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IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems) vs. SolidFire (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AIBM Storwize is a family of recognized all-flash and hybrid storage solutions designed to support the virtualization needs and application workloads of mid-sized enterprises.N/A

    SolidFire (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ANetApp acquired the scale-out flash storage startup SolidFire in late 2015. The product line was discontinued in October of 2023, and is no longer available from NetApp.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    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
    Community Pulse
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Enterprise Flash Array Storage
    Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems) and SolidFire (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)
    -
    Ratings
    SolidFire (discontinued)
    8.1
    3 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Flash Array Performance00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Flash Array Integration00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Data Compression00 Ratings8.83 Ratings
    Non-Intrusive Upgrades00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Simplicity00 Ratings6.43 Ratings
    Power Savings00 Ratings6.43 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    DiskStation
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    DiskStation
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    DiskStation
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Everpure FlashArray
    Score8.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (20 ratings)
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems)SolidFire (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    This stuff runs! Hot, cold not wet, but you know where your data is. Reliably in the cabinet turning your data for the next customer request. You need dedupe, get the flash drive models. Long archives with spinning disks can help with all the data modeling the analysts do. Keep up with the dba’s constant need for speed with all-flash! You will get what you pay for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Solidfire is a good, multi-purpose array for iSCSI environments. Grid architecture allows incremental, linear expansion of the array both in capacity and performance. The all-flash is a very high performance, low latency platform for a lot of applications. The way the company has architected the platform allows for continual upgrades and removes the lift-and-load replacements if you stay with Solidfire in the future. The Solidfire fiber channel implementation is workable, but largely there is a checkbox. I cannot imagine any fiber channel shop is going to look at a Solidfire seriously, unless they are looking to move towards Ethernet based transport. Write intensive workloads struggle on the array. The double-helix data protection combined with the architecture can make writes more latent than expected - well into the teens and 20's of ms within the array.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • Data processing and IO. The Storwize devices are very resilient in how they process data and do not have a drop in IO when errors occur (common errors such as disk failures and lost paths).
    • Storage efficiency management. We are able to use multiple efficiency techniques such as thin provisioning and data reduction to reduce our budget footprint.
    • Easy to use interfaces. Creating a volume and mapping to a host has proven to be a very easy process and makes onboarding less stressful for our team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Speed is incredible.
    • Ongoing maintenance is great.
    • Price point was quite good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • As a business partner looking to provide services to keep the uptime of the Storwize, I would like to have the capability to pull reports from IBM Storage Insights to assist my clients in managing their system through it's lifecycle.
    • More knowledge out there for partners to best integrate IBM Storwize with IBM Power i. This seems to be lacking in communication from IBM.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • API documentation could use some help
    • GUI can be slow
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    When we have had problems, the response on the Solidfire side has been strong, but not perfect. As they scale and integrate into NetApp, support from regions outside of the USA are having a more difficult time diagnosing and addressing issues for complex problems. The Boulder, CO, and Raleigh, NC, support teams are both extremely strong and provide top-notch support. ActiveIQ is a great support tool both for NetApp/Solidfire and for the customer. The proactive support tickets opened have been helpful. The node-based support has been excellent - meaning when we had a DIMM fail, they sent a replacement node - no time consuming troubleshooting of internal components to fix the issue. Upgrades are handled by SF technicians, so it feels white-glove
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    We looked at a Netgear product - Ready Stor 5200, which is a great device and a bit cheaper than the IBM Storwize. However, considering it does not have built-in resilience, has limited capacity in terms of network interfaces and is twice the size (4U), I would choose the Storwize any time. The only advantage the Netgear device has is its lower price, however, performance, reliability, and scalability are limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    SolidFire was chosen over these other service providers because of relationships we have with the company, with our reps, and with the local Denver presence. We also are a partner, and we felt that the solution stacked up technologically very well against the competition and was more cost effective.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • I would like to highlight the most positive aspect I have seen in the products of the IBM Storwize family, and it is the ROI that we can choose when we offer real-time compression with the IBM V7000 family. In truth, this feature is excellent, and we have seen how customers save storage resources, rack space, power and management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • The ROI was quick - under 1 year
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Storwize (now part of FlashSystems) Screenshots

    Product screenshot