We performed a comparison between Dell Unity XT and NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays 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.
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."
"It's helped us because we've changed fundamentally what we talk about. We don't talk about storage and different tiers of storage anymore nor do we talk about servers. We talk now about applications and how applications impact the business and end users."
"The solution is very straightforward to set up."
"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."
"It has good, reliable, fast storage."
"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."
"Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."
"Pure has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."
"With all-flash it should be able to scale. You probably just need one 4U device and you have terabytes of space."
"It's very reliable. I have not had an issue with Dell EMC Unity."
"I like the idea that it can compress and dedupe inline. That is quite a stunning feature for mid-range customers."
"It has helped us be able to use less administrators per device or system. Therefore,we are more streamlined."
"The setup and installation procedures are easy."
"We can sleep at night because the support is great."
"We currently have two Dell EMC Unities going. One of them at our primary on-premise DR site. They communicate with each other. If we ever have to failover, it is right there and ready."
"The all-flash feature is really boosting up the VMware. It is helping our virtual machines to perform better."
"Having the option of such high-speed storage in the data center is what makes it valuable."
"I would have to say performance at this point, because the application it is based on is so diverse."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to set a specific margin of performance to a specific workload."
"This storage solution is both stable and scalable, and it works for our needs."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its speed."
"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the performance of the database access."
"The main advantage of this solution is performance."
"In the future, I would like to see integration with enterprise backup systems."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."
"The software layer has to improve."
"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."
"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."
"We would like to see VNC integration or be able to use Pure Storage with VNC."
"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."
"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."
"Ordering is easy, but the processing site and working with those companies was difficult."
"It needs deduplication. We'd like to have the dedupe capabilities in the Unity."
"We'd like to see a cheaper version of an all-flash array in that footprint."
"Include cloud-based replication for blocks"
"I'd like to see more of the NVMe back-end for the flash. And the big deal with the PowerMax is that they've used all U2 drives so that they can avoid having to take it down. I see using M.2 and modular sections as being a real nice alternative that could be implemented in Unity at a fairly low cost."
"I would like the UI to look better."
"I would like it to be a little bit easier to contact support. We can contact support, but we have to go through a phone tree. We get routed to different places. I might call support to say that I need a drive replaced and get transferred to three different groups before I get to the group I actually need."
"Firmware Upgrades in EMC Unity require you to manually download OS and Drive firmware, this should be integrated (Nimble does this). When you order an EMC Unity, you have to specify the block size. This is weird for me and even weirder that you cannot change this afterwards, you should be able to specify per LUN/datastore (Nimble does this as well)."
"Things like the FlexClones, SnapVault, SnapMirror, all of that. Some of it's available on the EF series, but we like what we have in the FAS system."
"The management interface, while very reliable, it seems a little old now and could maybe use a little modernization."
"Their problems are on the software and the controlling of the storage where they lack segmentation and federation."
"The only major drawback is the replication between EF-Series units."
"The price of the All Flash solution is very high."
"I’d like to see bigger, faster, better hardware, of course. I think that is the way the hardware is trending anyway; bigger, faster CPU, better software, fewer bugs, all that stuff. T"
"The solution's technical support is not as good as it is supposed to be since you have to push them to get support."
"We have used IBM previously. We found that the storage from IBM was poor and we chose NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays because it can scale very easily."
More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays Pricing and Cost Advice →
Dell Unity XT is ranked 4th in All-Flash Storage with 190 reviews while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is ranked 23rd in All-Flash Storage with 38 reviews. Dell Unity XT is rated 8.4, while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is rated 8.6. 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 NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays writes "A storage solution that offers great stability, resilience, and support". Dell Unity XT is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, HPE Nimble Storage, Pure Storage FlashArray and IBM FlashSystem, whereas NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Huawei OceanStor Dorado and IBM FlashSystem. See our Dell Unity XT vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays report.
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