We performed a comparison between Cisco MDS Series and Dell PowerVault based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Enterprise SAN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."
"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"The product is easy to use."
"The issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"For us, the initial setup was easy."
"The storage has been good."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its ability to provide small to medium-range storage. It doesn't have any specific standout features, but it's great for applications, such as surveillance where a large number of videos need to be recorded and performance isn't a priority."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The stability is quite good. Once you deploy all the equipment, it's very stable."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its performance."
"Dell PowerVault offers valuable full flash storage."
"PowerVault comes with free software that performs functions like data deduplication and replication, which is cost-effective and delivers added value to the product."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"The product is very expensive."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"Sometimes integrating into a cluster can be difficult as you have to do it manually."
"Dell PowerVault could improve by having a higher cache and file protocol support added."
"The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level during these upgrade processes, as we sometimes need to shut down both controllers. This could be an area for improvement."
"There have been situations when our customers requested professional support and the price of that feature is quite high."
"The implementation process takes a while."
"We could set up the installation through a web server, but it's not very reactive on the web server. For example, when you launch a task, and you don't know exactly if the task has begun or if the task is in progress, or if it's finished. You have to wait for three to five to ten minutes to be sure that the task is running or in progress or finished. So at that point, it's not very good."
"In most instances, clients are using Dell PowerVault with tape drives, but we want to transition them away from tape drives due to the risk of data loss."
"I would like Dell to improve on the configuration of the disk groups. Only one group is expandable. Once you configure the other disk group types, you cannot expand them. It limits scalability. If you want maybe to grow a disk group, you lose information, and then you need to build it up again, which is not a good use case for customers."
Cisco MDS Series is ranked 1st in Enterprise SAN with 8 reviews while Dell PowerVault is ranked 2nd in Enterprise SAN with 23 reviews. Cisco MDS Series is rated 9.0, while Dell PowerVault is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco MDS Series writes "Simple deployment, reliable, and scales well". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell PowerVault writes "Easy to use with good integrations and reasonable pricing". Cisco MDS Series is most compared with Dell Connectrix, HPE SN6000, IBM SAN384B and Pure Storage FlashArray, whereas Dell PowerVault is most compared with HPE StoreOnce, Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain), Lenovo Storage V Series, Huawei OceanStor SNS and NetApp AltaVault. See our Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerVault report.
See our list of best Enterprise SAN vendors.
We monitor all Enterprise SAN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
