Dell Unity XT vs IBM FlashSystem comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe
Sponsored
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
15th
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (6th)
Dell Unity XT
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
190
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM FlashSystem
Ranking in All-Flash Storage
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
NAS (5th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell Unity XT is 10.8%, up from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FlashSystem is 7.2%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
All-Flash Storage
Unique Categories:
NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays
3.9%
No other categories found
NAS
6.6%
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)
17.9%
 

Q&A Highlights

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 24, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

DA
May 21, 2021
Reasonably priced, scales well, and offers good stability
We primarily use the solution for cluster applications and databases. We use the solution on the DBA and those that use double machines Being able to have broken files on-site on the same appliance is quite useful. The newer version of NVME has a really noticeable difference in quality versus the…
DP
Apr 23, 2024
Good quality, performance and support
We prioritize performance-driven systems. The Dell Unity XT delivers excellent performance and offers support services I always look at performance and quality. When we deploy solutions that work well, we directly help our customers improve their business operations. The only thing that might…
AR
Sep 25, 2019
Good storage system and that has a good ability to create and modify LUNs
I am using the private deployment model.  The ability to create LUNs and modify them is the most valuable feature of this solution. It has a very good storage system.  Enterprise data storage needs improvement. They should create a feature for data and file storage.  I have been using IBM…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's helped us because we've changed fundamentally what we talk about. We don't talk about storage and different tiers of storage anymore nor do we talk about servers. We talk now about applications and how applications impact the business and end users."
"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."
"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."
"Offers excellent features like efficient data reduction, a reliable SafeMode, and a great support model for continuous assistance and updates."
"It has good, reliable, fast storage."
"The most valuable features of Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its superior performance compared to other flash tiers, as well as its ease of use, with an intuitive user interface that is simple to deploy and use."
"The solution is very straightforward to set up."
"Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."
"The initial setup was very straightforward. Migration was smooth and configuration of the storage was quick and simple. The time needed to put it into production was less than expected, and data migration itself went without a glitch."
"The initial setup is very easy. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy."
"We have resolved IT challenges with this solution. It sped up our environment. We went from spinning disk to all-flash, which reduced our footprint."
"It's easy for us to use because we use other solutions which are built for Unity, like VMware, which are recovery points. They work with the Dell EMC Unity system, as these products integrate well in our environment."
"The inline deduplication and data reduction capabilities have been the most valuable."
"The setup and installation procedures are easy."
"The Unisphere management interface: We are very familiar with it. It manages all the EMC devices that we have. Management is easy because it is part of Unisphere, which is self-learning."
"Replication of the communication object (COB) scenarios"
"IBM FlashSystem is a stable solution."
"IBM FlashSystem is flexible, quick, and has a solid design."
"The most valuable features are deduplication and compression."
"This solution is convenient, user-friendly, convenient and reliable."
"They have a virtualization feature and, even if you do not want to buy that feature, you can have it as a trial for two to three months. If you have another brand of storage from another company, you can use this tool to transfer all your data from the old system to the new Storwize system, which really shortens the migration time."
"The maintenance service and support from IBM is very good."
"Most of the features for the reduction in data compression are useful. It is also very easy to use and administer. Its performance is also good."
"The valuable features are high availability, compression, and a failover mechanism. It's a very highly available storage solution."
 

Cons

"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."
"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."
"It's more multi-tenant functionality in their Pure1 manage portal that is lacking."
"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."
"I would like to see replication and DR features in the next release of this solution."
"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."
"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."
"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."
"Perhaps if they added more 10GB ports to the back of the system, so you have more IOPS out of the box itself to the network, that would help."
"Maybe deduplication would be something that would be better to have. Also, it's a fairly new management interface, so work is still being done on that. But compared to other vendors and previous EMC storage, the Unity is really good."
"Support Responsiveness & time to fix bugs should be improved."
"In the dashboard there could be notification of duplicate files and the like, so we don't have to rely on Windows to do that."
"There are some features in VNX that I wish were in the Unity. For example, Storage Groups for isolating LANs and hosts. That is a big issue."
"The interface can be a little challenging for someone new."
"A customer had to buy VMX because Unity didn't have WORM."
"Dell EMC Unity XT should present a path or a roadmap on how they could put their products on the cloud. This would have some value for their current customers."
"The generic functionality of IBM FlashSystem, IBM always dismisses using file share or sharing protocols inside their storage hardware, and they only focus on the block-level storage."
"AHV is Acropolis Hypervisor – A relatively new Hypervisor, robust and stable as VMware vSphere, has built-in advanced analytics and powerful operations, Self Service Portal and components for DevOps included, managed by a single pane of glass (Prism) via HTML5 and it is free of charge – That is why Nutanix is so advanced and revolutionary."
"I think the only thing the developers can look at, is that it is limited to 25 gigabytes currently. In the next release they might want to increase that."
"The array level RAID does not seem available."
"Their technical support needs improvement in terms of reachability for the clients and response times. They should be more responsive and have more online platforms for support. They should make more technical information available online. There could be some kind of documentation community."
"The installation is not easy. You need to have extensive knowledge to handle it."
"IBM FlashSystems is lagging in optimizing storage technologies."
"Product support is restricted to IBM only. It must be decentralized to IBM partners as well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."
"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."
"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."
"Licensing is a little bit confusing. Going through everything with them, there are a lot of line items to go over. Every single thing is broken down into a line item, and it starts to get really confusing in terms of what we're actually purchasing when it comes to the product."
"Compression is making a difference towards the amount of hardware that we need to purchase."
"We bought extended warranties out of the box because our customer has a bad habit of managing warranties."
"From a pricing perspective, this solution is comparable to others on the market."
"This solution is a good price for what you get."
"Go with the virtual appliance versus the hardware."
"There is no capacity license for XT and no additional costs for expansions. I would rate its pricing as four out of five."
"This solution offers great pricing."
"For a yearly license, it is about $100,000. There are no additional costs. The entire system is included."
"Pricing can be considered as per market competition."
"The integration is already included in the license cost of IBM FlashSystem. The integration is very easy. You get the IBM storage core with all software, firmware, and upgrades. EMC provides the features in the box, but they are not free for customers. There is a licensing cost for features. We have yearly licensing, but IBM has also provided a new option where you pay as you go. They provide a big box, and I pay, for example, for 10 terabytes. If I exceed 10 terabytes, IBM will charge for the new storage after 10 terabytes. It is a good opportunity in the market for using the storage as a cloud and paying as you go."
"I would rate the pricing of this solution a four out of five."
"The pricing may be a bit higher than other brands. If you compare the IBM FlashSystems in midrange with Dell EMC in midrange, IBM costs a bit more, but I prefer IBM because it has more specs that I can benefit from."
"My customers got the IBM FlashSystem bundle offer. It was a one-time purchase for three years of service. The price would depend on the storage size and could reach between $25,000 to $55,000."
"It pays to go back and get the best price you can from your supplier. The first offer is not always at the best discount."
"The solution has good pricing, but it is not cheaper."
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Answers from the Community

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 24, 2021
Aug 24, 2021
EMC's Unity is not comparable to the performance of an IBM FlashSystem option, but it is fairly close in performance profile to the just released Storewize V5100 model 424. If you provide the initial amount of storage you are going to purchase and your expected capacity growth rate, plus any workoad/performance info you have on hand, and we will give you a very quick TCO and performance compar...
2 out of 5 answers
IB
Apr 17, 2019
For a performance comparison, I use a vendor-neutral benchmark portal like Storage Performance Council: For SPC-1: a) IBM storage, including All-Flash (performance) https://spcresults.org/benchmarks/results/top10/performance/spc1/1?field_peer_review_status_target_id=48&field_sponsor_target_id=18 b) Overall top 10 SPC-1 (performance) https://spcresults.org/benchmarks/results/top10/performance/spc1/1?field_peer_review_status_target_id=48&field_sponsor_target_id=18 c) Overall top 10 SPC-1 (price/performance) https://spcresults.org/benchmarks/results/top10/price/spc1/3 For SPC-2: a) Overall top 10 SPC-2 (performance) https://spcresults.org/benchmarks/results/top10/performance/spc2/1 b) Overall top 10 SPC-2 (price/performance) https://spcresults.org/benchmarks/results/top10/price/spc2/1 I also look at specific benchmarks from the vendors: a) IBM https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/spc_benchmarks_for_disk_system?lang=en b) Dell EMC https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/white-papers/products/storage/h15161-dell_emc_unity-performance_metrics.pdf
it_user1000854 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 17, 2019
I am about to take delivery of a Unity 400 with SAS and have never considered an IBM hardware so i am not able to compare based on experience.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
67%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Government
3%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?
The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We se...
What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?
One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products ...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
I saw that you have doubts about what you chose. I have a lot of experience with the constructor, honestly I can reco...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
They’re both great solutions and I’ve used both. EMC is being VERY aggressive on pricing which may be the undoing of...
What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?
First of all the decision should be taken looking at similar products in terms of capacity and performance. I will sh...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FlashSystem?
I rate the pricing a three out of ten. The tool is cost-efficient. The prices are good.
What needs improvement with IBM FlashSystem?
Customization features must be improved.
 

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X
EMC Unity, Dell EMC Unity
IBM Storwize
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company
Draper, Rio Grande Pacific, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre
Celero, Friedhelm Loh Group, Clarks, Mingkang Natregro Health Food Group, Sofia, Etisalat Fights Fraud, UF Health Shands Hospital, Generali, Elecon Engineering Company Limited, Ventiv , Technology, CPFL Energia, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., SciQuest, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated, Paddy Power, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, Interconnect Services, Severstal IP-Only AB, PVU Group GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Unity XT vs. IBM FlashSystem and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.