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Dell SC Series vs VMAX [EOL] 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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Frame-Based Disk Arrays (2nd), All-Flash Storage (23rd)
VMAX [EOL]
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
Ali Yazıcı - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Service Manager at Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank
Good interface that is customizable, and the technical support is good
Our primary use of this product is for our core banking servers over FC It is a high end storage, minimal downtime, reliable, good performance, get speedy support when we need. The user interface is good, and it is also customizable. snap and clone operations easy.  Stability and availability…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is stable; we've had no problems at all."
"Component support was great; on a scale of one to ten they were a ten, they were always helpful."
"We have gotten really good performance out of it, fast IOPS."
"Technical support is really good. We have had good, high-quality support with our SC Series."
"I would recommend to buy Dell EMC 3020 to anyone researching these type of solutions."
"I can mix and match the drives, using older mechanical devices and the latest SFP drives in a single solution with different enclosures."
"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."
"The management capabilities are excellent, and the stability of our storage hardware is remarkable."
"Resilience, speed, flexibility, system reliability, and a strong refresh strategy are the most valuable features."
"Deploying, Expanding, and Modifying systems are easier than ever."
"VMAX is a rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service."
"Furthermore, EMC support is second to none, EMC engineers will visit your site to replace a disk or component before you are even aware that there is a problem (via ESRS – see below)."
"If someone is looking for a product that can give the best performance under heavy load then this is the product they must go for."
"We have never had a bad experience with it because we never had failures. It has good data availability and the performance is also okay."
"Customer Service: Excellent. Technical Support: Excellent."
"VMAX3 is our main system for storage. All our systems and all our virtualizations are connected to it. In terms of expanding it, we are replacing it with a new system, the PowerMax 2000. So our current VMAX3 platform will be decommissioned soon. We are switching to PowerMax 2000 because we are looking for improved performance. We see it as the best fit for our requirements in terms of the performance and the overall cost."
 

Cons

"One option I would like to see is, when you're up on the view-screen, to be able to incorporate getting to what HPE call the iLO, the Integrated Lights-Out. To be able to get that instead of having to go back and trying to find IP addresses and re-institute those would be good. It would be good to be able to that put on the initial splash screen."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say the lack of reporting would be the main issue."
"The tool's pricing is high and not suitable for medium companies."
"This product should be a lot more user-friendly."
"The price could be improved."
"The configuration could be easier in Dell EMC SC Series."
"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."
"I would like the ability to monitor and manage the storage. The web GUI is not fully there."
"It is still expensive."
"We are trying to scale a vintage VMAX. As far as increasing capacity, it is a real nightmare."
"I'd like to see improvements where we can scale out an existing array and remove older controllers\drives\etc., within the same subsystem."
"I'm always interested in ways we can scale out and avoid monolithic migrations from one array to another every four to five years."
"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 cluster support should be improved."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable, but it is expensive."
"The pricing of this solution is competitive."
"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."
"We have reviewed many platforms over the years. It is probably the best solution for its value."
"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."
"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."
"This product is too expensive compared to others, and I don't see any value in using it."
"Our licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Our licensing fees are billed on a yearly basis."
"There are additional costs to the standard licensing fee, and it just depends on the package."
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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
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Performing Arts
13%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
 

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.
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Also Known As

SC Series Storage, Compellent
Symmetrix VMAX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TGen, Frost Science, Gerrie Electric
Wentworth-Douglas Hospital, Kindred Healthcare, Cosentry, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, Shriners, BZWBK
Find out what your peers are saying about Hitachi Vantara, Dell Technologies, IBM and others in Frame-Based Disk Arrays. Updated: October 2026.
919,586 professionals have used our research since 2012.