Pure Storage Flash Array, the Only Storage you will Need!
Updated May 28, 2020

Pure Storage Flash Array, the Only Storage you will Need!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Pure Storage FlashArray

Pure Storage has replaced our entire NetApp Storage Infrastructure. We have used Pure Storage in all of our use case scenarios. VMware, SQL, Oracle, and even file servers. This storage expands across our whole organization and it satisfies all of our previous issues we used to have such as IO issues and also encryption. Pure Storage is encrypted by default at rest and this was a huge benefit for all the audits we go through.
  • Ease of installation – The Pure system was by far 10x easier to setup/configure and begin to use than our NetApp devices were
  • Simplicity – The GUI of PureStorage is by far the simplest storage solution I have had to manage in my 10 years of IT. This makes is really simple to create and provision storage to any host.
  • Better Data Reduction – Compared to our NetApp it uses 4k block sizes, while our Pure implements a variable block size for data reductions, yielding better results. With the combination of deduplication and compression we are currently getting a 4.3 to 1 ratio with our data! This is compared to our NetApp which we were only able to get about 1.5 data reduction ratio since It wasn’t recommended to do both deduplication and compression with the NetApp due to overhead on the controllers. We have provisioned 18 TB of data on our Pure storage and are only using 3.20 TB with the rates were getting with Pure. This is amazing and we are only at 50% disk utilization.
  • Upgrades – When updating the software with NetApp it is a pain staking process since you have several components to update (Controllers, Hard Drives, RLM, Shelves, etc.). During the upgrades you also have to bring your CPU and disk utilization down to 50% before you can perform the upgrades. This forces us to shut down servers to decrease the utilization. The Pure makes it so simple since the technical support teams schedule the upgrades with us and then do them for us! This requires no shutting down of servers and also we will never lose any performance on the controllers during an upgrade.
  • Performance – This is the key to the Pure storage since they offer 100,000 IOPS as opposed to our NetApp which was barely getting a maximum of 7,000 IOPS. Also NetApp was unable to retain performance during an upgrade or failure of a drive compared to Pure which retains performance period!
  • Customer Support – During the times that I have had to call support they have responded and resolved things very quickly compared to NetApp.
  • Evergreen Model – This was a huge sales point and a great advantage to our team since we normally always refresh our systems every 3 to 4 years. The Evergreen model now makes this process painless to our department.
  • Security – Pure offers us by default an encrypted “at rest” volume compared to NetApp which has no such feature. This was huge for us to meet certain security requirements for compliance.
  • Rack Space – This Pure storage solution is a no brainer when it comes to rack space. We will be saving almost a full rack of space once we have fully migrated over to our new M-series which will save us money!
  • Metrics – Pure has built in to the console analysis metrics that you can obtain quickly to monitor and troubleshoot compared to NetApp which you have to build a separate server to configure and license! It’s a no brainer!
  • I honestly can't think of anything. I love Pure Storage!
  • SQL Performance is off the charts. No delays like we used to have with NetApp.
  • Oracle Performance is off the charts. No delays like we used to have with NetApp.
  • VM Performance is off the charts. No delays like we used to have with NetApp.
When updating the software with NetApp it is a pain staking process since you have several components to update (Controllers, Hard Drives, RLM, Shelves, etc.). During the upgrades you also have to bring your CPU and disk utilization down to 50% before you can perform the upgrades. This forces us to shut down servers to decrease the utilization. Pure Storage makes it so simple since the technical support teams schedule the upgrades with us and then do them for us! This requires no shutting down of servers and also we will never lose any performance on the controllers during an upgrade.
Pure Storage shines in the area of virtualization. An all-flash array helps database servers perform at a very high rate and if you deploy Pure Storage in a VMware environment, you can expect to see the deduplication and compression ratios off the charts! Many of us run hundreds of VMs with the same OS and due to this, the ratio of space that you save becomes worth it.

An example where you probably would not want to implement Pure Storage FlashArray is in an unstructured data environment. For this, you would use another product they have called Flash Blade.

Pure Storage FlashArray Feature Ratings

Flash Array Performance
10
Flash Array Integration
10
Data Compression
10
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
10
Simplicity
10
Power Savings
10

Simplicity

Pure Storage FlashArray Support

This is one of the best things about Pure Storage. Their support team responds in minutes when you submit a support request and they have the ability to remote into your array with you clicking on the remote feature. They have fixed any issue I ever had during the same business day but the best thing about their support is that they do all the upgrades for you! No more planning and implementing the upgrades yourself, just sit back and relax.