Pure Storage FlashBlade OverviewUNIXBusinessApplication

Pure Storage FlashBlade is the #6 ranked solution in top File and Object Storage tools and #13 ranked solution in best All-Flash Storage Arrays. PeerSpot users give Pure Storage FlashBlade an average rating of 8.8 out of 10. Pure Storage FlashBlade is most commonly compared to Pure Storage FlashArray: Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure Storage FlashArray. Pure Storage FlashBlade is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 65% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 15% of all views.
Pure Storage FlashBlade Buyer's Guide

Download the Pure Storage FlashBlade Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: March 2023

What is Pure Storage FlashBlade?

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage FlashBlade Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

Pure Storage FlashBlade Video

Pure Storage FlashBlade Pricing Advice

What users are saying about Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing:
  • "Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade."
  • "The price of this solution could be made more affordable."
  • "Licensing fees are paid yearly."
  • "I feel that the price could always be lowered."
  • Pure Storage FlashBlade Reviews

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    Chief Executive Officer / CTO at IT VIP, LLC
    Real User
    Top 20
    Immutable snapshots, great performance, and simple and easy replication
    Pros and Cons
    • "The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great."
    • "It usually comes down to just what you hit and the value you're getting when you spend the money and license the products. I would always go, "If you want to make things better, lower your price and make your licensing simpler." There's always an opportunity around that."

    What is our primary use case?

    I last worked with it last year. There was a hospital that was using it for ransomware remediation. It was all about immutable. I was consulting and helping a little bit with that. 

    It was all on-prem. They had multiple of them. We did a lot of replication, making sure the replication was right and the snapshots were good and immutable as per design.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The whole idea was to be able to recover the hospital in the event they got hit with ransomware and taken over. The whole idea of Pure worked very well because you could take a snapshot multiple times a day. If somebody comes in and basically grabs your data from you, you can delete that and put back the one before they got here. That's what I loved about the whole opportunity.

    What is most valuable?

    The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great.

    What needs improvement?

    It usually comes down to just what you hit and the value you're getting when you spend the money and license the products. I would always go, "If you want to make things better, lower your price and make your licensing simpler." There's always an opportunity around that.

    Buyer's Guide
    Pure Storage FlashBlade
    March 2023
    Learn what your peers think about Pure Storage FlashBlade. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
    685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    My storage background is more EMC-based. Way back, I worked with Hitachi. I have worked a little bit with Pure Storage more recently. I can't go and profess to be an expert of Pure.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I found it to be cool and great. I really did. The replication was simple and easy. I would recommend Pure all over the place.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    My understanding is that it's pretty straightforward. I like to reference these things as LEGOs and building blocks. Pure seems to go this way. Basically, if you want to add storage, you're dropping in a tray. The tray is coming with the storage and some intelligence. You're building up as you go, and I love that.

    How are customer service and support?

    I haven't called them.

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

    I've been seeing a lot more, but previously, I was all about EMC. EMC backed my VMware environment, which was extensive and had built-in disaster recovery. Today, if someone asks what I would go for and buy, I'd say that I'm just going to go with Pure.

    How was the initial setup?

    I wasn't involved in the initial setups, but I have been involved in some reviews of that. It is very straightforward and simple. I was a storage admin for years with EMC, Hitachi, HP, and Sun. Things have evolved so much that it's simple. It's really good.

    What was our ROI?

    I don't know what they spent, but from a practical standpoint and for the engagement that I was involved in, the return on investment would be very good. That's because you would be able to go and set up your environment and architect it in such a way that ransomware becomes nothing. It helps in that situation. When somebody attacks you, they want to get your storage or your data. With the capabilities of Pure and some other vendors, you can go and architect in such a way that the impact of a ransomware attack or breach is minimized. That to me is worth its weight in gold.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I didn't have the responsibility to do that in the past. I always just stuck with EMC, which always was easy and simple for me, but things evolved. Like the whole analogy to LEGOs, I move towards that. When you're building storage, you have to worry about performance. Flash drives and all the rest of the stuff are going to give me a certain amount of performance, but as I add more storage, my performance has to go and cover more of an ecosystem. There is more data on there. When you have these LEGO ideas where compute and storage come together as a shelf, you're actually increasing everything at once, which is brilliant. On top of that, they've got all really nice security features, immutable storage, and things like that. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I love this solution. I would actually buy it. As a matter of fact, I recommended that somebody buy it just the other day. I'm really sorry that I didn't buy more Pure when I had the buying in my responsibilities. I should've bought more. I didn't see it years ago the way I saw it last year.

    I would rate it an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Business Development Manager of Storage Systems at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Performs well with very little maintenance and an easy initial setup
    Pros and Cons
    • "The product is scalable and easy to expand."
    • "I want efficiency. FlashBlade doesn't have efficiency now."

    What is our primary use case?

    We have a case in one of the biggest banks in Kazakhstan, and they use it for some very fast detecting tasks. It's used for big data analytics.

    What is most valuable?

    FlashBlade is absolutely stable. As in all products from Pure Storage, they offer some best quality and are stable. They are quite good in terms of the hardware, in the software. 

    We don't face any trouble during the installation process or handling maintenance. 

    Based on the user experience, we expect that they will not have any issues in the future, we hope.

    The product is scalable and easy to expand.

    If you need high throughput the FlashBlade is the best solution for you. It is the only one on the market that can provide 15GB per second from one node. And if you have another node, it will be 30GB per second. So the throughput performance is excellent for FlashBlade. It's not about the capacity, not about the features - it's about the throughput differences.

    What needs improvement?

    I want efficiency. FlashBlade doesn't have efficiency now. They have compression. They also don't have the duplication. They have only compression and it's not very good. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We had a POC for about six months, and we have sold it for two months. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is very good. It's reliable and the performance is good. The hardware has been great.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is for sure scalable. If a company needs to expand dit, it can do so. It's not a problem.

    We currently have three clients on the solution. Two are in a POC and one is commercially live. 

    How are customer service and support?

    We asked support for some assistance in the past - especially the very first time we used it. The product was new for us. We asked service support for assistance and I can say they're quite good. They were very quick to respond and they have great competence in the product. They provide instructions to the engineer and I see sometimes they connect remotely if it's necessary. I can't say that anything bad about it. They are quite good, actually.

    How was the initial setup?

    The installation process is very simple and straightforward. It's not difficult or complex. 

    The implementation itself only took one to two days or so. 

    The maintenance process isn't hard at all. It's very easy.

    You only need one engineer to handle deployment and maintenance.

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

    They don't have a license at all. They have some software products like Portworx, and they sell the license for those. however, the FlashBlade and X FlashArray don't have a license at all. It's included in the system; you don't need to buy it separately.

    What other advice do I have?

    We use cloud and on-premises deployments.

    I would recommend the product to others, however, it depends on the task. The task is very important, especially with FlashBlade, as, for some applications, it's not ideal. Some people think you should be very careful and size it first, and talk with the vendor first to understand the task, the application you going to deploy on the FlashBlade. If it matches and you get support and recommendations from the vendor you definitely should use it. I can honestly say, they are quite honest in this case. Pure Storage, if they see that your task is not good for FlashBlade, they will say it to you, "Sorry, but your task is different and you have to think about some other products. Maybe X, maybe Y." So are they not going to push you to buy this hardware that doesn't suit your purposes.

    I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Pure Storage FlashBlade
    March 2023
    Learn what your peers think about Pure Storage FlashBlade. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2023.
    685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Technical Operations Manager at Mideast Data Systems
    Real User
    Top 10
    Fast, modern, stable, and has multiple use cases
    Pros and Cons
    • "What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware. Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features."
    • "An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."

    What is our primary use case?

    We're using Pure Storage FlashBlade for backup purposes. We're also planning to deploy the product for the big data environment.

    What is most valuable?

    What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware.

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features.

    What needs improvement?

    An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced.

    The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been working with Pure Storage FlashBlade for four years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    From a stability perspective, Pure Storage FlashBlade is very stable, and the technology is great, so I have no doubts about the product, stability-wise.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is a scalable solution, but it's less scalable than VAST Data.

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade has been getting worse. Previously, support was very good, but as Pure Storage grew as a business, the quality of support has worsened.

    As a partner, I serve the customers, and I deal with the Pure Storage FlashBlade support team a lot. In the past, an experienced engineer would be assigned immediately whenever I open a ticket. Nowadays, I deal more with level-one engineers, so issue resolution takes longer. The support team now takes up more time in terms of understanding the problem, so the quality of support for Pure Storage FlashBlade has worsened.

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

    I'm a new partner for VAST Data, and I don't have much experience with it yet, but I've used PureStorage FlashArray. I can't compare Pure Storage FlashBlade with PureStorage FlashArray, but I can say that Pure Storage FlashBlade is stable, strong, fast, and modern, and it's an enterprise-class object storage product.

    How was the initial setup?

    The deployment of Pure Storage FlashBlade took less than one day.

    What was our ROI?

    You can get ROI from Pure Storage FlashBlade, depending on the use case. The product has a specific ROI for fast restoration. Its ROI would also be different when you're using it for data management. For machine learning or AI purposes, you'll also get a different ROI from Pure Storage FlashBlade. As a backup solution, you can expect ROI from it in four years.

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

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I've evaluated VAST Data.

    What other advice do I have?

    I'm a partner of Pure Storage FlashBlade.

    My rating for Pure Storage FlashBlade is eight out of ten.

    My advice to anyone planning on using Pure Storage FlashBlade is that it's a very important storage solution, and I would especially recommend it for data management platforms. Pure Storage FlashBlade will serve you well when you need to make data decisions and when you want better performance. I would also recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade for business intelligence environments.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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    PeerSpot user
    Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Easy to set up, extremely scalable, and offers excellent performance
    Pros and Cons
    • "The onboarding and integrated monitoring tools are pretty good."
    • "The solution is expensive."

    What is our primary use case?

    It's just a file IO and we've used it for training AI systems. We also use it for network boot for a number of our diskless machines, and it's proven rock-solid on that front, as well.

    What is most valuable?

    The number one aspect of FlashBlade is performance. 

    The ability to move large amounts of data through a training array is pretty much unparalleled. 

    The scalability has been great.

    It's put together in such a way that it's very simple to configure and maintain. Things like data replication are easy to set up and monitor. 

    The onboarding and integrated monitoring tools are pretty good.

    What needs improvement?

    In our case, we are mostly performance-focused. We don't require a laundry list of features. It's sort of a double-edged sword, however. On one hand, the lack of all these features makes it a lot easier to configure and manage. Yet, if you need those features, it might be a negative. For us, it's elegant. 

    The solution is expensive. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is stable and offers very good performance overall. From a performance perspective, it's pretty impressive. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of this product has been amazing.  We have scaled out some of our FlashBlade environments to get numbers we couldn't come close to with other solutions.

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support has been good. We are satisfied with the level of support we have received.

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

    I've used a lot of technologies over the years from NetApp to Dell and others. This product is more or less in a class by itself when it comes to its performance and its scalability.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's simple to configure and maintain. A company shouldn't have any issues with it in general.

    We also have FlashArray and we have specialists that support each. The look and feel between the two platforms are similar. You can bounce between them fairly readily. I have the same administrator supporting the FlashBlades as I have to support the FlashArrays.

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

    It's a premium technology. The solution does not come cheap. It's pretty expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    For FlashBlade I'd probably rate it a ten out of ten as so far it has been amazing. 

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Platform Technologies Lead Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Excellent technical support, easy to maintain and install
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is very easy to use, and it is very fast."
    • "There is some room for new features related to authentication and integration with Kubernetes, and other solution using S3 Bucket."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Pure Storage FlashBlade for backups.

    What is most valuable?

    It's a very good product.

    It is very easy to use, and it is very fast.

    What needs improvement?

    The integration with S3 needs some improvement.

    There is some room for new features related to authentication and integration with Kubernetes, and other solution using S3 Bucket.

    What FlashBlade can do with S3 buckets needs to be improved. Other things, such as NFS, are simple to implement, but S3 can benefit from improvements.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using Pure Storage FlashBlade for three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I am totally satisfied with the stability of Pure Storage FlashBlade. It is very stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    At this time, we don't have plans to increase our usage.

    How are customer service and support?

    Technical support is great. The support is very fast.

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

    We are also using FlashArray.

    How was the initial setup?

    We have limited deployment of Flashblade.

    I was not present for the installation, but I believe that it is simple. I don't think that it is complex.

    One person is needed to deploy and maintain this solution.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We have evaluated various solutions and recently migrated from Dell EMC with the Cloud and Pure Storage Systems. The migration was done two years ago.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would highly recommend Pure Storage and FlashBlade in particular.

    I would rate Pure Storage FlashBlade a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Enrico Boseli - PeerSpot reviewer
    CTO at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Fantastic technical support, good product replication, and highly reliable
    Pros and Cons
    • "The main feature I have found to be product replication."
    • "There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

    What is our primary use case?

    This solution is mainly used in a very performance-sensitive environment for enterprise software storage.

    What is most valuable?

    The main feature I have found to be product replication.

    What needs improvement?

    There could be improvements in public cloud integration.

    In the future, one innovation could be for them to make an embedded backup system.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability of the solution is really impressive.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is possible, however, if they could make the process faster to the cloud it would be better.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The technical support is fantastic.

    How was the initial setup?

    The installation was extremely easy.

    What was our ROI?

    The fact that the solution is extremely stable and it works really great each dollar spent on this solution is worth it.

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

    The price of this solution could be made more affordable.

    What other advice do I have?

    My advice to those wanting to implement this solution is it can be very effective only in proper use cases, not in every use case.

    I rate Pure Storage FlashBlade an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Fresh Operations Manager at Jerónimo Martins
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Good performance with low latency, scalable, stable, and has good support
    Pros and Cons
    • "It performs well and it is also very fast."
    • "I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use this solution to interface the backup of the image and file management.

    What is most valuable?

    It performs well and it is also very fast.

    There is low latency.

    What needs improvement?

    I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabyte.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working with Pure Storage Flash for approximately three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    This is a stable solution. I have not had any issues with the stability of Pure Storage FlashBlade.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is very scalable.

    Currently, we have two customers who are using this solution.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is okay. There is no improvement needed.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward.

    It took approximately 20 minutes to deploy.

    What about the implementation team?

    We are integrators. We were able to implement this solution ourselves.

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

    It's expensive. The price should be reduced.

    Licensing fees are paid yearly.

    What other advice do I have?

    For those who are interested in using this solution, I would recommend it.

    I would rate Pure Storage FlashBlade a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
    PeerSpot user
    Red Hsu - PeerSpot reviewer
    Project Manager at Logicalis
    MSP
    Top 5
    Simple to install, with prompt and professional technical support
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable features of this solution are the rewrite speed and the nonstop services."
    • "It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release."

    What is our primary use case?

    I am a reseller.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features of this solution are the rewrite speed and the nonstop services.

    What needs improvement?

    It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working with Pure Storage FlashBlade for three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is very stable and very reliable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Pure Storage FlashBlade is very scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    Technical support responded very quickly, and they are very professional.

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

    We have always used NetApp FA Series. When compared with Pure Storage FlashBlade, I would recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade. It's easier to set up, easy to expand capacity, and very easy to upgrade.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward. It is very easy to set up.

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

    I feel that the price could always be lowered. It would be nice.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using this solution. It's good in machine learning and virtual machines.

    I would rate Pure Storage FlashBlade a nine out of ten.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Pure Storage FlashBlade Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: March 2023
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Pure Storage FlashBlade Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.