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IBM Storage FlashSystem

Score9.3 out of 10

311 Reviews and Ratings

What is IBM Storage FlashSystem?

IBM Storage FlashSystem, an all-flash storage array, delivers ~2 PB of effective capacity per single rack unit. Engineered with unique FlashCore Modules, it offloads data services including compression, encryption, deduplication, and ransomware threat detection ensuring optimum performance and resiliency.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of Flash Core Module 5th Gen
Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5600
Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5600 (rear)
Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 7600 and 9600
Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 7600 and 9600 (rear)

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Screenshot of Flash Core Module 5th Gen

Top Performing Features

  • Non-Intrusive Upgrades

    Software upgrades are often seamless with no performance tuning required

    Category average: 0

  • Flash Array Performance

    Solid state flash arrays offer high speed compared to hard-disk drives

    Category average: 0

  • Power Savings

    Flash arrays use significantly less power than hard-disk drives

    Category average: 0

Areas for Improvement

  • Data Compression

    Flash Arrays include compression and deduplication features to reduce storage requirements

    Category average: 0

  • Simplicity

    Flash arrays should be simple to use and require little training

    Category average: 0

  • Flash Array Integration

    Integration with hypervisors and applications

    Category average: 0

IBM Storage FlashSystem rules

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a business partner we use, sell and support the whole IBM Storage FlashSystem portfolio. We use them as a backend storage for SVC clusters or in pairs as HyperSwap Cluster or parts of the new IBM Storage FlashSystem Grid with PBHA or alternatively PBR. The IBM Storage FlashSystem as a product addresses reliability, accessibility and performance- as well as security issues of our customers. The customers are really satisfied with the products and love using them. Last but not least we are all happy about the price point of the IBM Storage FlashSystems.
This helps pretty much competing the systems of other vendors. Even if these are often not doing basic technical research and development like IBM does. But the pricepoint also counts. Thank you very much!

Pros

  • Extremely performant
  • extremely reliable
  • Very easy to set up and use
  • Good pricepoint
  • Tons of features.

Cons

  • GUI could be better in some points like menus are duplicated sometimes
  • CLI commands
  • Better translation in GUI for non English speakers

Return on Investment

  • Very reliable
  • Less power and climate performance consuming than e.g. netapp
  • very easy to service and operate
  • because of capacity and performance at a really good pricepoint, the ROI is achieved quite quick.

Alternatives Considered

NetApp ASA, Pure Storage FlashArray and Dell Unity XT Unified Storage

Other Software Used

IBM Spectrum Control, Db2, BNA, IBM Storage Insights

Usability

Fast and highly resilient

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have been using IBM Storage FlashSystem as our enterprise Data Centre where we store critical data which needs to be highly secured from cyber attacks and readily available as required. It has addressed multiple problems like slow performance, security/cyber breaches and relative high cost. Scope of use is high availability and big data processing.

Pros

  • Cyber and Ransomware Protection
  • High speed compression and processing
  • High availability and storage assurance

Cons

  • Missing authentication features like authentication fallback & inconsistent functionality of Single sign-on (SSO)
  • High cost for licensing and scaling
  • Complex installation and integration especially while troubleshooting

Return on Investment

  • IBM Storage FlashSystem has reduced our infrastructure cost with predictable pricing via storage assurance
  • It has protected our data against cyber attacks and disasters
  • Saved time via automation and high uptime

Alternatives Considered

Dell PowerMax NVMe

Other Software Used

Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, FortiAnalyzer, VMware vCenter

IBM Storage FlashSystem Review

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It addresses latency, capacity, and, most importantly, performance.

Pros

  • It works well with Oracle databases and the operating system.

Cons

  • It could be cooled a lot better. It gets very hot.

Return on Investment

  • I would say there’s a great return on investment for this product because of its resiliency, performance, and reduction in latency.

Other Software Used

IBM AIX

Usability

IBM Storage FlashSystem rocks

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am a consultant for IBM Power and IBM i. The IBM Storage FlashSystem is a great addition to IBM Power Systems in terms of performance and reliability. Customers who want more redundancy and high availability value IBM Storage FlashSystem. Whether it is just a small customer without any huge SAN configuration or a big customer with four or more IBM Storage FlashSystem in a cluster - the scaling is awesome. One can grow with it and this is why IBM Storage FlashSystems are suitable for almost every use case.

Pros

  • Management
  • Security features (like SGC)
  • Competitive pricing
  • Software support

Cons

  • A real replacement for HyperSwap (active/active-cluster)

Return on Investment

  • IBM Storage FlashSystems have increased uptime since we introduced a cluster of two systems
  • In a cluster, seamless software updates are possible without interruption

Alternatives Considered

IBM Spectrum Control, IBM Spectrum Virtualize, IBM DS8880F, StarWind Virtual Tape Library and HPE Alletra

Other Software Used

IBM PowerVM, IBM i, IBM Tape

Best tool for Agentic AI storage

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Storage FlashSystem provides excellent data reduction without performance loss reduce overall TCO, Interface is decent and IBM insights provides predict upcoming incidents to help reduce our downtimes. it also has great features like safeguard copy to keep a snapshot which helps in recover from incidents.

Pros

  • Provide cloud based monitoring
  • provides snapshot for incident recovery

Cons

  • Security

Return on Investment

  • Increase in overall ROI