We compared NetApp AFF and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
Users praise NetApp AFF for exceptional performance, scalability, and efficient data management with positive ROI. In contrast, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is valued for powerful performance, reliability, and robust data protection. NetApp AFF receives high marks for customer service, pricing, and integration, while improved performance and a more user-friendly interface are needed. On the other hand, the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could benefit from enhancements in performance, stability, scalability, and user-friendliness.
Features: Key differences: - NetApp AFF: emphasizes exceptional performance, efficient data management, high availability, and integration with various applications and systems. - Lenovo ThinkSystem DM: focuses on powerful performance, reliable storage capabilities, ease of management, impressive scalability, and robust data protection.
Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for NetApp AFF is straightforward and does not pose difficulties. User feedback suggests that the pricing is competitive and offers good value. On the other hand, the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series has a reported fairly straightforward and hassle-free setup cost. Users are satisfied with the flexibility and options available in terms of licensing., The ROI of NetApp AFF was positive and impressive, with increased productivity, efficiency, data storage capabilities, reliability, and performance. It seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructure and offers enhanced data protection. On the other hand, the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series also provided a profitable ROI.
Room for Improvement: NetApp AFF could benefit from improvements in performance optimization, integration, software functionality, scalability, complexity, and user-friendly interface. Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series needs enhancements in performance, stability, scalability, expandability, user interface, reliability, and support.
Deployment and customer support: Based on user reviews, the duration required for establishing a new tech solution can vary greatly for both NetApp AFF and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series. Some users of NetApp AFF spent three months on deployment and an additional week on setup, while others required only a week for both phases. Similarly, users of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series reported spending three months on deployment and a week on setup, but some also stated that they needed one week for both phases. The reviews emphasize the importance of considering deployment and setup as separate phases for both products, but also suggest that these terms may refer to the same period and should be evaluated together., NetApp AFF's customer service excels with highly praised assistance, prompt response times, and helpful guidance. Users value the reliability and professionalism displayed. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series also receives positive feedback, with users appreciating the responsiveness and knowledgeable support provided.
The summary above is based on 50 interviews we conducted recently with NetApp AFF and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"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 helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."
"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."
"It has good, reliable, fast storage."
"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."
"Offers excellent features like efficient data reduction, a reliable SafeMode, and a great support model for continuous assistance and updates."
"The system allows for seamless learning experiences, facilitating quick and easy cloning of environments within minutes."
"The high availability of the product is the most valuable feature."
"Ability to cluster two storages together with HA availability."
"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its ability to store data well."
"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 price of this solution is good."
"The product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload."
"We are satisfied with the stability."
"The solution offers very good reliable systems and storage for our clients."
"Scalable and stable storage array."
"I think it is a very stable product."
"If the AutoSupport is well configured, then you need not to do a monitoring. You will get call and mail when any issue is completed."
"Batch times went from approximately seven hours down to about two and a half. Functionality during the day, such as taking or removing snapshots and cloning instances, is higher than it has ever been."
"It is a stable solution."
"Our architecture has historically relied on RDMs, so AFF has enabled us to easily migrate from our old EMC PowerMax to the new NetApp. It's been pretty smooth. We have a lot of SAP servers in our environment, so performance is critical for us."
"High availability"
"AFF helps us improve performance for our enterprise applications, data analytics and VMs. We have moved our primary data stores for production over to AFF, and a lot of the problems that might happened have gone away."
"Other manufacturers claim simplicity. In fact, frankly, they do have an advantage in that regard, however, they don't have the functionality. If you were to compare one of those products to NetApp, head to head from a feature perspective, NetApp would wind up in the top 10."
"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."
"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."
"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."
"It is on the expensive side."
"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."
"The tool's pricing is higher than competitors."
"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."
"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."
"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."
"The tool's pricing is high."
"This is an expensive solution."
"Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could improve by having a snapshot feature. Additionally, there can be other features added to help restore the data faster."
"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."
"I would rate the support of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series a four out of five."
"As for AFF itself, I don't have any suggestions of what I would be excited about seeing. I think that adding the support for the rest of APIs to AFF would be super handy. I think it's something that we've been waiting for for a while which would be fantastic."
"I really don't have anything to ask for in this regard, because we're not really pushing the envelope on any of our use cases. NetApp is really staying out ahead of all of our needs. I believe that there were firmware issues. I think it was just a mismatch of things that were going on. It could have possibly been something in the deployment process that wasn't done exactly right."
"It would be nice to have better integration between SRM and VMware, as I've had some issues with that."
"One of the areas that the product can improve is definitely in the user interface. We don't use it for SAN, but we've looked at using it for SAN and the SAN workflows are really problematic for my admins, and they just don't like doing SAN provisioning on that app. That really needs to change if we're going to adopt it and actually consider it to be a strong competitor versus some of the other options out there."
"The system is pretty stable but most of the ONTAP versions are not really stable. There have been multiple bugs in different ONTAP versions."
"The total cost of ownership has increased a little."
"We were migrating from Data ONTAP 7-Mode to its Cluster-Mode. Therefore, we had to get swing gear, then do the migration from loner gear and back onto our new gear. This was a bit difficult. It took us several months to do multiple migrations."
"The dashboard needs improvement. The dashboard needs some uplift"
Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is ranked 21st in All-Flash Storage with 11 reviews while NetApp AFF is ranked 2nd in All-Flash Storage with 281 reviews. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is rated 7.6, while NetApp AFF is rated 9.0. 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 AFF writes "Since switching, our clients have reported improved performance and reduced latency". Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is most compared with Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, Dell Unity XT, Dell PowerStore, IBM FlashSystem and NetApp NVMe AFF A800, whereas NetApp AFF is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Dell Unity XT, Pure Storage FlashArray, VMware vSAN and NetApp FAS Series. See our Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs. NetApp AFF report.
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