DataCore SANsymphony vs Dell XC Appliance comparison

DataCore and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the HCI category. DataCore is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.4, while Dell Technologies is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0. DataCore holds a 2.1% mindshare in HCI, compared to Dell Technologies’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of DataCore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

DataCore SANsymphony

Read 56 DataCore SANsymphony reviews

2,098 Views
1,141 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Dell XC Appliance

Read 8 Dell XC Appliance reviews

195 Views
105 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

DataCore SANsymphony

Dell XC Appliance

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

DataCore SANsymphony and Dell XC Appliance compete in the storage solutions category. DataCore SANsymphony appears to have the upper hand in terms of flexibility and a broad feature set, while Dell XC Appliance stands out for integration and simplicity.

Features: DataCore SANsymphony offers features like synchronous mirroring, auto-tiering, and parallel I/O, making it suitable for varied storage environments. It allows the use of commodity hardware, reducing costs and enhancing flexibility. Dell XC Appliance is noted for its seamless integration with VMware environments, robust hardware integration, and efficient storage management, which particularly benefits vSAN operations.

Room for Improvement: DataCore SANsymphony could improve its integration with backup software and enhance its graphical interface. The switch to a subscription pricing model has raised concerns about cost-effectiveness. Dell XC Appliance needs better multi-hypervisor support and streamlined lifecycle management processes to enhance usability and operational efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DataCore SANsymphony is lauded for its superior technical support and responsive service, which users deem industry-leading. Dell XC Appliance is easier to deploy, with strong integration capabilities that simplify the deployment process. Customer service for both products is favorable, with DataCore's support noted for its exceptional responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: DataCore SANsymphony's per-terabyte licensing makes it costly, but users justify the expense through its scalability and efficiency. Its ROI is realized via enhanced redundancy and flexibility. Dell XC Appliance's pricing, suitable for medium to large businesses, offers a balance between its robust features and value, with users perceiving lower TCO compared to other architectures.

To learn more, read our detailed DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell XC Appliance Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell XC Appliance

April 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

DataCore SANsymphony

Ranking in HCI

7th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Software (2nd), Software Defined Storage (SDS) (5th), Storage Performance (2nd)

Dell XC Appliance

Ranking in HCI

19th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XC Appliance is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Featured Reviews

TempreviewerD

Architecte Principal at Orange

Robust with good replication and access protection

The solution is constantly evolving. Recently, deduplication and compression have been further improved to meet customer needs, and updates are easily implemented without stopping production. The update assistant checks the state of health before using good practices, during checks that the data is still presented for service continuity, and afterward, if the actions carried out are indeed active. Technical support is truly available even without a production incident. This is really essential right now.

Read full review

reviewer2644977

Works

Enables seamless integration with multiple software and outstanding AI tools

The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor. If multi-hypervisor support is required and VMware does not provide it, then Dell's appliance won't support it. I find it overly reliant on VMware. In cases of company mergers involving different platforms, software that can handle a multi-hypervisor environment would facilitate quicker integration.

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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

"Our central storage has very high availability. DataCore SANsymphony ensures high business continuity."

"Auto-tiering to obtain performance at a lower cost without the customer having to purchase ultra-fast storage is great."

"For us, fault tolerance is the most important feature of DataCore."

"The most valuable feature of DataCore SANsymphony SDS is its high availability. This solution also exhibits good performance and has high stability."

"Mirroring is the most valuable feature because I can provide a high-level of service and optimize the use of obsolete storage."

"Active-active is the most valuable aspect for us."

"The DataCore system has been rock solid since we have been using it - from 2007 on."

"The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are many counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like when a backup is in progress)."

More DataCore SANsymphony pros

"What I like the most is that it is easy to implement, easy deployment and that it's easy to manage."

"The most valuable feature is that you can assign a volume to an off-shore workload on the fly."

"The solution's best feature is its simplicity. It's so simple to deploy it. You've got the VMware, and it's own appliance. It is really helpful. The system is online within half a day and saves so much time."

"When we compare it to normal hardware servers, I'd say it is quite easy to configure and deploy."

"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."

"The solution's hardware is great."

"It's an extremely stable solution, and I highly recommend it."

"The most valuable feature is the low management overhead, and the lower skill set required to manage it."

More Dell XC Appliance pros

Cons

"We are waiting for container support (on the roadmap), as well as a user-friendly full web-administration capability, and an improved API."

"The graphical interface is not always very stable."

"Its interface could be better."

"SANsymphony is missing some features that vSAN has. For example, vSAN has a special feature called continuous data protection. It provides the ability to go back in time to a given moment. You can see what was on your disk in the past up to two weeks. That's a great feature because ransomware attacks are increasingly common, and that provides you some kind of protection."

"Having an enterprise "Storage Dashboard" that can show capacity, usage, performance, and any issues would be very beneficial."

"For customers or technicians who don't speak and understand English, it would be great to have other language support, all the more so given the number of countries in which SanSymphony is used."

"The solution could be better packaged and marketed."

"In my opinion, there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs."

More DataCore SANsymphony cons

"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."

"The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor."

"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."

"The solution's storage size could be improved."

"Dell needs to do a lot of work to simplify the maintenance and life-cycle upgrades for the product."

"We are not always advised of new features or updates, so we must research to stay up to date."

"The cost of using the public cloud deployment is astronomical."

"Currently, there is no support for the servers that are not in the cluster."

More Dell XC Appliance cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper."

"In my case, the licensing per terabytes is very high and it must be licensed for each extra functionality."

"This product has a good ratio between quality and price. In many cases, it's less expensive to work with DataCore than other storage systems."

"Pricing has improved but it is still expensive."

"The pricing and licensing are better with DataCore."

"The cost is at the same level as other storage solutions and it is easy to understand the licensing."

"We have licensing costs on a yearly basis. They charge per terabyte, so in terms of cost, it can be very costly. They have three different features, and you have to pay extra for those."

"The solution is cost effective."

More DataCore SANsymphony pricing and cost advice

"The price point is very fair for a product in this category but can vary depending on the components selected within the family of products."

"The pricing is good."

"We received a good price from Dell."

"The pricing is dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."

"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataCore SANsymphony SDS?

The cost changed from a perpetual license to a subscription model, and it seems reasonable. I am technical personnel and not deeply involved in sales, but the pricing appears fine.

See all answers

What do you like most about DataCore SANsymphony?

The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are a lot of counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like when a backup is in progress).

See all answers

What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony?

In my opinion, there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs. However, this is not a frequent need because they have great support that offers quick and knowledgeable assistance. Other...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Dell XC Appliance?

My advice for people who are selling this product is to first make sure that you educate the customers. The customer doesn't often know much about HCI and what the need to be using it for. If they ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell XC Appliance?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell XC Appliance?

Dell offers several benefits with its appliances. Primarily, I can combine them horizontally and vertically, reaching up to sixty-four nodes. Additionally, Dell employs its own artificial intellige...

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 13% of the time

VMware vSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 11% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 10% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 9% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 9% of the time

More DataCore SANsymphony Competitors

VxRail vs Dell XC Appliance

Compared 39% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell XC Appliance

Compared 37% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs Dell XC Appliance

Compared 24% of the time

More Dell XC Appliance Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony

April 2025

Download DataCore SANsymphony product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

April 2025

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Also Known As

DataCore Virtual SAN

No data available

Overview

Experience peace of mind with DataCore SANsymphony, the ultimate software-defined storage solution alleviating storage management challenges. Say goodbye to the complexities of managing different storage tiers and disruptions with SANsymphony's block-level storage virtualization technology, empowering you to automate capacity provisioning and data placement across diverse storage environments including SAN, DAS, HCI, and JBOD. Break down silos, control data placement, meet business continuity objectives, boost performance, and seamlessly expand or refresh hardware with SANsymphony. Benefit from features like asynchronous replication for disaster recovery, minimizing data loss, accelerating application responsiveness, and integrating new technology non-disruptively. Trusted by industry leaders like NASA, Thorntons, Inc., and TUI Cruises, DataCore SANsymphony guarantees unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and reliability, ensuring uninterrupted data access and application availability while reducing storage costs and inefficiencies.

DataCore

XC Series hyper-converged appliances integrate Dell EMC 14th generation PowerEdge servers with Nutanix software to offer one of the industry’s most versatile and scalable hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platforms. By supporting a choice of hypervisors, XC Series appliances can be deployed quickly for all virtualized workloads to reduce management complexity and total cost of ownership.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Volkswagen , Maimonides Medical Center, NASA, Thorntons, Inc., TUI, ISCO Industries, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, United Financial Credit Union, Derby Supply Chain Solutions, Mission Community Hospital, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Colby-Sawyer College, Mount Sinai Health System, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Quorn Foods, Bitburger, University of Birmingham, Stadtverwaltung Heidelberg, NetEnt to name a few.

Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell XC Appliance

April 2025

Free Report: DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell XC Appliance

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