Dell SC Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe comparison

Dell Technologies and Pure Storage are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0, while Pure Storage is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.6. Dell Technologies holds a 0.8% mindshare in AFS, compared to Pure Storage’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

Dell SC Series

Read 54 Dell SC Series reviews

1,024 Views
298 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Read 35 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews

1,511 Views
248 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell SC Series

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

The Dell SC Series and Pure FlashArray X NVMe are high-performing storage solutions. Pure FlashArray X NVMe stands out for its advanced features, making it worth the investment over the Dell SC Series.

Features: Dell SC Series robust performance, scalability, and affordability; Pure FlashArray X NVMe speed, reliability, and comprehensive storage features

Room for Improvement: Dell SC Series better integration with third-party services, simpler update process, improved scalability options; Pure FlashArray X NVMe cost, documentation, interface complexity

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell SC Series straightforward deployment, mixed customer service experiences; Pure FlashArray X NVMe easy deployment, responsive support

Pricing and ROI: Dell SC Series cost-effective with solid ROI; Pure FlashArray X NVMe higher costs justified by superior performance and long-term benefits

To learn more, read our detailed Dell SC Series vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 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

Dell SC Series

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

17th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Frame-Based Disk Arrays (2nd)

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

15th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)

Mindshare comparison

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

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Steven McClendon

Data Center Server & Storage Administrator at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Superior platform with excellent snapshots and cost-saving auto-tiering

I'm a big fan of the SC Series platform. Its feature set is superior to some of the other platforms. The snapshots on SC are excellent, allowing for multiple snapshot schedules for any one system. The auto-tiering functionality intelligently moves new data to the highest performance tier and then progresses it down to less expensive tiers over time, providing cost savings for customers.

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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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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 speed for the end-user."

"The solution has a wide variety of valuable features. The data progression works well. We use the snapshot functionality quite a bit and really like it."

"The interface is easy to use which makes the product user-friendly."

"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."

"It has been one of the most stable products in our data center."

"Technical support is very good. I do use it from time to time and it's always excellent."

"The setup and installation is much simpler now, because Dell has standardized the configure process."

"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."

More Dell SC Series pros

"The solution is scalable."

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"The database workloads are pretty fast because I frequently move data from here to there."

"Overall stability is very good. It is a very stable solution."

"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Pure FlashArray as ten."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

Cons

"The SC Series doesn't support NVMe storage."

"While the scalability is good, there are certain limitations."

"What I understand is that this is a 13 year old architecture, so it has lived its life and they're phasing it out. Honestly, we were initially struggling with the integration with VMware (but it was fixed with the VMware 6.5) and, then, it was around a 10GB network. At that time, it had the longevity to go to 100GB as well. It got us thinking about, when we go into the containerized architecture, what do we need to do to fix the infrastructure?"

"The interface could be improved. It should have an application point of view."

"Compellent comes in the form of a component that's not true of a unified storage platform."

"The initial setup is somewhat complex and should be made simpler to do."

"We have seen some degraded throughput with mixed workloads. We have been working with Dell EMC to correct some of these latency issues."

"The lack of reporting would be the main issue."

More Dell SC Series cons

"I'd like to see the product implement active replication for vehicles such as VMware."

"I would like to see replication and DR features in the next release of this solution."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

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

"I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert."

"The software layer has to improve."

"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."

"It is on the expensive side."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It is one of the most cost effective systems for us. We have been able to run it longer than most, getting the most benefit and money out of it."

"The pricing of this solution is competitive."

"This product is too expensive compared to others, and I don't see any value in using it."

"The scalability seems a bit more expensive than even buying a brand new one so far. That has been kind of a drawback."

"The SC Series was priced fairly. I wouldn't call it either expensive or cheap because we had a very tight budget, so if they were able to fit in that type of budget, they met our expectations."

"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."

"Pricing depends on varying life cycles."

More Dell SC Series pricing and cost advice

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

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

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

University

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell SC Series?

I find this version to be more budget-friendly compared to products from other vendors. This aspect greatly benefits my customers. It's highly advantageous due to its affordability. The operational...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell SC Series?

Cost considerations are crucial when choosing between solutions like Dell and NetApp. Sometimes Dell offers better performance for less money. That said, the costs can vary.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell SC Series?

In the future, I want any box that comes on-premises to have the provision to integrate with cloud storage. If I want a second copy or need to replicate data from on-premises to the cloud, this pro...

See all answers

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 should not incur extra charges. This is one of the main things organizations need.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Dell SC Series

Compared 60% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell SC Series

Compared 10% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell SC Series

Compared 9% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell SC Series

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell SC Series

Compared 6% of the time

More Dell SC Series Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 29% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 19% 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 Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series

June 2025

Download Dell SC Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Also Known As

SC Series Storage, Compellent

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

Overview

Dell EMC SC Series arrays provide a unified platform for the ultimate in performance, adaptability and machine-driven efficiency. SC Series software delivers modern features that help you meet aggressive workload demands using the fewest drives necessary. With an open, future-ready design, SC Series storage integrates seamlessly with applications and infrastructure, enabling you to scale on a single platform and add capabilities without forklift upgrades.

Dell Technologies

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

Sample Customers

TGen, Frost Science, Gerrie Electric

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Free Report: Dell SC Series vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

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