Item: IBM Storage FlashSystem
Rating: 10
Author: John Raines

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Storage FlashSystem

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use IBM FlashSystem as our Primary Data Storage, Backup Storage, and VDI Storage. We started with VDI Storage and the performance has been incredible, not only from the latency of the FlashCore Modules but also how the boxes are able to scale and interconnect. Once we saw the success with our VDI we implemented for Backup and then finally our Primary storage. With our Primary Storage setting up DR was very straight forward. Additionally, the safeguarded snapshots are a great way to have immutability and reduce RPO. The units are also available in multiple configurations so you can adjust based on your cost, scale and performance requirements.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Low Latency high performance storage.
Scalable storage that is easy to configure
DR Setup and Secure Snapshots
FlashSystem Grid, You can move volumes between different hardware based on needs.

Cons

I think the biggest area of improvement would be UI, once you use them you get used to them, but there can be certain functions that aren't as straight forward as they could be.
Firmware updates, Fix Central is great but is unnecessarily cumbersome, I would prefer the ability to easily update the firmware via IBM insights or for the unit itself.
Insights pro should be included with all systems.
I would like to see other options for maintenance/warranty and ability to bundle systems.

Return on Investment

Overall positive impacts, the cost of ownership is relatively low compared to other similar products.
The system was pretty quick and straight forward to setup.
Support is typically very responsive and replacement parts are quick to get to you when/if needed.
Uptime has been phenomenal and systems are very stable.

Most Valuable Capabilities

Performance and Scalability. FlashCore Modules are very impressive, sub millisecond latency, hardware compression, and straightforward interfaces. FlashSystem Grid is a game changer and I am interested to see how it matures. You can very easily get petabytes of storage and have straight forward migration process from system to system.

Achievements Enabled

Easily scale and provide more performance to our end users than we thought possible. We can plan much further in the future as IBM is great about long-term support and is slow to deprecate older units.

Alternatives Considered

Dell EqualLogic PS Series, Dell Compellent (discontinued), HPE Nimble Storage, Nutanix Unified Storage and Dell PowerStore

IBM was faster, more cost effective, and more flexible.

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Storage FlashSystem delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Storage FlashSystem's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Storage FlashSystem live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Storage FlashSystem go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Storage FlashSystem again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Citrix DaaS, XenServer

Likelihood to Recommend

If you need highly performant storage, this is as good as it gets. There is a bit of fanagling required if you are using copper, a lot of this is geared towards fiber channel. They are making more features available for ethernet use cases but sometimes it is a little less straightforward. Setting up replication, DR, FlashSystem Grid, etc is pretty straightforward and adapting the units into an existing environment is a lot less painful than previous storage we have used.

IBM Storage FlashSystem Feature Ratings

Comments

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IBM FlashSystem - Fantastic Highly Performant Storage

Modules Used