Dell SC Series Reviews

It acts as our VM storage, and the performance is good.

It could be hyperconvergent in the future.

Stability is good so far.

The scalability is very good because we can add up to, if I'm not mistaken, another three stacks, three cases. There is room for us to keep upgrading the capacity.

The Phone Home support is very good. It provides proactive troubleshooting and responds to end-customers like us.

We also have a local vendor to support us and all our IT infrastructure. They are acting as our consultant.

Initially, when we chose this product it was because of the cost component and because the service was very good.

For me, when selecting a vendor the most important issue is support, after-sale services.

The initial setup was straightforward. Everything was done by the engineers on site. Very little was required of IT during the setup. So it was pretty easy for us.

We did do some comparisons between HPE 3PAR as well as Dell Compellent, but we choose Dell, as I mentioned, because of the cost factor.

The first thing you need to know is what you need, what your requirements are. The second thing is how much of a budget there is.

I rate Dell Compellent an eight out of 10. So far, we haven't faced any problems. Even during the upgrades, there have been no issues. In addition, support is very good.

It is performing well.

We have a bit more storage, and it is faster.

• Ease of use
• Reliability
• It is fast and performs well.

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

So far, so good. However, we have only had it running for four months.

Scalability is good. We still have more room.

We have not used technical support yet.

Our previous solution ran out of space and IOPS. Therefore, we had to get something which was faster.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward, though I was not involved. A co-worker did it.

Only Dell EMC products were on our shortlist.

We did look at Nutanix, but they did not fit into the way that we are organized. We also looked at NetApps, but quickly dismissed them.

I would recommend to buy Dell EMC 3020 to anyone researching these type of solutions.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:

• Reliability
• Support: We knew the support from EMC was really good.

There is no need to archive data and/or move data from expensive storage since the device does that itself depending on the use of the data. This is the data that you moved to the slower disks.

1. Easy management of volumes: You can create volumes and easily assign them to VMware clusters, increasing their size.
2. Performance management: The process of reallocating data from fast disks (SSD or SAS) to slow disks (SATA) gives you better performance and better use of resources.

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.

No issues.

It is more difficult than others, since once you need to growth, you need to make sure what tier you will increase to in order to redistribute the data. It can take more time and planning, but is worth the effort.

Excellent, Copilot (support for Compellent) is excellent.

Yes, we used to have EMC and Hitachi Storage. The growth of storage was limited and price/performance were not good.

Initially, it can be difficult since you need to understand the tiering philosophy. It is very different to normal SAN deployments, but once you understand them, they are very straightforward.

Take your time to meet with your representative and tell them your needs and listen careful to every recommendation. 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.

Yes, IBM's and HP's tiering solutions, but there are too expensive and bulky.

Document your needs, current storage, expansion, and timeframe for replays (snapshots). If you have backups or replications in place, make sure they work with Compellent Tiered Storage.

Live Volume, Chargeback, Sync Replication (Cascade/Mixed mode), Fast Track.

Additional features like Live Volume, Chargeback, Sync Replication (Cascade/Mixed mode) and Fast Track makes this storage unique. Moreover, you can integrate your existing infrastructure--no matter whether it's FC or FCoE or iSCSI--with this unified storage solution. This means you don't need to buy a new storage solution for future escalation.

Improvement is a continuous process for every technology. Similarly, Compellent is improving its software (Storage Center) and releases updated version often.

One and a half years.

Not yet. But matching color coding during zoning is sometimes a little bit annoying.

No.

Not yet.

I don't have any complaints.

Excellent. I think EMC support service is equivalent of Copilot service of Compellent. And their response time is really good.

Switched from EqualLogic because of Unified scale out architecture. You can use this storage file and block level both. Further, if you consider with others OEM like EMC for unified solution you have to consider VNX 5200/5300 above. Whereas there is no model dependency on Compllent.

No issues. The installation and configuration is very simple.

Yes. I did the implementation. There is no doubt about Dell's expertise level. They have really an efficient and expert group of people.

Technically I can say that day to day cost is at a considerable level. Previously I told you if you consider 5-8 years solution then it'll minimize your day to day cost. Because, later to scale up your capacity you just need to add DAE (Disk Array Enclosure). That's all. And DAE is cheaper than buying a new storage for scale up capacity.

None.

Definitely I would like to say to all others, if you want good unified storage solution with satisfactory level ROI just go with Compellent. It'll give you flexibility, good ROI and you can integrate your existing infrastructure without facing complexity, no matter what kind of infrastructure you have (FC, iSCSI or FCoE).

We only build the basic foundation and the basic installation for the end-user on Dell EMC SC Series. However, I'm not sure what they install on it. Our main use case for Dell EMC SC Series is for VMware.

The configuration could be easier in Dell EMC SC Series.

I have been using Dell EMC SC Series for approximately one year.

The stability of the Dell EMC SC Series is very good.

We have approximately 100 users using this solution in my organization.

The Dell support is helpful and the response is quick. The agents' knowledge is very good.

The installation could be easier. The comparable IBM solution is much easier to install.

The process for the installation takes approximately one day.

I did the implementation of the solution myself using the user guides.

We have the basic license for the use of this solution and it is a permanent license. The overall cost could be less, it is expensive.

I rate Dell EMC SC Series a nine out of ten.

Our use cases are related mostly to manufacturing industries. 

Dell SC Series' most valuable features are performance and network facilities. We have no issues with its integration. The tool helps to visualize servers. 

The tool's pricing is high and not suitable for medium companies. 

I have been working with the product for eight years. 

We have had no issues with the solution's stability. 

One client company has more than 5,000 users. Most of our customers have users between 500-1000. 

If customers have any issues, they can contact Dell support. 

Positive

The tool's deployment is not complex. It takes around two to five days to complete. 

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.