Whether they call it the V5000E or FlashSystem 5000, it's a great balance of performance and cost that is extremely hard to ignore
December 12, 2020
Whether they call it the V5000E or FlashSystem 5000, it's a great balance of performance and cost that is extremely hard to ignore
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- IBM Flashsystem 5000
Overall Satisfaction with IBM FlashSystem
We purchased 3 Storwize V5030E arrays over the last 2 years. It is servicing everything from our core ERP system to bulk file and backup storage. The biggest differentiator for us is the ability to connect the IBM S914 Power9 platform and run IBMi on external storage at a reasonable cost. This greatly increases our flexibility to back up and clone our production environment without it being a major event.
- IBMi Support.
- Inexpensive, performant all flash storage.
- Good call home / proactive support.
- Inability to add to storage to existing pools without destroying them first.
- Detailed statistics on volume usage disappear when utilizing space saving options such as deduplication and compression.
- We experienced a large uptick in orders during the pandemic due to suppliers changing to drop ship. This array helped us ensure that any ERP issues were simply not an issue related to storage, unlike our prior IBMi systems with DAS.
- The cost difference versus the V7000 platform (which we also have) made it possible for us to acquire dedicated arrays for specific purposes, versus buying larger shared arrays and risking "noisy neighbor" performance issues.
- We were able to significantly upgrade storage capacity and performance on our backups, compared to 3rd party maintenance options on our old backup array, with minimal cost increase (comparing 3 years of maintenance vs 36 month lease).
- IBM FlashSystem 7200 (formerly Storwize V7000)
Having both the V5K and V7K, I can't see purchasing another V7K array. The V5000 has held it's own against the V7000, even when enabling features like deduplication that we had to leave off of the V7K for a variety of reasons. It's the same software, and essentially the same hardware, for a lot less money.