We performed a comparison between Dell Unity XT and IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two All-Flash Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."We consume less physical storage because of the solution’s deduplication and compression."
"It's extremely stable and has good performance."
"The deduplication and compression rates are beyond impressive."
"The speed is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"It upgrades in place which means we'll be using it well into the future."
"Non-disruptive upgrades: You can upgrade at anytime without worry."
"One of the features that my customers are really interested in is immutable snapshots. There are immutable snapshots to which your applications can be reverted back if you are hit by some kind of ransomware threat or malicious attack. That's kind of a key deal, and it is one of the selling points I use to point out to my customers the value and the features that Pure Storage brings to the table."
"The mobile app is very helpful."
"My storage team likes Unity's replication features. Three-site replication is a unique feature that EMC offers us."
"The most valuable features are its performance and simplicity."
"The NAS is also extremely easy to set up."
"The scalability is really good now that they have the Dynamic Pools. We don't always have the money to buy complete write sets when we have to expand the storage, so now with the Dynamic Pools we can add disks on the go."
"It is very stable."
"We run about 100 virtual servers on it. We have about 100 users accessing the file shares from there, and I've seen no problem with that. We have about a 10GB backbone. Whatever we throw at it, it hasn't shown any sign of weakness or anything. It's been really good."
"It's very reliable. I have not had an issue with Dell EMC Unity."
"With all-flash it should be able to scale. You probably just need one 4U device and you have terabytes of space."
"The storage serves the virtual environment. Most of our applications run in the virtual environment, and it serves nearly 30% of the bank's capacity."
"Its ease of use, performance, and hardware compression is very useful feature."
"There are many valuable features of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMele I have found to meet my needs. Specifically, the maintenance cycle is a standout feature of this solution. The main component of the IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is the maintenance of the batteries, which have a predetermined and reliable four-year life cycle. This is in stark contrast to other solutions that may use spinning disks, which can fail unexpectedly, causing unwanted downtime and maintenance. Having a predictable maintenance cycle is a significant advantage and has made this solution a preferred choice for me."
"IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is one of the leading storage systems in the world...I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten."
"IBM FlashSystem provides the same software on each box, including virtualized solutions."
"The solution is more available for IOPS warehousing, resolving issues, and reporting than other products."
"IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is easy to use and comes with good performance."
"The most valuable feature is the speed."
"The price could be better."
"We would like to be able to connect to data tape for backup, specifically to the LTO backups."
"Just some nit picky stuff, like allowing servers and volumes to be grouped. Therefore, it would easier to work with them in the GUI."
"The way Pure Storage does the controller storage warranty or replacement has been an issue for some people who just replace the controllers every couple of years, and that's where some of the confusion with pricing and support has come in. They should be clear on the way the controller replacements happen, as it is important to know whether or not you can get a good return on them, because it can be a little confusing."
"The system has dual controllers but does not have a high level of resiliency built-in."
"They could improve the price."
"They are doing some stuff with containers and an object search. These could be improved, because containers is one of the main topics that we are talking with our customers about."
"We haven't seen ROI."
"I rate the scalability of Dell Unity XT a nine out of ten."
"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."
"For the integration of the VPLEX function for Cross IDC structure, they should integrate the function into the SP controller."
"We integrated it with vSphere but that integration was "iffy". It was okay but we had a few challenges with it."
"We have had some downtime. Nothing is perfect. Unity’s have had some code-release problems, versions that, from a compatibility perspective, had some glitches which caused an outage. But, given the amount of Unity’s we run, that has been fairly minor and it hasn't happened at scale or across all of our Unity’s."
"Software updates have to be downloaded to the root of the device. This pushes the available space to 95% utilization."
"The upgrade process needs improvement. I should be able to swap it out, with zero downtime, with another array, down the road. I don't think Dell EMC has anything in the roadmap for this product line. I just don't want to have to deal with that anymore and all of our customers are pretty much the same."
"One area of improvement is replication. We are also using Oracle virtual machines, and when you are using systems from other vendors, the process of replicating from Unity through OLVM is more laborious than when we were using VPLEX."
"IBM's support is not good. I experienced a big problem where I opened the console IBM Storage and would see that something was broken. I called the call centers, and I said, "I have a problem. My drive is not working." They want me to give them the serial number, I gave it to them and they told me "I cannot find your product. Your product is not here.""
"Deduplication and compression should be improved."
"IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is an expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved."
"In the future, the limitation is upgrading the same storage by adding a shelf to the desk. There is a limitation in the backend connection between the storage and extended shelf."
"The efficacy of the GUI in IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe could be enhanced, and it would be beneficial to include a feature that can prevent ransomware attacks."
"There could be a possibility of not requiring to buy a new box while upgrading to a newer version."
"The solution's compression feature could be better."
"I would like to have replication functionality built directly in the product, rather than having to use a separate device for this."
Dell Unity XT is ranked 4th in All-Flash Storage with 186 reviews while IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is ranked 13th in All-Flash Storage with 19 reviews. Dell Unity XT is rated 8.4, while IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Dell Unity XT writes "Easy to set up with good data compression technology and useful deduplication". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe writes "Steady performance, responsive support, and high availability". Dell Unity XT is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, HPE Nimble Storage, IBM FlashSystem and HPE 3PAR StoreServ, whereas IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, IBM FlashSystem and HPE Primera. See our Dell Unity XT vs. IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe report.
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