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Dell EqualLogic PS series vs IBM System Storage DS5000 Series comparison

Dell Technologies and IBM are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.5, while IBM is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 2.7% mindshare in MS, compared to IBM’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.
Dell EqualLogic PS series
Read 19 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews
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  • 359 Comparison Views
78% willing to recommend
IBM System Storage DS5000 S...
Read 18 IBM System Storage DS5000 Series reviews
  • 338 Views
  • 338 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series and Dell EqualLogic PS series are both competing in the enterprise storage market. While IBM has strengths in performance with its data reliability, Dell excels with advanced scalability and simple management, making it more appealing for growing businesses.

Features: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series provides robust data reliability, high availability, and fast processing capabilities. Its focus on stability and reliability makes it suitable for performance-centric customers. Dell EqualLogic PS series offers excellent scalability, ease of management, and advanced features like Auto Tiering. These features cater to customers looking for flexibility and adaptive storage solutions.

Room for Improvement: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series can be complex in terms of initial setup and may benefit from enhanced deployment simplicity. Additional improvements in scalability options could also enhance its appeal. Dell EqualLogic PS series might benefit from improvements in initial hardware investment requirements. Further development in data compression and performance optimization could also enhance its overall performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is known for a complex initial setup process but offers consistent customer support and reliable performance once deployed. Dell EqualLogic PS series emphasizes straightforward deployment and robust customer support, facilitating quick installation and problem resolution.

Pricing and ROI: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series involves higher upfront costs but promises a solid ROI through durability and performance. Dell EqualLogic PS series provides a more cost-effective initial investment with better long-term flexibility, appealing to businesses focusing on quick deployment and scalable investment.

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To learn more, read our detailed Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series
September 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

Dell EqualLogic PS series
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM System Storage DS5000 S...
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 2.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Storage DS5000 Series is 2.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM System Storage DS5000 Series2.0%
Dell EqualLogic PS series2.7%
Other95.3%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

HansThilen - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly scalable and astoundingly stable solution offering its users an extremely good technical support
Regarding an area to improve, I would say that from Dell EqualLogic family, I can't buy Dell EqualLogic PS series. I can't buy any more solutions provided by EqualLogic, so the solution will have to make certain improvements in the future. Since we can't buy anything from EqualLogic in our company, we plan to move to another solution. Since I can't buy it anymore, I don't receive any updates on the solution. Also, this is the last year in which one can buy support for the solution.
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Gustavo Rosello - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides solid hardware and ROI to users
Companies or groups of business units are growing fast. We have perhaps between four and five more people than what it was two years ago, so the systems are increasing, and now we are working with RPA in some of our processes for automation, especially wherever it is mandatory in the financial branch, like a common investment fund and the investment in action or where there are other products. Our market is directly related to small business. We are working with companies where data translation is needed or where invoices, specifically credit invoices, the negotiation of cheques, or a doc that shows receipt of money, which you can sell at a future date. We have a sub-warehouse that has a back office in the cloud to use all operations related to creditors so that the company can increase its share in the markets. I think that we may need something on-premises in the future. The trends indicate that users are returning to on-premises systems because of the high cost of public clouds. We are looking for a better data center. In Argentina, hardware costs are high, but now, it is a great investment. We are slowly planning to expand the tool. In the USA, when it comes to object-first devices, there is a cost of 48,000 USD for 128 TB, but in Argentina, the cost is 64,000 USD for 84 TB. In Argentina, we have a lot of taxes, and the government is in the process of reducing these taxes, but now we have a situation associated with our economy. Out of 100 companies, only two are seeking employees. We are waiting for the recovery of the economy, but everything here is expensive apart from the salaries.
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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

"Technical support, when we had access to it, was very good."
"The technical support for EqualLogic has been universally outstanding."
"The solution has been working well overall."
"Dell's technical support is very good."
"The product is very stable."
"Dell EqualLogic PS series is a highly stable solution."
"The solution can scale."
"You can always trust it. It is stable."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros
"The security and velocity for fetching data are valuable."
"You can easily virtualize and share the storage."
"The most valuable aspects of the DS5000 Series are its high availability (almost six nines), stability, cost-effectiveness, and the unique IBM FlashCore modules, which other competitors lack. These FlashCore modules enable local operations on the drive itself without a performance overhead, a significant advantage."
"The tool is very stable...The solution's scalability is very good."
"I like that it's stable, and I am satisfied with it. We have had some issues, but that is normal in IT. IBM System Storage DS5000 works fine most of the time."
"IBM System Storage DS5000 series enhances clients' data handling capabilities through improved security, fast systems, and added value features."
"The most valuable feature is compression."
"It is a very stable solution."
More IBM System Storage DS5000 Series pros
 

Cons

"6510 and 6610 have two iSCSI connections in each controller. Why do 6110xxx members have only one, and why do the same members have the possibility of having an active iSCSI interface in the passive controller? It could make a lot of noise with a failover."
"The replication efficiency needs to be improved."
"The solution is out of date and the new version has a lot of advanced features."
"Synchronous replication uses space inefficiently."
"The only challenging part in the tool was related to some site recovery area. In order to exploit the site recovery area, my company had to purchase additional VMware products."
"The searchable online documentation is missing.​"
"Why is it not possible for both controllers to be simultaneously active (load balancing)?"
"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve by providing fiber channel connectivity. Fiber channel connectivity is not supported, which is a requirement of advanced applications, such as SAP HANA. SAP HANA recommends fiber channel connectivity, but the Dell EqualLogic PS series is only an ISCSI data storage."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons
"Improving software installation and licensing retrieval would make using IBM System Storage DS5000 series easier for customers."
"The solution is not flexible enough."
"IBM is not always as agile as other competitors when it is about cloud integration and user interfaces. They're not renewing themselves very often. They have been slow to evolve from the old GUI. The user interface should be improved, especially regarding performance analysis, which has always been a little bit weak as compared to other solutions. As a global solution, it lacks the feature for containing integration object storage. Even though they have now started to offer this feature, it is quite young and not as developed as some other vendors. There are also no mass possibilities at all. They have a lot of competition in the mid-range segment. They need to have a NAS gateway or something like that. It doesn't specifically need to be integrated into the controllers that are keys to the gateway."
"I find the solution isn't so easy to understand. A user must be quite knowledgeable in the product. It isn't like HPE 3PAR, which you can use quite easily without too much storage experience."
"It would be nice if duplication was possible at the hardware level. As it is now, duplication is a software feature, whereas compression is a hardware feature."
"The solution's integration with other tools could be improved."
"The stability could be improved."
"There are some functions that can only be used in prompt mode."
More IBM System Storage DS5000 Series cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."
"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."
"Dell EqualLogic PS series can improve its scale-out feature. Sometimes the customer has a limited budget for storage expansion. When they want to expand their capacity, they need to buy a complete controller plus storage capacity, which sometimes is out of their budget. If Dell EqualLogic PS series support could scale up the environment in which only hard drive extension controllers should be supported, then customers can expand within a lower budget."
"Price-wise, the solution is cheap. I rate it a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."
"Licensing is pretty straightforward."
"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."
"I didn't buy it. It was another person seven years ago. So, I don't really know, but all storage platforms cost a lot of money. It is probably in the mid-range, but you get what you pay for."
"There are annual maintenance costs beyond the original licensing period."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice
"Compared to other vendors, I think it's expensive."
"It is a competitively priced solution. The cost can vary depending on whether it is purchased from the hardware or the software departments."
"Its price is fair. IBM is quite fair in price when you compare it with others. We also use Hitachi internally, and Hitachi is always a little bit more expensive. NetApp is also a bit more expensive. So, IBM has good positioning in terms of price."
"We mounted all the virtualization with less than 1,50,000 USD. We are negotiating to get the tool for 800,000,000 Argentine Pesos. The tool is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"The basic functionalities of the product are provided within the normal license, but users can opt for some optional features from IBM's licensing model."
"This product is priced well. The ratio between cost and productivity is very high and we're happy with it."
"It's an expensive solution."
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Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EqualLogic PS series?
The technical support for the solution was really good.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?
An improvement that could be made is to have a storage solution with all SSD hard disks, as we currently have a Dell EqualLogic PS series with traditional hard disks. It's not simple to replace a h...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?
Dell EqualLogic PS series is the storage of our server, which serves our use case. The deployment of Dell EqualLogic PS series takes about five days.
See all answers
What do you like most about IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
The solution is reliable.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
The price fits well with the proposal of this equipment. Although IBM is not cheap, the cost fits well with the propose.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM System Storage DS5000 Series?
There are some functions that can only be used in prompt mode. If these functions could be shown in the graphical interface, it could be better.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 37% of the time
HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell EqualLogic PS series Logo
HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell EqualLogic PS series
Compared 32% of the time
HPE MSA vs Dell EqualLogic PS series Logo
HPE MSA vs Dell EqualLogic PS series
Compared 32% of the time
More Dell EqualLogic PS series Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series
October 2025
Dell EqualLogic PS series reportDownload Dell EqualLogic PS series product report
Buyer's Guide
IBM System Storage DS5000 Series
September 2025
IBM System Storage DS5000 Series reportDownload IBM System Storage DS5000 Series product report
 

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series
System Storage DS5000 series
 

Overview

EqualLogic PS Series arrays bring a new level of performance to service more of your most demanding applications and virtualization requirements, while delivering the simplicity of the EqualLogic management experience. Featuring six array configurations, including 2U/2.5" drive options with All Flash and Hybrid Arrays, it is ideal for companies and organizations with growing data and performance needs.
Dell Technologies

DS5000 storage systems are equally adept at supporting transactional applications such as databases and online transaction processing (OLTP), throughput-intensive applications such as high-performance computing (HPC) and rich media, and concurrent workloads for consolidation and virtualization. DS5000 series storage systems can support service level agreements (SLAs) for the most common operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux and Apple Macintosh. 
With drive-level encryption, DS5000 series storage systems support affordable data security with no performance penalty. The DS5000 storage system’s multiple replication options, drive-level encryption, and persistent cache backup can help ensure that any data in cache is captured and safe in the event of a power outage.

IBM
 

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research
Engine Informštica
Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series
September 2025
Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM System Storage DS5000 Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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