Item: Pure Storage FlashArray
Rating: 10
Author: Carl van Eijk

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Pure Storage FlashArrays to underpin our virtual infrastructure and intrusion detection systems. In the high-end Mayfair gaming world latency is the enemy. Our customers demand a level of service that requires instantaneous results.

Our business purpose is to remain the market leader in Mayfair and the UK.

Simply put, Pure Storage FlashArrays help enable that.

Pros and Cons

It just works.
And works.
It's rock solid.
What initially sold me on it, during our POC, our sales engineer said we should test failures to data and power! That we did! We live pulled all the plugs and cables and moved the flash array to another rack and reconnected everything. Our test virtual infrastructure, having paused for the duration, just continued where it left off 5 minutes earlier, as if nothing had happened.
0 downtime or issues in 3 years, including several major software revision updates.
It's fast. Fast enough run all of our virtual infrastructures and Intrusion Detection System writes for our entire network without missing a beat
It's simple. Having set up many storage systems in the past, I was blown away by how plug and play it was.

None

Return on Investment

No downtime due to storage
Databases return results quicker, enabling a better customer experience
Our intrusion detection system gives us real-time results

Support Rating

Every experience with the Pure support team has been exceptional. The remote support tunnel makes it easy for any engineer to assist quickly. Every engineer has been knowledgeable, friendly and professional. Software updates have been performed during whatever window we choose, with zero interruption of service. I don't have a single criticism.

Alternatives Considered

EMC VNX, Nexsan SASBeast, Nexsan SATABeast, Tintri and VMware vSAN

During our POC against Tintri, our sales engineer said we should test failures to data and power! That we did! We live pulled all the plugs and cables and moved the Flash Array to another rack and reconnected everything. Our test virtual infrastructure, having paused for the duration, just continued where it left off 5 minutes earlier, as if nothing had happened.
None of the others are in the same game, let alone the same league as Pure when it comes to performance, support , features and stability.
EMX was a licensing nightmare! With Pure, you get all the features unlocked and useable.

Likelihood to Recommend

Pure Storage FlashArray is perfect for databases, intrusion detection systems, network monitoring, SIEM, VDI, and virtual infrastructure.

Although Pure Storage FlashArray is also well suited for IDS(PCAPs), video and graphic design, the cost per GB is high due to the deduplication not performing optimally.

Why be duped by others, when you can be de-duped by Pure

Overall Satisfaction with Pure Storage FlashArray