Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs VAST Data comparison

Lenovo and VAST Data are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Lenovo is ranked #22 with an average rating of 9.0, while VAST Data is ranked #32. Lenovo holds a 2.1% mindshare in AFS, compared to VAST Data’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 60% of Lenovo users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VAST Data users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series and VAST Data offer robust data management solutions with distinct advantages in various areas. VAST Data has the upper hand with its advanced features, providing a performance edge.

Features: Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series provides comprehensive data protection, scalability, and integration with existing IT environments. VAST Data is noted for exceptional performance, scalability beyond traditional limits, and leading-edge continuous availability features.

Room for Improvement: Users of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series report occasional challenges with performance under heavy loads and a need for more frequent updates. VAST Data users suggest enhancements in integration capabilities with third-party tools and a more intuitive management experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series users appreciate the straightforward installation process and responsive customer support. VAST Data receives positive feedback for its easy deployment, though some users experience a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is favored for its competitive pricing and solid return on investment. VAST Data, although at a higher price point, delivers a compelling ROI through superior technology and long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. VAST Data Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. VAST Data

July 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 August 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is 2.1%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VAST Data is 2.2%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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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Mark Richmond

Chief Technology Officer at Next Level Communications

Reliable and fast servers with good support

We use on-premise servers with Lenovo ThinkSystem. We set up Hyper-V and load multiple types of servers including a domain controller, a SQL Server, and application servers The solution provides fast servers that are reasonably priced. We set up RAID ten to ensure drive redundancy, leading to…

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Alan Powers

HPC CTO at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Stability-wise, a device that has been up and running for years

The failover capability and resiliency are some of the solution's valuable features. The big thing is resilience because it has richer coding in it, so multiple devices can't fail. Also, one can still access a number of CBoxes that can allow one to access their file system. Once a device fails, it fails the transparency of the end-user, and it just starts using another resource. The encryption capability, the snapshots, along with a whole bunch of features make the tool valuable. VAST Data keeps adding more and more features all the time.

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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

"The database workloads are pretty fast because I frequently move data from here to there."

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The high availability of the product is the most valuable feature."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"The solution is scalable."

"The solution uses newer technology for deduplication and compression."

"I use the tool for Oracle databases, Oracle virtual machines, and Oracle Linux databases. I'm on the storage side, not a database administrator."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe has low latency and high Ops. It is an evergreen model."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"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 most valuable feature of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its ability to store data well."

"The value we derive from using it is greater than other alternatives like HPE and Dell."

"Ability to cluster two storages together with HA availability."

"One of the most valuable features of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is the snapshot feature."

"The product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload."

"It has been a perfect fit for the workload that our customer is doing."

"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."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series pros

"This has been one of the most reliable storage systems that I have ever used."

"The solution is useful for machine learning and scientific applications, including computer simulations."

Cons

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

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

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

"It's more multi-tenant functionality in their Pure1 manage portal that is lacking."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Managing data isn't difficult for me. The performance is usually perfect, but we sometimes have capacity problems."

"The software layer has to improve."

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"Lenovo could have a wider variety of storage solutions in the NAS space."

"The solution should change the licensing model and allow customers to choose features based on their requirements."

"I would rate the support of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series a four out of five."

"There might be improvements needed in drive throughput as disk speed has been a limitation on Windows servers."

"I would like Lenovo to add a feature like IBM Easy Tier to DM Series. This is a crucial feature for the customers."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could improve by having a snapshot feature. Additionally, there can be other features added to help restore the data faster."

"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 Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series was very hard to configure. Installation of the product was very hard. These are its areas for improvement."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series cons

"The write performance could be improved because it is less than half of the read performance."

"The read/write ratio is an area in the solution with some flaws and needs improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

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

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The price of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is good."

"The solution's pricing is similar to Dell and HPE."

"The solution is highly-priced."

"Lenovo offers two software tiers for the DM Series: basic and premium. If you need more features like the MetroCluster, you must buy the premium version. You can stick to the basic software if you don't need MetroCluster or features like asynchronous replication. That makes DM Series a little cheaper."

"We acquired VAST Data as a one-time, capital purchase."

"Price-wise, VAST Data is not the cheapest, not the most expensive one."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

23%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

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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...

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

There are extra expenses beyond the standard licensing fee for features such as replication and deduplication, which ...

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What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series?

The deployment process of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is very complicated compared to previous GUI systems. Many cus...

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

My primary use case for Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series ( /products/lenovo-thinksystem-dm-series-reviews ) is for storag...

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Can you provide any information you may have on VAST Data?

Here are some technical details about VAST Data: VAST Data is a software-defined storage platform designed to scale...

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Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs VAST Data

Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

July 2025

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

July 2025

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Also Known As

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

ThinkSystem DM Series

No data available

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

To meet enterprise storage requirements, ThinkSystem All-Flash DM Series systems provide high performance, superior flexibility, and best-in-class data management. DM Series runs on ONTAP data management software, which gives customers unified storage across block-and-file workloads. It accelerates your business while improving the efficiency, flexibility, and reliability of your IT operations.

Lenovo

Innovation to break decades of data storage trade-offs.

VAST Data

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Information Not Available

Norwest Venture Partners, General Dynamics Information Technology, Ginkgo Bioworks

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. VAST Data

July 2025

Free Report: Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. VAST Data

Find out what your peers are saying about Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. VAST Data and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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