Cisco UCS Manager vs. IBM Storage FlashSystem

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco UCS Manager
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Cisco UCS Manager supports the entire Cisco UCS server and Cisco HyperFlex Series hyperconverged infrastructure portfolios. It enables server, fabric, and storage provisioning as well as, device discovery, inventory, configuration, diagnostics, monitoring, fault detection, auditing, and statistics collection.N/A
IBM Storage FlashSystem
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM's FlashSystem is a flash array storage option.N/A
Pricing
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Enterprise Flash Array Storage
Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Product A and Product B
Cisco UCS Manager
-
Ratings
IBM Storage FlashSystem
8.6
111 Ratings
6% below category average
Flash Array Performance00 Ratings8.9108 Ratings
Flash Array Integration00 Ratings8.3109 Ratings
Data Compression00 Ratings8.3107 Ratings
Non-Intrusive Upgrades00 Ratings8.3103 Ratings
Simplicity00 Ratings8.9110 Ratings
Power Savings00 Ratings8.8106 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Small Businesses
Cyberduck
Cyberduck
Score 8.5 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
AWS Storage Gateway
AWS Storage Gateway
Score 8.7 out of 10
Pure Storage FlashArray
Pure Storage FlashArray
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)
Score 9.9 out of 10
Dell VMAX
Dell VMAX
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(22 ratings)
8.9
(122 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(5 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco UCS ManagerIBM Storage FlashSystem
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
It [Cisco UCS Manager] is extremely well suited to large virtual infrastructure environments with resource dense blades. This solution is also great if you want to consolidate a large number of servers (if they are servers that need to stay physical, but can fit in the profile of a blade) - this would reduce data center space utilization as well as power and cooling. Cisco UCS Manager is also great if you're looking for centralized management of a larger number of servers. This would not be a great solution if you have a very small shop - it's not cheap and probably wouldn't give you a ROI if you only have a couple dozen servers total. I'd say it would be overkill for small shops, but if you have the money and don't care, you'll still like it.
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IBM
For environments where high IO and read writes are performed the flash storage is very well suited . We also use this for another customer as a back end storage for high performance backups where we run multi stream data writes to it via 100G interface.
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Pros
Cisco
  • It is very all inclusive for management of every part our our Cisco blade center.
  • It allows us to directly connect to a hardware-based server in the blade center as though we were physically at the console.
  • It allows us to monitor the entire system for faults.
  • It lets us manage connectivity.
  • It is set to alert us via email if a fault occurs.
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IBM
  • Cyber resilience with the new functionality of immutable copies called sfaguarded copies
  • With the IBM FlashCore modules it allows us to have good levels of online compression of the information, besides that it is a hardware compression that would not affect the performance of the equipment
  • the virtualization of other storages that can be IBM or other brands
  • binary replication works great
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Cons
Cisco
  • Automation: There is a simple power-shell CMD lets, but it leaves more to be desired.
  • Navigation: Navigating the interface can be confusing.
  • Integration: Integration with ESXi hosts while doing FW upgrades would be hugely beneficial without the need for additional tools.
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IBM
  • Drive firmware updates are a bit clunky, the update files have to be sourced manually
  • IBM has separate storage monitoring you need to set up to get good historical statistics.
  • If you need 8 16Gb ports you will not be able to expand with a SAS connector.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
No answers on this topic
IBM
As flash technology evolves rapidly, vendors should [adapt] to the changes and onboard them in their products. IBM is a bit slow in adopting advanced technology in [its] portfolio. Even though the current product is good, my decision is purely based on how the transformation of the product [is] being produced and supplied to [the] end-user.
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Usability
Cisco
No answers on this topic
IBM
The low latency for best performance and improve productivity. This is very much suitable for all the usecases where data intensive processing need to be performed. The administration is very easy and logical. It helps to run the infrastructure at optimial cost and optimal performance. It offers great deal of virtualisation featurs and they are indeed very much powerful.
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Performance
Cisco
No answers on this topic
IBM
Even though the model is suited towards smaller or medium sized businesses, the speeds and performances seen via our benchmarks exceeded any requirements we initially had. The setup was quite simple and the additional features such as allowing for better hyrbid storage and containerization has improved the backend performance of our company immensely.
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Support Rating
Cisco
Cisco UCSM Support has been very quick to reply and address our concerns, issues, and questions. We have found that Cisco's documentation is clear and concise and fairly easy to find. With Cisco support's help, we are able to quickly and safely meet the demands of our end-users, consistently.
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IBM
IBM support ecosystem is robust and well organized, due to the advent of Watson based case management system IBM offers a decent support system for the customers and the users of its products.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
No answers on this topic
IBM
I was amazed by the way IBM Flash storage provides a huge amount of storage within the limited footprint, it helped us to replace big fat storage arrays, which aided in the process of moving towards lower hardware, carbon, and energy consumption footprint. We can comfortably say that Flash helped us to host applications fast with a blazing speed and user transactions are quite quick.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
I think UCS Manager would be able very comparable to other vendors offerings when it comes to server configuration. I think Cisco did a good job in giving you full access to many options that you might not see with Dell or HPE. Every manufacturer would need a similar tool to control their server environment, but I think what Cisco has built into their Manager is a little better than others I've used. You can just see and change so many settings. I would say that is also a bit of a negative by a little bit because sometimes it is hard to dig in and find what you need to change and often might need to reach out to TAC or take a training course to understand all of the interface.
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IBM
For the past six months, we have been utilizing this technology in our projects to manage a massive workload and produce swift business outcomes on a crucial production database. The IBM FlashSystem 7200, which offers high performance and compression, has so far been a great experience for us. The results and functionality of this product have delighted our consumers.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • The positive is I was able to consolidate my small server infrastructure from 3 racks to one rack giving me space back and much power savings
  • The negative would be it could feel a little daunting to manage as there are many tabs and pieces to the interface.
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IBM
  • Flash System 5000 Built on a software foundation that delivers a 359% ROI.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 Gain the highest levels of availability to support mission-critical applications.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 benefits from [the] integration of modern data protection and rich cyber resiliency features.
  • IBM Flash System 5000 Enhance storage efficiency.
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ScreenShots

IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

Screenshot of IBM-FS-900Screenshot of FlashSystem V9000Screenshot of IBM FlashSystemScreenshot of FlashSystem A9000