Dell SC Series vs VMAX [EOL] comparison

Dell SC Series and VMAX [EOL] are both solutions in the Frame-Based Disk Arrays category. Additionally, 94% of Dell SC Series users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of VMAX [EOL] users who would recommend it.

Dell SC Series

Read 55 Dell SC Series reviews

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344 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

VMAX [EOL]

Read 16 VMAX [EOL] reviews

84% willing to recommend

Dell SC Series

VMAX [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell SC Series and VMAX [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Hitachi Vantara, Dell Technologies, IBM and others in Frame-Based Disk Arrays.

To learn more, read our detailed Frame-Based Disk Arrays Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Frame-Based Disk Arrays

May 2026

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Helped 896,387 peers since 2012

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

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Frame-Based Disk Arrays (2nd), All-Flash Storage (18th)

VMAX [EOL]

Average Rating

9.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

RafaelGamaluis

Architect Engineer, IT INFRASTRUCTURES Project Manager at Vilavi

User interface offers clarity and detailed information while technical support consistently delivers

The best features of Dell SC Series are stability and replication. The replication solution is excellent, and they have a solution named Live Migration. It is a robust platform. The interface and the GUI (graphical user interface) for administrating the Compellent are exceptional, with abundant information that is very clear. The management capabilities are excellent, and the stability of our storage hardware is remarkable.

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it_user1075341

Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Resilient storage solution with zero downtime that is easy to implement and has good support

The way you configure larger size volumes needs improvement. Currently, the one that we have is a single volume limit of 240 gigs. If you wanted bigger than that you have to do meta volumes to combine them. My understanding is the VMAX3 and the PowerMax, did away with that, making it a lot easier to provision storage than in the past. Scalability with the 2013 version was an area that needed improvement, but they have fixed it with later products. All of the issues that I am currently facing with this version, for example, being able to create larger volumes and making it easier to manage, have all been implemented in the new versions of this solution.

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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

"It is fast and performs well."

"Technical support is really good. We have had good, high-quality support with our SC Series."

"Overall, the underlying technology they are using is really great."

"I can mix and match the drives, using older mechanical devices and the latest SFP drives in a single solution with different enclosures."

"Its feature set is superior to some of the other platforms."

"I like the SC Series, I enjoy working with it, and with its auto-tiering and hybrid mix of SSDs and spinning disks, customers can revitalize their whole storage system completely without needing expensive all-flash arrays."

"It's allowed us to have one hundred percent uptime over the last five years — maybe more."

"Performance-wise it's high speed. It's also more stable and scalable."

More Dell SC Series pros

"This product has enabled dynamic allocation of disk resources, and at the same time, improved the data access speed and application performance by a large extent."

"We are switching to PowerMax 2000 because we are looking for improved performance, and we see it as the best fit for our requirements in terms of the performance and the overall cost."

"Resilience, speed, flexibility, system reliability, and a strong refresh strategy are the most valuable features."

"The most valuable features are the interface and performance."

"We have been able to present storage from the VMAX to hosts without any problems."

"A rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service."

"Customer Service: Excellent. Technical Support: Excellent."

More VMAX [EOL] pros

Cons

"While the scalability is good, there are certain limitations. Our racks are at their limit, so we do not have the requisite scalability to expand."

"Licensing, especially on the storage line, could use some simplification. It's not terrible, but, for example, with the Isilon series, they've gone to completely a la carte. A la carte is very difficult to traverse, as to what you need. It would be more beneficial, at least from my point of view as a customer, if they did it more like car companies do, where there are package lines"

"We had times that we needed a file service solution. We've used FluidFS, but it's a solution that is being transitioned out."

"The administration and support (on the way that they delivered) was a little bit slow."

"In terms of additional features, I would like to see some kind of I/O meter, to indicate what we are using in terms of performance. I would like to see automation with that, where it would give me the trends. I want to know those things easily, to help me know where issues are going to occur."

"This product should be a lot more user-friendly."

"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 like the ability to monitor and manage the storage. The web GUI is not fully there."

More Dell SC Series cons

"I would like to see support for high-availability."

"Better speed to release new features that have become industry standards. EMC created so many standards in the past. Now, it seems they are playing a me-too game and lagging behind in some areas, specifically data reduction."

"The pricing is a bit expensive. That is the reason we are now currently we are looking for other solutions. That's the reason we are looking at AFF and Unity. We are also considering PowerStore."

"Resilience replication, reporting, and performance need to be improved."

"I'd like to see improvements where we can scale out an existing array and remove older controllers\drives\etc., within the same subsystem."

"It is still expensive."

"Be aware that buying a Symmetrix VMAX is like owning a McLaren F1 race car; consider yourself lucky to drive it at the track since everything else must be performed by McLaren."

More VMAX [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a very affordable solution."

"We have reviewed many platforms over the years. It is probably the best solution for its value."

"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."

"We have found the solution to be affordable."

"This solution could be better priced in comparison with other vendors."

"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."

"It has a good price point and offers some value-added enterprise features."

More Dell SC Series pricing and cost advice

"Our licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"There are additional costs to the standard licensing fee, and it just depends on the package."

"Our licensing fees are billed on a yearly basis."

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896,387 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Performing Arts

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	17

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 ...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell SC Series?

We use Dell SC Series in a VMware environment.

See all answers

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Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Dell SC Series

Compared 10% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell SC Series

Compared 7% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell SC Series

Compared 7% of the time

Everpure FlashArray vs Dell SC Series

Compared 5% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Dell SC Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Dell SC Series Competitors

IBM System Storage DS8000 Series vs VMAX [EOL]

Compared 25% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs VMAX [EOL]

Compared 16% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs VMAX [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

Huawei OceanStor V3 Storage System vs VMAX [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

More VMAX [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell SC Series

May 2026

Download Dell SC Series product report

Buyer's Guide

VMAX [EOL]

May 2026

Download VMAX [EOL] product report

Also Known As

SC Series Storage, Compellent

Symmetrix VMAX

Overview

Dell SC Series provides a high-performance, cost-effective storage solution with ease of management and robust support. Users appreciate its scalability, flexibility, and efficient storage management, making it a reliable platform for diverse environments.

Renowned for its key attributes such as auto-tiering, replication, compression, and deduplication, Dell SC Series enhances scalability through Live Migrate and high availability features. Its efficient management with thin provisioning and data progression enhances resource utilization. The series is favored for stability, reliability, and integration capabilities, making it suitable for diverse deployments like private and public clouds, production workloads, virtual environments, large databases, and more.

What are the key features of Dell SC Series?

Auto-tiering: Optimizes performance by automatically moving data between storage tiers.
Replication: Ensures data protection and disaster recovery.
Compression and deduplication: Reduces storage costs and optimizes space.
Live Migrate: Facilitates seamless data movement without downtime.
High availability: Provides continuous access and performance.
Thin provisioning and data progression: Increases efficiency in managing storage resources.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Reduces overall storage expenses.
Ease of management: Simplifies administration through intuitive control.
Scalability: Expands to meet growing data needs seamlessly.
Flexibility: Integrates with different environments, supporting varied use cases.
Reliability: Delivers stable performance and dependable service.

Dell SC Series serves as a versatile storage solution across industries, supporting applications in converged infrastructure, disaster recovery, and VMware environments. Users rely on its performance for critical business applications such as Oracle and SQL file systems, maintaining its relevance and effectiveness in ever-changing technological landscapes.

Dell Technologies

Symmetrix VMAX accelerate your transformation to the software-defined data center with the world's most powerful, trusted, and smart family of storage products.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

TGen, Frost Science, Gerrie Electric

Wentworth-Douglas Hospital, Kindred Healthcare, Cosentry, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, Shriners, BZWBK

Buyer's Guide

Frame-Based Disk Arrays

May 2026

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