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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
246
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (7th), NAS (2nd), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 10.6%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 12.4%, down from 29.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerStore12.4%
Cisco MDS Series10.6%
Other77.0%
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 product is easy to use."
"The product is very stable and performs well."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"It enables us to integrate and load balance between multiple layer one fiber vendor links, which is very useful."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"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."
"This solution is required for any type of IT infrastructure for Storage Networking and provides high availability for storage service."
"Overall, Dell PowerStore is very competitive in the market and able to beat the competition."
"My advice to other organizations considering Dell PowerStore is to look at the reliability and the history of the company and its heritage."
"The stability has been excellent."
"Dell PowerStore has had a positive impact on our organization by improving storage performance, simplifying storage management, and increasing system availability, as features such as Snapshot, thin provisioning, and data reduction have helped optimize storage utilization and reduce operational overhead."
"The biggest trust element is people are very happy to depend on a Dell infrastructure."
"Overall, we're quite happy with the product because we can move the data that is stored on more than 10 of our current storage devices to a single PowerStore."
"The features of Dell PowerStore meet most of our business needs today and fulfill our clients' requirements."
"I like the performance of the PowerStore. When you talk about PowerStore, it's mainly about flash systems and high-end IOPS. The 1000T is a midsize box, in terms of the way the vendor positions it, but it is more than enough for our needs."
 

Cons

"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"The product is very expensive."
"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."
"I find it difficult to operate and troubleshoot."
"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."
"Even though most customers have four-hour support, it sometimes takes two days for parts to arrive when I would expect it the next day."
"Some of the data metrics we get out of Pure from a support perspective online are a little bit more robust than the Dell PowerStore metrics, but it's not a negative against Dell."
"I do not like having to use VPLEX for synchronous replication, as opposed to having the store software built-in."
"The update cycle should be automated or scheduled. Currently, it takes a full day of my job to update Dell PowerStore nodes, and if I have to do two, my entire day is focused on the update process."
"The management UI is pretty decent and gets the job done, but the upgrade process is challenging."
"The previous version of Dell PowerStore we used was easier to use compared to the current one. They have made it more cumbersome to handle, although it still works. It has become more complicated to manage."
"It could be improved to be cheaper for us."
"I have experienced some issues, downtime, and outages with Dell PowerStore, as we have had quite a few issues related to storage and resilience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"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."
"PowerStore's pricing is reasonable."
"As compared to others, PowerStore is cheaper."
"The pricing is good. There's no need to pay for a license; it's all-inclusive."
"If we use the 500 or 1000, the licensing and pricing are reasonable. PowerStore can compete with any vendor and the price isn't that expensive."
"In the pricing and licensing department, the product is always too expensive."
"The pricing rates at seven out of ten as it is considered overpriced. Entry-level models are reasonably priced, starting around $30,000 for a base model with 6 drives. However, upgrades become costly - adding 6 additional drives can cost another $30,000."
"With compression, we were able to have a solution within our company's budget. We include a clause in the contract with Dell that states if the compression ratio is not met, we will adjust the workload accordingly."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business83
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise124
 

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

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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.