Small/Midsize Enterprise All-Flash Array Buyer’s Guide – DCIG

DCIG announced the availability of its 2017-18 Small/Midsize Enterprise All-flash Array Buyer’s Guide developed from the enterprise storage array body of research.

The guide weights, scores and ranks more than 100 features of 24 small/midsize enterprise all-flash arrays that achieved rankings of Recommended or Excellent.

These products come from 11 vendors: Dell  EMC, Fujitsu, iXsystems, Kaminario, NEC, NetApp, Nimble Storage, Pivot3, Pure Storage, Tegile and Tintri.

This guide offers much of the information an organization should need to make an informed decision as to which all-flash storage array will suit their needs.

Each array included  had to meet the following criteria:

• Must be available as an appliance that is available as a single SKU and includes its own hardware and software.
• Must be marketed as an all-flash array (AFA). The best evidence of meeting this criterion is the existence of a specific all-flash SKU.
• Must use flash memory as primary storage, not merely as an extended cache.
• May permit storage expansion with disk shelves that contain HDDs or the virtualization of external disk-based arrays – essentially converting the AFA into a hybrid storage array.
• Must support one or more of the following storage networking protocols: iSCSI, FC, IB, NFS.
• Provides features and capacities appropriate for small/midsize enterprises.
• There must be sufficient information available to DCIG to make meaningful decisions. DCIG makes a good faith effort to reach out and obtain information from as many storage providers as possible. However, products may be excluded because of a lack of sufficient reliable data.
• Must be formally announced and/or available for purchase as of February 28, 2017.

DCIG’s succinct analysis provides insight into the state of the all-flash storage array marketplace. The guide identifies the specific benefits organizations can expect to achieve an AFA and key features organizations should be aware of as they evaluate products. It also provides brief observations about the distinctive features of each product. Ranking tables enable organizations to get an ‘at-a-glance’ overview of the products; while standardized one-page data sheets facilitate side-by-side comparisons assisting organizations to quickly create a short list of products that may meet their requirements.

Read also:
DCIG 2017-18 All-Flash Array Buyer’s Guide
Recommended: HPE 3par StorServe, Dell SC 9000, HDS VSP, Huawei OceanStor and NetApp AFF A300
2017.04.04 | Press Release