VMAX [EOL] Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Practice Manager - Cloud, Automation & DevOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

May 17, 2015

Every VMAX requires valid EMC support, even adding one disk or reconfiguring a Front-End port. You cannot do any of this yourself.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user243753Global Business Alliance Director

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May 24, 2015

We have EMC VMAX Secure service credential solution of SymmToken. You can maintain vmax by yourself instead of EMC.

it_user159387

Works at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Oct 29, 2014

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Expensive, but we run a big infrastructure of voip services on it and don’t get any complaints of latency or delays.

What is most valuable?

Virtual Provisioning, Auto provisioning and FAST VP.

How has it helped my organization?

Before VMAX, it was a huge task to provision storage to a host but with VMAX Auto provisioning it has become just a matter of few clicks. The VMAX virtual provisioning feature helps us save cost.

What needs improvement?

1) It is still expensive.

2) Front-end port throughput should be higher than what it is currently.

3) Restriction on storage and system bay ordering/placement should be gone.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than 4 years now.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

It is the most stable storage product I have worked with.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It was deployed by EMC itself. No issues faced.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues as we had planned expansion well before its deployment but in an environment where scalability was not planned before deployment, storage bay placement/ordering could cause some issues. New VMAX model (40K) sort out this issue by allowing 25 meters spanning between system and storage bay.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It is one of the best support I have worked with.

Technical Support:

It is one of the best support I have worked with.

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

How was the initial setup?

It was setup by EMC itself but its not a straightforward setup. Loads of planning is required to set it correctly.

What about the implementation team?

Vendor.

What other advice do I have?

If someone is looking for a product that can give the best performance under heavy load then this is the product they must go for. We are running a big infrastructure of voip services on it and we don’t get any complaint of latency of delays from our customers.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a partner of the vendor.

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it_user814776

Principal Infrastructure Architect

Feb 20, 2018

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A rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service

Pros and Cons

"A rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service."

"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."

What is our primary use case?

Zero downtime and high performance applications. We support customers with applications that cannot incur unplanned outages.

How has it helped my organization?

We have stabilized many environments with VMAX. We have helped people consolidate numerous applications to provide better uptime and performance.

What is most valuable?

Stability: Every environment struggles with something that can cause a disruption to application uptime. VMAX is a rock solid foundation to deploy applications which cannot incur a disruption of service.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a consulting company with resell and delivery capabilities.

Reviewer588

Head of Microinformatics at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 9, 2019

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The all-flash feature is great

Pros and Cons

"I like the many new features, especially the all-flash solution."

"I would like this solution to integrate the solution that EMC vPlex offers."

What is most valuable?

I like the many new features, especially the all-flash solution.

What needs improvement?

I would like this solution to integrate the solution that Dell EMC vPlex offers. In addition, I think they should have a better means to test the equipment.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no issues with the stability of this solution.

What was our ROI?

There is ROI for this product. It is always something I look at when choosing a solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at HP and Hitachi as other potential solutions. We have two Hitachi subsystems and one Dell EMC subsystem right now.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user164970

Manager Storage and Virtualization with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 24, 2014

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It’s a great product, the only draw back is you don’t get multiple point in time copies.

Valuable Features

Ease of use, stability, reliability and ease of troubleshooting.

Room for Improvement

Adding a snapshot function will make this product even better, currently that feature is lacking.

Use of Solution

5-7 years.

Deployment Issues

No issues.

Stability Issues

No issues.

Scalability Issues

Scalability has dependency on WAN link speed.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

Excellent.

Technical Support:

Excellent.

Initial Setup

It was simple.

Implementation Team

This was done through a vendor team. EMC professional services have great level of expertise on this product and its setup.

Other Advice

It’s a great product, the only draw back is you don’t get multiple point in time copies.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user155190

Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 2, 2014

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Powerfull High End Storage Array

What is most valuable?

Thin provisionning

FAST

Symmetrix Virtual Matrix which give more performance to the VMAX

How has it helped my organization?

Thin provisioning reduces capacity consuming: only the amount of data written to the disk is used, no extra reservation.
FAST improves the use of performance disks: hot extents are automatically placed on EFD disks, medium used extents are placed on FC disks and extents which are not used very often are moved to ship disks (SATA)

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year

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

We used to use CLARiiON then VNX arrays. VMAX is more scalable and has better performance (gives more IOPS, more front end ports...)

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are an EMC partner

it_user2529

Manager of Data Center at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 15, 2012

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Resilient, fast, and reliable, but expensive

Valuable Features:

Resilience, speed, flexibility, system reliability, refresh strategy

Room for Improvement:

Cost of the hardware tends to be high, however, you do get what you pay for.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user820140

‎Chief Catalyst at ssnc

Mar 25, 2018

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It works with our replication technology, which is native replication technology

Pros and Cons

"We have been able to present storage from the VMAX to hosts without any problems."
"It works with our replication technology, which is not SRDF, which is native replication technology."

"Resilience replication, reporting, and performance need to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Used for our storage with applications that need storage on the SAN. We also use it with RecoverPoint for replication to another site that also uses VMAX storage. We also use it with RecoverPoint for for replication instead of SRDF.

How has it helped my organization?

Since using the VMAX that we have had in our organization for many years, after moving from CX4 and prior to that EVA, we have been able to present storage from the VMAX to hosts without any problems. It works with our replication technology, which is not SRDF, which is native replication technology. We use RecoverPoint.

What is most valuable?

Storage
Unisphere
RecoverPoint
Reporting
Creating LUNs
Reliability
Dependability
Resilience

What needs improvement?

Ease of use
Reporting
Performance management
Performance
Dependability
Resilience replication
Power

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.