IBM FlashSystem vs IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 29, 2023

We performed a comparison between IBM FlashSystem and IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: IBM FlashSystem’s initial setup was complex due to the data migration from the old system. However, the setup is intuitive and comes with a template. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe’s installation is easy as it comes with all the defaults, and fine-tuning is required for specific configurations.
  • Features: IBM FlashSystem offers separate IO modules for connectivity and storage virtualization for easy migrations. It also offers excellent performance and reliable backups. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe has a unique computational capability ensuring that reliability and capacity enhancements can be uploaded from the main controllers.
  • Pricing: IBM FlashSystem is an expensive storage solution with high licensing fees. The pricing model for FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is straightforward, with no hidden costs, and has standard three-year support from IBM.
  • Service and Support: IBM FlashSystem offers excellent technical support with well-trained personnel and published solution designs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe provides expert and responsive support that is easy to access and use.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe comes out ahead of IBM FlashSystem. Both products have good technical support, but IBM FlashSystem’s price is high and it has a complex initial setup process.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe Report (Updated: March 2024).
769,236 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Provides fast access and is user-friendly.""Support has been helpful.""The code upgrades are very smooth.""Most of the problems that we had in the past with the performance in IOPS have disappeared. It has been a great improvement for our customers' services.""We were actually able to do multiple upgrades, including head upgrades and moving between the platforms, M20 and M50, over the years. We have never once lost a ping and have never had an outage due to an OS upgrade or a complete head upgrade.""FlashArray has many valuable features. It's very user-friendly and it has high availability, so there is comparatively less downtime. During maintenance, there is no shutdown procedure, so you can directly power off the Array and manage the shutdown process without any data loss, which is a unique feature. Managing replication and data migration is also very easy.""The solution is very reliable.""At this point, I don't know anything that they could provide in a better way."

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"The ability to create LUNs and modify them are the most valuable features of this solution.""The most valuable features are deduplication and compression.""The solution allows for easy migrations from previous products or vendors via its embedded storage virtualization function.""The solution is scalable and has varying degrees of scalability.""High availability and enhanced security; Proven dependability; Data compression with hardware acceleration; Advanced copy services features are all in this product.""IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution.""The most valuable features are, of course, the virtualization of the storage, the performance, and the compression.""The pricing is reasonable."

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"The most valuable feature is the speed.""The most valuable features of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe are its steady performance and usefulness in high-traffic environments.""What I like about the product are its high availability, maximum efficiency in performance, and its ability to handle a high level of I/O operations.""The high performance and high availability improved our overall processes.""Good performance with a user-friendly UI.""IBM FlashSystem provides the same software on each box, including virtualized solutions.""It's easy to use, has good stability, and many features.""IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is easy to use and comes with good performance."

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Cons
"With scalability, I have run into a little problem with our last upgrade. There were some undocumented limitations to the number of drives that our controller could run on. So, instead of putting in a new data pack as we had anticipated, we had to keep adding and removing to get up to the capacity that we needed to be. What should have been a one day process (or a few hours) turned into a month and a half process.""The product should improve its response time. I have also encountered issues with its configuration.""I would like to see more cloud integration.""The only time that we had problems with it was that there was a bug in the VVol implementation but, outside of that, it has been flawless.""I had to contact customer support when a drive failed as I was doing a couple of OS upgrades.""We haven't seen ROI.""Its price needs improvement. Its price is almost double than any other flash storage solution.""I would rate this solution an eight. To make it a ten it would have to be a little cheaper."

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"It could be easier to implement.""The basic setup can be challenging when it comes to certain IP addresses and the configuration of the IP. You have to go in to different menus to makes changes and ensure it is stable.""The Data Reduction Pools (DRP) support could be better.""The technical support in my region is satisfactory but it could improve. Support is very important for customers and downtime is very critical for us. We would like onsite or complete technical support which can help us to minimize our downtime or if problems occur.""The solution's pricing is a bit high so there is room for improvement.""The GUI for monitoring performance metrics could provide better visibility. For example, it doesn't let me segregate the IOPS per volume.""I think the only thing the developers can look at, is that it is limited to 25 gigabytes currently. In the next release they might want to increase that.""The initial setup is complex."

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"The efficacy of the GUI in IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe could be enhanced, and it would be beneficial to include a feature that can prevent ransomware attacks.""There could be a possibility of not requiring to buy a new box while upgrading to a newer version.""IBM's support is not good. I experienced a big problem where I opened the console IBM Storage and would see that something was broken. I called the call centers, and I said, "I have a problem. My drive is not working." They want me to give them the serial number, I gave it to them and they told me "I cannot find your product. Your product is not here."""I would like to see IBM products become more affordable because they can be quite expensive, which limits their accessibility to a broader customer base.""IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is currently at the end of its lifespan and will soon become obsolete in the markets.""The solution's compression feature could be better.""Deduplication and compression should be improved.""The storage system itself should have built-in capabilities for different ransomware attacks."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "We feel that the pricing is fair and the licensing process was easy for both."
  • "There is always room for negotiation."
  • "The price was slightly higher than others, but competitive, if you consider all the other features that you get from it."
  • "It is a more expensive solution, but it is worth it. You are getting what you paid for."
  • "For pricing, you have to take into account their performance on deduplication and compression in a $/GB comparison."
  • "We have seen a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)."
  • "It is a cheaper solution."
  • "Pure Storage is all-flash, so this sometimes tends to make it a bit more expensive in the beginning."
  • More Pure Storage FlashArray Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing can be considered as per market competition."
  • "The total storage capacity vs price is still quite high for the IBM Flash Array."
  • "It pays to go back and get the best price you can from your supplier. The first offer is not always at the best discount."
  • "Regarding licensing make sure you add at least three years software maintenance from IBM at the beginning, because you will not be able to download firmware updates or any fixes/patches without this."
  • "IBM V7000 has a new license and price structure which provides intuitive licensing based on the functions customers wish to enable and use the most."
  • "The pricing has been very competitive for the last few years. IBM got to the point where they changed the pricing model and we feel very comfortable with the pricing. It's very competitive. Over the last two years, IBM has been coming up with all kinds of interesting promos, especially for the SMB systems. That makes it very competitive price-wise and in terms of performance..."
  • "For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included."
  • "The integration is already included in the license cost of IBM FlashSystem. The integration is very easy. You get the IBM storage core with all software, firmware, and upgrades. EMC provides the features in the box, but they are not free for customers. There is a licensing cost for features. We have yearly licensing, but IBM has also provided a new option where you pay as you go. They provide a big box, and I pay, for example, for 10 terabytes. If I exceed 10 terabytes, IBM will charge for the new storage after 10 terabytes. It is a good opportunity in the market for using the storage as a cloud and paying as you go."
  • More IBM FlashSystem Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of the FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is reasonable."
  • "There are pricing options from the mid-rand to the high-range, of which the suitability depends upon the requirements."
  • "It's a lot less costly than cloud storage. People get surprised by the cost of cloud storage, which is extremely expensive and four or five times the cost of storage on-premises. People don't realize what they're spending on storage until they start getting bills from Amazon, Microsoft, and others. This is a good way to reduce your cloud storage expenses."
  • "The price of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is less than Dell. For upgrades, the Dell solutions are more expensive."
  • "The price of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMele can be considered affordable when taking into account the operating system that is required for it to function properly. This operating system, which is licensed by IBM, may carry a higher cost, but it is worth the investment for larger corporate entities, such as insurance companies, Fortune Five companies, and banks, who make up a significant portion of their target market. The FlashSystems are designed for larger corporations and multinational enterprises, and may not be the most cost-effective solution for smaller businesses."
  • "The solution is priced well."
  • "Compared to other solutions, the cost of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is reasonable, with a one-time payment of around $70,000. However, additional support is available for $25,000 for three years. The overall maintenance cost is steep."
  • "Price-wise, the solution offers excellent pricing to its users. In short, the prices offered by the solution are competitive compared to similar solutions."
  • More IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure… more »
    Top Answer:We consume less physical storage because of the solution’s deduplication and compression.
    Top Answer:We have customers who use a three-year or five-year license. We also have customers who use Evergreen.
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of the solution is SCM (Storage Class Memory), which has the lowest latency value in the… more »
    Top Answer:The solution's infrastructure technology level could be PCI Express 5 instead of PCI Express 4 for the next version. In… more »
    Top Answer:The storage serves the virtual environment. Most of our applications run in the virtual environment, and it serves… more »
    Top Answer:Compared to its competitors, IBM's offering is the most cost-effective. However, in the context of the Egyptian… more »
    Top Answer:It's a good system, but some vendors limit specific models from being upgraded to larger capacities. This forces us to… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM Storwize
    IBM FlashSystem 9100, FlashSystem 9100
    Learn More
    IBM
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    Overview

    Pure Storage FlashArray is the world’s first enterprise-class storage array that runs exclusively on the nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) protocol for memory access and storage. It represents a totally state-of-the-art type of storage technology. It offers users shared accelerated storage that delivers cutting-edge features in the realms of performance, simplicity, and consolidation. Pure Storage is fresh and modern today and will be for the next decade. Without forklift upgrades or planned downtime, Pure Storage takes the work out of storage ownership and delivers unprecedented customer satisfaction.

    Pure Storage FlashArray is built with simplicity and reliability in mind. The solution can be implemented and optimized in hours, as opposed to other similar solutions that can take days. It has no moving parts, which removes areas where it could potentially be vulnerable to suffering errors. It is highly stable and gives users the ability to manage system shutdowns in a way that  prevents data loss.

    Benefits of Pure Storage FlashArray

    Some of the benefits of using Pure Storage FlashArray include:

    • A much higher level of speed than similar pieces of technology. Pure Storage FlashArray maximizes the speed at which data can be transferred while at the same time minimizing system latencies that might slow the transfer down. Additionally, it offers users quick memory read and data access speeds.

    • A higher bang for your buck in terms of the storage capabilities you get for the money you pay. They are smaller in size than more standard storage technologies, but they offer flash memory, which enables users to store larger amounts of data than the current standard.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Pure Storage FlashArray is a highly effective piece of storage technology which stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its overall robustness and the value that it offers by way of its reliability and ease of use. It provides users with many valuable features that allow them to maximize what they can do with this solution. Pure Storage FlashArray’s reliability and ease of use make it a highly valuable solution. 

    PeerSpot user Prabakaran K., a technical consultant at Injazat Data Systems, notes the robustness of this solution when he writes, "FlashArray has many valuable features. It's very user-friendly and it has high availability, so there is comparatively less downtime. During maintenance, there is no shutdown procedure, so you can directly power off the Array and manage the shutdown process without any data loss, which is a unique feature. Managing replication and data migration is also very easy."

    PeerSpot user Jason D., a cloud solutions architect at a tech services company, notes three features that make this solution valuable when he writes, "We've had different types of storage, and three things of this solution are valuable. The first one is its outstanding performance. The second one is its stability. In the about three years that we've had it, we've had component failures, but we never had a service interruption or any data loss. The third one, which is really critical, is that it is super easy to use in terms of provisioning, storage, and managing the arrays. I'm able to maintain a multi-site environment with a couple of dozen arrays with a single mid-level storage admin."

    IBM FlashSystem products are enterprise computer data storage systems that store data on flash memory chips. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. This hardware provides performance, reliability, and efficiency benefits versus competitive offerings.

    IBM FlashSystem 9100 combines the performance of flash and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) end-to-end with the reliability and innovation of IBM FlashCore technology and the rich features of IBM Spectrum Virtualize - all in a powerful 2U enterprise-class storage system. Providing intensive data driven multicloud storage capacity, FlashSystem 9100 is deeply integrated with the software defined capabilities of IBM Spectrum Storage allowing you to easily add in the multicloud solutions that best support your business.

    Sample Customers
    Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas
    Celero, Friedhelm Loh Group, Clarks, Mingkang Natregro Health Food Group, Sofia, Etisalat Fights Fraud, UF Health Shands Hospital, Generali, Elecon Engineering Company Limited, Ventiv , Technology, CPFL Energia, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., SciQuest, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Paddy Power, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Interconnect Services, Severstal IP-Only AB, PVU Group GmbH
    Information Not Available
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Healthcare Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization31%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Government8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm30%
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Manufacturing Company20%
    Computer Software Company20%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise40%
    Large Enterprise42%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise21%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise52%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    769,236 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM FlashSystem is ranked 6th in All-Flash Storage with 106 reviews while IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is ranked 13th in All-Flash Storage with 19 reviews. IBM FlashSystem is rated 8.2, while IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem writes "An easy GUI and simple provisioning but our model does not support compression". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe writes "Steady performance, responsive support, and high availability". IBM FlashSystem is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Dell Unity XT, NetApp AFF, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and HPE Nimble Storage, whereas IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, HPE Primera and Dell PowerMax NVMe. See our IBM FlashSystem vs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe report.

    See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.

    We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.