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IBM System Storage DS5000 Series pros and cons

Vendor: IBM

4.3 out of 5

18 reviews
100% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series offers exceptional stability, performance, and functionality with features like SVC and HyperSwap. High availability and FlashCore modules are advantages, but setup and stability are challenging. SSDs provide a good price-performance ratio and space savings, though expansion requires SSDs instead of direct flash storage. The system integrates well with IBM, Intel, and Linux platforms, but cloud agility and object storage features lag. Costs and support need improvement.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

The stability and performance of IBM System Storage DS5000 Series are highly valued and consistently rated as excellent.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series offers valuable compression features and unique FlashCore modules for efficient local operations.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series facilitates easy virtualization and sharing of storage with software features like SVC and HyperSwap.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is recognized for its high availability, reliability, and impressive price-performance ratio.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series can be seamlessly integrated into various platforms, providing flexibility and enhanced security.

CONS

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is perceived as expensive, especially during the pre-sales phase.

The initial setup and expansion with flash storage models can be challenging.

There are limitations in integrating IBM System Storage DS5000 Series with other tools and improving software installation processes.

Stability is an area where IBM System Storage DS5000 Series could see improvements.

Adding functionalities such as mass integration object storage and NAS gateway features would enhance IBM System Storage DS5000 Series.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Pros review quotes

reviewer1424496

NAS Storage Tech Leader at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 27, 2020

The stability and performance of the drive are the most valuable.

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SO

Linux System Administrator at IThinka

Oct 13, 2020

The stability is excellent.

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TN

Network Security Specialist at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees

Oct 15, 2020

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

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IBM System Storage DS5000 Series

Free Report: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM System Storage DS5000 Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Giovanni Federici

CIO at ILTE S.p.A.

Jan 5, 2022

The most valuable feature is compression.

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Mihcael Culmsee

Business Development Manger MSP/Hosting partners at Arrow Electronics

May 15, 2022

I also like all the software features you get from the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series such as the SVC (SAN volume controller). You can put the code on the controllers, and it really gives you the advantage because you'll have HyperSwap.

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Network and Security Administrator at Jambopay

Oct 28, 2022

You can easily virtualize and share the storage.

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Senior Technical Consultant at PROMOS consult

Apr 26, 2023

I like that it's stable, and I am satisfied with it. We have had some issues, but that is normal in IT. IBM System Storage DS5000 works fine most of the time.

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Business Development Manager at GBM

May 16, 2023

We use it for applications, databases, media, files, etc.

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BA

ICT officer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jun 6, 2023

The solution is stable. I rate its stability a nine out of ten.

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Enterprise Storage Sales Specialist (IBM) at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 24, 2023

The most valuable aspects of the DS5000 Series are its high availability (almost six nines), stability, cost-effectiveness, and the unique IBM FlashCore modules, which other competitors lack. These FlashCore modules enable local operations on the drive itself without a performance overhead, a significant advantage.

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Show 8 more reviews (out of 18)

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Cons review quotes

reviewer1424496

NAS Storage Tech Leader at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 27, 2020

IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces. They're not renewing themselves very often. They have been slow to evolve from the old GUI. The user interface should be improved, especially regarding performance analysis, which has always been a little bit weak as compared to other solutions. As a global solution, it lacks the feature for containing integration object storage. Even though they have now started to offer this feature, it is quite young and not as developed as some other vendors. There are also no mass possibilities at all. They have a lot of competition in the mid-range segment. They need to have a NAS gateway or something like that. It doesn't specifically need to be integrated into the controllers that are keys to the gateway.

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SO

Linux System Administrator at IThinka

Oct 13, 2020

I find the solution isn't so easy to understand. A user must be quite knowledgeable in the product. It isn't like HPE 3PAR, which you can use quite easily without too much storage experience.

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TN

Network Security Specialist at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees

Oct 15, 2020

The product is very costly. Very few can afford it.

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IBM System Storage DS5000 Series

Free Report: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM System Storage DS5000 Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Giovanni Federici

CIO at ILTE S.p.A.

Jan 5, 2022

It would be nice if duplication was possible at the hardware level. As it is now, duplication is a software feature, whereas compression is a hardware feature.

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Mihcael Culmsee

Business Development Manger MSP/Hosting partners at Arrow Electronics

May 15, 2022

IBM talks about integration when we talk about Safeguarded Copy. It integrates with QRadar, but it seems as though IBM still is too separate, that is, the way IBM is measured on software and hardware.

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Network and Security Administrator at Jambopay

Oct 28, 2022

The amount of storage could be increased.

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Senior Technical Consultant at PROMOS consult

Apr 26, 2023

IBM System Storage DS5000 is expensive when compared to other vendors.

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Business Development Manager at GBM

May 16, 2023

The product should improve its support.

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BA

ICT officer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jun 6, 2023

The solution is not flexible enough.

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Enterprise Storage Sales Specialist (IBM) at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 24, 2023

Regarding improvements, there's a common perception, primarily during pre-sales, that IBM storage solutions are expensive, though studies often prove otherwise. As for additional functionality, supporting two to three sites for applications might be a potential enhancement.

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Show 8 more reviews (out of 18)

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Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

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