Skip to main content
TrustRadius
IBM Storage FlashSystem

IBM Storage FlashSystem

Overview

What is IBM Storage FlashSystem?

IBM's FlashSystem is a flash array storage option.

Read more
Recent Reviews
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 6 features
  • Flash Array Performance (108)
    8.9
    89%
  • Simplicity (110)
    8.9
    89%
  • Flash Array Integration (109)
    8.3
    83%
  • Data Compression (107)
    8.3
    83%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Features

Enterprise Flash Array Storage

All-flash array storage is a solid state, high performance storage option.

8.6
Avg 9.1
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is IBM Storage FlashSystem?

IBM FlashSystem is an all-flash storage portfolio that promises the following benefits and capabilities:

Engineered to meet modern high-performance application requirements

Ultra-low latency, cost-effectiveness, operational efficiency, and mission-critical reliability are built in to every all-flash storage solution and all-flash array


A comprehensive all-flash storage portfolio

IBM is able to deliver all-flash solutions tailored to the user's storage environments and workloads. IBM financing and payment options are available.


Technology supported by guarantees

IBM states they guaratee endurance, performance and compression are guaranteed, and they offer extended support and maintenance

IBM Storage FlashSystem Features

  • Supported: FlashCore Modules
  • Supported: FCM inline compression
  • Supported: high performance deduplication

IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

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

IBM Storage FlashSystem Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

IBM's FlashSystem is a flash array storage option.

HPE Nimble Storage, Pure Storage FlashArray, and Dell PowerMax NVMe are common alternatives for IBM Storage FlashSystem.

Reviewers rate Flash Array Performance and Simplicity highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of IBM Storage FlashSystem are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(258)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is mainly targeted to cater to the needs of high-end IOs from different applications across the organization. Mainly focused on delivering mission-critical servers with low latency disk access. This helps us to reduce a significant amount of time while running jobs on various applications across different domains. The storage has been deployed to use across different divisions in the company.
  • Performance is the crucial element to be highlighted, as it delivers the best in class industry performance.
  • Guaranteed compression ratio, one of the leading in [the] industry we got a 2:1 guaranteed and it achieved as per the commitment.
  • Reliability is one of the main elements which works really well, even being a storewide family product it delivers [the] best reliability features.
  • [The] footprint is key, as it helped us to reduce our organization's 2 racks storage capacity into a 2U rack space.
  • Better GUI interface
  • Currently, [the] performance of FS7200 can't be monitored through TPC/SC, this should be considered to include in [the] future.
  • IBM primarily lacks in designing its products physical looks, should have designed more intrusive and attractive design. A first impression of the product creates [an] impressive opinion.
Well suited: 1. High-end applications, especially in banking or core oil-related applications where latency is the key in delivering optimal results 2. It addresses the needs of [a] large footprint in the datacenter, even an SME can manage the physical capacity in a limited IT space. Less appropriate: 1. There should be a cost-effective version of Flash in [the] IBM portfolio, which helps SMB to consider/opt within their budget. 2. Marketing, as the product has not been widely marketed by IBM. This is one of the areas which needs improvement.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
91.66666666666666%
9.2
Flash Array Performance
100%
10.0
Flash Array Integration
80%
8.0
Data Compression
100%
10.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
100%
10.0
Simplicity
70%
7.0
Power Savings
100%
10.0
  • There is a significant improvement for OLTP applications.
  • Jobs run/execution time reduced by around 70%.
  • Saving significant amount of cost in cooling and power.
  • Savings on spending management/administration cost, as the product is straightforward to maintain with in-house engineers.
One of the best-in-class storage systems in recent times, optimal in delivering state-of-the-art performance for mission-critical business applications and crucial OLTP transactions. In addition, one of the key USP of IBM Flash storage is its guaranteed compression ratio which IBM promises and if it is not achieved it will offer customers free storage. Lastly, flash array works with blazing speed with very low latency (in nano second).
The same storage is optimal to use in on-premises and compatible with the cloud vendors. This will be a win-win for the clients who have plans to move/host the data in the cloud. Due to the extreme IO-intensive storage capabilities, customers are mainly focusing to use in mission-critical applications directly hosted on the storage.
5000
Mainly core applications such as internal employee payroll, [a] crucial oil-related application which is primarily used for exploration, the discovery of oil using seismic data.
2
Majorly managed/administered by skilled staff who are trained on Storage/SAN technologies and have [been] hands-on for quite some time. But this particular model can be managed by a staff intermediate skill on storage/SAN.
  • OLTP Applications
  • Oil discovery
  • Seismic data analysis
  • In-house applications
  • N/A
  • Planning to use as staging space to [speed up] the backups as the environment is already equipped with high-speed data transfer from servers to storage.
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.
Yes
We had replaced our current portfolio of Flash Storage 820 with a unified [IBM FlashSystem] 7200, main reason is to consolidate the environment and reduce the footprint. Secondly, to reduce the cost and unify all the storage arrays/small xylos into a single and robust environment. Lastly, maintenance cost is the key in choosing [IBM FlashSystem] 7200 over smalled FS820 arrays.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
Mainly we are focused on product stability/robustness along with price factor and support are the key metrics in opting for [IBM FlashSystem] 7200 over other peers in the market.
If I get an opportunity to re-evaluate, I consider including the compression feature as the key parameter. I feel IBM products are lacking in offering compression ratio compared to peers in the market.
  • Implemented in-house
  • Third-party professional services
One of the leading partner of IBM and sole distributor helped us to build our storage flash portfolio
No
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation
There is nothing specific, as its a regular device replacement or addition of new hardware to the storage portfolio
  • No significant issues, its a smooth process
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.
support will be provided by local Business Partner, due to the regional constraints
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.
No
When we had a fire suppression incident, we lost most of the hardware components. IBM support taken it as a challenge and supported us through out the crisis and helped us to come out of the catastrophic situation
  • compression is in build due to the usage of FCM modules, this is seamless to the user but a prominent feature to be highlighted
  • seamless data migration/copy across Flash array
  • GUI should have better interface
No
Leonardo Molinares Meza | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
The FlashSystem 7200 storage is being used as a storage repository for all the organization's information systems. The system, thanks to Flash technology and storage saving functionalities, has allowed us to streamline and accelerate different business processes that previously had latency problems, additionally and thanks to compression functionalities, it allows the ROI of the equipment to be maximized.
  • Speed.
  • Availability.
  • Storage Optimization.
  • Integration with VMware.
  • Greater capacity of compressed volumes.
  • Expand the capacity of volumes with flashcopy.
  • Advanced SAS connectivity.
In scenarios supported by IBM, the system presents great performance capacity and together with the compression functionalities, it adds storage optimization. The number of interfaces, especially the Fiber Channel, allow us to implement a large number of disk arms, which results in higher platform performance. So far I cannot find scenarios where the equipment has problems.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
88.33333333333334%
8.8
Flash Array Performance
100%
10.0
Flash Array Integration
80%
8.0
Data Compression
90%
9.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
70%
7.0
Simplicity
100%
10.0
Power Savings
90%
9.0
  • Thanks to the lower investment in storage units, ROI is maximized.
  • Flash technology based on NVMe, allows more operations to be carried out in the same unit of time.
  • Performance reduces waiting times associated with information systems.
The adoption of FlashSystem systems is due to the already understood capabilities of IBM storage systems and their constant evolution, presenting more and more improvements in capacity, performance, technology. Previously we used Storwize V7000 Storage systems and the change has been made due to the obsolescence of the previous platform.
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
The experience of IBM deliver high grade of trust about adquired technology. Features such as compression and NVMe technology represent a high degree of peace of mind associated with the fact that the return of inversion (ROI) is guaranteed. Additionally, the degree of experience of out collaborators is very close to IBM technology and architecture.
I would not change anything. we are happy with our evaluation and selection standards. The metrics we evaluate give us peace of mind that we are evaluating all the important aspects associated with our IT area.
June 19, 2021

IBM tech

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
I've been working with the IBM FlashSystem 5000 family and four different IBM partners in Egypt for the last 10 years. I am very interested in continue using IBM Storage systems and I install them onto many customers' computers. It's one of the best.
  • High availability
  • Flash copy services
  • Simple management
  • High performance
  • Fixability
  • Stability
  • Extend pool with a single disk
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
100%
10.0
Flash Array Performance
100%
10.0
Flash Array Integration
100%
10.0
Data Compression
100%
10.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
100%
10.0
Simplicity
100%
10.0
Power Savings
100%
10.0
  • it improve small and medium customer performance
IBM FlashSystem 5000 helps us meet customer workload requirements. budgets, and space footprints for small sites. In addition, it improves our environmental performance and flash copy services making our backups more fixable
4
Sales
Pre-sales
Technical
1
IBM Storage hardware technical engineer
  • SAP
  • ESXI
  • Exchange
  • IBM Partner
  • Resellers
  • Partners
  • Other vendors replacement
  • Old storage system replacement
Simplicity and fixability.
Yes
HP 3par
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
high technology
the same
No

budget
fixability ability and Performance
No
no
Yes
very easy
  • online
  • high available
  • loadblance
  • fix issues
  • more performace
Yes
7200
9200
Yes
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as out backbone storage solution, it addresses all the IBM Power environments we currently have and the VMware vSphere infrastructure at our organization, it's been rock solid to say the least, never break a sweat on supporting all our infra, so I personally think is the best core component we have as of today.
  • IT supports all the VMware Infrastructure we have.
  • It's the backbone for our IBM's power business.
  • We use it for our backup repository.
  • Getting spares sometimes it's very expensive.
  • Backup batteries sometimes have swell.
  • If you don't have a support contract you're so out of luck.
It could become your backbone storage component of any sized company, really need to look for the expandability first since it gets expensive when buying separately, look for Lenovo offer since they could offer you better deals than IBM sometimes, but overall you'll be satisfied with the product when deploying it.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
85%
8.5
Flash Array Performance
100%
10.0
Flash Array Integration
80%
8.0
Data Compression
80%
8.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
70%
7.0
Simplicity
80%
8.0
Power Savings
100%
10.0
  • It's expensive but well worth it.
  • The ROI is one its best perks.
  • The learning curve could be annoying for some.
  • Speed really is another perk in this case.
  • Multi environment integration is something that I love about it.
Well, it definitely stacks up with product robustness, effective deployment, seamless integration, all of these I noted when we deploy it and have been running from the ground up since we're an IBM shop for the last 15 years so we have a bit of experience with this product, we use it at our core storage solutions, therefore I can only have very goods thoughts about it.
50
From the company director board to the receptionist, our core storage relies on the V7200, from email, virtual infrastructure, replication, backups, bulk storage, all runs within the IBM's Storwize product line, so pretty much we rely on this amazing line of products, the V7200 does the VMs and IBM Power LPAR mostly but it also helps to use its flash capabilities for caching data on replication.
6
Well we all have different skills sets, from vSphere admins to IBM's Power and Storage specialists, but all of us know how to operate the V7200 and V7000 administration consoles in case of failure, upgrade or just monitoring, like I mentioned we're an IBM shop so it's a must to fulfill all the requirements to easily upgrade and maintain these kind of storage arrays.
  • Virtual infrastructure.
  • LPAR Storage.
  • Replication caching storage.
  • Replication using little flash arrays with Veeam.
  • Speeding up virtual infra.
  • Ease of use from the previous generation (V7000).
  • We're in ways of expanding it for more bulk storage.
  • Cloud offline backup.
Definitely, it's so robust and effective that we definitely will be expanding it in the near future.
No
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
I would not, we would choose IBM FlashSystem lineup in this case V7200, it is very stable for our use case.
Not Available
It is just IBM, it is pretty good
No
Not really, well we have not gotten to that point just yet, sorry.
Return to navigation