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Cisco MDS Series vs Dell PowerStore comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
238
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (2nd), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 10.0%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 13.3%, down from 30.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerStore13.3%
Cisco MDS Series10.0%
Other76.7%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

VK
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reliable storage networking has ensured seamless multi-protocol access and continuous redundancy
Currently, I do not have any major suggestions for improvement as everything is working well without issues. If additional functions could be introduced to simplify usage, I would suggest that AI functionality or better integration capabilities would be advantageous for Cisco MDS Series. Any new AI-related features or functionality added to Cisco MDS Series would represent a positive advancement.
reviewer2304864 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vmware Windows Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Resilience has supported proactive management and secured audit readiness across multiple sites
The resilience in Dell PowerStore benefits my company from an auditing perspective because we know we have that resilience in place. I see Dell PowerStore playing a bigger role in the future because we are starting to use it more, and that is pushing it. The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerStore is scalability. Scalability is key. I can amplify that scalability is the biggest return on investment because we have redundancy between two sites; if something goes down, we have to manage it, but we want to do it proactively.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The stability has been commendable with no major performance issues and the system consistently provides users the ability to access the network without any problems."
"This solution is required for any type of IT infrastructure for Storage Networking and provides high availability for storage service."
"MDS's reliability is at a high level, the issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The product is easy to use."
"The product is very stable and performs well."
"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"We recommend using Dell PowerStore all-flash storage array model for its high performance, excellent data reduction ratio, very high scalability, and efficiency."
"I am directly involved in working with Dell PowerStore from the beginning in sales, pre-sales, through to implementation and execution in the projects, and it works perfectly."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the metro cluster because we have two data centers and high availability."
"The management capabilities of Dell PowerStore are extremely easy to use and user-friendly."
"I recommend Dell PowerStore for companies that depend on ERP systems or SAP because the performance is excellent."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the ease of deployment and general use."
"The most valuable features of Dell PowerStore are the support for NVMe and SCM, which provides end-to-end performance and high IOPS, minimizing latency. It is a full-fledged storage solution."
"When comparing the stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore to the old storage, the old storage never worked properly. This solution is more stable from that standpoint."
 

Cons

"The product is very expensive."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"I find it difficult to operate and troubleshoot."
"Data Center Network Manager is good but it is not free and requires purchasing a separate license."
"Webui needs Data Center Network Management tool licensed copy for accessing Cisco Switches instead a web-based GUI should be made easily available the way Brocade san switch is managed."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"Dell PowerStore is a very good product, and we would love to sell more of these products. Pricing is the only thing that could still be improved."
"The only area I can highlight for improvement is that the 4:1 data reduction target has not been reached."
"There is an issue with Dell PowerStore related to future expansions which are software-related."
"If I needed more capacity, it quickly moves out of Dell PowerStore into something else. If I needed something more, I would prefer to stay in the Dell PowerStore ecosystem."
"We are happy with the service in general. The only thing would be the price of the platform."
"I would say a bit more user-friendliness and in-depth features in the monitoring interface of CloudIQ would be an improvement; sometimes it is quite difficult to find the information I want."
"The only problem is that it came out a bit early; before version 3.6, it didn't have the features that customers expected, and it was difficult to work with because we didn't have metro-cluster."
"The support team doesn't always provide adequate assistance. So, there is room for improvement in the support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"We are happy with the pricing that we get from Dell."
"The price of Dell PowerStore could improve. The price should be managed more compared to Huawei Dorado or IBM All-Flash series."
"Dealing with the licensing part of the product is very simple, especially considering the fact that we don't have many licenses associated with the tool."
"Dell PowerStore is more expensive than Dell EMC Unity All Flash. Dell PowerStore's performance metrics were way higher than what Dell EMC Unity All Flash offered."
"We only have a single machine and we are currently using half of the hard disk slots. We have asked for an upgrade for the rest of the hard disks but, from my point of view, it costs too much. We have 12 to 15 hard disks inside and if we try to upgrade only the hard disks, it costs the same as the complete system. This is something I don't understand."
"In the pricing and licensing department, the product is always too expensive."
"The pricing structure and licensing model of Dell PowerStore are very good and I like it. We chose it because it was reasonably priced and met our requirements"
"We purchased it with a five-year warranty."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise45
Large Enterprise119
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
Currently, I do not have any major suggestions for improvement as everything is working well without issues. If additional functions could be introduced to simplify usage, I would suggest that AI f...
What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?
Cisco MDS Series is primarily used for connecting storage arrays. The multi-protocol feature supports all protocols and functionality working seamlessly. Virtual SANs operate without any issues. Pe...
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...
What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?
Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
PowerStore
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Rugby League
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.