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Dell ECS vs Pure Storage FlashBlade comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell ECS
Ranking in File and Object Storage
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Pure Storage FlashBlade
Ranking in File and Object Storage
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Dell ECS is 8.2%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File and Object Storage
 

Featured Reviews

SamuelThomas - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing efficiently with user-friendly interfaces for monitoring and managing resources
We normally recommend Dell ECS to enterprise customers and government customers Dell ECS is very easy to handle, primarily because the web UI dashboard and everything is very easy to manage for every customer. They can monitor the DPS, access failures, bandwidth, failed requests, and latency.…
Eric Black - PeerSpot reviewer
The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us
The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I would rate scalability ten out of ten since you buy what you want."
"Dell's technical support team is good."
"What I like best about Dell ECS is its stability. I also like that you can use it for large-scale data purposes. The solution works fine for me, and I haven't encountered any issues with it."
"We face very few hardware failures."
"It's my understanding that the initial setup is straightforward."
"It's definitely good for unstructured data. In earlier days, we had Centera, so for the DR it's really good. It has load balancing facility, and we're using it with the Kemp Load Balancer."
"It is 100% stable. It is also scalable."
"This product is very competitive."
"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."
"The solution provides many controllers."
"The initial setup is pretty easy and simple."
"The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the rewrite speed and the nonstop services."
"The product is scalable and easy to expand."
"It has absolutely simplified our storage because the dashboards on the consoles show a clear understanding of where you are, and it is also very easy to provision. This been a big help for our teams."
"I would rate this solution an eight plus. It has has good flexibility and stability, it's easy to manage and the response time is good."
 

Cons

"From an improvement perspective, Dell ECS should aim to offer a better pricing plan to its users."
"Dell EMC ECS could improve by having Relational Database Services(RDS) to review progress. Additionally, if the training was provided it would be a benefit, it would be good for our engineers."
"The initial setup is not so easy."
"The troubleshooting feature of this solution needs to be improved, to allow organizations to fix issues without having to contact the support team."
"Dell ECS needs to improve its performance."
"They could provide centralized reports."
"We have concerns about the write performance. We would also like it to be easier to scale out, to add more boxes to the system. And we want improved performance, to use a next-generation NFS service."
"If Dell ECS would be available as standalone software, so you can use any hardware with it, would make the solution better. It would also be good if Dell ECS had more integrations with other products."
"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."
"The Pure Storage Orchestrator is our biggest pain point at the moment. If we can have more say in future developments of feature sets that we will need to support for our use case, that would be pretty beneficial to us."
"The feature that we're waiting on is better integration with the cell services."
"The speed could be improved."
"There is some room for new features related to authentication and integration with Kubernetes, and other solution using S3 Bucket."
"I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."
"The documentational aspect of FlashBlade needs improvement."
"The solution is expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell ECS is a cost-effective solution."
"Dell EMC ECS is too expensive."
"It is an expensive solution. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."
"The product is quite expensive."
"If I remember correctly, Dell ECS is an appliance, so if you buy Dell ECS, you also have to buy the hardware, while IBM is standalone software, so you can buy IBM as software only without needing to buy the hardware. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating the pricing for Dell ECS a four."
"The price of Dell ECS should be reduced."
"It is an inexpensive product."
"The solution's cost is quite reasonable."
"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."
"Our customers have seen a reduction in TCO."
"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."
"I feel that the price could always be lowered."
"The pricing is relatively expensive due to the FlashBlade technology. However, for companies needing quick and reliable data access, the cost is justified."
"It's a costly solution, but Pure Storage FlashBlade doesn't require additional licenses. All of the software is combined into one bundle."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."
"Support is a separate line item. Support is a different cost, but whatever your support is now, that's what you're going to pay forever. If your support's $100 today, six years from now it's $100. It doesn't fluctuate unless you upgrade it, or change it, etc."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
38%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC ECS?
The pricing model is on the higher side compared to other vendors, indicating a need for more flexibility.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC ECS?
The graphical user interface should offer more options, and the documentation with respect to administration could be improved, as it is quite weak in this product. Additionally, the log viewer sho...
What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?
The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power outages when we need to quickly move data between different data centers. It ensure...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?
The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and performance it delivers, including quick response times.
What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?
Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.
 

Also Known As

EMC ECS, Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage, EMC Elastic Cloud Storage
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Atos
ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell ECS vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
839,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.