There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see performance very clearly could be enhanced, similar to how NetApp works with Grafana and NetApp monitor, which shows you a comprehensive view of the whole picture. The snapshot functionality could work more similarly to Snap Center. If I want to see all the VCenter with the VM, I think it needs the API for this. I do see big differences between Dell and other products. NetApp works very closely with VCenter, and Hitachi also integrates well, but Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell. It needs the API, and I need to see all the snapshots. If I want to restore a VM from only a few directories or a few files that I need to restore, it is very difficult. I do see some differences in licensing. For the last few years, the Dell EMC price is acceptable. A few years ago, Dell EMC was expensive, approximately 20 percent more than NetApp. Right now the budget between EMC and NetApp is very closely aligned. Regarding the installation process and deployment of Dell XtremIO, I notice that in Israel, a lot of professional services and engineers who work with Dell EMC have moved to another storage company. I do not know why. Dell EMC does not have enough engineers, system engineers, or professional services engineers to provide service to the old clients, similar to how NetApp or Hitachi do. I think Dell XtremIO is between easy and complicated to deploy; it gives you the whole picture, but I need to go closely to VCenter to connect to VCenter to see the snapshot and to see performance with more dashboards of performance. I also need to connect the switch fiber channel to see all zoning to give me more flexibility to install or configure fiber channel or to see the performance of the fiber channels. I think there should be some fiber channel disconnect adapter or better troubleshooting from hardware for errors.
The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system. While the current interface works well, a simpler version could be beneficial for new users.
Dell XtremIO should attempt to make the product more unified to make it more agile. The solution's stability has certain shortcomings where improvements are needed. The only challenges associated with Dell products are associated with versions, specifically software versions.
There's always room for enhancement, especially when planning expansions or deploying new solutions. We've encountered challenges in integrating other products with Dell Xtremio, as it tends to be more vendor-locked. This means we can't easily explore other solutions that might work alongside Dell. Having separate management for each solution could increase organizational costs. We believe Dell could benefit from collaborating with other vendors for better integration options. This would enhance the overall usability and flexibility of the solution.
Infrastructure Systems Team Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Dec 22, 2021
The evergreen factor, which is the ability to upgrade in-place upgrades to new hardware could be improved. I would like to see the ease of deployment and built-in Metro clustering.
Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Nov 18, 2021
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.
Senior technical manager at a recreational facilities/services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Nov 16, 2021
The replication of Dell EMC XtremIO could improve. In the newer versions they have improved, however, the replication can be improved further where we can include concurrent or cascaded methodologies. In the next release, the solution could have better integration and if we can host assets on the cloud, such as NetApp has the NetApp volumes, which we can host on the cloud directly called NetApp CVO (cloud volume ONTAP). Dell EMC should come up with something purely on the cloud rather than manage services.
G. Manager- Technical Services with 51-200 employees
Real User
Dec 28, 2020
The cost of this solution could be reduced. Scalability is something that can be improved because there is an issue when it comes to mixing versions. We cannot mix version one and version two. This is something that may have been improved but earlier, it is something that was a challenge in terms of scalability.
Bring all-flash, scale-out storage to your enterprise applications with EMC XtremIO. Purpose-built for flash, XtremIO storage arrays are amazingly fast. Delivering high IOPS at less than 1 millisecond latency is just the start. EMC XtremIO helps you harness the power of flash storage by building in innovations like content-based data placement and dual-stage metadata.
There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see performance very clearly could be enhanced, similar to how NetApp works with Grafana and NetApp monitor, which shows you a comprehensive view of the whole picture. The snapshot functionality could work more similarly to Snap Center. If I want to see all the VCenter with the VM, I think it needs the API for this. I do see big differences between Dell and other products. NetApp works very closely with VCenter, and Hitachi also integrates well, but Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell. It needs the API, and I need to see all the snapshots. If I want to restore a VM from only a few directories or a few files that I need to restore, it is very difficult. I do see some differences in licensing. For the last few years, the Dell EMC price is acceptable. A few years ago, Dell EMC was expensive, approximately 20 percent more than NetApp. Right now the budget between EMC and NetApp is very closely aligned. Regarding the installation process and deployment of Dell XtremIO, I notice that in Israel, a lot of professional services and engineers who work with Dell EMC have moved to another storage company. I do not know why. Dell EMC does not have enough engineers, system engineers, or professional services engineers to provide service to the old clients, similar to how NetApp or Hitachi do. I think Dell XtremIO is between easy and complicated to deploy; it gives you the whole picture, but I need to go closely to VCenter to connect to VCenter to see the snapshot and to see performance with more dashboards of performance. I also need to connect the switch fiber channel to see all zoning to give me more flexibility to install or configure fiber channel or to see the performance of the fiber channels. I think there should be some fiber channel disconnect adapter or better troubleshooting from hardware for errors.
The interface could be simplified for beginners to ease the configuration of special objects in the system. While the current interface works well, a simpler version could be beneficial for new users.
When we upgraded the capacity from five to ten TB, the price of the disks was high. Dell explained that they are selling technology, not just disks.
Dell XtremIO should attempt to make the product more unified to make it more agile. The solution's stability has certain shortcomings where improvements are needed. The only challenges associated with Dell products are associated with versions, specifically software versions.
There's always room for enhancement, especially when planning expansions or deploying new solutions. We've encountered challenges in integrating other products with Dell Xtremio, as it tends to be more vendor-locked. This means we can't easily explore other solutions that might work alongside Dell. Having separate management for each solution could increase organizational costs. We believe Dell could benefit from collaborating with other vendors for better integration options. This would enhance the overall usability and flexibility of the solution.
Sometimes we don't get an immediate response from the support team. The initial POC also took a lot of resources.
Dell XtremIO needs to provide better performance to keep up with new products.
The evergreen factor, which is the ability to upgrade in-place upgrades to new hardware could be improved. I would like to see the ease of deployment and built-in Metro clustering.
XtremIO needs to be lower priced. It also needs better endpoints and scalability.
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.
The replication of Dell EMC XtremIO could improve. In the newer versions they have improved, however, the replication can be improved further where we can include concurrent or cascaded methodologies. In the next release, the solution could have better integration and if we can host assets on the cloud, such as NetApp has the NetApp volumes, which we can host on the cloud directly called NetApp CVO (cloud volume ONTAP). Dell EMC should come up with something purely on the cloud rather than manage services.
The cost of this solution could be reduced. Scalability is something that can be improved because there is an issue when it comes to mixing versions. We cannot mix version one and version two. This is something that may have been improved but earlier, it is something that was a challenge in terms of scalability.