I'm able to deploy a scalable amount of virtual machines from images of hundreds of gigabytes per second.
Snr. Build Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good inline data reduction and deduplication for enterprise-level organizations
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable features are the inline data reduction and deduplication."
- "This solution is geared toward enterprise-level companies. Small and medium-sized businesses would find it extremely expensive."
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable features are the inline data reduction and deduplication.
What needs improvement?
It's not an improvement so much as a query. What I'm curious about is whether or not the feature has the ability to do inline data reduction between two physical storage solutions. If we have one storage solution in the UK and the other in Australia, will the system be able to tell us what we have already, so we aren't sending 95% of our data across the world unnecessarily? I know that the feature works locally on the source solution. What I'm curious about is, would that data reduction feature work between two instances of XtremIO in two different places.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for almost three years.
Buyer's Guide
Dell XtremIO
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Dell XtremIO. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
It was the company's choice to switch to this solution. I don't remember what we had beforehand. I think that they made the switch because we knew we were going to have a large amount of data. The data reduction deduplication that this solution offered was very valuable. We knew that if we were going to be doing an extremely high amount of the right operation, the inline data reduction would be valuable as well.
What other advice do I have?
The performance of some of the features of the solution is very powerful. XtremIO was powerful enough to allow us to disable features of other items.
If I didn't have to think about the cost, I would rate the solution ten out of ten. This solution is geared toward enterprise-level companies. Small and medium-sized businesses would find it extremely expensive.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Moved and zoned our Prod Client facing Applications. Quicker response to the business and more efficiency.
What is most valuable?
Newer version V6 (XtremIO Data Protection XDP) increases performance with built-in data protection.
Improved density with ability to scale out to eight X-Bricks if necessary / more density on capacity.
In memory Space / Efficient Copies.
How has it helped my organization?
Moved and zoned our Prod Client facing Applications. Quicker response to the business and more efficiency.
Also assisted with large datasets, thus dramatically reducing our batch runs.
What needs improvement?
Newer HTML 5, no more JAVA required.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In the very beginning, with the old version 4, we had issues around Snap and clones.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Yes , I do recall we had an issue with a version of code on XtremeIO before we could Scale.
How are customer service and technical support?
Seven out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using HDS and EMC.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved with setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I was not involved.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
HDS, IBM and Pure storage.
What other advice do I have?
A proof of concept will provide the best results for determining what solution you should go for.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Dell XtremIO
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Dell XtremIO. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable features are IOPS performance, thin provisioning, and deduplication savings.
Pros and Cons
- "Very good IOPS performance"
- "They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application."
How has it helped my organization?
We gain, on the average, 6:1 deduplication with compression. This ratio represents a substantial amount of space savings. Our SLA has improved to 99.9%.
What is most valuable?
- Very good IOPS performance
- Thin-provisioning and deduplication savings
- Natively thin-provisioned
What needs improvement?
They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application.
We use the dashboard of the Java based Windows application to monitor the storage array’s current IOPS and latency metrics.
However, we also require direct firewall access open to the XMS server as we monitor from a different location. I don’t believe the Java based GUI application is proxy aware.
So, if the XMS application server could be monitored through an HTML browser interface, it should then be proxy aware, making life a little simpler.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not had scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very good and always available.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used DAS Solutions. We were not getting the required IOPS and SAN stability, and that was a concern.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was done by a third-party.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated NetApp.
What other advice do I have?
Make sure you understand the basic fundamentals of SAN, IOPS, and data deduplication.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Consultant at Share Technologies
Good performance but the solution is not keeping up with newer products
Pros and Cons
- "Dell XtremIO is good for databases and huge workloads."
- "XtremIO is coming to its end of life."
What is our primary use case?
Dell XtremIO provides great performance. The IOPS is less than one millisecond. Because of this, many telecom companies are working with this solution. They are dependent on XtremIO as their main storage source on their side.
What is most valuable?
Dell XtremIO is good for databases and huge workloads.
What needs improvement?
Dell XtremIO needs to provide better performance to keep up with new products.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell XtremIO for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
XtremIO is scalable from one engine to maybe eight engines.
How are customer service and support?
Dell's technical support provides a good response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Dell XtremIO was good and took less than an hour to complete.
There are many new products with more features coming, such as Pure Storage. XtremIO is coming to its end of life. We will not be implementing this solution in the future.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license for XtremIO is in the box, so you don't have to buy anything.
What other advice do I have?
Dell XtremIO is an old product according to the current surge rate available in the market.
I would rate the solution a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Director at STORAGECORP Tecnologia
Simple to implement with good integration and interface
Pros and Cons
- "Xtrem10's features are more simple to implement. The integration and interface are also good."
- "XtremIO needs to be lower priced. It also needs better endpoints and scalability."
What is our primary use case?
We are a partner with Dell and our specialization is storage.
What is most valuable?
Xtrem10's features are more simple to implement. The integration and interface are also good.
What needs improvement?
XtremIO needs to be lower priced. It also needs better endpoints and scalability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scability of Dell EMC XtremIO could be better.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use PowerStore which we find easier to implement.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
XtremIO is too high priced, especially in Brazil.
What other advice do I have?
XtremIO is a good solution. I would rate it an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Systems Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
None of the features are valuable for us. It produced an outage and they didn't deliver on promises made.
What is most valuable?
None of the features are valuable for us. The product is poorly designed and not reliable. It performed well when it did work.
How has it helped my organization?
We have had no benefits from this product. It produced an outage and didn't deliver on promises made by the sales and engineering teams.
What needs improvement?
It needs a lot of improvement to be more like Pure Storage or Nimble AFAs.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this product for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had stability issues. We ran out of space pretty quickly and the cost to scale did not match our needs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We had scalability issues. It does not scale in a granular manner.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is horrible. It took a week for them to get back to us on what caused the outage. Also, there are too many different teams that support the product internally.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used EMC VMAX. We switched because EMC made it too costly to stay on VMAX and gave us discounts on XtremIO.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. We hired someone to do it. It took them two days. Our new array was done by my team in less than two hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
EMC has not delivered on promises with their array. We have been with them for seven years and had five different arrays. Same story every time. Worst support in the industry.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Pure Storage, Nimble, and SolidFire.
What other advice do I have?
Don't do it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Data Center Manager at overit
A solution that offers high performance along with good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable feature is its high performance."
- "The implementation isn't exactly complex, but the solution should have some enhancements in it to make the process more centralized."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for custom development and customer case studies.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is its high performance.
What needs improvement?
The deployment of the solution could be simplified.
The solution should be integrated into the system by default and not separately.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable for SMBs.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is okay.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation isn't exactly complex, but the solution should have some enhancements in it to make the process more centralized.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is okay. It tends to offer some of the best pricing, but I still think it could be better.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the on-premises deployment model.
My advice to those who plan on implementing the solution is to make sure you are doing accurate sizing. Don't just size for your current use only.
I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solutions Architect with 51-200 employees
NetApp vs. XtremIO vs. HDS
Flash and Hybrid block arrays
Flash has changed storage forever and almost every new array purchase needs to have some degree of flash included, so the market now offers three distinct types of array:
- Hybrid - Exploits the performance of flash and the lower cost of HDDs
- All-Flash hybrid - Packaged to deliver a low cost per GB of flash
- Ground-up design - Purely designed for flash with no support for HDDs
As always there is a huge range of price points, due to the architecture, features and performance scaling, for these arrays. Efficiency features are critical in some use cases (i.e. VDI), but less so in many others and performance scaling for the majority of solutions is substantially higher than legacy arrays built just for HDDs.
Historically array performance scaling was limited to the number of HDDs that it could support (i.e. the drives were the bottleneck), with Flash the drives are so fast the bottleneck moves to the controllers. The result of this is that the entry-level arrays will not scale performance beyond 20-30 SSDs so it is very important to have an idea of your ultimate performance scaling requirements.
For most use cases today a hybrid array that has been optimised for flash is the best fit, but there are certainly workloads that need the capabilities of a ground-up all-flash design. As always your requirements and budget will dictate the best fit so let’s take a look at what EMC, HDS and NetApp have to offer:
EMC VNX | EMC XTREMIO | HDS HUS 100/VM | NETAPP FAS | NETAPP E/EF-SERIES | |
Type | Hybrid/All-Flash Hybrid | Ground-up Design | Hybrid | Hybrid/All-Flash Hybrid | Hybrid/All-Flash Hybrid |
Largest Flash Drive | 800 GB eMLC | 800 GB eMLC | 400 GB eMLC 1.6 TB FMD (150)/3.2 TB FMD (VM) |
1.6 TB eMLC | 1.6 TB eMLC |
Replacement of drives under maintenance when write limit reached | No | Yes | No (SSD) Yes (FMD) |
Yes | Yes |
FC, FCoE & iSCSI | Yes | FC and iSCSI | FC and iSCSI (100) FC (VM) |
Yes | FC and iSCSI (E2700) FC or iSCSI (E5500/EF550) |
Writeable Snapshots | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Integrated Remote Replication | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
De-duplication | Optional (Post) | Always On (Inline) | No | Optional (Post) | No |
Compression | Optional (Post) | Always On (Inline) | No (Inline for FMDs) | Optional (Inline or Post) | No |
Thin Provisioning | Optional | Always On | Optional | Optional | Optional |
Flash Caching of HDDs | Yes | N/A | No | Yes | Reads (E-Series) N/A (EF-Series) |
Auto-Tiering (Up to 3 tiers) | Yes | N/A | Yes | No | No (E-Series) N/A (EF-Series) |
Read the rest of this post here.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are Partners with NetApp and EMC.
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Updated: February 2025
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Did you try IBM FlashSystem 900? If you are looking for performance, resilence and simplicity you really should ask for a PoC, you will be positively impressed