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IBM System Storage DS5000 Series vs NetApp FAS Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM System Storage DS5000 S...
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (4th), NAS (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 19.2%, up from 16.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Gustavo Rosello - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides solid hardware and ROI to users
Companies or groups of business units are growing fast. We have perhaps between four and five more people than what it was two years ago, so the systems are increasing, and now we are working with RPA in some of our processes for automation, especially wherever it is mandatory in the financial branch, like a common investment fund and the investment in action or where there are other products. Our market is directly related to small business. We are working with companies where data translation is needed or where invoices, specifically credit invoices, the negotiation of cheques, or a doc that shows receipt of money, which you can sell at a future date. We have a sub-warehouse that has a back office in the cloud to use all operations related to creditors so that the company can increase its share in the markets. I think that we may need something on-premises in the future. The trends indicate that users are returning to on-premises systems because of the high cost of public clouds. We are looking for a better data center. In Argentina, hardware costs are high, but now, it is a great investment. We are slowly planning to expand the tool. In the USA, when it comes to object-first devices, there is a cost of 48,000 USD for 128 TB, but in Argentina, the cost is 64,000 USD for 84 TB. In Argentina, we have a lot of taxes, and the government is in the process of reducing these taxes, but now we have a situation associated with our economy. Out of 100 companies, only two are seeking employees. We are waiting for the recovery of the economy, but everything here is expensive apart from the salaries.
Paweł Jabłoński - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for VMs with replication a feature, but need upgraded SSDs
We use this solution. I configured and updated it. Of course, I was also a user of applications that store data on that storage. We already have an SSD solution. So, rather than planning to go with an SSD solution, we are focusing on expanding it. If a company wants to deploy something new, it should choose a product with SSD, and NVMe disks. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature is compression."
"You can easily virtualize and share the storage."
"The tool is very stable...The solution's scalability is very good."
"The IBM System Storage DS5000 Series can be integrated into various platforms such as IBM, Intel, Linux, and others. It provides flexibility in integration wherever storage is required."
"The solution offers an excellent price-performance ratio, including SSDs and compression capabilities. This results in faster performance and potential space savings due to compression."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The solution is reliable."
"The system would work well for the customer."
"The support is very good."
"It's a stable product. No issues there."
"This solution provides us with easy management and great vendor support."
"It helps us meet all customer requirements. Customers have been using NetApp for many years. They are very satisfied with NetApp and continue to use NetApp and upgrade to new solutions."
"NetApp's cloud-based PaaS has been a massive help for unstructured data."
"The tool's most valuable features are ease of use, ease of access, expandability, availability, and performance. NVMe drives have improved their performance."
"The most valuable feature for us is the combining of HA and SnapMirror."
"It has integrated snapshot and backup capability."
 

Cons

"The product should improve its support."
"Improving software installation and licensing retrieval would make using IBM System Storage DS5000 series easier for customers."
"The solution is not flexible enough."
"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."
"The amount of storage could be increased."
"IBM System Storage DS5000 is expensive when compared to other vendors."
"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."
"The solution's integration with other tools could be improved."
"Dedicated storage efficiency accelerators could improve the overall performance of the system."
"One area that needs improvement is the hyper-converged solution. Although NetApp has a solution, compared to Nutanix, it falls short."
"I would like to see less latency and higher IOPS."
"NetApp could improve costs while making the solution more straightforward to use and deploy."
"The solution's configuration is not flexible."
"Needs to ​add wizards for newer, inexperienced users."
"The product must support more drives."
"If our customer needs a high-performance storage solution then we don't recommend this product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It's an expensive solution."
"It is a competitively priced solution. The cost can vary depending on whether it is purchased from the hardware or the software departments."
"We mounted all the virtualization with less than 1,50,000 USD. We are negotiating to get the tool for 800,000,000 Argentine Pesos. The tool is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"Its price is fair. IBM is quite fair in price when you compare it with others. We also use Hitachi internally, and Hitachi is always a little bit more expensive. NetApp is also a bit more expensive. So, IBM has good positioning in terms of price."
"Compared to other vendors, I think it's expensive."
"This product is priced well. The ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it."
"The process for going to cluster mode is expensive."
"The only area that could be improved is to lower prices for their All Flash FAS."
"In general, I find NetApp to be very expensive. That's the main issue I have with them. So it's a drawback in terms of pricing."
"The price of the NetApp FAS Series is reasonable and it provides value for the money with the feature sets. NetApp FAS Series are competing with Huawei storage which has an office and does aggressive marketing with a discount. However, we found that if our customers do a technology refresh they are happy with the performance of the NetApp FAS Series."
"NetApp FAS Series could be less expensive."
"Cost effective storage for all performance levels (including all-flash)."
"I don't recall the price, but in general, pricing can always be better."
"It is a moderately low-priced platform."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
61%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
The price fits well with the proposal of this equipment. Although IBM is not cheap, the cost fits well with the propose.
What needs improvement with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
There are some functions that can only be used in prompt mode. If these functions could be shown in the graphical interface, it could be better.
Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
Cost is a big factor in our decision-making process. When we're buying storage, the first thing we look at is how much we're paying per gigabyte. Cost has been the driving factor when choosing this...
 

Also Known As

System Storage DS5000 series
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Engine Informštica
Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM System Storage DS5000 Series vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.