Dell XtremIO vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe comparison

Dell Technologies and Pure Storage are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #22 with an average rating of 8.0, 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, 80% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

Dell XtremIO

Read 54 Dell XtremIO reviews

1,197 Views
847 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Read 35 Pure FlashArray X NVMe reviews

1,532 Views
743 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell XtremIO

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell XtremIO and Pure FlashArray X NVMe are leading all-flash storage solutions competing in the enterprise market. Pure FlashArray X NVMe is viewed as a superior product due to its advanced features, which users feel justify the higher cost.

Features: Dell XtremIO offers robust data reduction technologies, seamless integration, and high availability. Pure FlashArray X NVMe features end-to-end NVMe architecture, industry-leading performance, and comprehensive data services. Users highlight the superior speed and innovations of Pure FlashArray X NVMe.

Room for Improvement: Users of Dell XtremIO report that improvements are needed in its analytics capabilities, management tools, and flexibility in updates. For Pure FlashArray X NVMe, feedback suggests enhancements in the ease of upgrades, additional features for better competitor parity, and improved management interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell XtremIO is praised for its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer support. Users find the documentation clear and the setup intuitive. Pure FlashArray X NVMe receives positive marks for deployment, with specific praise for its rapid time-to-value. However, consistency in customer support quality is noted as an area for Pure Storage to improve. Dell's exceptional customer service gives it the edge in this aspect.

Pricing and ROI: Dell XtremIO is noted for its cost-effective pricing and solid return on investment. Users appreciate the balance between cost and performance it offers. Pure FlashArray X NVMe, while higher in initial cost, provides substantial ROI through its superior performance and efficiency. Users are inclined to consider the higher expense worthwhile for the benefits gained.

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

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

April 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 XtremIO

Ranking in All-Flash Storage

22nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Stanislaw Jagielski

Trainer, Storage Consultant at Oxon

Efficient and straightforward setup boosts data management capabilities

Scalability is a significant feature of Dell XtremIO, as it is easy to expand and manage. It provides a lot of features suited for complex systems, such as scalability and the ability to define multi-domain systems, which are beneficial for data management and storage separation. It is efficient from the customer's point of view, offering deduplication at both the volume and file levels. The configuration and setup are straightforward, provided one has knowledge in setting up network infrastructure like VLANs. It is easy to install, use, and configure, making it a reliable product.

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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

"Very good IOPS performance"

"The program is very stable."

"Linear performance – The XtremIO wasn’t the fastest in all tests against other all flash arrays, but even with a massive workload, the response time and user experience were absolutely predictable with no sharp drop-offs."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The performance is good, which is important."

"Dell XtremIO is good for databases and huge workloads."

"Thin storage allocation"

"The guaranteed sub-millisecond response time for a 4K block."

More Dell XtremIO pros

"FlashArray has some fresh efficiency features. I've never seen a storage solution with a compression rating this high before. It's at least 4-to-1 on Oracle databases. It's the best flash storage for Oracle."

"I use the tool for Oracle databases, Oracle virtual machines, and Oracle Linux databases. I'm on the storage side, not a database administrator."

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"The system allows for seamless learning experiences, facilitating quick and easy cloning of environments within minutes."

"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."

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

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is reliability."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

Cons

"Ease of use is key in the converged and hyper-converged world that requires administrators to have both hypervisor and storage skills."

"We've encountered challenges in integrating other products with Dell Xtremio, as it tends to be more vendor-locked. This means we can't easily explore other solutions that might work alongside Dell."

"In some cases where we don’t need the flexibility of the virtualization layer, we could free up resources on the VPLEX by using the storage replication."

"They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application."

"If you are looking at flash storage solutions, XtremIO doesn't offer any unique features. Most of my customers are migrating their workload from XtremIO to other formats because of this."

"Dell's technical support could be better."

"The product is highly expensive. Additionally, there is a significant lack of training, support documents, and forums available for Dell XtremIO, making troubleshooting difficult for third-party individuals."

"The product is highly expensive."

More Dell XtremIO cons

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

"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."

"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."

"Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."

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

"The tool's portfolio is minimal. It is expensive."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost is on a yearly subscription basis, which can be expensive but is necessary for ongoing support and services. The pricing could be improved to make it more accessible."

"It is expensive if you need to increase scalability."

"Too high priced for the Brazil market."

"This solution is a little bit pricey."

"The license for XtremIO is in the box, so you don't have to buy anything."

"It's not cheap, but it absolutely gets the job done. I don't have any real comment regarding licensing specifically."

"Pricing and licensing are in line with other products from other manufacturers. You get what you pay for."

"With some workloads that benefit from compression and deduplication, costs are actually better than some tier 2 subsystems (while latency remains <1ms)."

More Dell XtremIO pricing and cost advice

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

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"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."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"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."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at Rubrik

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

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 EMC XtremIO?

The feature I like most about Dell Xtremio is its hardware quality compared to other vendors. It's clear they're continuously improving their research and development.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell XtremIO?

Pricing is hard to determine as it depends on the given configuration. XtremIO offers features that justify a potentially higher price, however, this varies with configuration. It has efficient ded...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell XtremIO?

The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system. While the current interface works well, a simpler version could be beneficial for new users.

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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Compared 28% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 10% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 30% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 17% 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 8% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO

April 2025

Download Dell XtremIO product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

April 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Also Known As

Dell EMC XtremIO Flash, Dell EMC XtremIO X2, XtremIO, XtremIO X2

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

Overview

Bring all-flash, scale-out storage to your enterprise applications with EMC XtremIO. Purpose-built for flash, XtremIO storage arrays are amazingly fast. Delivering high IOPS at less than 1 millisecond latency is just the start. EMC XtremIO helps you harness the power of flash storage by building in innovations like content-based data placement and dual-stage metadata.

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

Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

April 2025

Free Report: Dell XtremIO vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XtremIO vs. Pure FlashArray X NVMe and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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