Dell VPLEX vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize comparison

The compared Dell Technologies and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Dell Technologies is ranked #5 in SM , with an average rating of 7.0, and holds a 6.6% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #12 in SDS , with an average rating of 9.0, and holds a 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Dell VPLEX

Read 18 Dell VPLEX reviews

391 Views
173 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Read 39 IBM Spectrum Virtualize reviews

380 Views
239 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Dell VPLEX

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell VPLEX and IBM Spectrum Virtualize based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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To learn more, read our detailed Storage Management Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Storage Management

April 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

Dell VPLEX

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Management (5th)

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (12th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Management and Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Dell VPLEX is designed for Storage Management and holds a mindshare of 6.6%, down 8.0% compared to last year.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined Storage (SDS), holds 1.6% mindshare, down 2.0% since last year.

Storage Management

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Sayed Zuber

Sr. Storage And Backup Engineer at OMNIdata Trading, Lda.

It's an excellent solution for data mobility and disaster recovery, but the CLI can be difficult for beginners

Dell VPLEX currently requires Flash Player to access the GUI. It would be better to have a web-based HTML management interface. The encryption could also be improved. When the host writes data, it goes from VPLEX back to the physical storage. The physical storage device will do encryption or use an algorithm called Data Address Encryption. If there are vulnerabilities between the host and the storage device, you can lose your data. I suggest encrypting the data before it is sent from the host to the storage. I would also recommend using the NVM protocol in VPLEX. It still has Flash Player and a local SATA disk built into the Flash Player. You need to Flash the disk to SAS and then SATA. The NVM protocol is better.

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MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

Built-in compression enhances data management efficiency

I have noticed that the technical support for software issues, such as with Spectrum Protect, needs improvement. The case logging process is efficient, but resolving software problems takes too much time. This delay can hinder customers and strain vendor relationships. For hardware issues, IBM handles them efficiently, but software-related support requires enhancement. Overall improvement in support for software cases is necessary.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Dell's technical support is awesome. We received instant support from EMC as long as we had an active contract."

"Storage virtualization and geographic resilience for Metro Sans, plus a great performance improvement."

"The best feature of VPLEX storage is its ability to consolidate storage. It also provides the highest RPO and RTOs for replication technology. VPLEX enables application mobility."

"The solution works well. It's very reliable."

"Its mirroring capabilities allow for data to be mirrored across two different data centers, so if one center were to crash or fail, the other center could take over and keep everything running smoothly."

"The capacity to migrate machines onto VPLEX is great — it's very clean. We can migrate machines and add arrays easily."

"The most valuable feature is deduplication, as we have no duplication in the snapshots."

"Mobility enables us to carry out an internal migration of data."

"Migration from configurations where servers have storage provisioned from older SAN disk systems to newer storage systems is almost seamless using image mode migration techniques, with only a short outage of the servers."

"I like all the features, but the most impressive recently has been the introduction of IBM's Flash Core Modules. They are a form of a flash drive, but they have many more features."

"The ability to have a feature-rich software set which extends the capabilities of the back-end storage arrays."

"We are happy with the support that IBM provides us."

"It provides transparency, because of its advanced copy features."

"One of the main features of Spectrum Virtualize is it virtualizes the servers from the storage. We have a very large infrastructure. A major advantage is when you get the aged storage arrays and you have to replace all of those."

"It's got full features, so we can compress volumes. We can do thin volumes and we can change them on the fly."

"Although the GUI from the XIV was used (in my view), IBM has polished and refined the GUI providing a pleasant and easy to navigate GUI experience."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize pros

Cons

"Today, it needs a huge effort that is not acceptable during disaster recovery."

"There can be delays in getting performance reports."

"I would like to have site-to-site replication capability for applications."

"Dell VPLEX should improve its integration and user interface and be easier to configure."

"With Dell VPLEX, there are some bugs with Broadcom."

"The price is a problem with EMC due to the fact that it's more expensive than the other vendors."

"The initial setup is complex."

"VPLEX hardware migration to spare equipment in case of major disruption."

More Dell VPLEX cons

"The Storwize port is not so stable."

"The case logging process is efficient, but resolving software problems takes too much time."

"NBME support and support for a higher Fibre Channel lengths could be improved, but those are already on the roadmap."

"There are big arrays now, and if a customer wants add more disks to it, you have to have another array. Adding disks to existing arrays is one of the most demanded things from our customers."

"The training program could be improved."

"I hate I/O groups. If you start swapping I/O groups, they can be potentially risky. If they could get rid of the whole I/O group principle, the risk is not there anymore. I understand the fundamental thing about I/O groups, but they are risky."

"They are actually working on one bug we found, which was with flash restore. This was the user interface design for virtual environments."

"In general, the migration is complicated. Though, it is case-by-case."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"VPLEX is a little bit expensive in my personal opinion."

"We struck a great deal with Dell EMC, so for us, VPLEX was not very expensive."

"It has a lot of advanced functions for a reasonable price."

"I am very happy with the pricing. There is no comparison when it comes to pricing. I have looked at all solutions from EMC, Veritas, Hitachi, Dell, etc. None of them compares to IBM when it comes to pricing. I get great pricing from them."

"I think it is a good value for the price."

"We would like the CPU cycle to save more on the licensing costs for us."

"The entry point of pricing for this product is the most amazing price ever in the industry."

"Generally the bundled licensing is more cost effective and gives flexibility to the solution. Linking into the Spectrum Suite can also be advantageous, but depends on the scale of the enterprise."

"This solution came as an additional cost for the TSM package we chose."

"Do a proof of concept, if you are not comfortable jumping in, but do it."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

12%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

12%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell VPLEX?

Dell's technical support is awesome. We received instant support from EMC as long as we had an active contract.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell VPLEX?

This is an enterprise solution so licensing costs are generally on the higher side. There will be additional costs if you want to do a network cluster for business servers.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell VPLEX?

Dell VPLEX should improve its integration and user interface and be easier to configure. Any EMX product, be it PowerMax, VMAX, or DMAX, works based on the CLI. A person has to be very good at runn...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is not an expensive product. It offers flexibility with different flavors, whether appliance-based or as software. Its costs are competitive compared to other solutions like...

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What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

IBM could improve IBM Spectrum Virtualize by bundling Storage Scale and Storage Virtualize into a single appliance. This would provide a more appealing and cost-effective solution. Additionally, it...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

I primarily use IBM Spectrum Virtualize ( /products/ibm-spectrum-virtualize-reviews ) when I have different hardware from various vendors and I want them to act as a unified storage solution. It en...

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Comparisons

IBM SAN Volume Control vs Dell VPLEX

Compared 39% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Dell VPLEX

Compared 27% of the time

More Dell VPLEX Competitors

VxRail vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 28% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 17% of the time

IBM Spectrum Scale vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 14% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell VPLEX

April 2025

Download Dell VPLEX product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

April 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Virtualize product report

Overview

Wth EMC VPLEX you can deploy next-generation virtualization architecture to enable simultaneous information access within, between, and across data centers, move applications, virtual machines, and data in and between data centers without impacting users and deliver application and data availability within the data center and over distance with full infrastructure utilization and zero downtime.

Dell Technologies

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a dependable solution that improves data value, security, and simplicity for new and existing storage infrastructure. Proven over 12 years in thousands of deployments, its innovative virtualization capabilities help organizations achieve better data economics by supporting new workloads that are critical to their success. IBM Spectrum Virtualize software helps make new and existing storage more effective and standardizes functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs.

IBM

Sample Customers

Kindred Healthcare, Regis Aged Care, WeBank SpA, Panduit, Munson Healthcare

Pelephone, Sprint IT Enterprise Services

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Broadcom, IBM and others in Storage Management. Updated: April 2025.

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