IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Reviews

Our use case is primarily for clients with mainframes, such as big banks or ministries involved in core banking or AI-based storage solutions. It complements those with mainframes and is ideal for large enterprises.

The most valuable aspects of the DS5000 Series are its high availability, 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.

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.

I've been working with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series for about five years now.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate its stability at nine.

For scalability, I'd rate it at nine as it is typically recommended for enterprise-level companies due to its capabilities.

The only minor issue might be related to time zone differences, causing delays in responses.

Positive

Setting up the DS5000 Series is straightforward as long as the right implementation engineer is handling the process, ensuring a smooth implementation without issues.

Comparing the DS5000 Series with other vendors, I can't provide a direct comparison, but IBM's distinguishing factor lies in its Spectrum management software, providing unique functionalities that set it apart.

Overall, I'd rate the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series at nine out of ten, acknowledging that the differentiation in the market is not solely hardware-based but heavily reliant on software features. IBM's software updates often unlock new capabilities, making it a forward-thinking and flexible choice for clients.

My company uses the product for virtualization, SAP, and VDI.

The management features provided by the product are very simple and easy, making them the most valuable feature of the solution.

The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required. From an improvement perspective, the price of the product needs to change.

I have experience with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series for fifteen years. My company has a partnership and is a major vendor for companies like IBM and VMware.

It is a very stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

I deal with more than a hundred customers of my company who use IBM System Storage DS5000 Series.

In relation to the technical support of the product, I would say that all the vendors of IBM face challenges because of the issues with the supply chain, because of which, at times, the spare parts take too long time to be delivered.

The product's initial setup phase is very straightforward, considering I am a system integrator by profession.

During the product's installation phase, I try to find the IP addresses, and during the initial configuration for the partition, I create volumes and assign those volumes to servers.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

Two people are required to implement a single product.

The basic functionalities of the product are provided within the normal license, but users can opt for some optional features from IBM's licensing model.

I work as a system integrator in an organization where we use SAP. My company takes care of the implementation part of SAP infrastructure for our customers.

I would recommend to those planning to use IBM System Storage DS5000 Series that they also need to consider the other products in the market before making a decision.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

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

The product should improve its support. 

I am working with the tool since 2000. 

The solution is stable. 

The tool is scalable. My company has 50 customers for the solution. 

The solution has good support. 

The tool's setup is simple. The migration from a non-IBM product to an IBM product is easy and saves headaches for the customer. 

I would rate the tool a nine out of ten. We prefer IBM because of its good features. It can visualize a non-IBM solution which is one of its unique features. 

We primarily use this solution for virtual desktop (VDI).

The most valuable feature is compression.

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.

We have been using the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series for approximately five years.

This is a stable product and we use it extensively. The is little or no maintenance required.

This solution is scalable and we have at least 1,000 users. In the future, we will likely add another system.

We were only in contact with technical support once. We thought that we had a problem but they solved our issue very quickly.

Last year, we purchased the newer 8000 series model from IBM.

We are also using the Dell 4000 series. It was the Dell 4020 that we initially started with.

In total, we are using one system from Dell and three systems from IBM. All of them are operational.

We prefer IBM to Dell because of the ratio of price to performance. Essentially, IBM has more aggressive pricing. 

The initial setup is easy.

The last deployment we did was by our in-house team.

This product is priced well. The ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it.

In summary, this is a good product. They have also added some extra security features, and we like them very much. As an example, we didn't ask for it, but they implemented a helpful feature to fight against ransomware. This adding of features is quite nice.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use IBM System Storage DS5000 Series for our data center infrastructure and all the servers. We use it with IBM and other vendors, including VMware. Especially VMware clusters and IBM Power machines.

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.

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

I have used IBM System Storage DS5000 Series for over ten years.

IBM System Storage DS5000 is a stable solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give stability a nine.

IBM System Storage DS5000 is a scalable solution. You can buy additional hardware and plug it into the existing system to extend it.

Compared to other vendors, I think it's expensive.

I would recommend this solution to potential users.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM System Storage DS5000 a ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is storage for a virtualized environment, whereby we have storage that acts as a pool of resources whereby you can create a server. The solution is deployed on-premises.

We have found storage virtualization valuable, and its disks can be shared with many host machines. Hence, allowing us to virtualize and share. For example, you may have 30 hosts like VMware, and you can easily virtualize and share the storage.

The amount of storage could be increased.

We have been using the solution for four years.

The solution is very stable.

The solution is scalable and there are currently 50 end users utilizing the solution in our organization.

We have had a good experience with customer service and support. I rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward and it took six hours to deploy.

We implemented via a consultant.

The license is affordable.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good but the amount of storage can be improved.

It's a storage box with multiple loft space. It is connected with the fiber optic solution. We have fiber optic switches and they are directly connected with that.

We also do the flash copy using that storage. For example, I will read the data backup of our current system and store it on the back. There's one wall of volume over there, which will boot when we are taking a backup and then it shut down automatically. After that, we can make a copy on a tape. 

The DS 5000 series never has any problems. It's extremely reliable. One time I saw that there was one issue and I didn't remove it. There was an amber light that popped up. I just played with the issue and just fixed it and it was easy. Since then we really don't have any issues.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

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

The renewal or maintenance of the solution is also expensive. Once things come down, users tend to look to other options.

The solution needs better alerts. If there is a problem, there needs to be a good alert system in place.

I've been using the solution for a couple of years now.

The stability is excellent. It's reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. We basically just install it and we can forget we even have it.

The scalability is great. It's not a problem to scale if you need to.

Everything is on the local machine. We wanted to fix that due to the fact that every time we needed the space we had to change a whole box, which was too costly. However, if we need space, we can just install the drives. We are using five hard drives with 12 drives still empty. We can use those at any time to increase the space.

I've never had the chance to talk to technical support. We have absolutely no problems with the solution, and due to the fact it hasn't given us any issues, we've never had to contact them. Therefore, I can't speak to their level of service or their responsiveness.

We didn't previously use a different solution. We've only had IBM from the very beginning.

The installation is pretty straightforward. It's not too complex so long as you are comfortable with IBM. For us, it's not the device that's difficult. It's more about the setup we have.

The pricing is very costly. It's roughly $6,000-$7,000. The solution is not cheap. 

We aren't partners with IBM. We don't have a business relationship. We're just customers.

I'd advise others that there are a lot of solutions available on the market. IBM is not their only option.

Overall, it's a great, robust solution. I'd rate it, on a scale from one to ten, at an eight.

The solution is quite robust and complex. You can do a lot of things with it.

The stability is excellent.

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. In that solution, you can just simply follow instructions. 

They need to add instructions inside the storage the way 3PAR has them. If they can add this usability on the storage web console, it will be very easy to follow.

While I've worked with IBM quite a bit, I'm not really using it so much now. I am helping a client with it. I'm much more comfortable with HPE products.

We've never had stability issues with the solution. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's stable and reliable. It doesn't crash.

On the customer's side, as far as I remember, there were about three disk shells and one controller shelf. I didn't experience any kind of add-on for their storage in that case. As far as I know, however, If he or she would want to go and add some disk shelf on the storage, it's not easy.

I have some experience with HPE 3PAR and Storwize 7000. Both have similar usability and nearly the same storage capacity. They are really easy if you just follow the instructions. This is not the case with the DS 5000 series from IBM.

I've also worked with the SC series of Dell Compellent. It's also really good for any kind of usage. It's so easy to add anything on the shelf due to the fact that you have many of the instructions on the screen to follow. When you follow these instructions, you can easily add or remove a disk shelf.

With the Turkish currency, it's hard to nail down the exact pricing. It fluctuates and the costs are based on the US dollar. Right now, it's fluctuating so much, you can't really do a comparison using the Turkish lira. That said, I would estimate that the cost is a bit lower compared to other models. 

Currently, we don't sell IBM products, although I've worked with IBM via clients.

The customer is still working with the storage. I have experienced full replacements with it. The customer had a problem with it and they had to replace the controller.

I prefer HPE 3PAR for managing. 3PAR has many specifications on the storage web console. You can do anything and analyze everything from there. With IBM you must know the system quite well. You must have some experience in order to use it effectively.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate this solution at a seven. If they improved the usability by adding instructions into the console, I'd probably rate them a nine.