Dell Unity XT vs HPE Alletra Storage comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.1. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 12, 2024

Dell Unity XT and HPE Alletra Storage compete in the storage solutions market. Dell Unity XT seems to have the upper hand in cost and service support, while HPE Alletra Storage is preferred for its advanced features and long-term value.

Features: Dell Unity XT offers advanced data reduction capabilities, seamless scalability, and strong reliability. HPE Alletra Storage is praised for its AI-driven management, robust performance, and innovative AI capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Dell Unity XT users seek better automation, improved reporting tools, and enhanced scalability. HPE Alletra Storage users note the complexity in configuration, occasional performance lags, and a steep learning curve.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Unity XT is appreciated for its straightforward deployment and reliable customer service. HPE Alletra Storage has mixed feedback due to its complex installation but also provides strong customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Unity XT is favored for its lower upfront costs and faster return on investment. HPE Alletra Storage, despite its higher initial cost, is viewed as offering greater long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Unity XT vs. HPE Alletra Storage Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Unity XT vs. HPE Alletra Storage

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Featured Reviews

Paul Pearson

Storage and Backup Architect at Concentrix

Apr 25, 2022

Works well, is easy to implement, and has upgrade analysis capabilities

Currently, it's our tier-one storage. We use it mostly for our Oracle databases It has drastically improved the performance of our high-end Oracle databases and allows us the ability to replication to a DR location with ease. We love the product. Pure Storage works really well. The CAT tool and…

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Srikanth Purushothaman

DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems

Dec 23, 2022

Easy to set up with good data compression technology and useful deduplication

The initial setup is very straightforward. Even upgrading the firmware is very nice. You don't need to shut down. Previously, we used to have a shutdown, and now we hand over to one more processor, upgrade the one processor, and then switch back to this process, and then we'll do the upgrade for the process so there is no downtime. I'd rate the ease of implementation nine out of ten. Since we are holding almost all the data, which are all critical and confidential, the deployment is always on-prem only. It takes a maximum of two to three hours. The solution is almost finalized before ordering. We plan what has to be done, and how many services have to be connected through the HBA. Based on that, the number of fiber ports should have been ordered along with the system. Normally, it comes with two fiber-channel HBA adapters. We used to order with four channels instead of going for a sand switch. We connect three servers directly into process A and process B. Before getting into the server, all the servers should be up and running with the HBA connector with the fiber cable ready. Once we install the server, we will see if the firmware is up-to-date or if it is one month old since the shipment takes at least one or two months before it reaches our hands. If there is any new update, we will check with them to see whether the new firmware is good or if there are any bugs in it. If the support team says there is no bug, it means we will update the firmware and create a pool. If it is a hybrid pool, we'll do a mix and combinations of flash as well as the NSS for the images. For the data, we have only the flash itself, and we use a rate six for the data. Previously, with the regular SaaS drives, we used to have a rate ten; however, with the flash drives, we used to have rate five or rate six only. Normally, in-house inside the rack, we need two people. Otherwise, one engineer itself will do. If it is a flash drive, only one person itself will be enough. If it is three bay drives with 144 TB or 288 TB, then we'll go for one more person to fix inside the rack. Once it is fixed, the installation will be done only by one person. For maintenance, normally, we check the firmware updates within a month, or we check every 30 to 45 days to seek out firmware updates. We provide maintenance to our customers. For other issues, we might call technical support. Most things we can manage.

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Lisa Whalen

System Engineer at University of Nebraska

Jun 19, 2024

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

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

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"The system allows for seamless learning experiences, facilitating quick and easy cloning of environments within minutes."

"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."

"What I really like about this program, is that it is easy to use and easy to configurate."

"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."

"The latency is good."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"We can sleep at night because the support is great."

"You can add volume and it's automatically registered in VMware."

"I like the ease of configuration, the quick setup and the fact that it seems to be hardened. We haven't had any issues with them. In terms of simplicity of ownership, once they're running you don't have to touch them. They're also simple to manage. We came from the VNXe 3200s so it's very similar."

"We have integrated it with vSphere and SQL. There were no costs involved outside of our normal workload licensing, no costs that were specific to the Unity platform."

"On a scale from one to 10, I'd probably give EMC customer support an 11. It's been really good. We do have premium support, which means if we have a problem, it gets solved really quickly."

"Scheduled components are sourced from Korea based on their quality selection, with the actual purchase taking place in Vietnam. The notable features include cache memories and MOS feeder in Dell Unity. Additionally, the storage dynamics are managed uniformly on a global scale, whether it is a simple or wide-ranging configuration."

"It is easy to manage overall. It is all web-based. It has a an easy, nice dashboard. I receive emails if there are issues. When there are any updates, I receive emails. I can either do them on my own, but normally I schedule them with Dell EMC and they remote in, then it's done."

"The initial setup is very easy. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy."

More Dell Unity XT pros

"It's really easy to use."

"It offers rich features and high speed for transferring data."

"The most valuable feature is the integration with vCenter with the HPE multi-storage plugin. That makes it more comfortable to use the storage with just a few clicks."

"The reliability is very good."

"One of the best benefits I can think of is that the support team is top-tier."

"Alletra has helped us improve our storage performance."

"The solution has been rock-solid since we've had it."

"Alletra has helped us reduce time spent on storage."

More HPE Alletra Storage pros

Cons

"We have run into a couple of instances recently where we are running out of space. So we have had to buy some more packs for it and they have deployed fine and it has increased smoothly."

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"It's more multi-tenant functionality in their Pure1 manage portal that is lacking."

"I'd like to see the product implement active replication for vehicles such as VMware."

"Managing data isn't difficult for me. The performance is usually perfect, but we sometimes have capacity problems."

"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."

"It is on the expensive side."

"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The product’s pricing should be improved."

"We had some issues recently because of a bug in the system. We were presenting LANs to the Unity array but I think it caused a disruption to the host. EMC did acknowledge it and provided an alternative way to do it."

"The price of this product can be more cost-effective."

"As the solution continues to grow and gain more traction, things will come up that will just continue to deepen the integration between VMware, vCenter, and all those other components. Anything in the divisibility there and additional tools is always great."

"Inline dedup compression security is coming up as an issue, encryption, etc. is key for our customers. If we could have more ways to do software-based encryption, those are the features customers are asking us for, as well as replication."

"We've got an ongoing issue with a Unity where some power supply fans spin up. We've had a whole bunch of hardware changed as a result but I still have an open SR which has been a struggle. It doesn't seem to affect performance, but it's something that we're hoping the engineers can resolve. Also, we had some issues with an upgrade where we can't manage a device, after the upgrade. So we had to have a ticket in for that."

"Dell could improve Unity XT by adding support for NVMe."

"This is a tier-three solution and it gives us what we need for archiving and backups."

More Dell Unity XT cons

"I need the protocol expected. I want them to include NVMe protocol in VMware compatibilities."

"Previously, the [HPE] 3PAR [storage array] gave us the ability to build on SSC or spindles. The Alletra doesn't allow for this."

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

"More training videos would help. We could learn some best practices. Sometimes, people may not follow the best practices and reach out to support, who will tell them that they need to follow these best practices to get this performance or result."

"I would like to see some form of direct connect fiber channel options."

"I'd like to see larger cluster sizes beyond four nodes."

"I'd like the solution to offer more free training."

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

More HPE Alletra Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"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."

"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 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."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

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

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"One of the most valuable features is its cost. It was inexpensive compared to other arrays that we were looking at."

"We purchased a five-year warranty."

"The price is very reasonable."

"It's an expensive solution, particularly for medium companies. One device costs about 30,000 euros. The support contract is quite expensive as well. We are currently looking for other lower-cost solutions."

"Licensing is a little bit confusing. Going through everything with them, there are a lot of line items to go over. Every single thing is broken down into a line item, and it starts to get really confusing in terms of what we're actually purchasing when it comes to the product."

"From a pricing perspective, this solution is comparable to others on the market."

"We have to apply for a license for each system."

"There is not a license required for the use of the solution. We purchased a maintenance contract."

More Dell Unity XT pricing and cost advice

"So far, so good."

"It is reasonably priced."

"For us, its price is good."

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

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

"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."

"It is fairly priced. It is in line with industry standard pricing and cost models."

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

More HPE Alletra Storage pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Educational Organization

70%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

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?

After implementation, there are limitations, such as the number of paths, file systems, and replication options. It f...

See all answers

What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?

I saw that you have doubts about what you chose. I have a lot of experience with the constructor, honestly I can reco...

See all answers

What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?

They’re both great solutions and I’ve used both. EMC is being VERY aggressive on pricing which may be the undoing of...

See all answers

What is the Biggest Difference Between Dell EMC Unity and NetApp AFF?

First of all the decision should be taken looking at similar products in terms of capacity and performance. I will sh...

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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?

We work with a vendor partner, and he offers us good service and pricing. Some vendor partners are not so effective.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Alletra?

More training videos would help. We could learn some best practices. Sometimes, people may not follow the best practi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 37% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 15% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Dell Unity XT

Compared 42% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell Unity XT

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Nimble Storage vs Dell Unity XT

Compared 7% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell Unity XT

Compared 5% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series vs Dell Unity XT

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell Unity XT Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 30% of the time

HPE Primera vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 17% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 8% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 8% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs HPE Alletra Storage

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE Alletra Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

November 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell Unity XT

November 2024

Download Dell Unity XT product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Alletra Storage

November 2024

Download HPE Alletra Storage product report

Also Known As

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

EMC Unity, Dell EMC Unity

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Pure Storage

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Dell Technologies

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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.

Dell EMC Unity XT is one of the best all-flash storage arrays on the market today. Dell EMC Unity XT arrays are designed for performance, optimized for efficiency, and built for a multi-cloud world. In addition, they support digital transformation, enabling businesses to reach the full potential of their data capital quickly and easily. Dell EMC Unity’s All-Flash and Hybrid Flash storage platforms provide the performance, efficiency, enterprise-class software, and virtualization integrations required for running a wide range of virtualized applications.

Dell EMC Unity XT Features

Dell EMC Unity XT has many valuable key features, including:

Unified storage flexibility: With Dell EMC Unity XT you can consolidate separate storage platforms into a single Unity XT unified storage system via a simple and intuitive (HTML5) management GUI that also connects you to CloudIQ.
All-inclusive data protection: Dell EMC Unity XT offers a reliable way to protect application data with all-inclusive data protection services, including snapshots, data-at-rest drive encryption, replication, thin clones, and dynamic pools.
Software-defined solutions: Dell EMC Unity XT provides software-defined storage and HA for on-prem and in the cloud solutions.
Multi-cloud alignment: With Dell EMC Unity XT you have the ability to build and manage an effective data-first multi-cloud strategy. It allows you to consolidate public and private cloud resources that align with your business goals.
Metro node: This feature enables automated business continuity with zero RPO and RTO. It also provides greater flexibility through multi-platform support and replication to any array and has zero performance impact on the storage array.
Scalable file system: Dell EMC Unity XT is built with a robust 256TBu file system. The UFS64 file system includes up to 256 independent VMDK clones, 16 thin clones, space efficient snapshots with a simple space reclaim and low IO impact, file system shrink that can reclaim free blocks, simplified Quotas for User, and much more.
DevOps integrations: Dell EMC Unity XT supports the Container Storage Interface (CSI) plugin to run Kubernetes workloads.

Dell EMC Unity XT Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Dell EMC Unity XT include:

High-speed data access
Low latency
Dual-active controller architecture
Multi-cloud
Intuitive user interface
Cost efficient
Solid performance

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Dell EMC Unity XT users.

A Systems Engineering Manager at a manufacturing company says, "It is definitely one of the most robust, solid, well-performing products that I have dealt with. It is set it and forget it, which is pretty amazing." He also mentions, “We can do both block and file storage on one unit without purchasing a separate device.”

Peter S., Senior Technical Specialist at a healthcare company, states, “The most valuable feature is reliability. At the end of the day, it just runs. This solution is easy to work with and easy to maintain.”

PeerSpot user Melvin T., Senior Systems Engineer at Prosperity Bank, explains that the solution is “easy to use and we can add LUNs or space without interruption to end-users. We're able to access it from just about anywhere, as long as we have access to a browser. That feature is really neat because sometimes we will go to a different data center or a different site, and if we need to access it to see a LUN or to see any type of storage, we can do that. That's one of the big takeaways with Unity."

HPE Alletra Storage is designed for high-performance workloads including virtualization, data centers, VMware storage, and hybrid cloud, delivering NVMe performance with sub-millisecond latency and 100% data availability.

HPE Alletra Storage integrates with technologies like Synergy compute and Hyper-V, offering essential features like deduplication, data replication, cloud integration, and predictive analytics. Its reliability, throughput, ease of use, and simplified provisioning make it ideal for a range of applications, including SAP environments, databases, and financial systems. Room for improvement includes better integration, setup, monitoring, and a more intuitive management interface. Customers seek enhancements in reporting, real-time stats, NVMe support for other storage tiers, smaller chassis, and cost-effective options.

What are the key features of HPE Alletra Storage?

NVMe Performance: Sub-millisecond latency for high-speed access.
Deduplication: Reduces storage consumption through data deduplication.
Data Replication: Ensures data is replicated for high availability.
Cloud Integration: Seamless integration with cloud environments.
Predictive Analytics: Uses InfoSight for proactive issue detection.
Simple Management: Streamlined management interface for ease of use.
High Availability: Guarantees 100% data availability.
Fast Provisioning: Quick setup and deployment to save time.

What benefits should users review?

Improved IOPS: Enhances input/output operations per second.
Space Efficiency: Maximizes storage use with deduplication and compression.
Cost Savings: Reduces overall costs through efficient storage solutions.
Reduced Support Tickets: Lowers the number of support tickets due to proactive issue detection.
Ease of Use: Simplified management and quick provisioning.

HPE Alletra Storage is implemented in industries like corporate and restaurant data centers, supporting customer and infrastructure scalability environments. It is particularly valuable for SAP environments, databases, and backend storage for applications requiring high throughput and low latency. It's frequently utilized for VMware storage, SAN, VDI, and financial systems, providing reliable and efficient storage solutions. Users benefit from its seamless integration with Synergy compute, Hyper-V, and its cloud capabilities while leveraging its high availability and data replication features.

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Draper, Rio Grande Pacific, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre

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 Unity XT vs. HPE Alletra Storage

October 2024

Free Report: Dell Unity XT vs. HPE Alletra Storage

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Unity XT vs. HPE Alletra Storage and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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