Huawei OceanStor vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series comparison

Huawei and Lenovo are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Huawei is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.9, while Lenovo is ranked #21 with an average rating of 10.0. Huawei holds a 2.3% mindshare in AFS, compared to Lenovo’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Huawei users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Lenovo users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Huawei OceanStor and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series are two prominent products in the storage solutions market. Huawei OceanStor offers a competitive edge with its affordability, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series stands out for its performance and reliability.

Features: Huawei OceanStor impresses users with its scalability, high availability, and efficient data management. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series stands out with its advanced integration capabilities, high-speed performance, and robust reliability.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest Huawei OceanStor needs improvements in backup functionalities, performance under heavy workloads, and enhanced user interface. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series users point out the need for better support options, improved documentation, and enhanced firmware updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Huawei OceanStor receives praise for a straightforward deployment process but has mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is valued for its ease of setup with more favorable feedback regarding customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Huawei OceanStor is recognized for its cost-effectiveness and reasonable ROI. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, though more expensive, promises higher ROI due to its performance efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Huawei OceanStor vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huawei OceanStor is 2.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Huawei OceanStor	2.3%
Pure FlashArray X NVMe	1.4%
Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series	2.1%
Other	94.2%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

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ChukwuemekaOnyemelukwe

Infrastructure Administrator - Server, Storage & Virtualization at MicroAccess Ltd

Uses a proprietary technology with simple interface and has easy deployment

If you are not generating a substantial amount of data, the available storage space might suffice, making scalability less of a concern. However, if your data generation increases and you require more storage, Huawei OceanStor offers solutions to expand your storage capacity. Expanding storage resources can involve additional costs and configuration efforts. Acquiring more storage solutions and ensuring their integration with your existing setup might require a significant investment of time and resources. While this process can be complex, it allows for seamless scalability as your data storage needs grow. I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

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Giorgio Pozzi

System Administrator at PORTGUARDIAN.COM SRL

Performance and cost-effectiveness are maximized with seamless setup and significant ROI

I use Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series to replace the old storage in our infrastructure. Additionally, I use it in customer infrastructures to migrate from the old storage to the new one On the M storage, I find the best features to be deduplication and compression. On the DE storage, the most…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."

"The standout features for us in Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its robust DDoS protection, seamless transparent failover, and failback capabilities ensuring high availability."

"We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options."

"The best features of Pure FlashArray X NVMe include the volume snapshot capabilities, which allow us to save most of the storage space by volume snapshots periodically."

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"FlashArray has some fresh efficiency features. I've never seen a storage solution with a compression rating this high before. It's at least 4-to-1 on Oracle databases. It's the best flash storage for Oracle."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The setup and the price are the most valuable and not the features related."

"I find the scalability features of OceanStor valuable. Additionally, installation is easy, and it only requires one person to install it. Maintenance is also easy and not a big issue."

"Generally stable with good technical support."

"The most valuable feature is the availability."

"Huawei OceanStor offers good IOPS and is reliable and energy-efficient."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The most valuable features of Huawei OceanStor are the dashboards, bandwidth, and data performance."

"The main selling point of Huawei OceanStor is its ability to handle all storage protocols, including block, file, and object."

More Huawei OceanStor pros

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is highly reliable, especially for block-level storage. It is stable, with minimal downtime and no issues beyond user errors."

"Fewer features is not necessarily a negative as it leads to simpler operation and lower price."

"We have been working with the solution for around a year and so far it has shown itself to be stable."

"ThinkSystem's storage performs well, and the price per gigabyte is good, especially on SSD solutions. It's also easy to use."

"The solution is very easy to set up."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is quite an elementary box, no frills. It does not have all the functionality of the DM but it is acceptable, it does its task. It integrates pretty well."

"The solution is very easy to troubleshoot. It's one of the most valuable features. It also doesn't take long to deploy and normally it comes with a three-year warranty."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pros

Cons

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial."

"Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."

"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The user interface is not so user friendly."

"Huawei is not that cheap."

"Based on what we were quoted, the stated capacity was not a true reflection of the actual capacity. The data store ran out of space, and Huawei had to send a new unit."

"Huawei OceanStor should work on its saturation level and should be able to take up more load. It should give the same performance that it gives at 20 or 30 percent load for 80 percent as well."

"CFS integration is one area where OceanStor has some room for improvement. The CFS on OceanStor is dedicated, so it's not integrated with the existing active directory domain."

"A concern with OceanStor is pricing. However, apart from that, there are no significant limitations or technical issues."

"We did experience a little latency with this solution."

"The administration should be simplified because there are a large number of options that make it too complicated, and the customers can get confused."

More Huawei OceanStor cons

"It would be useful to have structured solutions replicated to other sites."

"In the next release, I would like to see support for Hyper-converged infrastructure."

"There could be a snapshot feature in the solution."

"Its performance could be faster."

"ThinkSystem could be better integrated with backup software like Commvault, Veritas, or Symantec."

"The solution could be more scalable, although it suits our present needs."

"The features are limited."

"The product could support advanced software integrations."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"Huawei OceanStor is priced very well but is a bit complicated."

"Overall, the solution's pricing was cheaper."

"Pricing is very fair."

"This product value matches its price."

"Huawei's prices are very good compared to those of its competitors."

"The price of Huawei OceanStor should be less expensive. It is expensive at the moment."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. However, there are not any licensing costs."

"The tool's pricing is competitive and affordable. It has the best possible pricing that we can get from Huawei. The prices are fixed and there are no additional costs."

More Huawei OceanStor pricing and cost advice

"The price of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is a one-time purchase. There is a global price list available to find the price of the solution."

"The pricing is fair and low compared to other products in this category."

"The best thing about this solution is its price, which reduces our costs."

"All of the features are bundled together, and you can renew the bundle with all of the features included."

"It is an expensive solution."

"For an all-flash setup, the cost is around $20,000 for a decent configuration."

"The pricing for this solution is good compared to HP or Dell EMC."

"The solution's price could be better."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor has the capability of SSDs, high-performance disks, and higher disk support.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei OceanStor's pricing is very aggressive, making it highly competitive.

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What needs improvement with Huawei OceanStor?

Huawei currently lacks a solution for high-performance AI, unlike other companies like DDN, WekaIO, or IBM BlueStore....

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

The price of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is very good. We chose this type of storage for the performance and the price.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

The type of connection that is used in Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series should be improved.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

I use Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series to replace the old storage in our infrastructure. Additionally, I use it in custom...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 18% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 11% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 19% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 14% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 13% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Primera vs Huawei OceanStor

Compared 3% of the time

More Huawei OceanStor Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 23% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 10% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 3% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

January 2026

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor

January 2026

Download Huawei OceanStor product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

January 2026

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

OceanStor Dorado V3 All-Flash Storage System, OceanStor 18000 V3 Series Storage Systems, OceanStor 6800 V3 Storage System

ThinkSystem DE Series

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

OceanStor Dorado V3 is the industry's first all-flash storage that puts NVMe into commercial use. It is specially designed for enterprises' mission-critical businesses, meeting the most-demanding performance and reliability requirements of databases, VDI, server virtualization, and SAP HANA.

Huawei

The DE All-Flash Series delivers the performance of more than 2,000 15k rpm HDDs, yet requires only 2% of the rack space, power, and cooling. Because it consumes 98% less space and power, DE Series can significantly improve the overall efficiency of your IT operations while continuing to meet your performance requirements.

Lenovo

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Piraeus, Clinique Univeritaires Saint-Luc

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Huawei OceanStor vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

December 2025

Free Report: Huawei OceanStor vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

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