Dell SC Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series comparison

Dell Technologies and Lenovo are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.8, while Lenovo is ranked #20 with an average rating of 10.0. Dell Technologies holds a 0.8% mindshare in AFS, compared to Lenovo’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Lenovo users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell SC Series and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series offer robust storage solutions, competing in the enterprise storage market. Dell SC Series holds the upper hand in price and customer support, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series excels in feature set and long-term ROI.

Features: Dell SC Series is praised for its scalability, providing flexible capacity expansion, efficient tiered storage, and data migration capabilities. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series offers high performance with rapid data access, superior reliability with minimal downtime, and advanced data protection.

Room for Improvement: Dell SC Series users note the need for speed enhancements, better management tools, and a smoother update process. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series could improve integration with other systems, enhance firmware update processes, and offer a more intuitive management interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell SC Series receives positive feedback for straightforward deployment and reliable customer service. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series also earns high marks for ease of deployment, but its comprehensive setup support is especially noted. While Lenovo's customer service is good, it slightly trails behind Dell's.

Pricing and ROI: Dell SC Series is known for its cost-effectiveness, providing substantial ROI quickly. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series, though more expensive upfront, delivers significant long-term ROI through its advanced features, making it a valuable investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell SC Series is 0.8%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is 2.4%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

Read full review

RafaelGamaluis

Architect Engineer, IT INFRASTRUCTURES Project Manager at Vilavi

User interface offers clarity and detailed information while technical support consistently delivers

The best features of Dell SC Series are stability and replication. The replication solution is excellent, and they have a solution named Live Migration. It is a robust platform. The interface and the GUI (graphical user interface) for administrating the Compellent are exceptional, with abundant information that is very clear. The management capabilities are excellent, and the stability of our storage hardware is remarkable.

Read full review

Gastone Canali

IT Consultant at Effegibi

Provides good stability and is reliable in terms of performance

The solution is reliable in terms of performance They should include a snapshot feature for the solution. We have been using the solution for two to three years. The solution is stable. We have 60 solution users in our organization. The solution's initial setup process is easy. It takes three…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"The solution uses newer technology for deduplication and compression."

"The standout features for us in Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its robust DDoS protection, seamless transparent failover, and failback capabilities ensuring high availability."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe will quickly overcome all the hurdles you face, including network and latency issues."

"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."

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

"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Pure FlashArray as ten."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is reliability."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The Dell support is helpful and the response is quick. The agents' knowledge is very good."

"Its leading feature is the price-performance ratio, which is very good."

"With auto-tiering, it's easier to understand than most arrays, knowing that all of your writes go to the tier that you specify, with easy-to-create storage profiles."

"We replicate between SAN to SAN for a lot of features and supportability. It also helps us when we want to upgrade to a newer SC Series or move the data from one data center to another."

"I've found the stability to be very good."

"Easy management of volumes: You can create volumes and easily assign them to VMware clusters, increasing their size."

"The setup is straightforward."

"A valuable feature is the performance of the auto-tiering. It will move hot data up to your fastest Tier 1 or move your slow data down. Data progression is what it's called. With the auto-tiering you can have multiple tiers, you can have your Tier 1 be either spinning or flash, all the way down to 7.2K. It will change the RAID on the fly so your writes come in at RAID 10. After they sit for a while, they get converted to RAID 5, then they'll cool off and move down the tiers. Your performance is kept going, while the cold data is moved to your slow, non-performance tiers."

More Dell SC Series pros

"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."

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

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"

"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 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's initial setup process is easy."

"I would rate the stability of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series as a ten."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pros

Cons

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

"There are some challenges with data encryption and reduction."

"I'd like to see the product implement active replication for vehicles such as VMware."

"The UI for this solution needs to be improved."

"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Managing data isn't difficult for me. The performance is usually perfect, but we sometimes have capacity problems."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"I don't think the solution is very scalable."

"While there's always room for improvement in everything, I can't really think of a specific feature of the solution that requires immediate attention."

"I would like to have 100% functionality through the web app."

"Dell SC Series is no longer available, while Dell PowerStore, which supports NVMe over TCP, is different and not very affordable."

"Some menus aren't so intuitive."

"I would like to see higher compression, dedupe, faster I/O, and bigger drives."

"It's not very efficient anymore. There are better products out there."

"Technical support should respond more quickly because the turnaround time is very high."

More Dell SC Series cons

"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."

"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."

"The solution could be more scalable, although it suits our present needs."

"The type of connection that is used in Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series should be improved."

"The product could support advanced software integrations."

"It would be useful to have structured solutions replicated to other sites."

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

"The features are limited."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"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."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We sell the hardware, and customers keep using it. They only renew the service part annually. The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there."

"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."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"We have reviewed many platforms over the years. It is probably the best solution for its value."

"It's absolutely affordable. Again, not having to do a forklift upgrade like some of the others have had to do in the past, it's very affordable for our customers and they continue to buy."

"The scalability seems a bit more expensive than even buying a brand new one so far. That has been kind of a drawback."

"We have the basic license for the use of this solution and it is a permanent license. The overall cost could be less, it is expensive."

"There are costs involving the solution, vendor fees and product safety which are additional."

"Support typically depends on the array. It can range anywhere from $7,000 to a couple of hundred thousand dollars."

"We were able to afford two tiers of flash storage at a price where the competition was giving us one tier or just a handful of discs."

"Always keep in mind, this is not just a enclosure with disks is a complete SAN as a service. There is software, license, and storage in one single solution."

More Dell SC Series pricing and cost advice

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

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

"The solution's price could be better."

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

"It is an expensive solution."

"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."

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

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

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

University

Performing Arts

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

University

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?

The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell SC Series?

I find this version to be more budget-friendly compared to products from other vendors. This aspect greatly benefits ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell SC Series?

In our case, we received favorable pricing with Dell because of our strong partnership. While I acknowledge that Dell...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell SC Series?

For us, it is a great product. The deduplication and compression could potentially be improved, though they are alrea...

See all answers

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

The price of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is very good. We chose this type of storage for the performance and the price.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

The type of connection that is used in Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series should be improved.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series?

I use Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series to replace the old storage in our infrastructure. Additionally, I use it in custom...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 25% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 17% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Dell SC Series

Compared 45% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell SC Series

Compared 10% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell SC Series

Compared 10% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell SC Series

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell SC Series

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell SC Series Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 30% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 13% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 13% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 9% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 9% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

August 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series

August 2025

Download Dell SC Series product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

July 2025

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series product report

Also Known As

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

SC Series Storage, Compellent

ThinkSystem DE Series

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.

Pure Storage

Dell EMC SC Series arrays provide a unified platform for the ultimate in performance, adaptability and machine-driven efficiency. SC Series software delivers modern features that help you meet aggressive workload demands using the fewest drives necessary. With an open, future-ready design, SC Series storage integrates seamlessly with applications and infrastructure, enabling you to scale on a single platform and add capabilities without forklift upgrades.

Dell Technologies

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.

Lenovo

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

TGen, Frost Science, Gerrie Electric

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

July 2025

Free Report: Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell SC Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series report.

See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.

We monitor all All-Flash Storage 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.