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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 October 2026, in the Frame-Based Disk Arrays category, the mindshare of Dell SC Series is 15.4%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Storage DS8000 Series is 15.3%, down from 31.0% 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 Series15.3%
Other69.3%
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

"It's the storage backbone for our virtual environment."
"The most valuable feature is the speed for the end-user."
"It has given us a reliable and dynamic storage system that we did not match before with our previous solution."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to replicate. We are running a financial company and it needs to be available 24/7. We can't afford any downtime."
"The most valuable feature is the customer support."
"One of the most valuable features is the capability to switch between all-flash to hybrid, which have have actually done for one of our arrays. We started with the hybrid, with the limited if I'm not mistaken, and then over a period of time, we swapped all the hybrids with the SSDs. This was one of the big features because it gave us the capability to not stick with just one kind of media. Secondly, since it has sorted clustering, we were able to bring in the newer boxes and have it all clustered together. These were the two main features that we really looked into, which benefited our use case from an expansion/growth perspective. Another valuable feature is the ease of management."
"We see very low latency with very high IOPS for mixed workloads."
"A valuable feature is the performance of the auto-tiering. It will move hot data up to your fastest Tier 1 or move your slow data down. Data progression is what it's called. With the auto-tiering you can have multiple tiers, you can have your Tier 1 be either spinning or flash, all the way down to 7.2K. It will change the RAID on the fly so your writes come in at RAID 10. After they sit for a while, they get converted to RAID 5, then they'll cool off and move down the tiers. Your performance is kept going, while the cold data is moved to your slow, non-performance tiers."
"We have had no outages now for literally six years and that's really impressive."
"The Global Copy and Global Mirror features are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"The main benefit is from the standpoint of recovery; recovery time and being able to quickly replicate data."
"The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product."
"I really recommend the IBM DS8000 solution as it is the most advanced technology available for storage solutions."
"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."
"These are global mirror and replication for DR, which allow us to do a lot of DR testing."
 

Cons

"I would like to have 100% functionality through the web app."
"Compared to other solutions, Compellent comes in the form of a component that's not true of a unified storage platform, for instance, to block a level of support can only be done through two different platforms."
"The interface could be improved. It should have an application point of view."
"This system is not a good fit for most customers. It's not only the fact that it's too old, but it has not developed any more since Dell bought it."
"Snapshots in VMware. You can’t do snapshots since the storage itself does that. Therefore, some apps (Veeam, for example) don’t work well with this kind of tiering storage."
"I would rate the SC Series at seven out of ten right now. That might change as future releases come out and more functionality comes into the product."
"It's definitely affordable. Of course, it would be better if they made it cheaper, even more affordable."
"The ease of use could be improved. It took me a while to learn it."
"The solution should embedded replication switches into the hardware instead of using them externally."
"On the open system side, it's a little different."
"Sometimes when we do encounter problems, but not a complete system shutdown, that gets a little bit frustrating."
"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."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of this solution is competitive."
"It has a good price point and offers some value-added enterprise features."
"We have the basic license for the use of this solution and it is a permanent license. The overall cost could be less, it is expensive."
"We were able to afford two tiers of flash storage at a price where the competition was giving us one tier or just a handful of discs."
"The pricing of Dell EMC Compellent is competitive."
"We have reviewed many platforms over the years. It is probably the best solution for its value."
"We have found the solution to be affordable."
"Always keep in mind, this is not just a enclosure with disks is a complete SAN as a service. There is software, license, and storage in one single solution."
"The license is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Healthcare Company
8%
Government
7%
 

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
Earn 20 points
 

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.
919,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.