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IBM System Storage DS8000 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

IBM System Storage DS8000 S...
Average Rating
9.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Frame-Based Disk Arrays (3rd)
VMAX [EOL]
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

it_user1303074 - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Leader at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
An advanced enterprise storage system with a powerful throughput feature
I use this solution to lighten the workload. Oracle databases and SQL databases have a high workload in IBM The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product. The GUI isn't as user-friendly as other options. The price could also be better. I would like to see a better GUI…
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 main benefit is from the standpoint of recovery; recovery time and being able to quickly replicate data."
"The Global Copy and Global Mirror features are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"I really recommend the IBM DS8000 solution as it is the most advanced technology available for storage solutions."
"The high throughput feature is the most powerful thing in this product."
"We have had no outages now for literally six years and that's really impressive."
"The solution is very stable; there aren't any problems there at all as it doesn't have bugs or glitches and doesn't crash or freeze, and we've found it to be very reliable."
"These are global mirror and replication for DR, which allow us to do a lot of DR testing."
"We have been able to present storage from the VMAX to hosts without any problems."
"The most valuable features are the interface and performance."
"This solution is resilient."
"VMAX is a rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service."
"It is a high end storage, minimal downtime, reliable, good performance, get speedy support when we need."
"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."
"It works with our replication technology, which is not SRDF, which is native replication technology."
"Deploying, Expanding, and Modifying systems are easier than ever."
 

Cons

"The GUI isn't as user-friendly as other options."
"I would like it to be easier to use. Some of it is so complex that we've got a lot of scripts and automation and things tied around it."
"The solution should embedded replication switches into the hardware instead of using them externally."
"On the open system side, it's a little different."
"We need the GUI feature to be improved. If the GUI is good, then it is easier to manage with just the clicks, rather than going in with CLI and commands to do the stuff."
"The pricing of the solution is difficult to deal with. Lower pricing would be preferred."
"Sometimes when we do encounter problems, but not a complete system shutdown, that gets a little bit frustrating."
"Resilience replication, reporting, and performance need to be improved."
"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."
"I would like to see support for high-availability."
"It is still expensive."
"I'm always interested in ways we can scale out and avoid monolithic migrations from one array to another every four to five years."
"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."
"I would like this solution to integrate the solution that Dell EMC vPlex offers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is very expensive."
"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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
6%
Government
6%
Performing Arts
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
 

Also Known As

System Storage DS8000
Symmetrix VMAX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Renfe, Park Nicollet Health Services, Ricoh Americas Corporation, SK Energy, SWK STADTWERKE KREFELD AG
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: September 2026.
912,022 professionals have used our research since 2012.