Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays comparison

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Pure Storage Logo
1,926 views|1,154 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Lenovo Logo
3,894 views|3,329 comparisons
55% willing to recommend
NetApp Logo
955 views|697 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series and NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two All-Flash Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays Report (Updated: March 2024).
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The initial setup was extremely simple and straightforward.""Offers excellent features like efficient data reduction, a reliable SafeMode, and a great support model for continuous assistance and updates.""Pure has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator.""One of the best features is the support, which is excellent.""Technical support has been helpful and responsive.""Overall stability is very good. It is a very stable solution.""The solution is scalable.""It's helped us because we've changed fundamentally what we talk about. We don't talk about storage and different tiers of storage anymore nor do we talk about servers. We talk now about applications and how applications impact the business and end users."

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"We are satisfied with the stability.""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 product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload.""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.""The solution offers very good reliable systems and storage for our clients.""The most valuable feature of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its ability to store data well.""Ability to cluster two storages together with HA availability.""The price of this solution is good."

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"The stability, speed, and reliability are the solution's best features. The information is also very secure.""We do a lot of in-house, application-dependent type things, where we find the different niches to the different things. Certain things they do better. We've found that it actually does very well on some of our higher-end applications.""Having the option of such high-speed storage in the data center is what makes it valuable.""It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.""We use it for our VDI environment, and have not had any complaints with it.""The main advantage of this solution is performance.""It provides multi-protocol, which is what gives the edge when it comes to big lineage PC workloads.""The solution allows us to segregate one storage unit from another."

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Cons
"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services.""We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI.""In the future, I would like to see integration with enterprise backup systems.""Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe.""The UI for this solution needs to be improved.""We need better data deduplication.""They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage.""Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

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"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.""Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could improve by having a snapshot feature. Additionally, there can be other features added to help restore the data faster.""The solution should change the licensing model and allow customers to choose features based on their requirements.""This is an expensive solution.""Many people do not realize that Lenovo has a storage solution, so better marketing from the vendor is needed.""The Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series was very hard to configure. Installation of the product was very hard. These are its areas for improvement.""I would like Lenovo to add a feature like IBM Easy Tier to DM Series. This is a crucial feature for the customers.""The solution needs a simpler licensing theme around the DM series. The problem is if you only need one of the features, you still have to buy the whole thing. The licensing needs to be more granular or flexible so you have the option to only license FlexCone or Inline Compression features."

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"Its pricing should be better. Its price is competitive, but they need to improve the pricing. They have different licensing models, which they need to improve. My expectation was cloud integration, which they have, but it is a different license. Therefore, people cannot enjoy it. If I want to use it, I need to pay extra. There is a cost involved for everything, but it should reach everyone. It is similar to having a Rolls-Royce, but you need to pay extra for the key. If you want the key, you need to pay.""As far as the manageability, being able to port between the two and have to do less training in-house from a customer point of view, that would be the part to improve.""Better integration with other brands is important so we would like to see it easier to integrate.""This solution does not have any compression or deduplication.""It was difficult to implement and lacks some additional features that would be useful, but as a solution fits a particular need for our organization.""This solution has limited storage.""I would like to shrink it more, if we can. The smaller, the better.""The dashboard could be simplified."

More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."
  • "We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."
  • "With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."
  • "Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."
  • "As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."
  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "The licensing is on a yearly basis."
  • More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "The price of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is good."
  • "The solution is highly-priced."
  • "The solution's pricing is similar to Dell and HPE."
  • More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It's a lot cheaper than what the other vendors have for the same type of environment. It saves us money."
  • "Cheaper pricing is always good. NetApp has been doing everything the right way. They've been figuring out things really well, going in the right direction."
  • "It's a way to get relatively low-cost, very high-performance, low-latency block storage as a point solution."
  • "The price point for EF is considerably lower than the alternatives."
  • "he price point that we're getting is very competitive in the market. Since we are buying in such a large quantity, they gave us a huge discount."
  • "The pricing of this solution is competitive with other vendors here in Egypt."
  • "The pricing is comparable with other competitors and similar in mid-range solutions, and for high range solutions, it would depend on our requirements or needs."
  • "Adding more capacity will increase the cost."
  • More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.
    Top Answer:The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it… more »
    Top Answer:The tool's pricing is higher than competitors.
    Top Answer:The product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload.
    Top Answer:Considering the cost, I find NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays to be the best storage available in the market.
    Top Answer:If one is cheap and ten is expensive, then I'd rate the pricing a three.
    Top Answer:The only major drawback is the replication between EF-Series units. Both the EF-series and NetApp are marketing this… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X
    ThinkSystem DM Series
    NetApp EF540, NetApp EF-Series
    Learn More
    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.

    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.

    The NetApp EF560 all-flash array is an all-SSD storage system for applications that demand extremely high levels of performance and reliability. Requiring just 2U of rack space, the EF560 all-flash array combines extreme IOPS, microsecond response times, and up to 12GBps of bandwidth with leading, enterprise-proven availability features.

    Sample Customers
    Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company
    Information Not Available
    RP Data, Western Oregon University, Toei Animation
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Healthcare Company23%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Media Company15%
    Energy/Utilities Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company22%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise35%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business71%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise21%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise26%
    Large Enterprise46%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise53%
    Buyer's Guide
    Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is ranked 20th in All-Flash Storage with 11 reviews while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is ranked 23rd in All-Flash Storage with 38 reviews. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is rated 7.6, while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series writes "Simple deployment, stores data well, but missing features". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays writes "A storage solution that offers great stability, resilience, and support". Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is most compared with NetApp AFF, Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, Dell Unity XT, Dell PowerStore and NetApp FAS Series, whereas NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, Huawei OceanStor Dorado, IBM FlashSystem and HPE Primera. See our Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays report.

    See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.

    We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.