Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs NetApp FAS Series comparison

Lenovo and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Additionally, 100% of Lenovo users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series and NetApp FAS Series 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 DE Series vs. NetApp FAS Series Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. NetApp FAS Series

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Featured Reviews

Paul Pearson

Storage and Backup Architect at Concentrix

Apr 25, 2022

Works well, is easy to implement, and has upgrade analysis capabilities

Currently, it's our tier-one storage. We use it mostly for our Oracle databases It has drastically improved the performance of our high-end Oracle databases and allows us the ability to replication to a DR location with ease. We love the product. Pure Storage works really well. The CAT tool and…

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Sameh Moamen

Infrastructure Manager at Arabian Cement Company

Jul 29, 2019

Meets requirements for hosting our Virtual Machines in three data centers

We use this solution to house our VMware Virtual Machines. We have three data centers, and I am responsible for troubleshooting the environment. We are currently using the on-premise deployment model, although we are starting our migration to AWS. I expect that it will take no more than six or…

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Arnaud Salmon

Presales Engineer at SFR

Oct 17, 2023

Offers good performance and

Once, I've been in a program, but they stopped supporting protocols like HTTP, STP, and that kind of stuff. All of the DIP supports at the beginning were kind of support when it was just Python and just five storage. And it happened a few times that the customer required the STP and HTTP protocol for storage. And I was surprised I couldn't do it anymore with NetApp. So, it would be beneficial for them to support both kinds of protocols. The only little black points that I would put on top of NetApp FAS Series. There is room for improvement in deployment and configuration processes. The thing with ONTAP is that we have a lot of layers, from the raw disks to the volumes we present to servers and configure. There are quite a lot of things to configure. Probably NetApp should ease the way to install that. In NetApp products, such as ONTAP and FAS, a solid understanding of storage is still necessary to handle configurations in larger systems. It's not the same with Pure Storage or Huawei. Even someone less familiar with storage could manage it, making it more accessible.

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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 most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

"The initial setup was extremely simple and straightforward."

"The solution is very straightforward to set up."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe has low latency and high Ops. It is an evergreen model."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"It has benefited my organization because it has reduced time to insights."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"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."

"The solution is very easy to set up."

"Its initial setup process is easy."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"

"We have been working with the solution for around a year and so far it has shown itself to be stable."

"Fewer features is not necessarily a negative as it leads to simpler operation and lower price."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is highly reliable, especially for block-level storage. It is stable, with minimal downtime and no issues beyond user errors."

"ThinkSystem's storage performs well, and the price per gigabyte is good, especially on SSD solutions. It's also easy to use."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pros

"Using the built-in Snapshots and SnapMirror technology, we were able to have better working data protection locally and off-site."

"The most important features are SnapVault, Snapshots, and SnapMirror."

"End-users like that they can rely on the Snapshot technology so they can do their restores themselves."

"The tool's most valuable features are ease of use, ease of access, expandability, availability, and performance. NVMe drives have improved their performance."

"Good for NAS and unified solutions."

"The best feature is its ONTAP product line for Ransomware protection. It also has features for file storage and block storage. The solution is stable. We've had no issues with it. The tool is scalable and meets our requirements. The technical support and the supporting partner are great. The initial setup is straightforward. It is very easy to maintain the product. The feature set is excellent. I recommend the solution."

"Ability to use mirroring and SnapVault have made backup no longer necessary."

"One of the most valuable features offered is double-parity RAID, which guarantees that your data will stay intact. We're also able to provision storage and monitor which ones are really consuming storage."

More NetApp FAS Series pros

Cons

"One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them."

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."

"I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert."

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

"Efficiency improvements would always be welcome, but I'm not sure if they could get more efficient."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"Improvements can be made to the product's performance."

"Usually, when a part fails, we have to replace it and it takes a while. It would be better if the part could be available locally here in Kenya so we don't have to wait so long to repair the solution."

"There could be a snapshot feature in the solution."

"The features are limited."

"In the next release, I would like to see support for Hyper-converged infrastructure."

"In the next release, I would like to see more functionality. But, again, it is an entry-level product."

"ThinkSystem could be better integrated with backup software like Commvault, Veritas, or Symantec."

"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."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series cons

"NetApp needs to put its OS on a microchip rather than on disks."

"It could be more flexible in terms of configuration."

"Its operating system is very cumbersome. However, after you set it up, it runs pretty smoothly. Its file system is not very dynamic. It is very static."

"The high cost of the product is an area of concern, so from an improvement perspective, the tool needs to be made cheaper."

"Technical support needs to be improved, as there are no longer partners in our country."

"There is room for improvement in deployment and configuration processes."

"The NetApp FAS Series is not as high-performing and is not as fast. Its speed needs improvement, but this could only be done if it's an all-flash solution."

"No other area for improvement comes to mind other than its price. Making the price more attractive will help this solution have a bigger market share."

More NetApp FAS Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

"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."

"The product is expensive."

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The solution's price could be better."

"The price of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is a one-time purchase. There is a global price list available to find the price of the solution."

"The pricing for this solution is good compared to HP or Dell EMC."

"The pricing is fair and low compared to other products in this category."

"The best thing about this solution is its price, which reduces our costs."

"For an all-flash setup, the cost is around $20,000 for a decent configuration."

"All of the features are bundled together, and you can renew the bundle with all of the features included."

"We have a five-year contract for providing support."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pricing and cost advice

"If we want a ransomware solution with the product or other extended features, we need to pay an extra cost."

"When we need to implement a less expensive solution we use Huawei. NetApp FAS Series is a little bit expensive compared to the average of the market."

"The scalability is pretty good, but it's too expensive."

"The price it not low, but comparing features to other vendors, the price can be balanced."

"I don't recall the price, but in general, pricing can always be better."

"The price, compared to competitors, is quite high."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being expensive. We pay a one-time purchase price."

"The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is reasonable for its performance."

More NetApp FAS Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

61%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

After implementation, there are limitations, such as the number of paths, file systems, and replication options. It f...

See all answers

What do you like most about Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

The solution's initial setup process is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

For an all-flash setup, the cost is around $20,000 for a decent configuration.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

The product could support advanced software integrations.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp FAS Series?

Flexibility in data replication.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?

The pricing depends on the disks we choose. We got quite a good price compared to Huawei Dorado because we compared t...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 39% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 16% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 34% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 12% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 11% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 8% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Competitors

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 25% of the time

NetApp AFF vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 12% of the time

HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 6% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

October 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

November 2024

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series

October 2024

Download NetApp FAS Series product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

ThinkSystem DE Series

No data available

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Pure Storage

Lenovo

NetApp

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.

The DE All-Flash Series delivers the performance of more than 2,000 15k rpm HDDs, yet requires only 2% of the rack space, power, and cooling. Because it consumes 98% less space and power, DE Series can significantly improve the overall efficiency of your IT operations while continuing to meet your performance requirements.

NetApp FAS series is an enterprise-level storage system that provides a wide variety of data management services, including data protection, block and file storage, and data management.

NetApp FAS is designed to be highly scalable, allowing your organization to grow storage capacity on demand. NetApp FAS also supports multiple protocols, including NFS, SMB, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel, as well as various storage architectures, including SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network-Attached Storage).

The FAS series has multiple data protection and data management features, including snapshots, cloning, replication, and deduplication, to help secure your data and manage it more efficiently. The system integrates with other NetApp products and solutions, to create a unified data management platform. The system can be deployed on-premise, on multi-cloud environments, or hybrid.

NetApp FAS Series Benefits and Features

NetApp FAS series provides its users with several key benefits and features, including:

Scalability: NetApp FAS series is easy to scale, allowing organizations to rapidly grow their storage capacity according to demand.

Security: Protect and manage your data with various data protection and data management tools, including snapshots, cloning, replication, and deduplication.

Seamless integration: Integrate with other NetApp products and solutions to ensure a unified data management platform across on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

Reduced costs: Consolidation of multiple storage boxes greatly reduces the data center footprint. From a management point of view, with NetApp FAS you manage a single storage box instead of multiple storage boxes.
Compatibility: Forward and backward compatibility ensures that you don’t have to trade in existing controllers. New controllers can always integrate with previously released controllers.

Multi-protocol support: Support for multiple protocols, including NFS, SMB, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel.

High performance and availability: The solution has high input and output per second performance and ensures that critical data remains accessible in the event of a hardware failure.
Intuitive interface: The FAS series has a user-friendly interface and management dashboard, making it easy to manage your storage systems. With unified management, you can quickly run a single protocol on your entire system
Data cloning and replication: Easily clone databases of any size. Clones occupy a very, very small footprint on the storage until they are severed from the main database. Replications carried out by the system are fast and require very little bandwidth.

Reviews from Real Users

NetApp FAS Series stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its speed, reliability, and a wide variety of features.

Adriano S., IT project and infrastructure service manager, writes, “The replication feature is noteworthy because it's faster than most and it uses little bandwidth. Then there's the friendly interface that the equipment offers. With this interface, it is very easy to manage.”

Temitope O., a NetApp product manager at Hiperdist Ltd, says, “I like the unified management feature because sometimes you end up running a single protocol on the entire system. You rather have a system for a particular protocol and another system for other protocols, especially in a big environment like mine.”

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Information Not Available

Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. NetApp FAS Series

October 2024

Free Report: Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. NetApp FAS Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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