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PeerSpot user
Sr Storage Architect at a tech services company
Real User
Remove configuration limits and improve the interface to provide management capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "Setup is simple."
  • "Software updates have to be downloaded to the root of the device. This pushes the available space to 95% utilization."
  • "​Improve the interface and provide more management capability."

What is our primary use case?

  • Enterprise production services
  • Wide variety of applications
  • Block only

How has it helped my organization?

It did not. Simpler interfaces mean less capabilities for managing. Inexplicable rules of configuration contribute to inefficient disk allocation. The Unity units are an okay upgrade from VNXe, but are a poor substitute for a VNX2 model. It limits the management, distribution, monitoring, and implementation of our storage LUNs.

What is most valuable?

None. Having used EMC products for more than 15 years, this is the first product in that time that I could find nothing to like.

What needs improvement?

  • Improve the interface and provide more management capability.
  • Remove the configuration limits.
  • Start over.
Buyer's Guide
Dell Unity XT
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Dell Unity XT. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

How are customer service and support?

Dell is far worse at support than EMC was. It headed downhill fast.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

EMC for more than 15 years. Prior solutions were VNX and VNX2.

What about the implementation team?

in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Setup is simple, but at the expense of key management features.

Pricing is as high as it has ever been for EMC.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Compared IBM Storwize and some Dell storage options.

What other advice do I have?

Software updates have to be downloaded to the root of the device. This pushes the available space to 95% utilization. Poor design.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user776910 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Information Technology at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
Vendor
It is a single source of knowledge and repository for all our data

What is most valuable?

  • The performance
  • Ease of use

How has it helped my organization?

Before the product went in, we did not have any centralized storage. All our service storage was supported separately. We had multiple machines which added administration and maintenance costs. Whereas now, it is a single source of knowledge and repository for all our data. It has made our lives a lot easier. It also has improved our disaster recovery because we have two of them in place replicating. 

What needs improvement?

  • The virtual appliance is limited to 4TB in storage. This should be unlimited for paying customers.
  • The front panel is too fiddly to take off and on.
  • The support model would be better within Australia. Support has been great, but onshore support would be minorly beneficial.
  • Troubleshooting LUN replication can be difficult.
  • When making changes to replicated LUNs (Async in our case), perhaps some measures to prevent us making mistakes. (One of our engineers modified the block storage size and it did not follow the proper procedure, and this broke the replication awkwardly. This was the subject of our most recent support ticket.)

For how long have I used the solution?

We started using it last November, so going on just about 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues. A very stable product. In previous roles, I have also used the earlier models. The VNX Series and EMC do a really good job. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues. It has been a year, and at the moment, I am having a schedule of work put together to increase the capacity. It will be a very easy job. A matter of adding extra disks to existing slots. Very easy to do. So, a very scalable product.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not personally worked with the tech support, but the engineers who installed it have worked with EMC's support. It has been very good. EMC has at times reached out to us, flagging that they have noticed a problem with some of the array configurations. That level of support has been very good. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, as there was no central storage solution beforehand. We went to market straight away. 

How was the initial setup?

I got professional services in to do the initial installation. If you get the right people to do the installation, they make it a lot easier.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pay for the training. At least negotiate with EMC to get the training done, because it is a good product and it is even better once you are shown how to use it properly.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I was debating between the Unity 300 and a NetApp Solution. We ended up picking the Unity only because the administration is a lot easier. 

Also, I had used the earlier model in the past, and it was recommended by the supplier as well. 

What other advice do I have?

It is absolutely a good solution. It does have the ability for expansion into Cloud services, which I would like to use one day, but we have not tried that yet.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Dell Unity XT
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Dell Unity XT. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user555651 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Provides inline compression, auto-shrinking, and data in-place upgrades.

What is most valuable?

  • Inline compression
  • Auto-shrink
  • Data in-place upgrades

What needs improvement?

Definitely the biggest requirement is deduplication. The EMC Unity Platform doesn’t have this feature, yet it was a part of the predecessor VNX series. Customers cannot afford to keep duplicates of data on such a tier.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used it for about six months with multiple deployments during this period.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The operating environment is very stable. I have no complaints and no bugs were noticed so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

All the models in the series/family have a specific range of scalability. I believe there never was an issue on this, its predecessors, or with the Unity.

SAN is a scale-up technology. Usually when a system needs to be upgraded to handle more workloads or requires to scale up more than the existing systems’ capability, you do not need to do a traditional "fork-lift" upgrade. You do not need to get a bigger SAN and then do the traditional migration from the old SAN to the new one.

You can simply replace the existing storage processors one at a time with a higher model SP and voila, you’re done! Now you’re upgraded from model A to model B with higher scalability and better configurations.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give them a rating of "11/10".

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked with NetApp, Dell Compellent, Dell EqualLogic, and HPE EVA systems.

  • Dell: Too complicated for configuration and management utilization
  • NetApp: A very good product when it comes to a file environment. However, they are quite restrictive with their block protocols.
  • HPE EVA: Not as reliable as a NetApp or EMC.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple and straightforward with a friendly interface, wizard driven, and no extra utilities required.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Unity is a good product since all the software required is already bundled.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We previously evaluated Compellent, EqualLogic, MD series, NetApp FAS, Nimble and HPE EVA.

What other advice do I have?

Go for it!

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We’re partners with Dell EMC (also Dell & EMC individually).
PeerSpot user
it_user866772 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Solid platform, and the performance allows us to do more with less
Pros and Cons
    • "I would like to see better compression, better dedupe. It's not nearly as good as what is built into the XtremIO. I understand why that is the case, but if they can take some of that technology and leverage that a little bit better in the Unity array, that would be great."

    What is our primary use case?

    Our primary use case is for our product, Oracle Database, and it's performing very well.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The benefit of the solution is that it allows us to maintain an Oracle Database for our product, for our customers. Given the performance of the Unity array, we've been able to do more with less.

    What is most valuable?

    It's just a solid platform.

    What needs improvement?

    I would like to see better compression, better dedupe. It's not nearly as good as what is built into the XtremIO. I understand why that is the case, but if they can take some of that technology and leverage that a little bit better in the Unity array, that would be great. That would be the first improvement.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's rock solid. All of the EMC arrays are rock solid. I wouldn't expect anything less.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scalability is phenomenal.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is typically very good. The only issue is, where our products are located. it's hard to get technical support in there. Only certain individuals can go in there, so finding that right, cleared person is sometimes a challenge.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    This is just the next generation. We started with the CX models, we went to the Celerra, and now we're only blocks. We've used the 5300, the 5400s. We've used them all for years and years.

    When selecting a vendor what's important are 

    • price
    • the name
    • the product itself 
    • most importantly, stability. 

    I need to know that I've got a device that's running and it's not going to go down; that has rock-solid stability. That's the issue.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is different from the VNX arrays and the CX arrays, which we have played with and used for years. The interface is just different.

    Previously, we manually did all of our RAID groups. We didn't use the pools in the VNX2, we just went down to RAID groups because that would give us the best performance. We could maintain that performance, we could control that. With Unity, that went away, so that was a little bit of a learning curve. We had to understand and learn to trust that it was going to do what it needed to do.

    What other advice do I have?

    Compared to XtremeIO, the unity is a two out of 10. Compared to other products, like Compellent, which is a Dell product, I think it's better than the Compellent. I think it's better than the 3PAR, I think it's better than the Netapp. The whole VNX/Unity line has been the industry leader, as far as I'm concerned. if I were to rank the Unity against all of its equivalent competitors, I would say it's probably a nine out of 10.

    I would give a colleague the advice that he needs to look at what his product does, or what the use case is for that device. The Unity array is, by design, block, with unified on top of it. NetApp is, by default, file, with a block added on, which is kind of a hybrid; it's not really block at all. It depends on what you're doing. If you're looking for a filer, NetApp is the way to go. But if you're looking for block storage, by far EMC Unity is the way to go. That is its design.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user866763 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Project Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Reduced the latency in application and database reads and writes; all-flash just flies
    Pros and Cons
    • "It has reduced the latency in application and database reads and writes... All-flash, it's fast. We have the 650 model which is all-flash, upgraded from VNX. It just flies."

      What is our primary use case?

      We're running virtual machines and we're using the NAS filer for file shares.

      How has it helped my organization?

      It has reduced the latency in application and database reads and writes, which is of benefit to the business.

      What is most valuable?

      All-flash, it's fast. We have the 650 model which is all-flash, upgraded from VNX. It just flies.

      What needs improvement?

      I can't think of any improvements, other than bringing down the price point. That would help.

      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

      It seems rock solid so far.

      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

      At this point, we're at the high end. I don't know that we have a lot of room to scale up, but I think it's going to meet our needs for a while.

      How are customer service and technical support?

      My colleague did a firmware upgrade recently and that went well. I would say that was a good experience with tech support.

      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

      We were running out of disk space, and there was some latency that we wanted to improve on. We had the VNX previously.

      When selecting a vendor, the price is always important, but we need a product that supports our business, It's both those factors.

      How was the initial setup?

      The setup went relatively well. It was straightforward. We got migrated over quickly, so I have been very pleased with all of it.

      What other advice do I have?

      It's working well for us so far. We haven't had it long enough to have a full-term answer, but I am very pleased with it so far.

      In terms of advice to a colleague, if it's a mid-size company that has a similar needs to ours, I think the Unity is a good option.

      Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
      PeerSpot user
      it_user865578 - PeerSpot reviewer
      Director of IT at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
      Real User
      We have had problems with controllers, SPBs, though we have seen speed improvements
      Pros and Cons
        • "One of the issues we've had is that controllers have crashed several times... We've had a lot of problems with the storage processor, SPBs. We've actually had them crash."

        What is our primary use case?

        It's our production SAN. In terms of performance, I've had a few issues, a lot of error messages that they haven't been able to figure out yet. 

        I do like to be able, in a DR scenario, to use it to failover if we have to. That was our original use case, but we've actually gotten away from that for now, because it was just too cumbersome to do a failover, a data center failover, using Unity.

        How has it helped my organization?

        We can get to our applications faster. That's the biggest plus that we've seen with it. 

        What is most valuable?

        The reason we purchased it was for dual data centers. We have one in each data center so that we can have that redundancy, that failover if needed. 

        Obviously, flash, everything's quicker. We did notice a lot of speed difference.

        We actually started out with XtremIO, and we were running our SQL servers off XtremIO, but our application servers couldn't keep up. So now, our application servers are all on flash, SQL Servers are all on XtremIO, and the two work together well.

        What needs improvement?

        One of the issues we've had is that controllers have crashed several times. Just today I received a message that a dump file was detected. We've had a lot of problems with the storage processor, SPBs. We've actually had them crash. Luckily, nothing went down.

        What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

        We purchased big enough that we haven't had to worry about scalability yet.

        How are customer service and technical support?

        Tech support is knowledgeable. We get the answers when we need them, they get us back up.

        Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

        Originally we had the EMC VNX, and support was up on it. So it was either going to be: buy support for the VNX or move to Unity. The money came out the same, so our decision was to move to Unity.

        What other advice do I have?

        I would rate the unity at six out of 10 because of the errors that we are receiving.

        If I were advising a colleague, right now I'd probably have them move to another solution. There are other flash arrays. They may not have the Dell EMC name, but they are performing just as well at a lower cost point.

        Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
        PeerSpot user
        it_user865572 - PeerSpot reviewer
        Managing Partner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
        Real User
        Fast cache in the hybrid storage has increased my client's performance
        Pros and Cons
        • "The performance combined with the gig-per-dollar value is a combination that is superior to other storage options."

          What is our primary use case?

          General storage for virtual machines. The virtual machines have different roles, essential roles; and, of course, mission-critical servers running financial services, or engineering programs, etc.

          How has it helped my organization?

          I have a client that jumped from the stone age to hybrid. They do enjoy the hybrid storage, the fast cache, etc. It has greatly improved their performance, absolutely. The customer is really happy about it.

          What is most valuable?

          It is the performance combined with the Gig-per-dollar value. That combination is superior to other storage options.

          What needs improvement?

          All the features that the client has, the client has really enjoyed them.

          One thing they could do is lower the price point. There are other storage products that are available from Dell, the SE series for example. The client is comparing the Unity and the SE3000 for example, the SE is cheaper.

          What do I think about the stability of the solution?

          So far so good. No issues with stability.

          What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

          I'm sure scalability will be fine. It will be great. But the client has not reached the point of needing to increase the capacity, or other features, yet.

          How is customer service and technical support?

          So far technical support is very reliable, it's very good that way. We haven't engaged tech support so far, but when did the deployment we did have Dell EMC come in and provide deployment services, and that went through pretty well.

          How was the initial setup?

          We picked Dell deployment services, so it was very straightforward. The Dell technician came in on time and then, according to the survey that the client filled out earlier - it was great. The client was impressed.

          What other advice do I have?

          I give it an eight out of 10 and the two missing points are because of the price tag.

          In terms of advice, I would definitely recommend Dell solutions. As for Unity, it depends on the budget. I definitely recommend Unity, because I do have clients that are currently using it, and they don't have any issues, they're happy with the product.

          Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
          PeerSpot user
          CloudEnga630 - PeerSpot reviewer
          Cloud Engineer/System Administrator at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
          Real User
          Simpler to use than our previous solution, we're able to manage our users more easily

          What is our primary use case?

          Our primary usage is for our users on our civilian side. We deal with both military and civilian, but it's mainly for our civilian users. We recently started using it, six months ago. Our customers like it a lot. It's an improvement from what we were using. We use it for our Outlook and Exchange but we haven't implemented with our VMware yet.

          How has it helped my organization?

          It gives us an easier way to manage our users. We have a lot of users, so it's better on that side of things. Compared to the HPE product we were using beforehand, it's definitely simpler. The interface is smoother too compared to the HPE product. The team that we have now prefers it, so far.

          What is most valuable?

          The interface is pretty easy and it didn't take too long to get trained on it.

          For how long have I used the solution?

          Less than one year.

          What do I think about the stability of the solution?

          We haven't had any issues with it, any outages. We have a lot of users and it's been able to handle our high usage rate.

          What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

          We haven't increased in size much. Given the user rate we're at now, we think it will probably scale pretty easily without having any issues.

          How are customer service and technical support?

          We have not had to use technical support.

          Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

          We were using HPE before. It wasn't that we needed to switch, but we switched because we were having a few issues. They wanted to try something new. When we did so, the users and the IT team and the customers preferred it. They thought it was a lot smoother.

          Because we work with the DoD, they have a list of devices that are approved. That's the list they go off of.

          How was the initial setup?

          It was more our Tier 3 team that did the setup, but they didn't have any issues with it. Most of them have a lot of experience with a lot of equipment so, it was pretty smooth.

          What was our ROI?

          I definitely see value in it. We will probably implement it in other locations that we have as well, since we currently only use it at our main location. It has definitely been useful equipment.

          What other advice do I have?

          If a friend or colleague was using the equipment that we were using beforehand, we'd definitely tell them to transition over because it is a lot easier to use.

          I'd rate it about a nine out of ten. It's smooth, has been an easy transition, the interface is a lot easier than the one we were working with. The setup was easy and we haven't had any problems with it. Of course, it's not perfect, but it's really good equipment.

          Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
          PeerSpot user
          Buyer's Guide
          Download our free Dell Unity XT Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
          Updated: April 2025
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          Buyer's Guide
          Download our free Dell Unity XT Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.