We performed a comparison between Dell Unity XT and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two All-Flash Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."We put a fair amount of stress on it because we run sequel workloads and we run web applications where the same web files are hit over and over. We have had almost zero stability issues with that SAN, that has been really great for us."
"The product cheaper compared to other solutions concerning the technology that they are using."
"The ease of management is one of the most valuable features of this solution. I would have also said that it's pretty fast but now our SQL servers are starting to beat it up pretty bad."
"We're getting good performance, and the compression ratio is also very good in Pure Storage FlashArray."
"The most valuable feature of Pure Storage FlashArray is its high stability level."
"The deduplication and compression meet all of our system requirements."
"Access speed and power consumption are most valuable."
"It is all-flash. This makes it a lot faster than the rest of what we have, as it is able to drive high I/O loads, which is big for us."
"The UI itself is fantastic, and the ease of administration is far better than Unisphere or Navisphere ever were. It's very easy to manage. The fact that it has built-in APIs means our automation people can help us automate a lot of tasks, and that has been helpful. And, of course, it's really fast. Obviously, that doesn't hurt anything at all."
"We use replication for disaster recovery (DR), making our DR process much easier."
"It's very reliable. I have not had an issue with Dell EMC Unity."
"All-flash array eliminates all the overhead of tiering and a lot of the data structuring overhead involved."
"Their support cases are all handed through the portal. The support contacts me when they need to do upgrades. It has been great. It's all very well-handled, scheduled, and performed."
"The benefits are the simplicity, flexibility and the ease of integration between the Unity platform and VMware, for example, and Microsoft platforms; the integration tools and the simplicity of management."
"On a scale from one to 10, I'd probably give EMC customer support an 11. It's been really good. We do have premium support, which means if we have a problem, it gets solved really quickly."
"It gives me the flexibility with its ability to replicate to itself and the ability to use the Dell EMC Cloud as an option. That's always sitting there and waiting if we need it."
"The most valuable feature of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its capability to tier to the cloud, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. Additionally, the integration is good and they are user-friendly."
"We are satisfied with the stability."
"The FlexClone feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Last year, I did a DM Series installation with my colleague, and this installation was effortless because we had Lenovo support on the phone, so it was easy to get help if we had any problems."
"The product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload."
"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its ability to store data well."
"The solution offers very good reliable systems and storage for our clients."
"Ability to cluster two storages together with HA availability."
"It goes at about 95 percent, so we have had some performance issues. It is hard to clear them."
"The initial setup was a little complex. We had some initial issues with the design and had to help correct some of the white papers for it, but it wasn't your standard use case."
"The primary drawback is the cost, which can be prohibitive for small configurations."
"I would like some form of QoS implemented. As a service provider, it would be beneficial to have it."
"I like what they're doing, but some of my customers complain that they do not have all the bells and whistles and knobs to fine-tune workloads that some of the competitors have. In my opinion, that's good. All customers don't have dedicated storage gurus, and they can get themselves into trouble if they fine-tune too many of those high-performance knobs, but they do get knocked down. Pure Storage takes a hit in the minds and opinions of some of the customers because they cannot customize things as much as compared to a legacy storage provider's appliance such as NetApp, Dell EMC, or even HPE. I personally think 95% of my customers are better off letting the system fine-tune itself. That was something that you needed to do 12 or 15 years ago, but now with all-flash, the technology can handle what it needs to handle. Customers just end up shooting themselves in the foot if they are tweaking too many default settings."
"The price of the solution can improve."
"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 feel like there is too much automation; the user doesn't have any manual input."
"The interface can be a little challenging for someone new."
"We cannot connect directly with Dell due to sanctions."
"We would like to see the concept of Storage Groups brought back to this product line."
"The only issue is with the product's scalability because it's not as scalable as the other polished tools in the market."
"The one thing that we would look at would be if they were to expand the file level features, just to give us a balance or a tier between it and Isilon options out there, for unstructured data."
"One of the issues we've had is that controllers have crashed several times... We've had a lot of problems with the storage processor, SPBs. We've actually had them crash."
"The pre-sales technical support and technical engagement could be made better for this product."
"The initial installation is straightforward and took approximately one hour. However, the full process was not as simple as IBM."
"I would like Lenovo to add a feature like IBM Easy Tier to DM Series. This is a crucial feature for the customers."
"Many people do not realize that Lenovo has a storage solution, so better marketing from the vendor is needed."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The licensing model needs to be revisited. It needs to be simplified."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could improve by having a snapshot feature. Additionally, there can be other features added to help restore the data faster."
"The Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series was very hard to configure. Installation of the product was very hard. These are its areas for improvement."
"It takes a very long time to enter the management console, as well as to restart the system, and these are things that should be improved."
"The solution needs a simpler licensing theme around the DM series. The problem is if you only need one of the features, you still have to buy the whole thing. The licensing needs to be more granular or flexible so you have the option to only license FlexCone or Inline Compression features."
Dell Unity XT is ranked 4th in All-Flash Storage with 186 reviews while Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is ranked 21st in All-Flash Storage with 10 reviews. Dell Unity XT is rated 8.4, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of Dell Unity XT writes "Easy to set up with good data compression technology and useful deduplication". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series writes "Simple deployment, stores data well, but missing features". Dell Unity XT is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, HPE Nimble Storage, IBM FlashSystem and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, whereas Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is most compared with NetApp AFF, Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, Dell PowerStore, IBM FlashSystem and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). See our Dell Unity XT vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series report.
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