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Dell SC Series vs IBM System Storage DS8000 Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 SC Series
Ranking in Frame-Based Disk Arrays
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (23rd)
IBM System Storage DS8000 S...
Ranking in Frame-Based Disk Arrays
3rd
Average Rating
9.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Frame-Based Disk Arrays category, the mindshare of Dell SC Series is 15.4%, up from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Storage DS8000 Series is 15.8%, down from 32.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Frame-Based Disk Arrays Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell SC Series15.4%
IBM System Storage DS8000 Series15.8%
Other68.8%
Frame-Based Disk Arrays
 

Featured Reviews

RK
System Administrator at Lovely Professional University
Storage solutions accommodate diverse drives and offers good resiliency
Technical support is good. I can log complaints online through the portal and have engineers in line. I can also take dedicated engineers if needed, although this involves a different support cost. As far as my requirements are concerned, it is working fine. There are two or three types of support. Standard support involves logging a complaint and receiving a call from the OEM on the same day, but hardware replacement takes two to three days. Advanced support offers instant replacement without delays. Hardware support terms include calling or emailing the company or logging the call in the portal to receive remote support, or getting a dedicated engineer or account manager from Dell.
it_user1303074 - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Leader at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
An advanced enterprise storage system with a powerful throughput feature
I use this solution to lighten the workload. Oracle databases and SQL databases have a high workload in IBM The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product. The GUI isn't as user-friendly as other options. The price could also be better. I would like to see a better GUI…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is great, we have 24/7 support with a four-hour response, they are responsive and they stay to help until the problem is resolved."
"Technical support is good."
"The interface is easy to use which makes the product user-friendly."
"I can mix and match the drives, using older mechanical devices and the latest SFP drives in a single solution with different enclosures."
"Technical support is really good. We have had good, high-quality support with our SC Series."
"In terms of performance with mixed workloads, the SC Series is pretty good."
"It is easy to use, expand the hard drives, add storage, and set up replication."
"With federation, you can have multiple systems across sites. You can treat them as one, and with a live migration, volumes don't go down. You can move them from site to site, doing maintenance, and keep your environment up."
"The main benefit is from the standpoint of recovery; recovery time and being able to quickly replicate data."
"We have had no outages now for literally six years and that's really impressive."
"I really recommend the IBM DS8000 solution as it is the most advanced technology available for storage solutions."
"The Global Copy and Global Mirror features are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"These are global mirror and replication for DR, which allow us to do a lot of DR testing."
"The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product."
"The solution is very stable; there aren't any problems there at all as it doesn't have bugs or glitches and doesn't crash or freeze, and we've found it to be very reliable."
 

Cons

"It's definitely affordable. Of course, it would be better if they made it cheaper, even more affordable."
"We can definitely see a need for it being a multi-controller system for customers who want to scale beyond the current capability."
"The administration and support (on the way that they delivered) was a little bit slow."
"The SC Series doesn't support NVMe storage."
"In some customer cases, customers experienced more performance or latency."
"It's not very efficient anymore. There are better products out there."
"The configuration could be easier in Dell EMC SC Series."
"If Dell SC Series could have supported the protocol NVMe over TCP, that would have been great. It does not."
"We need the GUI feature to be improved. If the GUI is good, then it is easier to manage with just the clicks, rather than going in with CLI and commands to do the stuff."
"I would like it to be easier to use. Some of it is so complex that we've got a lot of scripts and automation and things tied around it."
"Sometimes when we do encounter problems, but not a complete system shutdown, that gets a little bit frustrating."
"On the open system side, it's a little different."
"The solution should embedded replication switches into the hardware instead of using them externally."
"The GUI isn't as user-friendly as other options."
"The pricing of the solution is difficult to deal with. Lower pricing would be preferred."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The maintenance is usually pretty good. It's not like some of the others where they increase it in the fourth, fifth, or sixth years."
"The pricing of Dell EMC Compellent is competitive."
"Pricing depends on varying life cycles."
"Compared to other solutions out there, it's affordable."
"It's absolutely affordable. Again, not having to do a forklift upgrade like some of the others have had to do in the past, it's very affordable for our customers and they continue to buy."
"We have found it to be affordable. Comparing the cost with other hardware, it seems to be right in line with the compute and the storage that we get with it."
"This product is too expensive compared to others, and I don't see any value in using it."
"This solution could be better priced in comparison with other vendors."
"The license is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell SC Series?
In our case, we received favorable pricing with Dell because of our strong partnership. While I acknowledge that Dell SC Series can be expensive for many companies, we received good discounts. The ...
What needs improvement with Dell SC Series?
For us, it is a great product. The deduplication and compression could potentially be improved, though they are already good. We cannot identify any significant areas that need improvement.
What is your primary use case for Dell SC Series?
We use Dell SC Series in a VMware environment.
Ask a question
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Also Known As

SC Series Storage, Compellent
System Storage DS8000
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TGen, Frost Science, Gerrie Electric
Renfe, Park Nicollet Health Services, Ricoh Americas Corporation, SK Energy, SWK STADTWERKE KREFELD AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell SC Series vs. IBM System Storage DS8000 Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.