Dell XtremIO Reviews

The primary use case for XtremIO is for managing business applications, either critical or non-critical. It's mainly used in the banking and finance sectors, but it can be used for other sectors as well. XtremIO is an on-premises solution. 

A valuable feature of XtremIO is that, in terms of administration, it's simple and manageable. 

If you are looking at flash storage solutions, XtremIO doesn't offer any unique features. Most of my customers are migrating their workload from XtremIO to other formats because of this. If you look at Hitachi or IBM, they have the VSP G series or FlashSystem, these products have many features available. We can scale up and scale out, add multiple nodes, use a global cache, and we don't have the same kinds of features in XtremIO. Because of the lack of unique and key features, most customers nowadays don't want XtremIO. 

XtremIO needs to have a global cache. Internal architecture should also be redefined and existing architecture sectioned off. Additional unique features should be added, rather than just common features like replication. Right now, XtremIO is an all-flash array, which is costly. I would like to see them come up with a hybrid model, one that is more cost-effective and may offer more benefits to customers. 

Since XtremIO is all-flash, it doesn't currently have NAND support. I would like to see interface support from XtremIO, and at least NAND or SD card support. If they supported a combination of SSDs and SDs, that could be beneficial to some small and medium businesses. 

Dell should also provide a data analysis tool, in the case of any issues with internal components like controls, cache, backup drive, etc. It would be helpful to have a tool to troubleshoot performance issues. 

A last feature is that XtremIO should have a cloud mobility option, in addition to flash. XtremIO has no data migration features, so these features should be implemented without needing to purchase an additional license or application. XtremIO needs some fine-tuning and these are where I would start. 

I have been working with XtremIO for three years. 

This solution is stable and has good performance. 

The scalability is good. The option to scale out is available on XtremIO. 

I had a good experience with Dell EMC's support. 

The setup process is simple. 

My company proves implementation and maintenance services. 

XtremIO is an all-flash array, which means it's a costly solution. When compared with general mid-range storage solutions, this is more expensive. As far as I know, there are no additional costs besides the license. 

Other similar options are the Hitachi VSP G series or IBM's FlashSystem. These products have features that are missing from XtremIO. 

I recommend XtremIO primarily for big companies, but I would like to see improvements in terms of feature availability and reliability. Also, XtremIO doesn't support the IBM iSeries. 

I would rate this solution a five out of ten, right in the middle. It's missing a lot of features and has a lot of room for improvement. 

VDI is one of the top mission-critical things we offer our users. This storage runs our whole VDI environment and barely shows a blip on I/O. Previously, we had ran the VDI on non-flash storage and when Windows updates came out, we had to install them in schedule segments so as not to overload the storage. With this storage, we do them all at the same time and there is no impact to performance if 1 or 100 VMs reboot at the same time.

Dedupe, compression and high I/O are the most valuable features. It is great for applications like Microsoft Exchange, ERP, SQL and VDI; basically saved the VDI buy-in from users, as now performance was seamless in comparison to a physical PC.

Get rid of the Java aspect of the GUI console. Basically, the GUI to administrator the array uses Java as its base to run on. Java at best is buggy and prone to loading issues, so moving away from this platform would be nice.

We had no issues with stability.

We had no issues with scalability.

I would give technical support 9 out of 10. Nothing is perfect but they sure are close to it.

We previously used deployed EMC VNX storage (and still use it for our lower performance applications) and before that, we had Dell EqualLogic. We switched to an all-flash array as we wanted high performance storage for our three most critical applications (Exchange, ERP and VDI). We wanted to do a full VDI platform for all our users and locations. We wanted the best experience for them, as any hiccup would mean a lower buy-in rate from them. This storage made that task much easier.

We bought it through VCE, so they included setup with it. Things went smoothly. When we did receive the storage, within a day or two, we had a controller failure but since it had two controllers, there was no impact to users. Support was fantastic and got it replaced over the weekend, and we didn’t even have to do anything other than authorize them into our data center to replace the failed part.

It is costly but worth it. If the network or infrastructure you have is always a sticking point to users or management, spending the bucks on an all-flash array can help win them over.

We looked at more EMC VNX storage but at that time, we were not aware of this offering. When we started doing the talks with EMC, our rep pointed at this product line and once we saw a demo, we were sold. After more research, it didn’t take us long to get the paperwork in place. We also didn’t look at other vendors, as we utilize VCE as our main infrastructure at our data center so regardless of what model or product line of EMC we bought, VCE would handle the support. This was one of the main reasons of going with VCE, so we wanted to carry it on with the new storage.

I wish we bought double the capacity but we only had so much to spend, as I would put every application/server on this array.

We use it together with VPLEX, which virtualizes the storage array with all its benefits.

This virtualization layer adds to the latency. With XtremIO behind the VPLEX, the response times are far below the response time we have on our other storage arrays, even with the SSD onboard.

The data reduction (deduplication and compression) is the most valuable feature in our business case.

We calculated a reduction ratio of 3:1 to get a positive case, and we actually reached a little bit higher (3,1:1). This makes our business case even better.

Even with this feature, the response time is far below what we received with our other storage arrays.

Another valuable feature is the guaranteed sub-millisecond response time for a 4K block.

It has no storage replication. The replication is done through the VPLEX. In some cases where we don’t need the flexibility of the virtualization layer, we could free up resources on the VPLEX by using the storage replication.

Until now, we have not encountered any issues with stability.

We did not immediately have scaling issues. Scaling up is, in fact, very easy. Just “buy” an X-brick of 40TB and plug it in. The system does the rebalancing automatically. Since we use a VPLEX, the scaling limitation lies with the VPLEX.

Technical support is good. The installation went smoothly from DEL EMC’s site. We did not encounter real technical issues yet, but the questions we had were all answered within an acceptable time frame.

Part replacements are done transparently without any intervention from our site.

We used HPE and EMC storage arrays, but the main reason we switched was the positive business case. We have a lot more flexibility (VPLEX), reduction of cost and floor space (XtremIO), due to deduplication and compression.

The initial setup of the XtermIO was very straightforward in combination with VPLEX. The setup of the VPLEX was little bit more complex, but XtremIO just needed to be connected to the VPLEX.

XtremIO is pretty straightforward about pricing. However, you need to look at your data so you can estimate, with the advice of DEL EMC, what data reduction ratio you will reach. In our case, a 3:1 reduction ration gave us a positive case compared to other storage arrays.

The XtremIO by itself without a virtualization layer has some drawbacks, like storage replication. I really would recommend them to install it in combination with a storage virtualization layer.

This product was the best fit for our 5000+ active VDI environment. It also works well with database use cases.

The speed is extremely valuable. It is blazing fast. The inline deduplication is amazing and the snapshot capability is very useful.

• The physical architecture could use some higher levels of redundancy.
• The past upgrades were highly impactful to active workloads.
• Previous levels were also susceptible to security vulnerability scanning.

There were stability issues with upgrades and general protection against data center power outages.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

I never had any issues with support on the storage array.

We never ran VDI on any other storage platform, although we did have any other options available: NetApp, 7-Mode/cDOT, VMAX.

The racking and initial setup was performed by EMC services. This is the normal case for this product. The first two setups were not installed properly. However, the other five installations were perfect.

I was not active in this portion of the product deployment.

I never saw any active workloads on other products.

I would make sure you do not put all your eggs in one basket on this hardware.

I would make sure updates have an extended down window and are prepared for the array to not service I/O during these updates as a worst case scenario.

It deduplicates well, but I would not run a database and the log files on the same array, to be safe.

• Dedupe, because we achieve 3.5X space savings with XtremIO
• Snapshot copies
• Ease of use
• Improvement in storage efficiency without compromising on performance

We have just used the product in a proof of concept test and we are yet to move it into production.

Integration with other EMC SAN storage array ecosystems like VMAX3, Unity, etc., especially for consistency group protection: This will help to consistently recover applications which are spread across multiple product lines like VMAX3 and XtremIO for various reasons.

I could give an example of SQL DB hosted in EMC VMAX array with SRDF replication to a remote site for disaster recovery.

If we have to move part of the volumes (like TempDB, Indexes,logs. Etc) into XtremIO and part remains in VMAX, the whole server won’t be able to able to get recovered with consistent point in time of recovery due to different replication technologies in 2 different platforms (VMAX and XtremIO).

I meant to say that it may be perfect for other environments but not for environments which are heavily dependent upon SRDF based replication. There might be ways to get around like implementing Recoverpoint for VMAX and XtremIO but the integration was complex in our use case.

I have been using the product for one year.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

The technical support is good.

We did not use any other solution beforehand.

The initial setup was straightforward with a very simple-to-use interface.

All the software-inclusive licensing simplifies the cost model.

We did not evaluate other options.

Mileages vary, so please test the dedupe rate and performance metrics you are achieving for your workload, before implementing in production.

Its consistent speed and replication features are most valuable to us. It provides a better user experience and replication for DR purposes.

In the VDI arena, it helped speed up VDI sessions and also helped improve the amount of VDIs versus disks.

Replication: EMC should have native replication ability, not something you have to take an outage for in order to install, i.e., if you did not purchase the replication when you rolled out the storage array.

Native replication is important for a few reasons:

• If something goes wrong, it gives you more of a "one throat to choke" scenario, meaning you only have to talk to one or two vendors.
• Native replication is usually cheaper, especially IP replication (versus fiber-based replication).
• When replication is native, you can usually have more insight at to what is replicated and what is not, instead of having to query various different things to get an answer.
• Native replication is usually easier to set up and maintain. It also has little less administrative work and overhead costs.

I have used this solution for about two years.

I would give the technical support a 8/10 rating.

We had VDI running on another storage array. Thus, we switched to this solution so that we could utilize the speed and the inline deduplication.

Make sure you understand and check how EMC’s replication and licensing policy for replication works.

Also make sure you are at the latest code and fully understand how the grouping and clustering of hosts on the storage array works.

We use the solution primarily in the banking system.

It's a great solution. We have 100% high availability and 100% business continuity. All our banking is All-Flash behind the VPLEX. 

We've seen great enhancements from the performance point of view. There's good availability, stability, and continuity, but the performance actually has increased by 60 or 70%.

The solution needs to be simplified. When you integrate your storage with other systems, it could use a little bit of automation. 

The stability of the solution is very good. It may even be the best of the best if you compare it to the competition.

The scalability is very good. We can easily upgrade and move from one generation to another.

Technical support is very good. It's one of the best vendors for support.

The initial setup was straightforward. 

How long deployment takes depends on the platform. For example, on VMAX All-Flash, the initial configuration, and the provisioning took about three or four days. We were executing the hard work, including laying the cables, and all the break and fix stuff. 

We had a consultant assist with the deployment.

We've used multiple versions of the solution. We started with a legacy version from the VMAX 40K and then we went to the VMAX All-Flash 450FX. Currently, we are planning also to use PowerMax 8000. We use the on-premises deployment model. We don't deal with any cloud models.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten. I'm talking from the banking sector point of view. The banking sector is a more critical system. You have to keep your system up all day, all week, and you can not lose even a bit of transaction even for a millisecond or microsecond because you'll lose money. From my point of view, it's great, it's not like any other solution.

• The increase in available I/O dramatically changed the responsiveness of our Windows environment.
• SQL server limitations of tempDB and overrun were non-existent.

• Deduplication
• High I/O capacity
• Thin storage allocation
• Snapshot cost and speed

• Management: At the time, there was no snapshot scheduler, so I had to write XSnapCourier to address it. The sad thing is that even after the newest release, which includes a native scheduler, most customers using XSnapCourier chose to stick with it due to a more feature-rich experience.
• Planning: The VAR we went through told us we would get something like an 8 x 1 ratio between compression and inline deduplication after migration from NetApp. For this reason, we only elected for 20 TB raw. What we actually got, however, was little over 2 to 1, which was actually worse than what NetApp afforded us.
• Support: Even though we paid for a four-hour turnaround support contract, we would have to wait up to two weeks for a response from EMC XtremIO support, because they didn’t actually have the support staff to handle new volume.

We have had major stability issues. Over the course of two years, three of the four storage controllers failed. It took us over two weeks to get a replacement for the first.

Technical support was the worst possible. Regardless of the fact that we paid for a four-hour turnaround, we were waiting two weeks for support calls. When we did get support calls, the engineers were up to four hours late to the datacenter. After the engineers would finally show up, we would still wait weeks for parts.

We previously used a large NetApp array, but the issue was storage density. We were at the point where we couldn’t add any further disk shelves to the controllers.

Don’t buy this array. You’re paying for loads of magic beans, since it’s mediocre at best for a platform in a rapidly growing field. Look instead at Pure Storage or something with variable block deduplication. You’ll end up spending less and getting a better product with actual support.

We were not given the opportunity to evaluate alternatives. Upper management made the decision without the input of the engineers.

Don’t consider it. Look at a platform that has actual support. EMC is a big name, but their support model is terrible with an even worse model for implementation. For a platform you literally can’t touch without them, you’re stranded on a desert island with no help in sight.