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Dell PowerStore vs Dell Unity XT comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.6
Everpure FlashArray boosts efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances storage with improved latency, data compression, and seamless integration.
Sentiment score
5.2
Dell PowerStore users mostly experience financial benefits through cost savings, efficiency, and stability, though some haven't quantified gains yet.
Sentiment score
3.1
Dell Unity XT delivers ROI with cost-effectiveness, scalability, improved performance, reduced costs, and seamless management for virtual transformation.
In the long term, spanning three to five years, the total cost of ownership becomes cheaper, considering power consumption, data center footprint, and NVMe technology usage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
Our current workload, particularly the SQL use case, would not be possible on mechanical storage, and the ease of use for the small team for the array is important for supporting that workload.
Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Pure Storage FlashArray integrates with APIs and other systems.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
If you purchase storage with 300 terabytes, you can easily achieve one petabyte of effective capacity.
Regional Sales Manager at New Horizon Computers
It's been trouble-free the entire time, with very high performance, as it has been designed and built properly.
Storage Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have seen a return on our investment in Dell PowerStore; definitely our cost per terabyte has been very good compared to some of the other vendors that we would have been using previously, and our performance benchmarks have exceeded what we were expecting.
Director of Global Platform at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.4
Everpure FlashArray's customer service excels with proactive support, knowledgeable staff, and global responsiveness, enhancing satisfaction and reliability.
Sentiment score
6.6
Dell PowerStore's support is praised for expertise but criticized for response time and perceived regional inconsistencies following changes.
Sentiment score
6.2
Dell Unity XT's support is praised for professionalism, but users note responsiveness issues post-merger; proactive monitoring is appreciated.
Pure's support organization is responsive with minimal bureaucracy, making support a key factor in customer retention.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate the technical support an 11 out of 10.
Cyber Security Consultant at Jonkoping Energi AB
The support from Pure Storage is excellent.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate the technical support of Dell PowerStore between nine and ten out of ten.
Solution Architect at CDA
They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.
Systems Engineer at a government with 11-50 employees
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell support as a ten, focusing on that aspect alone, because it's what allows me to sleep at night.
Head of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support team is familiar with the product and is available on-site during support times, which improves our experience.
Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd
Dell solutions are backed by excellent service and support.
Sales Account Manager - BFSI Sector at Frontier Business systems
The technical support sometimes takes three to four days to get hardware to facilities.
Systems Engineer at Thakral One (Pvt) Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Everpure FlashArray offers scalable storage with modular upgrades, suitable for seamless expansion, though some encounter limitations at higher capacities.
Sentiment score
6.9
Dell PowerStore offers scalable solutions for businesses, enabling easy expansion with some cost considerations for additional components.
Sentiment score
7.0
User feedback highlights Dell Unity XT as highly scalable, meeting diverse organizational needs, especially for mid-sized and enterprise demands.
A big banking client had around 300 petabytes of data on Pure Storage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
Our customers can scale up or scale out, raise the performance, and expand the storage spaces by investing every year.
Senior Ai Architect at Logicalis
The solution is highly scalable, particularly when there is a need to expand capacity.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
The solution's scalability is a ten out of ten.
Pre Sales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It scales up and scales out both ways, and as our data keeps growing, it is very easy to just keep attaching and keep growing.
Associate Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Scaling up can be done from a single enclosure that already has two controllers to a maximum of four storage units with up to eight controllers, and a massive amount of storage can be added.
Nutanix at Senior System Engineer
Dell Unity XT is quite scalable and can be scaled up to the petabyte level.
Systems Engineer at Thakral One (Pvt) Ltd
For NetApp, we can recommend the FAS 8000 series.
TSG Manager at Navigator Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Everpure FlashArray receives high praise for stability and reliability, with minor upgrade issues but overall excellent user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.7
Dell PowerStore offers high stability, consistent uptime, and strong performance, with effective support addressing minor firmware or hardware issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
Dell Unity XT is praised for reliability and stability, swiftly resolving initial issues with firmware updates and improvements.
For stability, I rate it a ten out of ten.
Senior Storage Administrator at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
We have continuous 99.9% uptime and do not experience any users reporting performance issues due to latency.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
The vision Pure Storage FlashArray offers through the GUI is clearer; we can discern the status, what is cabled, and how direct flash is enabled.
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
When I removed all the cables, it failed over within five minutes.
Consultant
It's quite stable and reliable in general.
Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I have not experienced any downtime, bugs, or glitches, and it's much better than previous technologies.
Storage Backup Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the overall stability of Dell Unity XT an eight out of ten.
Systems Engineer at Thakral One (Pvt) Ltd
 

Room For Improvement

Everpure FlashArray needs better integration, pricing, analytics, backup processes, cloud features, scalability, and user-friendliness, especially for VMware.
Dell PowerStore users seek better pricing, cybersecurity, IP configuration, software stability, monitoring, and third-party integration improvements.
Dell Unity XT requires improvements in deduplication, management interface, VMware integration, pricing, and enhanced cloud functionalities.
Integrating object storage into the FlashArray would benefit entry-level and SMB customers by offering a more unified solution.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
Storing cold data on expensive arrays doesn't make financial sense, and tiering to any of the big three cloud providers would be advantageous.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
As a technical professional, I lack visibility into the system logs.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Something needs to be done with the caching to ensure that if some issue occurs, there needs to be an ability to disable caching during maintenance to make it static, safe, and good.
CISO Admin at a analyst firm with 51-200 employees
Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example.
Unit Head - Technology Services at Shahnawaz Ltd
The main reason why people move to Pure Storage is because it's simplified.
IT Director at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees
In the future, if Dell storages include this option, especially for Unity, it would help us target SME or medium enterprises for quicker closures and support the sales team.
Sales Account Manager - BFSI Sector at Frontier Business systems
I believe if Dell can integrate AI to predict potential failures, especially in hardware like hard disks, that would be very useful for proper maintenance.
Systems Engineer at Thakral One (Pvt) Ltd
The pricing is a bit higher than expected.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Setup Cost

Everpure FlashArray's all-inclusive pricing and performance make it ideal for organizations prioritizing simplicity despite higher initial costs.
Dell PowerStore attracts enterprises with competitive pricing, scalability, and bundled licenses, offering strong price-performance despite market challenges.
Dell Unity XT provides affordable enterprise storage with bundled software, straightforward licensing, and competitive pricing starting at $25K.
They're expensive.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
While they say it's free, we actually pay for support upfront.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Some smaller organizations may find it slightly expensive, but for enterprises, when considering performance, future hardware investments, and overall benefits, it is a very cost-effective solution for mid and enterprise organizations.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
Likely the cost is $400,000 whereas IBM may be $250,000.
Service Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Based on my experience, the cost of Dell PowerStore for around 500 GB of capacity is very competitive compared to any other platform in the market.
Deputy General Manager at HCLSoftware
I asked for a new quotation on a server, and it is quite expensive; it is really expensive.
Responsable Plateformes Et Cloud at a media company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is priced at around or under $50,000.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The cost is not cheap nor expensive.
Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd
Commercially, Dell Unity XT is viable and competitively priced.
Sales Account Manager - BFSI Sector at Frontier Business systems
 

Valuable Features

The Everpure FlashArray is lauded for its speed, cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and robust data management features.
Dell PowerStore excels in data deduplication, compression, and integration with VMware, enhancing performance, scalability, and cybersecurity for enterprises.
Dell Unity XT excels in performance, ease of use, and scalability, featuring intuitive management and seamless integration for diverse environments.
FlashArray's integration with the Pure One instrument provides a centralized platform for efficient management of all arrays.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Another noteworthy aspect is their platform, Pure One, a cloud-based analytics platform that automatically creates a case and sends out a part if a disk or controller fails.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
It handles internal data migration seamlessly in the background without going offline, achieving a hundred percent uptime.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
This includes storage sharing, adding servers to the service, and the wireless host connection on the network side.
Senior System Administrator at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Dell PowerStore offers good integration capabilities, especially since it helps with backup, which is an important aspect.
CISO at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
In terms of whether my company could reduce the power consumption with Dell PowerStore, I would say that my company had a use case with a customer around three weeks ago where their old Dell EMC VNX Storage System used to draw about 2500 watts compared to Dell PowerStore which drew about 800 watts, which is a really a big saving looking at the twenty-four hours and seven days of usage of the system.
Data Center Consultant at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Dell Unity XT integration with VMware helps scalability and availability through seamless operations and enhanced performance.
Assistant Manager, Technology Support & Services at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
It helps with data cost management and is seen as a mid-range product with good performance.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
We installed the Flash, which makes our IO operations fast and efficient.
Head of Infrastructure Security (S.A.V.P) at EXIM Bank Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

Everpure FlashArray
Sponsored
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
216
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
187
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (2nd), Enterprise SAN (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
Dell Unity XT
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
198
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray is 7.5%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 10.8%, down from 17.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell Unity XT is 6.0%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerStore10.8%
Everpure FlashArray7.5%
Dell Unity XT6.0%
Other75.7%
All-Flash Storage
 

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades
The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.
reviewer2304864 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vmware Windows Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Resilience has supported proactive management and secured audit readiness across multiple sites
The resilience in Dell PowerStore benefits my company from an auditing perspective because we know we have that resilience in place. I see Dell PowerStore playing a bigger role in the future because we are starting to use it more, and that is pushing it. The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerStore is scalability. Scalability is key. I can amplify that scalability is the biggest return on investment because we have redundancy between two sites; if something goes down, we have to manage it, but we want to do it proactively.
NR
TSG Manager at Navigator Systems
Ease of implementation and robust performance enhance multi-OEM support experience
We are limited only to hardware replacement, not administration tasks. We work on AMC products through Annual Maintenance Contracts. We provide support up to the 680 model. The XT680F is a newer model, and we support from 380F to 680F. The FlashSystem 8000 series is all-flash, and there is also a 5000 series flash model. We can compare IBM DS series, including the 8000 series for recommendations. For NetApp, we can recommend the FAS 8000 series.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.
892,868 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

YC
CEO at vmind
Sep 20, 2023
Sep 20, 2023
The Unity 300/400/600 generation (1st) is really old stuff, lateron came the 2nd generation of 350f,450f,650f (hybrid or full flash) and still later cam in the 3rd generation 380f, 480f,680f & 880f As usual the CPO/Cores and cache increased everytime, the code is pretty much the same. The x00 generation is already obsolete and by next year the next generation x50 is going to be obsolete...
See 2 answers
ST
Cloud Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Sep 19, 2023
The Unity 300/400/600 generation (1st) is really old stuff, lateron came the 2nd generation of 350f,450f,650f (hybrid or full flash) and still later cam in the 3rd generation 380f, 480f,680f & 880f As usual the CPO/Cores and cache increased everytime, the code is pretty much the same. The x00 generation is already obsolete and by next year the next generation x50 is going to be obsolete from a service point of view. Here is how it goes. Dell Puts forward to replace * the Unity XT 380F by an Powerstore 500T * the Unity XT 480F by a Powerstore 1200 * The Unity XT 680f by a Powerstore 3200 * The unity XT 800f by a Powerstore 5200 There is even a Powerstore 9200 Currently you have the Unity x80 model, which has more CPU punch and therefore maxes out less fast on CPU utilisation. What this means is that you can add more shelves and disks and workloads to it before you hit the roof.   The powerstore 1200 is an nvme/FC but NAS storage as well, is 60% more powerfull (compared to FC/SCSI-SSD on Unity) in our case, and has higher datareduction rates. If the unity reaches out to a datareduction rate of 1.5 or 2, the Powerstore T1200 is capable of 3 to 3.5 datareduction. the Powerstore offloads its compression/deduplication efforts from the Processor to a hardware component in charge of it (like the PowerMAX and likely the same device and Compression Algorithm). The price of the device is pretty much dependant on the price of its media, and therefore the Powerstore T1200 is the absolute winner as you can double the data saved to it compared to the Unity alternative. There is one caveat, when you initialise your Powerstore you either initialise it as a NAS or Block Device appliance. Whereas on the Unity part, you could use both options at the same time.. Another aspect is that the Powerstore can be used to build a cluster of arrays compared to the sync/asynch replication only feature of the Unity series, rendering the mirrored volumes unuseable unless one fails over to it, like in a disaster recovery scenario.To you can , have true Active/Active volumes and go next level with MetroCluster volumes and go beyond VMware Site Reovery Manager to organise your failover/test failovers and protection groups. You can actually leave aside VMware Site Recovery manager and do all from within Powerstore and use its Recoverpoint for VMs add on (similar to Veaam replication but a with an storage appliance in support. The Powerstore also allows true A/A volumes on both sides . What this means is that one can build stretched vSphere clusters and the loss of your array in one site will still allow writing to the alternate protected disk, transparently ! You can have site local writes to your volumes and remain in sync without a need to cross site write. There is not much of a reason to settle for the Unity anymore, unless you would go for a mixed chassis providing both Block Storage & FileSharing. Unity allocates RAM ressources dynamically when used for FC/SCSI AND NAS , whereas the Powerstore is initialized as either a NAS or BlockStorage at installation time. Thats a hard call. So I'd favour the Unity only if you use it for low/moderate NAS needs in combination with FC/SCSI or block data and you don't have the budget nor the size to use a NAS optimised array on top.
Md. ImranulHoque - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise post-sales manager. at Smart technologies (BD) Ltd
Sep 20, 2023
Hello Yasin,  The best solution depends upon your host environment. In general, PowerStore is more powerful than Unity but Unity is also a very good Storage solution.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise151
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise37
Large Enterprise91
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise94
 

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?
Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?
The only issue is the pricing. Because we have competition, our customers always take another brand and say they can ...
What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?
Our customers using Dell storage also use competing solutions. Our customers who have Everpure FlashArray may also ha...
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated managem...
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...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
I saw that you have doubts about what you chose. I have a lot of experience with the constructor, honestly I can reco...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
They’re both great solutions and I’ve used both. EMC is being VERY aggressive on pricing which may be the undoing of...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
First of all the decision should be taken looking at similar products in terms of capacity and performance. I will sh...
 

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray
PowerStore
EMC Unity, Dell EMC Unity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas
Information Not Available
Draper, Rio Grande Pacific, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerStore vs. Dell Unity XT and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,868 professionals have used our research since 2012.