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IBM FlashSystem vs NEC D3 series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

IBM FlashSystem
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
NAS (7th), All-Flash Storage (13th)
NEC D3 series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
18th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 10.5%, down from 20.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NEC D3 series is 1.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM FlashSystem10.5%
NEC D3 series1.8%
Other87.7%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

OmarIsmail1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Technical Specialist II at Clicks Group
Offers high performance and dependable support for fast storage needs
The most valuable feature of IBM FlashSystem is its robust back code. When integrated properly into the environment and configured according to the guidelines, it provides a very solid infrastructure that does the job on demand. Additionally, IBM FlashSystem offers competitive pricing and reliable performance. The hardware is dependable, ensuring that it functions effectively when the setup is done correctly.
reviewer1369971 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, performs well, and the technical support is good
We use this storage solution to host our ERP, CRM, file server, databases, and lots of other things The performance is better than with our previous version. We are not satisfied with the cost of licensing and would like to have a better price to performance ratio. We have had contract-related…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are flexibility and performance."
"IBM FlashSystem is a powerful effective storage solution, and it is user-friendly, anyone can use it."
"This storage has incredible performance, the I/O is awesome."
"Go ahead and implement it. IBM storage provides you everything that you’ll need for a block-level architecture, as they have many different products which provides you with a variety of options to meet your needs."
"I would advise colleagues to use FlashSystems."
"The documentation is excellent so far, the solution is very fast and offers very good flexibility with a pretty decent price point, and the product is user-friendly with an easy setup process."
"It's one of the first, fully software-defined solutions on the market available."
"The solution allows for easy migrations from previous products or vendors via its embedded storage virtualization function."
"The performance is better than with our previous version."
"Technical support from NEC is very good."
 

Cons

"AHV is Acropolis Hypervisor – A relatively new Hypervisor, robust and stable as VMware vSphere, has built-in advanced analytics and powerful operations, Self Service Portal and components for DevOps included, managed by a single pane of glass (Prism) via HTML5 and it is free of charge – That is why Nutanix is so advanced and revolutionary."
"This solution could be improved by offering greater amounts of storage."
"We use some open-source tools for monitoring, such as Grafana and it should be bundled along with IBM FlashSystem."
"The pricing needs to be more competitive."
"It is slightly more expensive, however, it all depends on your supplier."
"The main issue is the speed in terms of accessing the data."
"We think that IBM has to continue to invest in additional data reduction capabilities which are on their roadmap."
"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."
"We are not satisfied with the cost of licensing and would like to have a better price to performance ratio."
"We are not satisfied with the cost of licensing and would like to have a better price to performance ratio."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable."
"The price is a little bit high so is rated a six out of ten."
"I price of IBM FlashSystem is reasonable and competitive."
"The price of IBM FlashSystem is a little high because you pay a premium because the solution is from IBM. We had paid for the SLA prior to using the solution."
"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."
"The price depends of the technology that our customers need. The price can come at a lower cost but this may increase as storage is added."
"The solution has good pricing, but it is not cheaper."
"The tool is cost-efficient."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise60
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FlashSystem?
The pricing is high; storage solutions are always expensive. I do not know if the price needs to be reviewed, but it is worth considering.
What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?
As far as I know, IBM FlashSystem has already improved, but I do not see room for improvement. It is simple to use and manage via SVC, simple to configure, and even for the zoning, I do not see imp...
What is your primary use case for IBM FlashSystem?
We are not working with Object Storage or Storage Protect; we are working with SAN storage and LUN storage. I am a consultant assigned to a customer in France. We are working with SVC in regard to ...
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Also Known As

IBM Storwize
D3 series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Tsukuba Science City, Hokkaido Telecommunication Network Co. Inc, PHP Institute
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: April 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.