We performed a comparison between IBM FlashSystem and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE 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."I like FlashArray's ActiveCluster as well as its snapshot and cloning capabilities."
"The initial setup was very straightforward and very quick. It was up and running in our data center within 24 hours of receiving it."
"It has good stability for our company."
"The first year, we started out with one or five terabytes and it took what was 20 terabytes of storage down to less than one terabyte."
"The best feature is consistently lower latency, even when IOPS crank up to over 75K. The product maintains submillisecond response time, which is incredible."
"The performance and the ever-growing maintenance are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The most valuable feature is it never goes down. We can expand and create volumes."
"The most valuable features of Pure Storage FlashArray are simplicity, ease of use, and dashboard management."
"I like most of the features. Its speed, performance, and availability are valuable. We are implementing the data reduction technology the most."
"IBM FlashSystem has been stable in our operations."
"IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution."
"The speed and the ease of installation are the most valuable features."
"Flash disk with Easy Tier option"
"Virtualization of external storage, while adding cache and speed to the external storage."
"The feature I find most valuable, is the deduplication, because the nature of the data that we are using in our current environment, has a lot of replicated data."
"Speed (IOPS/second) – It is most vital for applications that need low latency and high speed for transferring the data."
"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 most valuable features of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series are the dual controllers, available installation documentation, and the option of multiple host bus adapter interfaces."
"The solution is very easy to set up."
"We have been working with the solution for around a year and so far it has shown itself to be stable."
"This solution is good for virtualization and meets the need for CPU and RAM requirements."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"
"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 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."
"In the configuration, which we brought in or tested it in, it has a very limited config as far as the array goes. That said, it still did more than our anticipation."
"I would like to migrate to the cloud in the future and know how that would actually work with this product."
"The solution could improve by having a multi-tenant feature."
"We have not seen a reduction in our TCO nor have we seen ROI."
"It would be nice if Pure had something in its portfolio that provided higher deduplication and compression for backups."
"From a scalability perspective, it is a very small storage solution, so it's not very expandable."
"The scalability of the solution is not as good as it probably could be."
"A three wave application or multi wave application synchronization would be an improvement."
"The solution is not easy to implement. It takes a lot of time to study the product and it's a little complicated in general."
"Our customers have raised concerns about the limitations of the FlashSystem 5200 and 7300, which only offer a 32-gigabyte connection."
"It is slightly more expensive, however, it all depends on your supplier."
"Replication features need improvement. Currently, they are there in the product, but I'm not sure as to how it works exactly."
"The solution is not easy to use and could improve."
"They can include Amazon file system S3 protocol in the upcoming releases. It is a cloud file system. IBM FlashSystem doesn't have this feature in the box for high-end or mid-range. We have got requests for this from customers because we need to use S3 for EDI application storage. At the beginning of every year, IBM releases firmware. When I find any bugs in the firmware during the year, I am unable to find any information from IBM regarding the bug. I need to open a ticket, and the IBM engineering team makes a patch only for me. This patch is not public. By creating a customized patch for a client, they don't really solve the issue for everyone. If multiple users have the same bug, IBM should upload the patch on the official website so that we can download it. IBM FlashSystem has a monitoring tool in the box, but it is not advanced. I need a more advanced tool for more advanced equations and monitoring. All top three storage vendors, that is, EMC, IBM, and Pure Storage, don't have a powerful monitoring tool. To monitor our box to show the statistics for I/Os and latency, I need to pay for extra software. The built-in monitoring storage is not mature enough to handle all requests and generate all reports that I need. They can include the functionality to stretch a cluster natively without using any additional boxes. In addition, there are some features that EMC has integrated with the box. These features are not available in IBM FlashSystem."
"The marketing could be improved."
"This product lacks some of the options we wanted. For example, expansion was difficult and it required a lot of patching to be done."
"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."
"There could be a snapshot feature in the solution."
"In the next release, I would like to see more functionality. But, again, it is an entry-level product."
"The difficult part comes when dealing with the host. You have to enable multi-pathing and other aspects that are needed for proper configuration. I don't know if there is room for a more hyper-conversion structure to work with, but this would be easier."
"Improvements can be made to the product's performance."
"The features are limited."
IBM FlashSystem is ranked 6th in All-Flash Storage with 106 reviews while Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is ranked 20th in All-Flash Storage with 11 reviews. IBM FlashSystem is rated 8.2, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is rated 8.6. 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 Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series writes "Provides good stability and is reliable in terms of performance". IBM FlashSystem is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Dell Unity XT, NetApp AFF, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and NetApp FAS Series, whereas Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Dell Unity XT and HPE Nimble Storage. See our IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series report.
See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.
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