Dell VPLEX vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize comparison

The compared Dell Technologies and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Dell Technologies is ranked #5 in SM , with an average rating of 5.0, and holds a 6.8% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #14 in SDS , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Dell VPLEX

Read 18 Dell VPLEX reviews

360 Views
158 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Read 39 IBM Spectrum Virtualize reviews

358 Views
165 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Dell VPLEX

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell VPLEX and IBM Spectrum Virtualize based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, IBM, Dell Technologies and others in Storage Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Storage Management Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Storage Management

June 2025

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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

Dell VPLEX

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Management (5th)

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (14th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Management and Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Dell VPLEX is designed for Storage Management and holds a mindshare of 6.8%, down 8.1% compared to last year.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize, on the other hand, focuses on Software Defined Storage (SDS), holds 1.5% mindshare, up 1.5% since last year.

Storage Management

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Sayed Zuber

Sr. Storage And Backup Engineer at OMNIdata Trading, Lda.

It's an excellent solution for data mobility and disaster recovery, but the CLI can be difficult for beginners

Dell VPLEX currently requires Flash Player to access the GUI. It would be better to have a web-based HTML management interface. The encryption could also be improved. When the host writes data, it goes from VPLEX back to the physical storage. The physical storage device will do encryption or use an algorithm called Data Address Encryption. If there are vulnerabilities between the host and the storage device, you can lose your data. I suggest encrypting the data before it is sent from the host to the storage. I would also recommend using the NVM protocol in VPLEX. It still has Flash Player and a local SATA disk built into the Flash Player. You need to Flash the disk to SAS and then SATA. The NVM protocol is better.

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MD.Faisal Alam

Manager, Technical Services, IBM Storage & Backup Solutions. at Thakral

Built-in compression enhances data management efficiency

I have noticed that the technical support for software issues, such as with Spectrum Protect, needs improvement. The case logging process is efficient, but resolving software problems takes too much time. This delay can hinder customers and strain vendor relationships. For hardware issues, IBM handles them efficiently, but software-related support requires enhancement. Overall improvement in support for software cases is necessary.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its mirroring capabilities allow for data to be mirrored across two different data centers, so if one center were to crash or fail, the other center could take over and keep everything running smoothly."

"The capacity to migrate machines onto VPLEX is great — it's very clean. We can migrate machines and add arrays easily."

"The best feature of VPLEX storage is its ability to consolidate storage. It also provides the highest RPO and RTOs for replication technology. VPLEX enables application mobility."

"The most valuable feature is deduplication, as we have no duplication in the snapshots."

"Dell's technical support is awesome. We received instant support from EMC as long as we had an active contract."

"The solution works well. It's very reliable."

"Storage virtualization and geographic resilience for Metro Sans, plus a great performance improvement."

"Mobility enables us to carry out an internal migration of data."

"In my opinion, the quick restore, the low latency, and the ease of use are some of the most valuable features."

"The most valuable feature is its reliability."

"Using SBC, a valuable feature is the mirroring, which is the virtualization of the disk between disparate places."

"IBM provides exceptional technical support, which I rate as the best along with Cisco."

"The scalability is very good. It can handle anywhere from very small to large enterprise class."

"Although the GUI from the XIV was used (in my view), IBM has polished and refined the GUI providing a pleasant and easy to navigate GUI experience."

"The abstraction flair and the abstraction layer. We had a mixture of different storage arrays, and the wonderful thing about SVC is is that it normalizes all it into a single driver. A single view that all hosts see simultaneously."

"It provides transparency, because of its advanced copy features."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize pros

Cons

"VPLEX hardware migration to spare equipment in case of major disruption."

"The initial setup is complex."

"VPLEX's engine-based architecture is complex, so the implementation is challenging and takes more time. It's also difficult to fix hardware issues. When an appliance fails, it takes Dell EMC a long time to fix it because spare parts are in short supply."

"The price is a problem with EMC due to the fact that it's more expensive than the other vendors."

"Today, it needs a huge effort that is not acceptable during disaster recovery."

"With Dell VPLEX, there are some bugs with Broadcom."

"I would like to have site-to-site replication capability for applications."

"There can be delays in getting performance reports."

More Dell VPLEX cons

"I hate I/O groups. If you start swapping I/O groups, they can be potentially risky. If they could get rid of the whole I/O group principle, the risk is not there anymore. I understand the fundamental thing about I/O groups, but they are risky."

"Tighter integration with cloud storage might be useful as a target for a variety of use cases."

"I would like to see them provide a unified platform that offers block, file, and object-based protocol access."

"The Storwize port is not so stable."

"I already discussed possible improvements with some of the guys from Hearnsley. One of our frustrations is when you go to expand volumes in a global mirror environment, you have to stop everything in order to expand. So that's one of the things."

"GUI should be developed in HTML5 as opposed to Java."

"The disk reliability is not that good."

"Level 1 technical support needs improvement."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We struck a great deal with Dell EMC, so for us, VPLEX was not very expensive."

"VPLEX is a little bit expensive in my personal opinion."

"I am very happy with the pricing. There is no comparison when it comes to pricing. I have looked at all solutions from EMC, Veritas, Hitachi, Dell, etc. None of them compares to IBM when it comes to pricing. I get great pricing from them."

"I think it is a good value for the price."

"Generally the bundled licensing is more cost effective and gives flexibility to the solution. Linking into the Spectrum Suite can also be advantageous, but depends on the scale of the enterprise."

"We have struggled with Pure Storage, but people are understanding that much of Pure has been consumer grade SSDs. Therefore, when the customer is really understands what they are getting, they realize that IBM presents the same sort of value as existing vendors."

"It has a lot of advanced functions for a reasonable price."

"The entry point of pricing for this product is the most amazing price ever in the industry."

"This solution came as an additional cost for the TSM package we chose."

"We would like the CPU cycle to save more on the licensing costs for us."

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Healthcare Company

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Performing Arts

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell VPLEX?

Dell's technical support is awesome. We received instant support from EMC as long as we had an active contract.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell VPLEX?

Dell VPLEX should improve its integration and user interface and be easier to configure. Any EMX product, be it PowerMax, VMAX, or DMAX, works based on the CLI. A person has to be very good at runn...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell VPLEX?

We use Dell VPLEX for backend connectivity within the storage. We also use it when we want to manage redundancy for any storage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is not an expensive product. It offers flexibility with different flavors, whether appliance-based or as software. Its costs are competitive compared to other solutions like...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

IBM could improve IBM Spectrum Virtualize by bundling Storage Scale and Storage Virtualize into a single appliance. This would provide a more appealing and cost-effective solution. Additionally, it...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Virtualize?

I primarily use IBM Spectrum Virtualize ( /products/ibm-spectrum-virtualize-reviews ) when I have different hardware from various vendors and I want them to act as a unified storage solution. It en...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

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Compared 32% of the time

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VxRail vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 30% of the time

IBM Spectrum Scale vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 22% of the time

VMware vSAN vs IBM Spectrum Virtualize

Compared 20% of the time

More IBM Spectrum Virtualize Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell VPLEX

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Virtualize

June 2025

Download IBM Spectrum Virtualize product report

Overview

Wth EMC VPLEX you can deploy next-generation virtualization architecture to enable simultaneous information access within, between, and across data centers, move applications, virtual machines, and data in and between data centers without impacting users and deliver application and data availability within the data center and over distance with full infrastructure utilization and zero downtime.

Dell Technologies

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a dependable solution that improves data value, security, and simplicity for new and existing storage infrastructure. Proven over 12 years in thousands of deployments, its innovative virtualization capabilities help organizations achieve better data economics by supporting new workloads that are critical to their success. IBM Spectrum Virtualize software helps make new and existing storage more effective and standardizes functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs.

IBM

Sample Customers

Kindred Healthcare, Regis Aged Care, WeBank SpA, Panduit, Munson Healthcare

Pelephone, Sprint IT Enterprise Services

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, IBM, Dell Technologies and others in Storage Management. Updated: June 2025.

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