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IBM FlashSystem vs NEC D3 series comparison

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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 (8th), All-Flash Storage (10th)
NEC D3 series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
20th
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 November 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 11.3%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NEC D3 series is 1.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM FlashSystem11.3%
NEC D3 series1.8%
Other86.9%
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 feature of the solution is SCM (Storage Class Memory), which has the lowest latency value in the storage industry."
"The valuable features of IBM FlashSystem include flash copy mapping, which is a procedure to collect instant point-in-time data for testing real data."
"It was quite easy to migrate from EMC storage because everything is virtualized."
"It's a mature product. It's like a BMW that evolves consistently."
"I would recommend it to other users."
"The benefit of the product is the ease-of-management; it has significantly reduced the IT operation costs to our organization."
"I rate the technical support from IBM as a ten."
"The valuable features are high availability, compression, and a failover mechanism. It's a very highly available storage solution."
"The performance is better than with our previous version."
"Technical support from NEC is very good."
 

Cons

"We have not had a good experience with this platform."
"We faced power supply failure, multiple SAS drives failure, and at the end both controllers were dead."
"It doesn't scale out that well."
"The security features can be improved such that the encryption does not affect performance in any way."
"The solution is not able to replicate data in one-to-many scenario."
"The product could be cheaper."
"The local support for IBM FlashSystem is very weak. Most of the customers are suffering from the IBM support here inside Egypt."
"The GUI for monitoring performance metrics could provide better visibility. For example, it doesn't let me segregate the IOPS per volume."
"We are not satisfied with the cost of licensing and would like to have a better price to performance ratio."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You purchase it as a bundle and the price is comparable."
"If five is a good price and one is a high price, I would rate the price a two or three out of five."
"Overall the price of the solution is expensive and this includes the license."
"Regarding licensing make sure you add at least three years software maintenance from IBM at the beginning, because you will not be able to download firmware updates or any fixes/patches without this."
"Among IBM, Dell EMC, and Pure Storage, IBM is the cheapest. The price is also based on our location, the size of our entity, and our regular annual purchases from them. We are a very big IBM customer, so we normally get very high discounts. We are not a big customer of Pure Storage. We don't buy that much from Pure Storage per year. Everything is included in the price. There is no extra license for different functions."
"The pricing is competitive in our country."
"IBM V7000 has a new license and price structure which provides intuitive licensing based on the functions customers wish to enable and use the most."
"Its price is very good."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business48
Midsize Enterprise20
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 Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, IBM and others in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network). Updated: November 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.