Compare IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

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Most Helpful Review
AlirezaDanestehpoor
The footproot of the arrays is significantly smaller while the application response time has approved
One of the best things about the AFF products is its integration with NetApp StorageGRID, which can give you the ability of tiering to the cloud or... Read more »
Ahmed Zaki
Simple licensing, good performance, and easy to use and administer
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Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series and other solutions. Updated: January 2021.
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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 features that I found most valuable are SnapMirror and SnapVault; these provide DR and backup for data redundancy.""The valuable features are the fabric pool. We are taking our cold data and pumping it straight into an estuary bucket. Also, efficiency. We're getting about two and a half times upwards of data efficiency through compaction, compression, deduplication, and it's size. When we refreshed from two or three racks of spinning discs down into 5U of rack space, it not only saved us a whole heap of costs in our data center environment but also it's nice to be green. The power savings alone equated to be about 50 tons of CO2 a year that we no longer emit. It's a big game changer.""Tech support has been absolutely amazing. I think on the technical aspects as well, my staff is able to get great support from the NetApp technical support resources that we have. What I love about NetApp is they have a health care division. At times, it's such an amazing thing because if we have a healthcare-related issue, there's no one better than having prior CIOs from health care organizations that NetApp has hired, and that are part of the health care team, to help out with any of those initiatives and support problems. Support has been absolutely phenomenal.""This solution has reduced our data center costs because when we went from the 8000 and 3200 series that took us from 20 racks of storage down to two.""The solution’s thin provisioning has allowed us to add new applications without having to purchase additional storage. We use thin provisioning for everything. We use the deduplication compression functionality for all of our NetApps. If we weren't using thin provisioning, we'd probably have two to times more storage on our floor right now than we do today.""The most valuable features of this solution are the deduplication and the ability to move data to different clouds.""The most valuable features of this solution are snapshotting and cloning.""The overall latency in our environment is very low because it's All Flash and we've got 10 Giga dedicated to the storage network"

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"The initial setup was really straightforward. It was not complex. Deployment took one month, due to the data migration duration.""The performance of the All-Flash System is very good. There is more enhanced performance and data production in the solution, which I appreciate.""Stability-wise, this solution is fine.""The feature I find most valuable, is the deduplication, because the nature of the data that we are using in our current environment, has a lot of replicated data.""We are a 100% satisfied with the stability of the solution.""The most valuable features are deduplication and compression.""The ability to create LUNs and modify them are the most valuable features of this solution.""The most valuable features are deduplication and compression, which together, enable you to have more space."

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"The FlexClone feature is the solution's most valuable aspect.""We are satisfied with the stability.""Ability to cluster two storages together with HA availability.""The solution offers very good reliable systems and storage for our clients.""The price of this solution is good."

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Cons
"I would like to see an improvement in the high availability of the NFS and CIFS sharing during upgrade and patching; this would help to avoid downtime.""I would like for them to develop the ability to detach the fabric pool. Once you've added it to an aggregate it's there for life and it would be nice to disconnect it if we ever had to.""The total cost of ownership has increased a little.""We would like to have NVMe on FabricPool working because it broke our backups. We enabled FabricPool to do the tiering from our AFFs to our Webscale but it sort of broke our Cobalt backups.""Something I've talked to NetApp about in the past is going more to a node-based architecture, like the hyper-converged solutions that we are doing nowadays. Because the days of having to buy massive quantities of storage all at one time, have changed to being able to grow in smaller increments from a budgetary standpoint. This change would be great for our business. This is what my leadership would like to see in a lot of things that they purchase now. I would like to see that architecture continue to evolve in that clustered environment.""It would be very useful if we could do the NFS to CIFS file transfer, but it is not supported at this time.""The cost of this solution should be reduced.""It has not reduced our data center costs. NetApp charges a pretty penny for their stuff."

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"The solution is not able to replicate data in one-to-many scenario.""The solution is not easy to implement. It takes a lot of time to study the product and it's a little complicated in general.""This solution needs a management console where we are alerted to issues and can report them, or escalate them through email or another method.""I would like to see an improvement in the handling of large amounts of rights.""I think the only thing the developers can look at, is that it is limited to 25 gigabytes currently. In the next release they might want to increase that.""The ease of installation should be improved. We had issues with the configuration model.""Enterprise data storage needs improvement. They should create a feature for data and file storage.""The security features can be improved such that the encryption does not affect performance in any way."

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"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.""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.""This is an expensive solution.""The licensing model needs to be revisited. It needs to be simplified.""Many people do not realize that Lenovo has a storage solution, so better marketing from the vendor is needed."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series Cons »

Pricing and Cost Advice
"The pricing is good.""It consolidates a lot of our storage into one or two chassis, which makes money savings in our data center.""We have used the solution’s thin provisioning to add new applications without having to purchase additional storage. We use thin provisioning on all of our flash arrays at this point. It gives us the choice to be able to overprovision and take advantage of compression, compaction, and thin provisioning all at the same time. We can get more out of the purchases that we make.""I would like it to be a lot less expensive, but it's been a very good solution for us.""The price of the upgrading of the solution is high. I could buy a whole unit of All Flash FAS 300 with a shelf for around $285,000. Yet if I want to add one additional shelf, it'll cost me $275,000. So they want you to upgrade by replacing it. It's cheaper to buy a whole new unit than to just scale out. The upside is they last. AFF lasts us three or four years. So that's a good investment.""It definitely reduces costs because it simply takes less power to run these systems. While the SSDs don't take power, they are in general very big right now. So, the running cost has decreased for a lot of our customers.""We benefited from implementing all-flash by reducing our data center footprint. We took it from 30 racks to just over five. This is one of the biggest savings for us.""One of the reasons we like this solution is that all of the features are included with the one license."

More NetApp AFF (All Flash FAS) Pricing and Cost Advice »

"For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included.""The integration is already included in the license cost of IBM FlashSystem. The integration is very easy. You get the IBM storage core with all software, firmware, and upgrades. EMC provides the features in the box, but they are not free for customers. There is a licensing cost for features. We have yearly licensing, but IBM has also provided a new option where you pay as you go. They provide a big box, and I pay, for example, for 10 terabytes. If I exceed 10 terabytes, IBM will charge for the new storage after 10 terabytes. It is a good opportunity in the market for using the storage as a cloud and paying as you go.""They've been much more aggressive in the last five, six years than they were before that.""This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced it would be better.""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.""Its price is very good."

More IBM FlashSystem Pricing and Cost Advice »

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Questions from the Community
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
Top Answer: Well, Is one thing NetApp Storage has vs other brand is the mix of protocol CIFS with NFS booth working together in the… more »
Read all 8 answers
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
Top Answer: This question is very dependent on your requirements. Both are among the best in the field. Of course, the intended cost… more »
Read all 8 answers
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
Top Answer: The answer depends on your needs and budget. If you want high performance (who doesn't) or let's say the latency matters… more »
Read all 8 answers
Other solutions comparable to IBM FlashSystem with regard to performance?
Top Answer: The short answer is no, because IBM uses micro controllers and not the traditional design of a microprocessor based AFA… more »
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Also Known As
NetApp All Flash FAS, NetApp AFF, NetApp Flash FASIBM StorwizeThinkSystem DM Series
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Overview

NetApp AFF8000 All Flash FAS systems combine all-flash performance with unified data management from flash to disk to cloud.  Leverage the Data Fabric to move data securely across your choice of clouds—enabled by Cloud ONTAP™ and NetApp Private Storage for Cloud. Plus, you get the industry’s most efficient and comprehensive integrated data protection suite, on premises or in the cloud.

IBM FlashSystem products are enterprise computer data storage systems that store data on flash memory chips. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. This hardware provides performance, reliability, and efficiency benefits versus competitive offerings.

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.

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Sample Customers
Acibadem Healthcare Group, AmTrust Financial Services, Citrix Systems, DWD, Mantra GroupCelero, 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
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Top Industries
REVIEWERS
Healthcare Company16%
Financial Services Firm12%
Energy/Utilities Company9%
Retailer8%
VISITORS READING REVIEWS
Computer Software Company31%
Comms Service Provider22%
Manufacturing Company12%
Government5%
REVIEWERS
Financial Services Firm32%
Government15%
Comms Service Provider12%
Healthcare Company9%
VISITORS READING REVIEWS
Computer Software Company32%
Comms Service Provider24%
Financial Services Firm7%
Government5%
VISITORS READING REVIEWS
Comms Service Provider35%
Computer Software Company26%
Manufacturing Company9%
Legal Firm5%
Company Size
REVIEWERS
Small Business12%
Midsize Enterprise12%
Large Enterprise76%
VISITORS READING REVIEWS
Small Business10%
Midsize Enterprise10%
Large Enterprise79%
REVIEWERS
Small Business37%
Midsize Enterprise13%
Large Enterprise49%
VISITORS READING REVIEWS
Small Business16%
Midsize Enterprise25%
Large Enterprise59%
No Data Available
Free Report: IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series and other solutions. Updated: January 2021.
Download now
456,719 professionals have used our research since 2012.

IBM FlashSystem is ranked 6th in All-Flash Storage Arrays with 16 reviews while Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is ranked 17th in All-Flash Storage Arrays with 5 reviews. IBM FlashSystem is rated 8.0, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is rated 7.4. The top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem writes "Simple licensing, good performance, and easy to use and administer". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series writes "Reliable, but has a difficult licensing process and needs more storage". IBM FlashSystem is most compared with Dell EMC Unity XT, Pure Storage FlashArray, HPE 3PAR StoreServ, HPE StorageWorks MSA and Dell EMC PowerStore, whereas Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is most compared with Dell EMC Unity XT, Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, HPE Nimble Storage, NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays and Pure Storage FlashArray. See our IBM FlashSystem vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series report.

See our list of best All-Flash Storage Arrays vendors.

We monitor all All-Flash Storage Arrays 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.