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Dell EqualLogic PS series vs IBM XIV 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 #10. Dell Technologies holds a 2.3% mindshare in MS, compared to IBM’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.
Dell EqualLogic PS series
Read 19 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews
  • 327 Views
  • 327 Comparison Views
78% willing to recommend
IBM XIV
Read 6 IBM XIV reviews
  • 166 Views
  • 156 Comparison Views
85% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

IBM XIV and Dell EqualLogic PS Series are competing in the storage solutions market. IBM XIV seems to have the upper hand with its data reliability and performance, while Dell EqualLogic PS Series offers impressive virtualization and scalability features.

Features: IBM XIV provides robust scalability, focusing on data reliability and easy integration into IT ecosystems. Dell EqualLogic PS Series offers advanced virtualization, automatic load balancing, and simplified management.

Room for Improvement: IBM XIV could benefit from more competitive pricing, enhanced automation features, and better integration with third-party tools. Dell EqualLogic PS Series might improve on providing deeper analytical insights, more advanced data protection features, and enhanced interoperability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM XIV offers straightforward deployment with reliable customer service, ensuring operational continuity. Dell EqualLogic PS Series provides seamless deployment with comprehensive support options, facilitating quick implementation.

Pricing and ROI: IBM XIV requires a higher initial setup cost but delivers favorable ROI through performance and efficiency. Dell EqualLogic PS Series boasts a competitive pricing structure and strong ROI, appealing to businesses focused on cost-effectiveness.

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To learn more, read our detailed Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM XIV Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM XIV
July 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 XIV
Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 2.3%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM XIV is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul Rehman Abid - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful auto tiering, excellent support, and highly reliable
The initial setup of the Dell EqualLogic PS series is simple. The physical connectivity and rack mounting time depend on the size of the deployment. For example, if we have five of the Dell EqualLogic PS series we can mount and do the cabling within two hours. The initial configuration can be done within an hour. The estimated time to deploy from start to finish in this scenario is four to five hours maximum. One person can do most of the deployment, such as configuration, but a helper is needed to do the mounting of the cables.
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Ajith Kandaramage - PeerSpot reviewer
Good value for money but issues with modular scaling
IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness I've been using IBM XIV for two and a half years. IBM XIV is stable. IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger…
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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

"It is extremely reliable."
"Technical support, when we had access to it, was very good."
"You can always trust it. It is stable."
"The technical support is very good."
"If you have one datacenter fail, the VMs will start to run inside the other data center."
"Dell EqualLogic PS series is a highly stable solution."
"Its high availability. It has a lot of redundancy and good management software as well as good alerting."
"The technical support for the solution was really good."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros
"Hands down, this is the easiest storage platform on the market to manage."
"The performance and robustness of the systems are very good."
"As it spreads, a chuck of 1MB across the board means using all available spindles on the backend."
"IBM XIV's most valuable features are NVME, especially when it comes to de-duplication, compression, and responsiveness."
"Very easy to produce reporting data (Snaps). Very easy and fast for provisioning devices and Remote mirroring."
"Installation is amazingly easy."
 

Cons

"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."
"We need more space and we can't get any."
"The performance isn't as good as, for example, Nimble."
"If I need to have more space or more capacity, I need to replace the product. It would be ideal if we could scale without replacing the box itself."
"The replication efficiency needs to be improved."
"Why is it not possible for both controllers to be simultaneously active (load balancing)?"
"There is no option for mixing RAID types in one device."
"I can't buy any more solutions provided by EqualLogic...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."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons
"The change form synchronous mirroring to asynchronous (and vice versa) without reconfiguration from scratch would be helpful."
"IBM XIV's scalability is adequate for our requirements, but because it's modular, you can't scale to larger requirements."
"I would rather have a web GUI served directly from the unit, and a CLI accessible directly through SSH."
"Until the drive is replaced, the pool_resizing is locked."
"This product was not a good fit for our organization as we have a ton of latency sensitive applications and XIV was not able to keep up with IO + latency demand."
"I encountered stability (performance) issues during enclosure or disk rebuild. Also some power supply issues due to malfunctions of ​circuits. Sometimes "internal" Snap sessions hang and consume pool capacity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is pretty straightforward."
"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."
"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."
"I don't think I would say that the product is less expensive...The product's price is not an issue for our company, considering the relationship we have with Dell and the customer support we receive."
"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."
"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."
"Initial packages include all upgrades and services."
"​It is a fair price."
More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice
"Licensing is straightforward."
"If you are going to use the product behind an SVC, IBM will price the units lower, since you are likely not to use any of the advanced copy services."
"No-license-required policy, unlike others where you need a license for everything. Just pay once and forget about licenses."
"We have a five-year total cost of ownership where we pay an initial amount and then annually for maintenance."
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Company Size

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Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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
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Comparisons

NEC D8 series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series Logo
NEC D8 series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series
Compared 52% of the time
HPE MSA vs Dell EqualLogic PS series Logo
HPE MSA vs Dell EqualLogic PS series
Compared 48% of the time
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IBM FlashSystem vs IBM XIV Logo
IBM FlashSystem vs IBM XIV
Compared 100% of the time
More IBM XIV Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series
August 2025
Dell EqualLogic PS series reportDownload Dell EqualLogic PS series product report
Buyer's Guide
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
August 2025
IBM XIV reportDownload IBM XIV product report
 

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series
XIV
 

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

IBM XIV is a high-end, grid-scale storage system that excels in tuning-free consistent performance, ease of use and exceptional data economics, including inline, and IBM Real-time Compression. IBM XIV is ideal for hybrid cloud, offering predictable service levels for dynamic workloads, simplified scale management, including in multi-tenant environments, flexible consumption models — and robust cloud automation and orchestration through OpenStack, RESTful API and VMware. It offers security and data protection through hot encryption, advanced mirroring and self-healing and investment protection with perpetual licensing.

IBM
 

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research
Celero, NaviSite, Technische Universit_t Mªnchen, Netflix Inc., Muhr und Bender KG, Pelephone Communications
Buyer's Guide
Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM XIV
July 2025
Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. IBM XIV
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