We performed a comparison between Lenovo ThinkSystem DE 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."FlashArray has many valuable features. It's very user-friendly and it has high availability, so there is comparatively less downtime. During maintenance, there is no shutdown procedure, so you can directly power off the Array and manage the shutdown process without any data loss, which is a unique feature. Managing replication and data migration is also very easy."
"Running SAP on Pure Storage helps a lot without doing any further tuning to improve application performance. Our internal clients are happy."
"The availability and ease of use are the big features."
"The most valuable features are the replication of data and the continuous snapshot that we can take from the disc."
"The most valuable features are extremely low latency, high IOPS with VMware, inline deduplication and compression."
"The product cheaper compared to other solutions concerning the technology that they are using."
"The GUI is very easy to use and intuitive."
"The speed is the most valuable feature, along with the ease of getting it connected. We were able to get it online in less than a day."
"The most valuable features of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series are the dual controllers, available installation documentation, and the option of multiple host bus adapter interfaces."
"Fewer features is not necessarily a negative as it leads to simpler operation and lower price."
"The solution is very easy to set up."
"The solution is very easy to troubleshoot. It's one of the most valuable features. It also doesn't take long to deploy and normally it comes with a three-year warranty."
"Its initial setup process is easy."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is quite an elementary box, no frills. It does not have all the functionality of the DM but it is acceptable, it does its task. It integrates pretty well."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"
"ThinkSystem's storage performs well, and the price per gigabyte is good, especially on SSD solutions. It's also easy to use."
"Rapid deployment, easy integration management and cloning of areas."
"The NetApp EF-Series gave our organization easy access to our data bases."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its speed."
"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The stability, speed, and reliability are the solution's best features. The information is also very secure."
"I like the performance aspect of EF Series. It basically provides everything that we are looking for as a solution, very low latency and very high performance."
"Considering the cost, I find NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays to be the best storage available in the market."
"Having the option of such high-speed storage in the data center is what makes it valuable."
"Currently, the solution fails to support file screening."
"They are doing some stuff with containers and an object search. These could be improved, because containers is one of the main topics that we are talking with our customers about."
"I recognize it's a difficult challenge, but I would like to see them make the pricing more reasonable."
"They should work on their upgrades, they're not smooth."
"FlashArray's capacity for forecasting should be improved because it needs to be a bit more current. I think it's bundled with the deduplication and other compression factors. We need more user interfaces for forecasting in this software and more interfaces need to be integrated with this array management tool."
"As long as they always improve on IOPS speed, that's all we're really looking for. The faster the storage can be the more we can do speed of application and speed of use."
"We would like to see better troubleshooting aspects. It helps us if we can find out where the problem is. Right now, it's difficult. Sometimes it's difficult to pinpoint the issue. If they had more visibility and more troubleshooting feature built into the tool that would really help."
"We understand that they're thinking about it, but one of the things that would be nice is if they added some basic file-level capabilities to the platform. The idea is that they would run a basic NFS or CIF share from the controllers. FlashBlade is the powerhouse for File and Object storage, but if you don't need all that power, a lightweight file function would make FlashArrays more versatile."
"The solution could be more scalable, although it suits our present needs."
"ThinkSystem could be better integrated with backup software like Commvault, Veritas, or Symantec."
"In the next release, I would like to see more functionality. But, again, it is an entry-level product."
"The features are limited."
"In the next release, I would like to see support for Hyper-converged infrastructure."
"It would be useful to have structured solutions replicated to other sites."
"The difficult part comes when dealing with the host. You have to enable multi-pathing and other aspects that are needed for proper configuration. I don't know if there is room for a more hyper-conversion structure to work with, but this would be easier."
"There could be a snapshot feature in the solution."
"I've observed an issue when creating a new storage solution with NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays."
"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."
"A little more manageability, a simpler management interface. It's not necessarily that it's way overly complex. It's just that it's not as easy as the FAS series."
"This solution has limited storage."
"I’d like to see bigger, faster, better hardware, of course. I think that is the way the hardware is trending anyway; bigger, faster CPU, better software, fewer bugs, all that stuff. T"
"Their problems are on the software and the controlling of the storage where they lack segmentation and federation."
"The solution's technical support is not as good as it is supposed to be since you have to push them to get support."
"I would like to have the ability to replicate data between All Flash and other NetApp storage systems."
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Lenovo ThinkSystem DE 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 DE Series is rated 8.6, while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series writes "Provides good stability and is reliable in terms of performance". 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 DE Series is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, NetApp AFF, IBM FlashSystem and Dell Unity XT, whereas NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is most compared with NetApp AFF, Dell PowerStore, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Huawei OceanStor Dorado and HPE Primera. See our Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays report.
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