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Dell Compellent (discontinued) vs. IBM Storage FlashSystem

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Dell Compellent (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASince it's acquisition in 2011 Compellent became a Dell product line of storage solutions (e.g. Dell Compellent Storage Center). Compellent products became part of the Dell EMC SC Series of enterprise flash and SAN storage devices and are now EOL.N/A

    IBM Storage FlashSystem

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AIBM Storage FlashSystem, an all-flash storage array, delivers ~2 PB of effective capacity per single rack unit. Engineered with unique FlashCore Modules, it offloads data services including compression, encryption, deduplication, and ransomware threat detection ensuring optimum performance and resiliency.

    $14,200

    Pricing
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Entry-Level IBM Storage FlashSystem: For any organization looking for an all-flash array with features that are both enterprise conducive and budget friendly, the small to entry level offering prices from IBM begin at $18,400. Mid-Range IBM Storage FlashSystem: For businesses wanting to take advantage of an enterprise-quality flash array for critical workloads (such as SQL databases, SAP, ERP, CRM, etc.), list prices start at $104,600. High-Performance IBM Storage FlashSystem: Organizations seeking a storage array with the ability to run multiple instances of critical applications that are both performance intensive and capacity sensitive, can find IBM prices starting at $368,500. Contact IBM for configuration and pricing details.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    IBM Storage FlashSystem is MUCH faster than the options listed above. We were able to remove 12U of Dell equipment and relaced it with a 2U IBM Storage FlashSystem that was faster and had more storage available. The setup was extremely easier than our initial deployment of our …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    IBM was faster, more cost effective, and more flexible.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    the Power 8 and Power 9 are more stable than the Dell previously used.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    IBM Storage FlashSystem are reliable
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Since the dell option is end of life, the change in support and resources available with IBM’s flashsystem has been massive. The newer tech also enables much faster speeds and the box itself is much smaller.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    Features
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Enterprise Flash Array Storage
    Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Dell Compellent (discontinued) and IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Feature
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    8.3
    3 Ratings
    8% below category average
    IBM Storage FlashSystem
    8.5
    120 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Flash Array Performance8.03 Ratings9.5117 Ratings
    Flash Array Integration8.03 Ratings9.3117 Ratings
    Data Compression8.03 Ratings8.8116 Ratings
    Non-Intrusive Upgrades8.03 Ratings8.6112 Ratings
    Simplicity9.03 Ratings7.6119 Ratings
    Power Savings9.03 Ratings7.0114 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Pure Storage FlashArray
    Score10 out of 10
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Pure Storage FlashArray
    Score10 out of 10
    Pure Storage FlashArray
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    8.8
    (131 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.4
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (20 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (20 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)IBM Storage FlashSystem
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    All in all this series great in addressing issues applications that need flash storage as a backend storage supply. It addresses the need for fast, responsive servers that need to boot quickly. It is easy to use and for the most part there are few issues and none that can't be addressed/fixed quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    IBM Storage FlashSystems are well suited as VDI storage for Citrix XenServer environments. Our Xen VDIs are much more responsive with the fast IBM storage attached. With the low latency, the users are experiencing much less lag while working in their Windows VDIs hosted on the XenServers. There's also less graphic fragmentation that occurs since moving to the IBM Storage FlashSystem.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Dell Compellent support (Co-Pilot) and the add-on service (Optimize) are critical services that Dell Compellent does very well. Alerts from the array are sent to Co-Pilot where tickets are automatically generated and customers are notified of events. Of greater importance at times is the proactive support Co-Pilot and Optimize provide by contacting us of inefficiencies in the array and consulting on resolutions.
    • Enterprise Manager (Dell's "single pane of glass" management framework) is a useful tool for configuration/evaluation of the array and other Compellent products.
    • Ease of management. From firmware upgrades to managing server volumes the process is much simpler than with other arrays.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Data Replication over long distances using Policy-Based Replication and maintaining the RPO.
    • We use snapshot technology heavily and these snaps are easy to create/automate and instantly available.
    • Upgrades/Updates are deployed to the system without loss of data or services.
    • Sub-millisecond latency is maintained and spikes are handled and absorbed by the system during peaks.
    • When connected to the internet via Storage Insights and Cloud Call Home it makes for proactive problem alerting, monitoring and resolution.
    • The fact that Replication and snapshot stuff are hidden under the covers and we no longer have to create mirror pairs or flashcopy pairs ourselves. It does it within the cluster or partnership.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • The GUI could be a little more updated with a lot more information regarding usage.
    • There could be some assistance with high I/O times where snapshots go to consolidate. There seems to be issues when that attempts to occur, and there will times where the virtual machine stuns due to the I/O intensity.
    • Modification of multiple volumes or the creation of multiple volumes is a pain in the DSM management console.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The flexiblity of upgrading the flash modules for a higher capcity needs to be allowed
    • The user interface for the management console is sometimes a bit confusing
    • the configuration of call home can only be done to a specific IP address but not a dns name
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    As flash technology evolves rapidly, vendors should [adapt] to the changes and onboard them in their products. IBM is a bit slow in adopting advanced technology in [its] portfolio. Even though the current product is good, my decision is purely based on how the transformation of the product [is] being produced and supplied to [the] end-user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    I have found the system to very user friendly. We are currently using it for on premises storage only and have not had the need to leverage any of the cloud extensions. Being able to directly connect up to 8 hosts with dual controller fiber channel is a very nice feature for such a low cost SAN, which saved up quite a bit of money by not having to purchase fabric switches. This also keeps maintenance and power costs down and saves room in the rack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    IBM Flashsystems is always available for me, it is fiberchannel storage without the fuzz of what iscsi brings. It is a very reliable storage system, I have almost never issues with this system. The only things which go wrong are the updates because the old updates which have been staged on the disks are not properly cleaned in my opinion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Under normal conditions the performance of the storages is very good, the only thing that can vary the performance is when we use pools with data reduction and the stored space of the pool exceeds 90%, in these cases the performance is very bad
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    This is not solely based on the support engineers themselves but more so that the logging and gotcha's that their array has. There have been multiple times where logs are pulled, but the folder is not large enough, and it crashes the array. Other times there are certain aspects that support either does not know of or isn't knowledgable about how to look at particular issues that could be causing problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Sometimes the knowledge of the support agent is quite limited and the support always has to route through the level 1 agent to screen all the informtion provided. Then its esclated to the next level support with the all collected data . The logs are always uploaded along wiht the case but still its reviewed at the lower level and then escalated / handed over to the next level if its complex issue to solve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    THe training is often selfpaced and easy to follow if you have worked previously with other storage products. The content is clear and contains all the information needed for an admin to learn. However the troubleshooting part is not always included and this is dependent on forums or other sources where the information is not accessible very easily.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    I was amazed by the way IBM Flash storage provides a huge amount of storage within the limited footprint, it helped us to replace big fat storage arrays, which aided in the process of moving towards lower hardware, carbon, and energy consumption footprint. We can comfortably say that Flash helped us to host applications fast with a blazing speed and user transactions are quite quick.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    We selected Compellent solely based on price. Honestly I would rate it only slightly better than a QNAP we used (which was even cheaper). If performance and reliability are factors in your decision (and they should be) I would recommend looking at something like a VNXe.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    For the past six months, we have been utilizing this technology in our projects to manage a massive workload and produce swift business outcomes on a crucial production database. The IBM FlashSystem 7200, which offers high performance and compression, has so far been a great experience for us. The results and functionality of this product have delighted our consumers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    We have been able to scale this storage system whenever there has been requirement for additional capacity and performance. with the help of deduplication we have been able to build quite a robust environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • The SC9000 has been able to serve our current and futures needs well enough to not need to upgrade anytime soon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Easy of use is a key aspect, as we do not have dedicated storage staff.
    • Our RPO has lowered near to Zero, using PBR as replication and this is key for us.
    • DR plan testing has become easier and less time-consuming, allowing us to conduct tests more frequently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Storage FlashSystem Screenshots

    Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5300Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 9500Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 7300Screenshot of IBM FlashSystem 5000