it as a block storage device in my environment: most of our customers use it as a block storage device for our VMware environment, either using it as a standalone or with ActiveCluster for resiliency.

Regarding my main use case with Everpure FlashArray, the main use case is block, and most customers are very happy with it because of the ease of implementation.

We are using it for VMware vSphere.

Everpure FlashArray has positively impacted my organization by lowering the TCO for storage.

Time is another factor I consider.

When I say it lowered the total cost of ownership, I cannot really share any specific examples or metrics, such as percentage saved or how it compared to my previous solution.

Everpure FlashArray has helped decrease my organization's storage footprint; it reduced footprint, power consumption, and the TCO.

In terms of power consumption, I can say that power consumption is half of the competition.

Everpure FlashArray has helped my operations reduce downtime; downtime is almost nil, whereas with other solutions it was low, but not as low as with Everpure FlashArray.

The best features Everpure FlashArray offers are ease of management and quick support.

When I mention ease of management, the GUI is very easy and quite intuitive.

I would like to add that it always works. Management is also very good.

Everpure FlashArray's single management pane of glass is a very important aspect to my organization because of ease of management; the GUI is very intuitive and easy to use.

In terms of performance, I find Everpure FlashArray's performance is better than the competition; the price is a little bit higher, but performance is outstanding, as expected.

We do use Pure Storage's Evergreen Architecture for our upgrades or scaling up, and it is important because it makes management easy, keeps the TCO transparent, and ensures that I can always rely on the storage, not outgrowing rackspace or datacenter space.

The only thing I think could be improved is price. The price is the main concern for our customers.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for 10 years.

Everpure FlashArray is stable.

Everpure FlashArray's scalability allows me to add storage and extra shelves.

Support is very great with responses. Customer support is very easy and excellent.

I have previously used different solutions; we have used multiple solutions, including NetApp, Dell storage, AC storage, and IBM Storwize and FlashSystems.

I have not seen a return on investment, and I cannot share any relevant metrics such as money saved, time saved, or fewer employees needed.

When comparing cost, I find that the cost is either the same or slightly higher, but that is returned by the ease of management, ease of use, and power consumption in the long run. I don't have experience with the pricing as such.

Before choosing Everpure FlashArray, I did evaluate other options, specifically NetApp, IBM, and Dell storage.

I would rate Everpure FlashArray a nine out of ten. I chose nine out of ten because it's not a ten; it's almost there, but it's not a ten.

Regarding Everpure FlashArray's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security are good, but we haven't touched the AI capabilities on our customer set. I don't think we use that functionality.

Everpure FlashArray is deployed in my organization primarily in a private cloud environment only. The cloud provider I use for my private cloud environment is my own datacenter provider; it's on-premise.

The advice I would give to others looking into using Everpure FlashArray is to look at the long-term total cost of ownership. I advise them to look at the long-term TCO and also at things of management and reduction of power and energy. My overall rating for Everpure FlashArray is nine out of ten.

Private Cloud

Other

We used Pure Storage FlashArray for the first two or almost three years strictly for VMware block storage. We bought another FlashArray, a C-series, for our file share, and we migrated everything from Isilon to C-series. We have two FlashArrays, X-series and C-series. C-series is mainly for file share and we use shares basically, while X-series is strictly for block storage for our VMware.

Pure Storage FlashArray is a good product with minimal management requirements once set up correctly. It requires less management once set up correctly. It does not require day-to-day work. 

Pure Storage FlashArray helped reduce our storage footprint from EMC, although I'm not sure how large it was before. I know the total capacity since they purchased it. When I checked the initial storage capacity I bought, I realized my Pure Storage FlashArray wasn't big enough. I mentioned that we might need to expand next year, as it barely meets our needs for now. I gathered all the necessary information and presented it to my team. I said, "If we continue with this growth, we'll run out of storage within the next year." They doubled the storage capacity in just one year, and since then, we haven’t purchased any additional storage. It’s been almost three years now since we last expanded.

The main drawback is the support. I’ve been working for four years without a local representative, and although I’ve submitted many requests, nothing has changed. They sometimes call me in the middle of the night, even though I’ve informed them about my working hours. I often raise cases to speak with someone directly because I prefer to discuss issues over the phone rather than via email. I specifically request them to call me when I open a ticket, but they continually reply by email instead. This ongoing situation has been very frustrating in terms of the support I receive.

As a technical professional, I lack visibility into the system logs. Whenever an issue arises, a ticket is opened for us. While I'm glad they take this step, it can be frustrating. They inform me, “Hey, we opened this ticket for you. It’s critical. Call me so we can discuss what’s going on.” However, as a product manager for my institution, I don’t have access to the logs, which are withheld due to, as they say, proprietary code. I understand that, but I have been working in storage for many years and am not new to this field. In fact, I spent 17 years at IBM Storage, dealing with large enterprise systems, not just small vendor products. I wish I could access the normal logs to diagnose issues myself, rather than relying solely on their information. Before I can escalate issues or open a checklist, I need to have a clear understanding of what’s happening based on the logs. Sometimes the situation feels rushed, and I end up having to push my support team for answers. There are moments when I feel like I’m left in the dark about the log details until I actually call them for clarification. It can be quite challenging.

Pure Storage can improve FlashArray by providing more logging visibility to customers. Currently, there is no log visibility. They could include an audit log, but I cannot see any system logs when problems occur.

I have been using Pure Storage FlashArray for almost four years.

The stability of Pure Storage FlashArray is really good; I would give it a ten out of ten for stability.

For scalability, I would give it a six because we did not have to scale that much. Depending on the model, you can scale differently, but we did not run at full capacity yet.

Their support is good, but there are issues with timing. We receive callbacks during off hours or not during my working hours. I work in the Eastern time zone. They often call me at two o'clock in the morning, and I sometimes get emails at ten o'clock at night asking, "Can you do this?" I won't respond to those requests if I don't know who they are without a phone conversation. If it's not an emergency, I won't address anything until the next business day. When I arrive at the office, I will make a call, but before that, I need to speak with someone to understand exactly what we're going to do before granting any access. For example, when they ask, "Can you turn on remote assistance? We'll take care of it," I refuse because I want to know exactly what actions they're taking. If something goes wrong, my management will come to me with questions: "What did you do? Why did you enable that? Who approved this?" I want to ensure that before I turn on remote assistance, I have a conversation with them to clarify everything.

Neutral

Before using Pure Storage FlashArray, the company was using Isilon. They had also used EMC Flex, but I only used it here for a very short time. By the time I arrived, we migrated everything from EMC Flex to Pure Storage.

The deployment model we use is strictly internal storage. We are not on cloud or private; we use only on-prem storage. Everything we have is on-prem, with physical devices sitting in our data center and our co-location at the DR site.

It was already set up by the time I got here, so I cannot speak for the initial setup process. It was already deployed when I started.

Compared to other products, the learning curve is about 50% shorter. The learning curve is not hard, especially if you do a basic setup; it's quick to set up and quick to learn.

Pure Storage FlashArray does require some maintenance. They have a self-service portal. If you sign up for the self-service option, it will update automatically and handle everything for you. While it does require maintenance, I normally prefer assisted service. I like to be on a call during upgrades to ensure that everything goes smoothly because I’m an old-fashioned guy. I want to be involved when they do the upgrades, as issues can arise, and I want to know what went wrong if something does happen. My management will turn to me for answers, especially regarding Pure Storage, because they rely on me. As the subject matter expert (SME), if something goes wrong, I am the first point of contact they will reach out to. If I don’t know what’s going on, it reflects poorly on me. Therefore, I always choose assisted service; I want to be on the phone to ensure that everything is going as expected and to confirm that all processes are handled correctly.

I am not much involved in the pricing.

We're currently utilizing Pure Storage FlashArray on Evergreen. Essentially, they mentioned that we don't need to replace the entire system, but we do have to replace the controllers every three years as part of their support model. While they say it's free, we actually pay for support upfront. What they provide is essentially an evergreen product. We can continue using the same storage backend, but they replace the front-end controllers. So, we get new controllers without having to replace the entire system. In other words, we can keep the same storage chassis but use different controllers.

If a colleague from another company is considering Pure Storage but already has a flash solution, I will be honest; it depends on what their workload is and what they're using. I cannot speak for others' products compared to Pure Storage, as they have to compare their own performance and make their own decisions based on cost and support.

I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray an eight out of ten.

On-premises

My main use case for Everpure FlashArray was file share storage and VM spin up storage. It was used for file sharing and VM spin up, specifically for scenarios involving hosting shared drives for critical applications. I used Everpure FlashArray for both file sharing and VM spin up; we had it for the VMs that house the 911 escalation calls and then for the software and files that were needed between all the departments.

That was primarily what we used it for as our main use case with Everpure FlashArray.

Regarding how Everpure FlashArray has positively impacted my organization, no specific outcomes come to mind, but the lack of negative outcomes makes it good—especially with the 911 department, where we cannot have downtime, and we have not had to worry about that using this.

Regarding how that reliability impacted my team or the departments relying on it, not having any negative outcomes is the reliability impact that we need, especially because when anything goes down with the 911 department, it is a massive undertaking and deal, and the public does not appreciate that.

The best features Everpure FlashArray offers are its ease of setup and incredible performance, which is better than most other software or hardware that we have used.

I will start with the incredible performance; it was very fast, with everything transferred near instantly compared to what we were using before, making general use much better for everyone. The ease of setup came from the documentation that I was able to follow for general setups, taking only a couple of minutes to get going. For one of our units, I needed support assistance, and they got right to me and helped me out with no problem.

Regarding scalability, we started off with two units and were able to add four more as needed, and it was not a massive undertaking to do; it was simply adding them to the interface, which was very easy.

I do not have any improvements at the moment; I like how it is. I have nothing to add about needed improvements.

I have been working in my current field for about 13 years.

Everpure FlashArray is stable.

Everpure FlashArray's scalability works really well; we have been able to add more units as needed and just continue growing.

The customer support for Everpure FlashArray is really good; we have had to call them just a couple of times, and each time they were able to help us get everything straightened out right away.

We did use different solutions before; it was a variety of different items, and we consolidated everything into a new hardware stack using Pure as the backbone.

There were no issues with pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

There were no issues with pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

Several others were looked at before choosing Everpure FlashArray; nothing outside of the big name retailers that I can remember.

My advice for others looking into using Everpure FlashArray is to absolutely look into it. I just wish that we could actually get our other customers to use Everpure FlashArray, as it really does make a difference in the data centers. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

I managed Pure Storage in my previous organization for various clients. We had clients from multiple domains, such as the financial domain, the automotive sector, and the banking industry. These customers had three different types of applications using Pure Storage. One of them was the Oracle Database with high throughput and low latency requirements.

The second one had time-sensitive functions, where a two-millisecond delay was acceptable but a five-millisecond delay was not. It required indexing and low latency.

The third type of use was hosting a virtual infrastructure, such as VMware VMs. These are the three areas where people used Pure Storage, specifically FlashArray storage, in their environment.

They offer a cloud-based solution where in one pane, you can see the entire cluster or Pure FlashArray Storage, even if it is spread across two locations such as America and Europe. You can do health checks to see how your storage is performing and what capacity is being used. You can also generate a report. If one of your clusters is having a capacity or load performance issue, from the Pure portal, you can do a simulation of future capacity. You can also check what kind of workload you want to have on a particular cluster. Based on that, it will tell you whether the upgrade is feasible or not. You can figure this out yourself through the portal as a user. You do not need to reach out to an account manager or a salesperson for that.

It provided simplicity. There was also the option to upgrade the storage cluster every three years. When older technology was becoming obsolete for a client, Pure Storage provided an upgrade path with minimal cost, specifically for controller upgrades. During that project, my interaction with Pure Storage facilitated the transition from an M50 to an X50 controller, which comes in the high-performance category. This feature demonstrates the adaptability and forward-thinking approach of Pure Storage.

It took our clients about a week to realize its benefits. It helped clients decrease their organization’s storage footprint. With the NVMe technology, the footprint was reduced. They were also able to save a lot of rack space and physical space along with the electricity usage.

In one of the organizations, people were having issues with the VDI infrastructure. Their data was hosted on a VMware platform, and the backend of those virtual machines, the VDI, was on Pure Storage. Something went wrong in the virtual infrastructure, and they were having long latencies. People were getting disconnected from their virtual infrastructure. At the time, I discovered that the best features of Pure Storage are their support and analytics. Pure Storage and VMware were connected through the SAN infrastructure. I got an email from Pure Storage saying that there is something wrong with one of the hosts. There is a CRC error, which means that there is something wrong at the hardware level. When people were complaining about this issue, I correlated that email and checked that particular VMware host. I realized that the information that I got from Pure Storage almost three days ago was correct. I could fix the issue in 15 minutes. They proactively tell you about the potential issues in your infrastructure. 

They have a very good support system, and the GUI is also very intuitive.

Based on my experience with various technologies like EMC, NetApp, and Pure Storage, one area for improvement is compliance certifications. NetApp excels in this area, particularly in the American Army or defense sector, where NetApp has approval, whereas others are striving to achieve the same. NetApp also delivers security, ransomware protection, and scale-up capabilities more effectively. These are the areas for improvement.

As an admin, I started working with Pure Storage in 2016, and I was working with it till last year.

Pure Storage had operational challenges between 2016 to 2018, impacting perceived reliability. I encountered instances where the entire cluster went down due to workload and throughput issues. We were considering alternative solutions like EMC, but I noticed improvements in later projects and encountered no incidents. This indicates a significant improvement in stability over time.

Our clients were enterprises with a very large footprint with multiple petabytes. A big banking client had around 300 petabytes of data on Pure Storage.

I led a team of 11 system administrator engineers while also serving as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for this technology in India, specifically in Bangalore and Pune. The U.S. team had around the same number of staff, adding up to approximately 30 team members, including managers.

I would rate their customer support a nine out of ten. It is definitely one of the best.

Positive

I have worked with various technologies such as EMC, NetApp, and Pure Storage. One of the clients transitioned from a larger reliance on EMC technologies such as VMAX, PowerMAX, and VNX to focusing solely on Pure Storage for SAN infrastructure and NetApp for NAS infrastructure. This strategic shift, established around 2017, reduced their data center technological variety to just Pure Storage and NetApp, highlighting the evolution of their approach.

Deciding on a solution can be challenging. FlashArray technology is maturing, with options based on the infrastructure and user preference. The minimal learning curve makes it a recommended choice. I have extensive experience with NetApp and Pure Storage, and I can confidently endorse both technologies, as they have been significant in my professional life. Their performance is pretty similar, but NetApp leads in scalability. Pure Storage is also more expensive than NetApp.

Both companies are working on sustainability and reducing their footprint. They both are doing well in this area.

Installation is notably simple for Pure Storage. Their technology is devoid of complexities. Once you understand their technology, managing it becomes convenient and efficient.

An on-prem implementation can take months because of multiple points or multiple decisions. You have to work with your solutions partner or the sales, presales, and accounting team.

In terms of maintenance, they have a release every year or six months. We had to do those upgrades.

In the long term, spanning three to five years, the total cost of ownership becomes cheaper, considering power consumption, data center footprint, and NVMe technology usage. The initial investment, especially in the first year, could be high due to the hybrid workload and spinning disks, but over three to five years, it reduces.

The cost of Pure Storage is subjective and determined by your environment. Pure Storage tends to be more expensive than NetApp, but it is cheaper than EMC. Performance varies with data workload, making cost considerations complex. There is not a straightforward answer.

Pure Storage is a leader in FlashArray Storage technology. They excel in terms of technology and support but lack the broad ecosystem required for diverse client needs. Pure Storage caters well to niche clients, especially in FlashArray storage technology, but it may not meet the needs of object storage clients.

Overall, I would rate Pure Storage FlashArray an eight out of ten.

On-premises

My main use case for Everpure FlashArray is primarily for Oracle databases and VMware, most of the time.

With Everpure FlashArray, I have an automation of cloning all the Oracle databases to use them for QA and dev test, making nine copies every day automatically, and we don't have extra space occupied.

In my experience, the best features Everpure FlashArray offers are volume cloning, safe mode, and performance.

With volume cloning, I use it for cloning environments to use them for QA and dev test, and safe mode helps in case of a ransomware attack because we recover fast.

Everpure FlashArray has positively impacted my organization, particularly in performance and reliability, as we've had good improvements, making our applications run faster and giving us more confidence that they will not crash.

The performance improvements I noticed include user satisfaction being the biggest takeaway because the users are happy, and IT is happy.

The importance of Everpure FlashArray's single management pane to my organization is significant because it reduces the overhead and the time that the IT department needs to learn a tool, making it easier for us.

Everpure FlashArray has helped decrease my organization's storage footprint significantly because it has a lot of density capacity, which is higher than most storage, so what used to be a full rack of disks is now probably three to six U.

Everpure FlashArray has helped my operations reduce downtime because the upgrade and management processes are much better, so I don't have to make many maintenance windows or keep my engineers working late nights.

We use the Evergreen architecture for our applications, which is very important for maintaining continuous uptime because it allows us to do upgrades online, avoiding downtime that other vendors would require for migrations.

I do not have any suggestions on how Everpure FlashArray can be improved; I like how it is.

I do not have anything in mind right now for one area where it could be even better.

I have been using Everpure FlashArray for eight years.

Everpure FlashArray is stable.

The scalability of Everpure FlashArray is good.

The customer support for Everpure FlashArray is extremely good, especially since many tasks are automated in Pure1, which improves the support experience.

I would rate the customer support a nine on a scale of one to ten.

Before Everpure FlashArray, I previously used 3PAR, and I switched because Everpure FlashArray is more reliable.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing Everpure FlashArray.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Everpure FlashArray is good.

I don't have the data on how the solution has helped decrease the total cost of ownership right away, but I will have to check it.

I don't have any metrics for return on investment at this time.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Everpure FlashArray is good.

I would compare Everpure FlashArray versus other disk and flash storage solutions in terms of performance and say it's better than most of them by far.

When comparing Everpure FlashArray with other disk and flash storage solutions regarding power consumption, it is again better by far.

In terms of cost, Everpure FlashArray can sometimes be more expensive, but when you look at the total cost of ownership and everything associated with it, even if the initial purchase is probably more expensive, in the long term, it is less.

My advice to others looking into using Everpure FlashArray is to do it, and do it really fast. I would rate this solution a ten on a scale of one to ten.