Dell PowerMax NVMe vs HPE Alletra Storage comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.1. Dell Technologies holds a 4.0% mindshare in AFS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 8.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell PowerMax NVMe and HPE Alletra Storage compete in the storage solutions category. Users are happier with the features and performance of Dell PowerMax NVMe, but overall satisfaction leans towards HPE Alletra Storage due to its balance in ROI and ease of deployment.

Features: Dell PowerMax NVMe is known for its performance, scalability, and mission-critical workload optimization. HPE Alletra Storage is valued for its simplicity, efficiency, and design for cloud-native environments. Dell prioritizes raw power, while HPE focuses on streamlined operations.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerMax NVMe could benefit from improved automated management tools, enhanced user-friendly management improvements, and increased integration capabilities. HPE Alletra Storage needs better integration capabilities, expanded ecosystem, and further simplification of management tasks.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerMax NVMe deployment is seen as complex but benefits from responsive customer service. HPE Alletra Storage is praised for straightforward deployment and satisfactory customer support. Dell offers robust support, while HPE boasts a more seamless deployment experience.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerMax NVMe has higher initial setup costs but delivers strong ROI through performance benefits. HPE Alletra Storage offers a balanced cost structure, leading to favorable ROI evaluations. Users feel Dell's performance justifies its price, whereas HPE's pricing strategy is appreciated for cost-efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. HPE Alletra Storage Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. HPE Alletra Storage

March 2025

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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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerMax NVMe is 4.0%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra Storage is 8.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

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Haseeb Khalid Sheikh

Senior Manager Enterprise Solutions at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

End-to-end NVMe capabilities helps improve availability, performance, and capacity

The solution's most valuable feature is the data reduction ratio. You can store a 5:1 ratio of your data in Dell PowerMax NVMe. For example, if you have 200 terabytes of usable capacity, you can save up to five times of data on that capacity. That means you can save one petabyte of data on just 200 terabytes of usable capacity. The solution's end-to-end NVMe capabilities have improved our operations. Everything is fast, and you don't have to map your storage to old hybrid storage technologies. Our organization has experienced positive change, and the solution has improved our uptime, availability, performance, and capacity.

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Lisa Whalen

System Engineer at University of Nebraska

Provides a cloud-like operation model on-prem for managing data infrastructure

I've always said I love that it's easy to use. At one point in time, we had a 3PAR. And with 3PAR, I always thought it was a little more difficult. There was so much more to maintaining it, setting it up, and everything. With the [HPE] Alletra [Storage], it's just easy. It's easy to provision space to use and to set up. InfoSight is invaluable to me. With it, I can just quickly go out there and see what is going on. Alletra provides a cloud-like operation model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. [HPE] Alletra [Storage] is very good for predicting problems and preventing them before they occur. InfoSight has really helped with that. I honestly don't have to look at it much. However, there's the alerting and everything that will tell us what's going on. That said, I check InfoSight every once in a while. [HPE Alletra Storage] reduced the time spent on storage provision. It's so much easier than the 3PAR. It's just so much easier. I don't spend time in there at all. The product improved our storage performance experience in terms of IOPS. Our end users that use the SAP environment were a little concerned at first. We said we were going to switch over from the 3PAR to the Alletra since they've always been more familiar with the 3PAR. However, when we moved them over, they noticed a performance increase.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The standout features for us in Pure FlashArray X NVMe are its robust DDoS protection, seamless transparent failover, and failback capabilities ensuring high availability."

"The latency is good."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe has low latency and high Ops. It is an evergreen model."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe will quickly overcome all the hurdles you face, including network and latency issues."

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."

"Overall stability is very good. It is a very stable solution."

"The initial setup was extremely simple and straightforward."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"It is very stable. We expect superior performance and reliability from this particular storage system."

"The compression and deduplication are the most valuable features because of the cost savings."

"The compression and deduplication are always on. We get more than 4:1 capacity savings using them. The efficiency benefits from compression and deduplication are through a specialized hardware module within the storage itself, and that means there is no overhead to the compression and dedupe."

"A huge benefit of the PowerMax has been the decreasing of our physical footprint. We recently did a consolidation where we went from 58 tiles down to 5. If we had used just the PowerMax, we could have gone from 58 tiles down to 2 tiles, which is huge space savings. If you have 56 newly available floor tiles on a raised floor data center, which you previously had to cool and provide power to, then now, not only are my costs going down, I now have more revenue opportunities because I have more space to put new customers."

"PowerMax NVMe has made it a lot easier to understand how much we are able to provision. It has made it a lot faster to provision new things. 90% of my time for provisioning has been reduced. Also, it has made it very easy to understand and see everything behind it versus the older heritage, where Dell EMC was very convoluted and hard to get working. Things that used to take an hour, probably now take five to 10 minutes."

"The support team was very cooperative and responsive."

"The NVMe technology improves input/output performance, making it a valuable asset for our organization's storage solutions."

"Technical support has been excellent."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pros

"Alletra's performance has been very good."

"Alletra has helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets by about 40%."

"It's really easy to use."

"The solution's most valuable features are reliable storage, speed, and performance."

"It took nothing really to set it up. It was all online, and we were able to set it up and start using it within about three hours."

"HPE Alletra Storage helps simplify storage operations, integrating with vCenter."

"The GUI for onboarding is straightforward."

"The workload consolidation is very simple to manage."

More HPE Alletra Storage pros

Cons

"It feels more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses rather than enterprises."

"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."

"Right now, the box itself is just strictly working as a backend storage system. It would be fantastic if we could access it directly like a NAS device through network access or SIS drives. I think they have an interface, but I am not sure how good it is. If we could address a box directly on the network without having to go through a server, it would be great. The replication schemas could be improved. We are not using replication on the storage level right now. We use a different type of replication. If their replication would be as good as the one that we have, I would probably run the replication schema because it might be faster, but I don't know that for a fact. So, I cannot say that they have good replication. All I can say is that they need to inform us better."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

"One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them."

"Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"I'd like to see the dedup and compression improve. Two to one is not very good. We should be getting something like three, four, or five to one."

"We've had a couple of little things come up, but for the most part, they've been pretty stable."

"PowerMax Storage needs improvement in the area of monitoring tools. It should have more functions and more complicated analysis options inside the monitoring tools."

"There is room for improvement in adjusting into the existing infrastructure easily without much of the technical contribution."

"We would like more documentation, a guide to the features of the PowerMax."

"We have had some trouble with the VMAX-to-PowerMax migration, but the VMAX box will be powered down after the migration. The PowerMax boxes are working fine and we don't have any issues with them."

"I would like the scalability to improve, as it requires additional footprints."

"I think management is where PowerMax is weakest. We're still managing it like we managed EMC arrays in the early 2000s. There's a slicker, fancier GUI that does more things, but at the end of the day, you still have to dig into the command line and issue a lot of the same commands that we still were using almost 20 years ago."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe cons

"I do not have any issues with it. It has been good for us. There are no cons that I see, and that is why we use it."

"HPE Alletra Storage is considered expensive compared to competitors like Dell and Huawei. Many times, we lose deals due to price even though it is the best solution in the market."

"Some of the upgrades can take a while to come through. The release cadence of versions is a little bit slow."

"We have more than traditional use cases. If they could explore new configurations for data storage, it would be ideal."

"In the perfect world, it would be cheaper."

"For the 6000, we'd like to see active-active controllers."

"The solution could use more monitoring of their split-brain system controllers."

"Due to their acquisition of Nimble, there are multiple portals. I'm hoping that that gets cleaned up."

More HPE Alletra Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"Dell PowerMax NVMe's price is expensive."

"The price is starting from $500,000."

"The cost is expensive. While VMAX now has good pricing, PowerMax is a little expensive."

"From a general capital investment, it's one of the higher price points in the market. It depends on the size and software features that you would include in a system. So, the cost varies dramatically."

"The tool is very expensive."

"The cost of the solution is quite noticeable, but it provides a good fit regarding the price of the hardware and all of the required licenses."

"From reclaiming data center space which is so tightly constrained these days, it will pay for itself in a short amount of time, which is fantastic. Anything we can do to get more out of our current physical data center space helps us a ton, and PowerMax has helped enable that."

"Negotiate hard and consider the commercial advantages/benefits to Dell EMC for onboarding your product."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pricing and cost advice

"There is a license. HPE Alletra uses a cloud-based model."

"HPE was a clear winner on price per terabyte. It was very smooth."

"Overall, it was good. It had a good price per gigabyte."

"It is reasonably priced."

"Its pricing is very competitive."

"So far, so good."

"The solution is expensive and can cost around five lakhs."

"Its licensing is good. Pricing-wise, there can be a little bit more flexibility. It would help to have different sizes. However, it fits into the budget that we have, so we are happy."

More HPE Alletra Storage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics ...

See all answers

What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell of...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

First, it's an enterprise storage solution. This is very important for us. Another important feature is replication.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

The price is starting from $500,000. It's expensive.

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Alletra?

It offers rich features and high speed for transferring data.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Alletra?

Scheduling a Proof of Concept to demonstrate ROI - Will be a well documented way to portray Alletra's performance, ju...

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What needs improvement with HPE Alletra?

I would say that maybe the user interface and experience could be improved. There are a few areas where enhancements ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 32% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 16% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Nimble Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 5% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 27% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Dell VMAX All Flash vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 5% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 4% of the time

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Dell PowerStore vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 29% of the time

HPE Primera vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 15% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 9% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Alletra Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

March 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe

March 2025

Download Dell PowerMax NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Alletra Storage

March 2025

Download HPE Alletra Storage product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

Dell EMC PowerMax, PowerMax

No data available

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

Dell PowerMax is the industry’s most secure mission-critical storage platform. With NVMe Dynamic Fabric technology, PowerMax breaks from traditional storage limitations, enabling seamless integration with cloud-native and legacy applications. Designed with a powerful scale-up and scale-out architecture, PowerMax supports mission-critical applications at scale with zero downtime and ultra-low latency. The latest PowerMaxOS 10 release harnesses AI-driven efficiencies for trusted performance, capacity, and security. By choosing PowerMax, you can trust in a secure, intelligent, and always modern storage solution that unlocks the full potential of your data to drive business success.

Dell Technologies

HPE Alletra Storage is designed for high-performance virtualization, data centers, and hyper-converged infrastructures, supporting applications with block storage and databases across sectors like healthcare and finance.

HPE Alletra Storage excels in delivering low-latency, high-I/O operations and data reduction capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with VMware and vCenter, handling large SQL databases and multiple virtual machines efficiently. Its features, such as NVMe drives and predictive analytics with InfoSight, offer a streamlined management experience. However, users seek improvements in NVMe tier integration, a more compact chassis design, and better energy efficiency. The operational efficiency is increased by reducing data provisioning time and enhancing storage performance for complex environments.

What are the key features of HPE Alletra Storage?

Seamless vCenter Integration: Enhances virtualization management.
High IOPS NVMe Drives: Delivers high-speed and low-latency access.
Deduplication & Replication: Increases storage efficiency and protection.
Cloud-like Models: Simplifies operations with intuitive management.
InfoSight Analytics: Provides predictive diagnostics and proactive problem-solving.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Reduced Provisioning Time: Accelerates deployment processes.
100% Data Availability: Ensures uninterrupted access to data.
Simplified Management: Streamlines storage operations and enhances satisfaction.
Reliability and Performance: Supports demanding applications with reliable performance.

In healthcare and financial industries, HPE Alletra Storage supports the storage of sensitive data and operations of critical applications, facilitating quick access to information and maintaining high availability. However, users recommend improvements in training resources, energy efficiency, and integration with backup solutions like Veeam to enhance implementation efficiency and cost management.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Rackspace, Open Line

Accenture, Aetna, AIG, Airbus, Allianz, American Express, ATT, Bank of America, Barclays, BASF, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Comcast, Credit Suisse, Dell, Deutsche Bank, ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Google, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Kroger, L'Oreal, Merck

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. HPE Alletra Storage

March 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. HPE Alletra Storage

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