Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series comparison

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series and Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is ranked #21 with an average rating of 10.0, while Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is ranked #22 with an average rating of 9.0. Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series holds a 2.1% mindshare in AFS, compared to Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 60% of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

The Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series are competitive storage solutions focusing on high-performance and robust features. While the DM Series stands out for its scalability and hybrid capabilities, the DE Series is recognized for its value-driven performance and cost-effectiveness.

Features: The DM Series offers advanced data management with snapshots, cloning, and support for a hybrid cloud environment. Users appreciate its comprehensive data protection and flexibility. The DE Series stands out for its simplicity and efficient performance, catering to demanding workloads with reliable speed and lower initial costs.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest the DM Series could enhance its integration capabilities with third-party solutions and simplify its complexity. The DE Series may benefit from improvements in scalability options, better analytics insights, and more advanced features to match the DM Series' capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: The DM Series is reputed for straightforward deployment and effective customer support, ensuring a smooth setup and operational guidance. The DE Series is appreciated for easy installation but may have slightly less responsive customer service compared to the DM Series.

Pricing and ROI: The DM Series is viewed as a premium option with higher upfront costs but justifiable ROI due to its extensive feature set and performance benefits. The DE Series appeals to budget-conscious users, offering a solid ROI through lower initial costs and satisfactory performance, making it a more affordable solution overall.

To learn more, read our detailed Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

December 2025

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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 January 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pure FlashArray X NVMe	1.4%
Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series	2.1%
Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series	2.0%
Other	94.5%

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

Giorgio Pozzi

System Administrator at PORTGUARDIAN.COM SRL

Performance and cost-effectiveness are maximized with seamless setup and significant ROI

I use Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series to replace the old storage in our infrastructure. Additionally, I use it in customer infrastructures to migrate from the old storage to the new one On the M storage, I find the best features to be deduplication and compression. On the DE storage, the most…

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Augustine Gracious

Service manager at Crescent Technologies

Complicated deployment and poor support persist, affecting overall satisfaction

The deployment process of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is very complicated compared to previous GUI systems. Many customers have lost data while configuring it, indicating a need for improvement. The after-sales service is also very poor. Furthermore, it does not offer basic features like deduplication, and the service is generally considered to be very bad.

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

"It is very easy to install and configure. It has got excellent diagnostics. If you really need to see how the box is performing, the console gives you a lot of information. You can set thresholds as well as alerts based on the thresholds, which is a very powerful functionality. They are very proactive. They know how to monitor and manage the systems. They see a problem, and they are all over it before us. They see the problem before we see it, which is very good."

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

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

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

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"It's helped us because we've changed fundamentally what we talk about. We don't talk about storage and different tiers of storage anymore nor do we talk about servers. We talk now about applications and how applications impact the business and end users."

"I appreciate the performance."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

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

"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."

"Its initial setup process is easy."

"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."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series is simple to use"

"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."

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

"This solution is good for virtualization and meets the need for CPU and RAM requirements."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pros

"The most valuable feature of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its ability to store data well."

"The solution offers very good reliable systems and storage for our clients."

"The most valuable feature of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is its capability to tier to the cloud, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. Additionally, the integration is good and they are user-friendly."

"One of the most valuable features of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is the snapshot feature."

"The product’s quality of service guarantees the performance of each workload."

"The value we derive from using it is greater than other alternatives like HPE and Dell."

"The servers are fast and affordable."

"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."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series pros

Cons

"We have run into a couple of instances recently where we are running out of space. So we have had to buy some more packs for it and they have deployed fine and it has increased smoothly."

"It is on the expensive side."

"It's more multi-tenant functionality in their Pure1 manage portal that is lacking."

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

"The tool's pricing is higher than competitors."

"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."

"It feels more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses rather than enterprises."

"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

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

"The features are limited."

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

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

"Its performance could be faster."

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

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

"The product could support advanced software integrations."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series cons

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is not stable. If I have sold fifty boxes, about fifty percent of them experienced failure."

"Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series could improve by having a snapshot feature. Additionally, there can be other features added to help restore the data faster."

"The licensing model needs to be revisited. It needs to be simplified."

"It takes a very long time to enter the management console, as well as to restart the system, and these are things that should be improved."

"Many people do not realize that Lenovo has a storage solution, so better marketing from the vendor is needed."

"I would like Lenovo to add a feature like IBM Easy Tier to DM Series. This is a crucial feature for the customers."

"There might be improvements needed in drive throughput as disk speed has been a limitation on Windows servers."

"The solution should change the licensing model and allow customers to choose features based on their requirements."

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

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

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

"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'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."

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

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

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

"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."

"The solution's price could be better."

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

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series pricing and cost advice

"Lenovo offers two software tiers for the DM Series: basic and premium. If you need more features like the MetroCluster, you must buy the premium version. You can stick to the basic software if you don't need MetroCluster or features like asynchronous replication. That makes DM Series a little cheaper."

"The solution is highly-priced."

"The solution's pricing is similar to Dell and HPE."

"The price of the Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is good."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

University

Computer Software Company

21%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

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 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

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

There are extra expenses beyond the standard licensing fee for features such as replication and deduplication, which ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series?

The deployment process of Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series is very complicated compared to previous GUI systems. Many cus...

See all answers

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

My primary use case for Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series ( /products/lenovo-thinksystem-dm-series-reviews ) is for storag...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 18% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 23% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 11% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series

Compared 6% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series Competitors

NetApp AFF vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 32% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 15% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 5% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

January 2026

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

January 2026

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

January 2026

Download Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series product report

Also Known As

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

ThinkSystem DE Series

ThinkSystem DM 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

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

To meet enterprise storage requirements, ThinkSystem All-Flash DM Series systems provide high performance, superior flexibility, and best-in-class data management. DM Series runs on ONTAP data management software, which gives customers unified storage across block-and-file workloads. It accelerates your business while improving the efficiency, flexibility, and reliability of your IT operations.

Lenovo

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

December 2025

Free Report: Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs. Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series

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

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