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5 years with Pure Storage FlashArray
Updated March 25, 2021

5 years with Pure Storage FlashArray

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

Overall Satisfaction with Pure Storage FlashArray

We originally started using Pure Storage FlashArray for our VDI workload. We have subsequently expanded usage to include general virtualization workloads. This has been a perfect storage platform for fast disk with data that can be deduplicated and compressed. In our VDI environment, we are seeing better than 7:1 data reduction, and for our other use cases we are seeing 5:1 or better.
  • Simple management
  • Dedupe and compression
  • Snapshot replication
  • Display of different data reduction rates can be confusing and could be noted better in the interface
  • Pure doesn't have an easy way to note who at the customer is responsible for management/maintenance of different units under the same overall account
  • The level of data reduction that we saw with our VDI workloads exceeded expectations and brought down the per/GB cost of the disk even lower than anticipated, resulting in greater cost savings over our previous storage solution.
  • Better visibility to our workload in terms of performance, growth, etc.
  • Evergreen controller upgrade was performed with zero downtime and extended the useful life of our system.
We initially evaluated NetApp EF-series and EMC XtremeIO arrays against the Pure FlashArray. The NetApp array was low cost but lacked many of the features of the other two arrays. XtremeIO was more expensive than the Pure FlashArray solution, did not perform as well on data reduction, and required additional components to match some of the Pure features.
Well suited to workloads that require fast Flash storage and that can support a reasonable level of deduplication and compression. Most cost-effective when the workload supports data reduction. Data that cannot be deduplicated and/or compressed may not be as good a fit as it increases the cost of the storage.

Pure Storage FlashArray Feature Ratings

Enterprise Flash Array Storage
9.5
Flash Array Performance
10
Flash Array Integration
9
Data Compression
9
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
10
Simplicity
10
Power Savings
9

Upgrading Pure Storage FlashArray

Yes - Upgrade was completed with no downtime and no performance impact, although out of an abundance of caution we did this off-hours. Pure support always checks the environment prior to upgrading to ensure all paths are active and everything looks good prior to starting.
  • Move to a supported release, as the release we had been on was going EOL
  • Latest bug and security fixes
  • Continued improvement in performance, integration with VMware, etc.

Simplicity

Using Pure Storage FlashArray

25 - Direct users of the flash array are IT storage, virtualization, and monitoring teams to different extents. The arrays support around 3000 Citrix Apps and Desktop users as well as significant revenue-generating systems.
5 - We have 5 dedicated storage engineers who support the Pure arrays in addition to supporting a number of other storage systems. However, in terms of effort, the Pure arrays take less support than any of our other platforms, probably on the order of an hour or two a week.
  • VDI
  • Production rendering systems
  • Data Warehouse
  • General virtualization
  • Splunk
  • Database
Arrays have been rock solid, support is fantastic, and the evergreen option lets us make the most out of our initial investment.

Pure Storage FlashArray Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None