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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 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."
"It is one of the most cost effective systems for us, and we have been able to run it longer than most, getting the most benefit and money out of it."
"Its feature set is superior to some of the other platforms."
"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."
"It has good dedupe and compression. Also, the built-in data migration capabilities are pretty good, as is the federation. When we started migrating the workloads from different storage platforms, like NetApp and XtremeIO, it helped us in moving to that direction."
"It is easy to use, expand the hard drives, add storage, and set up replication."
"The user interface is good, I would rate it a nine out of ten."
"The process of reallocating data from fast disks (SSD or SAS) to slow disks (SATA) gives you better performance and better use of resources."
"The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product."
"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."
"I really recommend the IBM DS8000 solution as it is the most advanced technology available for storage solutions."
"These are global mirror and replication for DR, which allow us to do a lot of DR testing."
"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."
"We have had no outages now for literally six years and that's really impressive."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful if the solution offered higher performance, at least on the back end."
"I think it would be nice if the connection were better integrated with the network so I could get a broader view of both the network and the system."
"An issue we had was that the controller went down during an upgrade because of their upgrading the code. One side of the switch was down."
"Currently, we are not using this solution extensively because it's becoming a sunset solution."
"We have seen some degraded throughput with mixed workloads. We have been working with Dell EMC to correct some of these latency issues."
"If Dell SC Series wasn't being phased out, adding an NVMe tier and secure snapshots like those on the PowerStore platform would be beneficial."
"I would like to see an integrated key manager in the controllers. Currently, it's an external product. It would be nice to have the option of having a built-in key for self-encrypting drive features."
"Customer support could be improved. It takes five or six reps to finally get someone who can help us."
"On the open system side, it's a little different."
"The pricing of the solution is difficult to deal with. Lower pricing would be preferred."
"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."
"Sometimes when we do encounter problems, but not a complete system shutdown, that gets a little bit frustrating."
"The solution should embedded replication switches into the hardware instead of using them externally."
"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."
"The GUI isn't as user-friendly as other options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Pricing depends on varying life cycles."
"The scalability seems a bit more expensive than even buying a brand new one so far. That has been kind of a drawback."
"There are costs involving the solution, vendor fees and product safety which are additional."
"The pricing of Dell EMC Compellent is competitive."
"The pricing of this solution is competitive."
"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
23%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
6%
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
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.
912,517 professionals have used our research since 2012.