Overall Satisfaction with Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage is used by the entire organization to host Microsoft SQL Server 2019 database as well as hosting multiple VM's. Pure Storage is extremely efficient for fast database OTLP & OLAP processing. Data duplication allows us to host many copies of the database and duplicate VM's for production, testing and development. Pure Storage has completely changed and improved our entire development. Things that used to take hours and days have turned into seconds and minutes.
- Data compression and data duplication.
- FAST FAST FAST and reliable It just works!
- Customer support is #1. We have never had a vendor better than Pure Storage.
- EASY EASY EASY It just works! Stupid simple and easy to configure and manage.
- Love to see the price come down. We want more units for data replication.
- More details on the mobile app.
- More support for Hyper-V.
- [Pure Storage has turned] days and hours into seconds and minutes. We are dramatically more productive from development to servicing our clients.
- Consistent costs.
- No down time for upgrades and maintenance.
We reviewed Dell EMC and said no because of spin drives, hard upgrades. NetApp was not easy enough to use.
Pure Storage was easy of use, had reliability, evergreen, and we got much more in productivity than we could even imagine at the time.
Pure Storage was easy of use, had reliability, evergreen, and we got much more in productivity than we could even imagine at the time.
Pure Storage FlashArray Feature Ratings
Upgrading Pure Storage FlashArray
Yes - Upgrade process was easy easy easy. Zero down time or slowness. Pure support did it all. We have performed firmware upgrades, controller upgrades, model upgrades (/M to /X), storage shelf additions, drive swaps (SAS to NVME) and storage pack increases, drive replacements, and NVRAM module swaps . Never had a single performance issue ever.
- Storage size increase and speed with SAS to NVME
- Even more performance from /M to /X series
- Even more speed
Simplicity
Using Pure Storage FlashArray
105 - Database use from processing, accounting, customer service, end user access
2 - Only need 1 but have two for backup. Maintenance is simple and mostly hands off. Mainly just check if their are new firmware versions, if so we schedule Pure to do the upgrade. Extremely easy, simple, and reliable.
- Reliablity
- Speed
- Easy of use
- Easy to create test environments for developers.
- Cloud replication
Do you think Pure Storage FlashArray delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Pure Storage FlashArray's feature set?
Yes
Did Pure Storage FlashArray live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Pure Storage FlashArray go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Pure Storage FlashArray again?
Yes
Evaluating Pure Storage FlashArray and Competitors
Yes - DELL PowerVault MD's
No more spin drives
More speed
More reliably
No more big "upgrade" cycles and down times
No more spin drives
More speed
More reliably
No more big "upgrade" cycles and down times
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
We needed speed and reliability. Pure seemed more expensive than we wanted to pay but we have received much more than we expected.
Data reduction and compression have been much higher than we expected.
Snapshot feature and the ability to mount snapshots in seconds has changed the way we develop and increased the speed our product development.
Simple simple simple. We have time to deal with other IT issues and never worry about storage.
Data reduction and compression have been much higher than we expected.
Snapshot feature and the ability to mount snapshots in seconds has changed the way we develop and increased the speed our product development.
Simple simple simple. We have time to deal with other IT issues and never worry about storage.
Don't focus only "replacement" cost only. Look at other costs that will be reduced such as storage maintenance, down time. Look at things that will increase: Performance, productivity, reliability. You will sleep better knowing Pure will be up and running everyday.
Pure Storage FlashArray Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - Just have Pure do it and there are no issues.
- None once we had experienced support doing a firmware upgrade, we never worried again about any updates and upgrades.
Pure Storage FlashArray Training
- Online training
- in-person training
- no training
In many cases we didn't need any training. The GUI was very simple to use. In some cases we would attend a user group and some new thing was reviewed. We would then go back and look at it ourselves and figure out how to do what we needed very easily.
Configuring Pure Storage FlashArray
If you are setting up VM's and SQL review Pure's best practices articles. Easy and clear instructions how to configure for best performance and reliability.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
We haven't had the need to for any customization, everything we needed has been in the box already.
Pure Storage FlashArray Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes, Gold support for new controllers when we want to renew them and to stay current with the latest technology improvements.
Late at night we got an alert that a drive was predicted to go bad. We didn't even have to call support, a replacement drive was already in our hands that morning. We swapped out the drive expecting it to take some time to fully rebuild. The rebuild was done in under a minute. Zero down time, zero slowness.
Using Pure Storage FlashArray
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Creating volumes
- Mounting and organizing volumes
- Taking snapshots, mounting them and using them.
- Swapping drives
- Upgrading the firmware - Pure does it and reviews any potential issues
- Maintenance basically none
- None so far
Yes - Simple metrics, you don't get lost in information overload.
Pure Storage FlashArray Reliability
Integrating Pure Storage FlashArray
- Veeam
Easy
- Cohesity
Yes
Pure is always simple and easy
Relationship with Pure Storage
Pricing and timing of delivery. Delivery ending up being weeks faster than we both expected making implementation so much easier.
Be honest on your needs and exactly what you want to use the product for. Ask lots of questions, especially if you have different growth options in the future so you can get the best product to fit your needs now and in the future.