No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco MDS Series vs Dell PowerStore comparison

 

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
233
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (2nd), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 10.0%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 14.0%, down from 33.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerStore14.0%
Cisco MDS Series10.0%
Other76.0%
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 most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"Cisco MDS 9148 SAN switch model is the best product, highly reliable and low cost, easy to deploy, easy to upgrade, easy to configure, easy to administer, and it gives effective performance when used for SAN switch connectivity between hosts and storage boxes."
"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 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."
"The product is easy to use."
"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"Deduplication and compression perform exceptionally well, especially on Dell PowerStore."
"The solution is extremely stable."
"Dell PowerStore has helped us consolidate the data into small boxes."
"Dell PowerStore is very good storage that is highly available, and we are managing very high workloads with multiple I/Os, so it fits our organization perfectly."
"The solution saves customers time and money because it handles migrations quickly and does not require additional IT resources or staff."
"Dell PowerStore is an enterprise-graded device that is easily scalable and easily integrated into your ecosystem and provides metro cluster as one of the key features I would consider in any storage system."
"Since the deployment of Dell PowerStore, the key benefit compared to 3PAR has been financial, with the financial cost almost half the price compared to HP, and from a features and storage perspective everything is satisfactory, with excellent support and hardly any complaints."
"I rate Dell PowerStore a perfect 10 out of 10."
 

Cons

"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"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."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having SAN Manager with life cycle management features and Integration with 3rd party storage monitoring tools."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"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."
"The product is very expensive."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"From an improvement perspective, I do not have significant negative points about Dell PowerStore."
"The networking of Dell PowerStore needs to be enhanced."
"However, I can see that the software needs to mature more; whenever we upgrade to a new version, even if it is the Dell recommended version, we still encounter major bugs that can impact business operations."
"We need to find a way to ensure the cache data is safe and secure."
"Dell PowerStore doesn't really have a lot of advantages over other products. It has no special features technically. Other products have better management and analytics features."
"Improvements could be made in the replication solutions of Dell PowerStore. Even though replication between Dell PowerStores is possible, high latency connectivity is problematic."
"If Dell would consider aggressive discounts for critical opportunities, that would be great because most of the time Dell doesn't have a winning probability with the current pricing model."
"We are looking for the Dell PowerStore to become more mature to maximize our use cases."
 

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."
"The pricing is good. There's no need to pay for a license; it's all-inclusive."
"The licensing for this solution is good and is in the mid-range tier."
"Dell PowerStore charges for the hardware warranty every three years. The price will depend on the storage model or how much hardware it has."
"Dell PowerStore is not a cheap solution."
"PowerStore's pricing is reasonable."
"We are currently using Dell PowerStore for our smaller storage and there is no competition for pricing."
"The software features are included in the pricing without any additional purchase requirements."
"It is easy to work with Dell from the licensing perspective."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise SAN solutions are best for your needs.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business78
Midsize Enterprise45
Large Enterprise116
 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.