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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 #14 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
  • 1,005 Views
  • 272 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Read 35 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews
  • 1,458 Views
  • 228 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

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

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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
54
Ranking in other categories
Frame-Based Disk Arrays (2nd)
Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
14th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was very easy to install, maintain, and provides excellent manageability."
"It is just as stable as any other high-end solution."
"In terms of stability, it's good enough. It's okay."
"With auto-tiering, it's easier to understand than most arrays, knowing that all of your writes go to the tier that you specify, with easy-to-create storage profiles."
"Its leading feature is the price-performance ratio, which is very good."
"We see very low latency with very high IOPS for mixed workloads."
"Most valuable features have been the system customization with it, the performance you receive, and their CoPilot Support (or Dell EMC Storage Support)."
"The setup and installation is much simpler now, because Dell has standardized the configure process."
More Dell SC Series pros
"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."
"I use the tool for Oracle databases, Oracle virtual machines, and Oracle Linux databases. I'm on the storage side, not a database administrator."
"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."
"Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."
"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."
"It has benefited my organization because it has reduced time to insights."
"We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is reliability."
More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros
 

Cons

"The connection should be better integrated with the network to offer a better view of the system."
"Dell could improve the upgrading process."
"There's always room for improvement in the operating code."
"Some menus aren't so intuitive."
"The initial setup is somewhat complex and should be made simpler to do."
"While the price is competitive, in the next release it would be better if they could reduce the fees."
"Compellent comes in the form of a component that's not true of a unified storage platform."
"The administration and support (on the way that they delivered) was a little bit slow."
More Dell SC Series cons
"Managing data isn't difficult for me. The performance is usually perfect, but we sometimes have capacity problems."
"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."
"Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive."
"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."
"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."
"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."
"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."
"Efficiency improvements would always be welcome, but I'm not sure if they could get more efficient."
More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a very affordable solution."
"Support typically depends on the array. It can range anywhere from $7,000 to a couple of hundred thousand dollars."
"Pricing depends on varying life cycles."
"Compared to other solutions out there, it's 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."
"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."
"The pricing is reasonable, but it is expensive."
"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."
More Dell SC Series pricing and cost advice
"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."
"The licensing is on a yearly basis."
"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."
"The product is expensive."
"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."
"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."
"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."
"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."
More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
 

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

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Dell PowerStore vs Dell SC Series
Compared 61% of the time
Dell Unity XT vs Dell SC Series Logo
Dell Unity XT vs Dell SC Series
Compared 11% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell SC Series Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell SC Series
Compared 10% of the time
IBM FlashSystem vs Dell SC Series Logo
IBM FlashSystem vs Dell SC Series
Compared 10% of the time
NetApp AFF vs Dell SC Series Logo
NetApp AFF vs Dell SC Series
Compared 7% of the time
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Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe Logo
Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Compared 29% of the time
TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe Logo
TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Compared 19% of the time
Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe Logo
Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Compared 14% of the time
IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe Logo
IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Compared 10% of the time
HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe Logo
HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Compared 8% of the time
More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Dell SC Series
June 2025
Dell SC Series reportDownload Dell SC Series product report
Buyer's Guide
Pure FlashArray X NVMe
June 2025
Pure FlashArray X NVMe reportDownload 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
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell SC Series vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
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