Dell PowerMax NVMe vs Dell XtremIO comparison

Dell PowerMax NVMe and Dell XtremIO are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell PowerMax NVMe is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5, while Dell XtremIO is ranked #22 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell PowerMax NVMe holds a 3.9% mindshare in AFS, compared to Dell XtremIO’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell PowerMax NVMe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Dell XtremIO users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell XtremIO and Dell PowerMax NVMe are both popular storage solutions. Dell PowerMax NVMe stands out for its features and performance, making it a superior choice overall despite the cost.

Features: Dell XtremIO users value its easy scalability, data reduction capabilities, and pricing. Dell PowerMax NVMe is known for its high performance, real-time machine learning, and data efficiency. PowerMax NVMe includes cutting-edge features that drive better performance.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Dell XtremIO could improve by offering broader compatibility with third-party tools, enhancing cloud integration, and refining user interfaces. Dell PowerMax NVMe needs more intuitive management tools, a reduction in operational complexity, and enhanced automation capabilities. XtremIO focuses more on compatibility issues, while PowerMax NVMe needs improvements in usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell XtremIO is known for a straightforward deployment model and responsive customer support. Dell PowerMax NVMe has a slightly more complex deployment but provides excellent customer service. While both products offer strong support, XtremIO is easier to deploy, whereas PowerMax NVMe requires more effort but delivers top-tier performance.

Pricing and ROI: Dell XtremIO users find the setup cost reasonable and the ROI satisfactory. Dell PowerMax NVMe, though higher in cost, justifies the investment with significant performance gains and robust ROI. XtremIO is cost-effective and offers good returns, whereas PowerMax NVMe, despite its higher price, delivers remarkable ROI through advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. Dell XtremIO Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. Dell XtremIO

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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerMax NVMe is 3.9%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XtremIO is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

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. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

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Haseeb Khalid Sheikh

Senior Manager Enterprise Solutions at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

End-to-end NVMe capabilities helps improve availability, performance, and capacity

The solution's most valuable feature is the data reduction ratio. You can store a 5:1 ratio of your data in Dell PowerMax NVMe. For example, if you have 200 terabytes of usable capacity, you can save up to five times of data on that capacity. That means you can save one petabyte of data on just 200 terabytes of usable capacity. The solution's end-to-end NVMe capabilities have improved our operations. Everything is fast, and you don't have to map your storage to old hybrid storage technologies. Our organization has experienced positive change, and the solution has improved our uptime, availability, performance, and capacity.

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Stanislaw Jagielski

Trainer, Storage Consultant at Oxon

Efficient and straightforward setup boosts data management capabilities

Scalability is a significant feature of Dell XtremIO, as it is easy to expand and manage. It provides a lot of features suited for complex systems, such as scalability and the ability to define multi-domain systems, which are beneficial for data management and storage separation. It is efficient from the customer's point of view, offering deduplication at both the volume and file levels. The configuration and setup are straightforward, provided one has knowledge in setting up network infrastructure like VLANs. It is easy to install, use, and configure, making it a reliable product.

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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

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

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

"I appreciate the performance."

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

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe has low latency and high Ops. It is an evergreen model."

"It offers competitive performance, and the Evergreen storage model of Pure fits well with my organization."

"We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options."

"The solution is very straightforward to set up."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"I have been highly satisfied with the resiliency and scalability of the solution."

"Dell support for Dell PowerMax is exceptional, rating a perfect 10 out of 10."

"We use ESRS for our call-home, and a lot of times, Dell EMC will respond to the issue before we even know it."

"I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy."

"We like the compression, dedupe, and I/O on the PowerMax. They are better than on the XtremIO."

"We removed the need to observe whether we ran into issues with the performance of disks or number of IOPS. Previously, our Oracle Database would throw us performance errors. Now, with PowerMax, everything runs smoothly."

"The solution is easy to use with applications that are user-friendly."

"The product is very fast and reliable."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pros

"The guaranteed sub-millisecond response time for a 4K block."

"The most valuable features are that it is fast and reliable."

"Very good IOPS performance"

"Ease of management, aside from the serious performance, is the best feature."

"The speed and scalability of Dell XtremIO are significant features that improve data storage management."

"The most valuable feature of Dell EMC XtremIO is the data protection (DP) group, it is one of the most advanced features in these types of arrays. The dedupe and compression that this array provides both do a superb job."

"The performance is good, which is important."

"Performance and deduplication. This is a very robust block storage option that offers both performance and data optimization."

More Dell XtremIO 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."

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

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

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

"Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive."

"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."

"The software layer has to improve."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"I hear from people on my team that they would like improved reporting. While there are some decent tools for doing reporting, they would like to see a lot more built-in functionality. This way when they are logged into the interface everyday doing basic management tasks, they could also see some statistics on what is their storage pool usage and will be their projected usage with their current data growth. They want to be able to see more detailed stats on how they are using the system and have forecasting."

"I would like to see continued visibility and analytics in the platform."

"The main challenge with the product was to have control over the simultaneous failures of controllers. For recovery, manual intervention is required."

"Dell PowerMax needs more connectivity options for projects that require separate web access."

"The initial setup could be easier."

"The disadvantage of PowerMax is its cost."

"They should work with the storage engineers to better tweak the management tools to give them improved visibility into their data."

"The tool is costly compared to other similar products. The product's pricing needs to be improved. I would like the product to include the replication feature in its future releases."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe cons

"One thing that should be improved is the reporting and monitoring tools. It should use real time monitoring for storage, IOPS, latency, etc."

"In some cases where we don’t need the flexibility of the virtualization layer, we could free up resources on the VPLEX by using the storage replication."

"I believe having more replication options comparatively to VMAX (other than RecoverPoint) would be great."

"Management and reporting need improvement."

"In the next release, the solution could have better integration and if we can host assets on the cloud, such as NetApp has the NetApp volumes, which we can host on the cloud directly called NetApp CVO (cloud volume ONTAP). Dell EMC should come up with something purely on the cloud rather than manage services."

"It needs a way to determine the deduplication of each LUN and what the impact would be if we were to move data from one LUN to another."

"They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application."

"The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system."

More Dell XtremIO cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

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

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

"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."

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

"The product is expensive."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"From a general capital investment, it's one of the higher price points in the market. It depends on the size and software features that you would include in a system. So, the cost varies dramatically."

"Our costs are on a yearly basis."

"The cost of the solution is quite noticeable, but it provides a good fit regarding the price of the hardware and all of the required licenses."

"Dell offers various pricing models, including a pay-as-you-go option where storage is provided without upfront charges, billing only for used capacity. As a 360° partner, significant discounts are available."

"The price is on the market. It's not inexpensive, but it's available on the market."

"In terms of price-performance, it beat out other competitors when we were taking a look and comparing it to the market. That was one of the biggest driving points for us."

"The price is okay."

"I rate Dell PowerMax NVMe a five out of ten for pricing."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution should be reduced. The price matches the price of a VMAX service but it does not have the capability of a VMAX service. However, the prices of Dell EMC XtremIO can be reduceable."

"It is expensive if you need to increase scalability."

"Dell XtremIO's price is affordable and I would rate it a five out of ten."

"This is the best flash array on the market for high-end workloads, so expect to pay for that. But the support subscription cost is fixed for seven years, which made it easier for us to plan on the maintenance costs."

"Pricing and licensing are in line with other products from other manufacturers. You get what you pay for."

"Licensing is approximately $200,000 per year."

"The licensing cost is on a yearly subscription basis, which can be expensive but is necessary for ongoing support and services. The pricing could be improved to make it more accessible."

"XtremIO is pretty straightforward about pricing. However, you need to look at your data so you can estimate, with the advice of DEL EMC, what data reduction ratio you will reach. In our case, a 3:1 reduction ration gave us a positive case compared to other storage arrays."

More Dell XtremIO pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at Rubrik

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

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?

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics ...

See all answers

What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell of...

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What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

First, it's an enterprise storage solution. This is very important for us. Another important feature is replication.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

Dell offers various pricing models, including a pay-as-you-go option where storage is provided without upfront charge...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC XtremIO?

The feature I like most about Dell Xtremio is its hardware quality compared to other vendors. It's clear they're cont...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell XtremIO?

Pricing is hard to determine as it depends on the given configuration. XtremIO offers features that justify a potenti...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell XtremIO?

The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system. While the...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 30% 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 15% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Nimble Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 5% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 27% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Dell VMAX All Flash vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Primera vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 2% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 28% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 10% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO

April 2025

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Also Known As

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

Dell EMC PowerMax, PowerMax

Dell EMC XtremIO Flash, Dell EMC XtremIO X2, XtremIO, XtremIO X2

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 PowerMax is the industry’s most secure mission-critical storage platform. With NVMe Dynamic Fabric technology, PowerMax breaks from traditional storage limitations, enabling seamless integration with cloud-native and legacy applications. Designed with a powerful scale-up and scale-out architecture, PowerMax supports mission-critical applications at scale with zero downtime and ultra-low latency. The latest PowerMaxOS 10 release harnesses AI-driven efficiencies for trusted performance, capacity, and security. By choosing PowerMax, you can trust in a secure, intelligent, and always modern storage solution that unlocks the full potential of your data to drive business success.

Dell Technologies

Bring all-flash, scale-out storage to your enterprise applications with EMC XtremIO. Purpose-built for flash, XtremIO storage arrays are amazingly fast. Delivering high IOPS at less than 1 millisecond latency is just the start. EMC XtremIO helps you harness the power of flash storage by building in innovations like content-based data placement and dual-stage metadata.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Rackspace, Open Line

Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. Dell XtremIO

April 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. Dell XtremIO

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