Item: Pure Storage FlashArray
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Pure Storage FlashArray

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Pure Storage FlashArray is the primary storage platform for our VMware virtualized environment. We use it to host all of our storage needs, from test workstations to our primary databases. The flexibility of the platform along with its ease of use made it an easy decision. Utilizing native replication to an array at our secondary site makes disaster recovery effortless.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Simple interface
Excellent security (with SafeMode)
Ease of use

Cons

Slightly more flexible upgrade options
Better options to watch "behind the scenes" operations
Available software upgrade notifications

Return on Investment

+ Quickly able to provision storage to end users
+ Simple integrations steps when adding new hosts into the environment
- Overall cost compared to other vendors is slightly higher

Usability

From the day our first array was put in (2017) we have had very little issues using it the way we wanted to and none of the setup or processes we incorporate this into have ever been complex. All of the interfaces in the GUI are very intuitive and do not require any CLI experience to do what we need it to do.

Alternatives Considered

Dell PowerScale

As previous customers of several Dell storage platforms (emc isilon being the most recent), we no prefer Pure Storage products over them because of the continued support and ongoing hardware upgrades that are part of the Evergreen plan. We no longer feel like we either need to pay exuberant fees to maintain our current hardware or full replace what we are using with the latest generation; which requires huge amounts of time and resources to move the data.

Key Insights

Do you think Pure Storage FlashArray delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Pure Storage FlashArray's feature set?

Yes

Did Pure Storage FlashArray live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Pure Storage FlashArray go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Pure Storage FlashArray again?

Yes

Other Software Used

VMware vSphere, Windows Server, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Likelihood to Recommend

We like to use the Pure Storage FlashArray for presenting storage options to our virtual machines in a few different ways. We set up datastores in VMware along with presenting volumes directly to the virtual machines via physical raw device mappings (RDM). Both have been working well for us for a number of years.

It does not seem like any support for S3 buckets or object storage is on the roadmap any time soon, so another platform is required for that.

Pure Storage FlashArray Feature Ratings

Comments

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Timothy Reiner
commented 13 days ago
Reach out to your account team regarding the FlashArray Object roadmap. We love to get constructive feedback from our customers

Pure Storage FlashArray -- Still Wonderful After 7 Years

Modules Used