Hybrid IT Enterprise Executive at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Reseller
Top 20
Good compression features that help our organization with virtualization
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the solution is compression."
  • "The marketing could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for the solution is virtualization.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is compression.

What needs improvement?

The marketing could be improved. Additionally, awareness in the marketplace could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution since it was introduced and currently use the latest version.

Buyer's Guide
IBM FlashSystem
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM FlashSystem. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I rate it an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, and approximately 100 clients are utilizing it. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

We have had a good experience with customer service and support, but it sometimes takes a while to resolve an issue. I rate them an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and took three days. I rate it an eight out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it with a vendor team and in-house staff.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good, but its marketing awareness can be improved.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user672366 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Provides external virtualization, compression, and a failover mechanism.
Pros and Cons
  • "The valuable features are high availability, compression, and a failover mechanism. It's a very highly available storage solution."
  • "I know they have a flashcopy manager, but it is extra software, an additional license, and some customers don't like to add addition costs to their infrastructure. If IBM could create, or include snapshot management within the GUI, that would really be helpful."

What is most valuable?

The valuable features are high availability, compression, and a failover mechanism. It's a very highly available storage solution.

It can virtualize external rewrites and you have a single pane of management. Instead of having multiple managements for different storage products, you can have a single pane to manage everything. The external virtualization is a really good feature.

High Availability – any server, physical or virtualized accessing the IBM Storwize can be in a high-availability configurations. This will make applications available all the time to provide service to the end users.

Real-time Compression – it reduces storage costs by compressing it up to 80%, therefore saves rack space and power consumption.
Storage Virtualization – it can virtualize different storage from different vendors, thus helps ease of use by providing single pane of management and device drivers.

Storage Tiering – automatically migrates data between different storage tiers depending on the usage of the data. This will help reduce costs by avoiding to purchase dedicated SSD or Flash drives to applications that needed performance.

How has it helped my organization?

It allows the company to be highly available and be able to recover the storage if there are some issues.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see the snapshot management embedded within the GUI. Right now, the snapshot management, if you want to schedule, or do multiple scheduling in a day, you have to use scripting. Customers are not highly technical, and they really cannot do scripting. If IBM could include the snapshot management within the interface, then that would be good.

I know they have a flashcopy manager, but it is extra software, an additional license, and some customers don't like to add addition costs to their infrastructure. If IBM could create, or include snapshot management within the GUI, that would really be helpful.

I have a lot of customers who are really interested in the Storewize product and they are using snapshot management. It's really good to have this kind of investment, because this product is really good.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable product. I like it, and I have a lot of customers using it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Storewize is scalable, especially the V-7000. The GEN-28 can scale up to 20 expansions. It's highly scalable and you can have a maximum of 8 nodes.

How is customer service and technical support?

I have used the technical support on occasion, but not a lot. It's good. As long as you provide them with the correct information about the problem, they will respond very quickly.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy, very easy.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM FlashSystem
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM FlashSystem. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user672375 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at CAS Severn
Consultant
Provides our customers with virtualization and flattening.

What is most valuable?

The most important feature that our customers are very interested in is the virtualization. Being able to have the flexibility as they grow, without having to just lift and replace everything that they're doing.

Where it's moving into now is a unified set of advanced features that they're able to lay across their enterprise, without it being different in every single product that they're dealing with.

The virtualization, the flattening, and those advanced characteristics of the product are really what our customers have gravitated towards on the V9000.

How has it helped my organization?

When it comes to our benefits from this solution, a lot of it comes down to simplicity. If we take a look at a lot of these complex IT solutions today, they're very hard to maintain and to administer. However, the V9000 and the investment that IBM has made to the user experience, makes it very easy for our customers to be able to self-maintain and self-administer their own environment. They don't have to always go to a storage consultant or have to call into support. That's been very beneficial to our clients.

What needs improvement?

We think that IBM has to continue to invest in additional data reduction capabilities which are on their roadmap. Being able to use flash most efficiently, where the least amount of data is physically being stored on the V9000 is really where IBM needs to make additional investment. They are doing that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability's been rock solid. If we take a look at the V9000 and the base of what it's built on, it is the heritage of IBM Storwize. This goes back to IBM SAN Volume Controller or SVC. We're on a very mature code base and it is a code base that's been very extendable.

So over the years, they've been able to inject new capabilities in the product line while still keeping the product very stable. We've had customers who have been through multiple upgrade cycles over the life of the product with no issues at all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the V9000 product is really where it shines. Being able to add additional capacity to the unit, without having to come up with a different management of lots of separate units, has been very beneficial to clients.

That idea of starting small with their current flash rollout and then being able to grow as the budget allows, has been very beneficial to clients.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've been absolutely happy with the technical support.

From an IBM perspective for technical support, they really love the V9000, especially when you're going to do some enhanced service offerings that IBM has.

When it comes to using things like the technical advisor, being able to have more of a concierge service with support has been very beneficial to clients.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

A lot of our customers were previously using either all disk or hybrid solutions for their storage. Moving towards an all-flash V9000, allowed them to take performance management and stop having to worry about that in their everyday tasks.

Moving to an all-flash array allowed them to spend more time dealing with application integration and dealing with their end users. This is rather than having to do performance management and moving data around. The all-flash array made their life a lot simpler.

How was the initial setup?

We were involved with all aspects:

  • Initial design
  • Setup
  • Rollout
  • Integration with the different operating systems and different hosts through the storage fabric

It was straightforward. What we really like about the V9000 is that we're able to take implementation engineers who had experience with other members of the Storwize family.

They are able to take those skills that they learned within other product sets and directly translate those to the V9000.

They are able to very quickly come up to speed on the product without having to learn a brand new skill set.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

From a CAS Severn perspective, IBM continues to be our premier supplier of storage. We do have a lot of experience with other vendors in the industry, including Pure Storage, EMC, and HP.

When it comes to recommending a vendor, the entire lifecycle of supporting a system is important. That's everything from design, to implementation, to ongoing support. IBM provides a strong package on all three aspects of the lifecycle of the equipment.

What other advice do I have?

Folks that are looking to implement the V9000 really should take a look at the simplicity that an all-flash array can bring to their environment. They should look at the efficiency of being able to take skills that they might have learned within other Storwize products and be able to directly translate those into the V9000.

To summarize: Similar interface, similar support interaction, and the way they can take knowledge that they previously had and be able to directly translate that to their all-flash array decision.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Project Manager at Insirio S.p.A.
Real User
Storage virtualization simplifies space management

What is our primary use case?

Storage virtualization. Two Storwize V7000 systems in a cluster configuration serve about 500 servers (physical and virtual).

How has it helped my organization?

  • Storage virtualization simplifies space management. 
  • Thin provisioning saves space.
  • Copy services simplify environment replication.

What is most valuable?

Virtualization, because it abstracts hardware and allows to use other storages (old DS series) as unique storage spaces.

What needs improvement?

The cluster should be improved because non-disruptive failover was supported only on a few operating systems.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user533121 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage & Backup Transition Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It facilitates those applications that need low latency and high speed for transferring the data.
Pros and Cons
  • "Speed (IOPS/second) – It is most vital for applications that need low latency and high speed for transferring the data."

    How has it helped my organization?

    The interface management is simple and intuitive. It has been replaced with other arrays successfully, that were larger in size but more slow. We were able to reduce the footprint of space used in GDCS and also the power consumption.

    What is most valuable?

    Speed (IOPS/second) – It is most vital for applications that need low latency and high speed for transferring the data. 

    We have some large databases that are accessed at the same time by more than 10,000 users. In the past, it was on 15K disks. After we migrated them under the IBM Flash Array, the overall IOPS rate has increased by 30% and its latency is lower. The customers are very happy with the new solution.

    What needs improvement?

    The storage size vs the storage price needs to improve. The total storage capacity vs price is still quite high for the IBM Flash Array. It will sound better in the following years, as and when the price will be more accessible/economical.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    In our environment we also have the XtremIO All-Flash Storage Array, but it has some scalability issues. That was the main reason why we focused on buying more IBM Flash Arrays.

    We also use ServiceNow and SNIA Protocol; it’s present and working good with all the IBM products.

    How was the initial setup?

    Since we have multiple IBM equipment in use, the installation process was straight forward.

    What about the implementation team?

    Usually IBM doesn't sell the product directly, so each installation is carried out either with the vendor or via the GDC technicians. We as storage admins configure the storage system.

    What other advice do I have?

    This product has the best quality, performance and cost.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user211857 - PeerSpot reviewer
    IT Program Manager at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor
    The services to help us migrate our NAS data from an existing EMC VNX system has failed once already with ACL permissions issues specifically on how the V7000U NAS works.

    What is most valuable?

    We have not had a good experience with this platform.

    The installation and service was very good. But, the services to help us migrate our NAS data from an existing EMC VNX system has failed once already with ACL permissions issues specifically on how the V7000U NAS works. I have had to involved IBM Global Support by actually contacting high level Vice Presidents. As of January 26, 2016, we have not successfully migrated our NAS data.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It has not improved anything yet within our environment.

    What needs improvement?

    They could increase the maximum storage capacity so more disk shelves can be added.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We've had it for eight months, but still have not successfully migrated our NAS data yet. Also, it contains drives for AS/400 system and Exchange Archive data.

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    Software functionality issues that were not known until our NAS data migration failed. We hit further ACL Permissions issues as well.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We have performance and spiking issues of which IBM applied a work-around patch.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    There have been no issues with the scalability.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    6/10

    Technical Support:

    It's average.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We switched to Pure Storage because of the way the system performs and does everything in 32K sizing. The IOPS are high and the support and customer server are exceptional.

    How was the initial setup?

    Fairly simple as it took about two hours to rack and get on-line.

    What about the implementation team?

    It was installed through one of our partners who did a good job.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    We feel that the pricing is fair and the licensing process was easy.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We evaluated EMC (which we already had), DELL and HP.

    What other advice do I have?

    The sales team was great as was the technical team. I now feel the EMC VNX and NetApp are both better NAS systems. If I had to do it over again, I would stayed with the EMC VNX for NAS.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user450228 - PeerSpot reviewer
    it_user450228Project Manager / Lead Architect with 51-200 employees
    Vendor

    You are not alone in having a bad experience with this product.Would be interested to see if IBM resolved this issue for you ?

    Nuno Chiziane - PeerSpot reviewer
    Core Systems Services Consultant Infrastructure & Security at Asseco Central Europe, a.s.
    MSP
    Enterprise storage solution that offers good performance and is straightforward to setup.
    Pros and Cons
    • "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 storage capacity of this solution could be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

    We implement this solution for our customers, including African banks who use it for storage. 

    What needs improvement?

    The storage capacity of this solution could be improved. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for six years. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    This is a scalable solution. 

    How are customer service and support?

    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. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward but does have some complexity in the middle. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    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.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend this solution because it offers good performance and the systems are fast. In terms of dealing with Oracle, it's really a good choice for customers that have their infrastructure that needs balance. 

    I would rate this solution ten out of ten. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    it_user672384 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Technical Specialist with 51-200 employees
    MSP
    The FlashSystem 900: A Powerful Building Block for Flash Infrastructure

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature is the continuity of the user interface. Many of our customers leverage Storwize and XIV storage subsystems. That continuity in look and feel has likely helped the FlashSystem because transitioning to using this new product doesn't require any additional training or familiarization time. Instead, customers leverage their experiences to perform 90-95% of the tasks necessary to get a new FlashSystem 900 running.

    It's especially important to be able to walk into a customer site and say, "Hey, you have access to the same user experience that you have with your Storwize system, and/or a very similar user experience to your XIV."

    How has it helped my organization?

    Having a consistent user experience and user interface has helped save our customers' time: we don't have to retrain them for a new user interface, and they don't have the learning curve associated with understanding the nuances of a new interface.

    The FlashSystem has really helped improve our customers' I/O intensive workloads. Many of our customers leverage Flash for database workloads and appreciate the extra performance boost it gives.

    What needs improvement?

    A lot of the beauty of the FlashSystem 900 is that it's very, very focused on what it does, and it does it well. I don't really think there are additional features required.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The FlashSystem 900 is a relatively stable platform. While any codebase will have some issues and require patching (nothing is perfect), the codebase on which the FlashSystem 900 is built is solid.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    As a building block, the FlashSystem 900 isn't really intended to scale out to a large degree. Instead, it's intended to be used as a block with which to build out a scalable solution (such as with an A9000/A9000R or a V9000).

    How is customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    IBM's support for storage hardware is usually excellent.

    Technical Support:

    IBM's storage technical support is usually excellent.

    How was the initial setup?

    I have been involved in the initial setup with a number of customers. It's very straightforward. It's a lot easier than the old days.

    What other advice do I have?

    If you are looking for a great flash solution that can be virtualized or utilized as a building block for a scalable flash solution, or if you're looking for flash for a very specific workload, then you may want to consider a FlashSystem 900.

    It's probably the most straightforward piece of hardware you can get. The user experience from the interfaces and the price points for the performance a really solid.

    I'm an IBM Business Partner, so there's really only one vendor that we go to for our storage. However, even if I weren't an IBM Business Partner, having a pretty stable track record with their products, ease of use, and value delivered for price -- I would probably still recommend a FlashSystem 900 for the use cases I stated earlier.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are IBM business partners.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free IBM FlashSystem Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: March 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free IBM FlashSystem Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.