Dell PowerMax Reviews

We work in robotics and we need better response times. Our primary reasons for buying this solution are our SQL and Oracle databases, to improve the performance in running queries and their response times.

It has simplified our operations when it comes to troubleshooting. We're on-call every time there is an issue and I can show them, 100 percent, that there is no problem on the storage side. I can show them there is no issue here.

The solution has helped to improve our services, in the medical field.

The response time, compared to XtremIO, is far better.

I would like to see better provisioning of storage from PowerMax, as well as automation. If you have a cluster with 15 datastores you have to back and select everything for report groups, as an example. You have to create 15 datastores and bundle them in a storage group. If there was some automation of this process, a script or a workflow, to configure everything, that would be great.

Unisphere could be improved and I would also like to see a real-time, graphical view of metrics. I don't know how far back in time we can look, but if we could see the performance from two months or three months back, and how it is performing now, that would be helpful.

It's stable, like VMAX, which has been pretty stable for the last few years.

We had XtremIO but we have been a Dell EMC user for a long time. The solution's architecture influenced our buying decision because of the performance and storage growth. With XtremIO we have had storage growth issues.

The setup is pretty straightforward. With VxBlock 1000, everything is pre-installed.

The application folks are happy.

We didn't look at other solutions.

I would recommend this product. For us, this is the best product.

It has the ability to consolidate storage.

It is a true, stable product.

We have really good support for our data center and compute.

We had a multitude of storage systems, like Dell EMC Compellent, that we needed to consolidate. A Compellent would take an entire rack space.

The initial setup was a little bit complicated.

PowerMax has been great for us.

We are doing SRDF/A.

We acquired PowerMax for virtualization with PowerVC, which is the IBM product for virtualization. We're still in the PoC phase. While we initially acquired it for the PowerVC solution, we hope to deploy everything on it once we finish the PoC.

The data in our environment grows very quickly. Other solutions were a little bit slow, but with the PowerMax, there isn't going to be any negative impact.

Unisphere 9 has good functionality compared to version 8 or version 6. PowerMax, with version 9.02, which we installed recently, has some very good features, such as CloudIQ.

The performance is really good.

I also like that there is integration for automation. We are using the API for Unisphere with PowerMax and it's pretty amazing.

The deduplication and the reduction of data are some of the keys we are looking for because our data is growing so fast. We need a solution to minimize the data.

The NVMe integration could be improved.

Whether it's the older version of VMAX, or VMAX All Flash, or PowerMax, all these series are pretty amazing in terms of stability. This is electronics, so nothing is 100 percent perfect.

It's pretty expandable.

We haven't used any tech support for this product.

We used the PowerVC solution with VNX but that didn't work very well. We're doing a PoC with PowerMax and it's working very well compared to VNX. 

The setup wasn't complex because we have already deployed a number of VMAXs in our environment and they are pretty much the same.

We are buying it directly from Dell EMC.

We did not go with this solution for the consolidation because in the banking environment we have to isolate the various applications. It's a requirement of the business.

I would rate PowerMax at nine out of ten. I have used many different storage systems, all the major VM technologies, but I find that with Dell EMC there are no issues.

We use it for all entitled storage on back-end hospital systems, VMware, and Citrix.

We will be putting the hospital HR system on it, because we need it to be fast, efficient, and always up. PowerMax will provide this solution for us.

We are able to provide storage at the right service levels without overmanaging it.

Data is helping us have the performance, so they can do their reporting in the hospitals every day. They are able to maintain with the compression longer.

• Its uptime
• Dedupe
• Compression
• Reliability

It would be nice if there was a training course offered by Dell EMC. It would help us use the product.

It is very stable. We have no concerns.

The brick scalability solution is very nice. It allows us to add smaller quantities and still get quality performance.

The technical support is lacking. We are working with Dell EMC to get some better understanding of this.

Currently, we have a VPLEX with multiple storage arrays behind it. Now, we will be moving to one storage array and getting rid of the rest.

The performance requirements for the Diamond Levels on certain areas, we wanted submillisecond response times. We are still working with our buyer to get this to fruition based on some of our workloads.

The initial setup is very straightforward because it is All-Flash. We are now looking at maximizing the performance features.

We are still working with our integrator on the deployment since the VMAX is relatively new in the industry that I am working in. We are still working on improving our experience, as they lacked experience in the PowerMax.

The migration process of the VMAX to PowerMax is ongoing. Because we have a VPLEX, it is causing more complexity than if it had been just VMAX to VMAX.

Ensure whomever you work with knows the solution and you get feedback from other customers.

It has good performance and speed, but it is still lacking in training and knowledge.

We are only using Unisphere of the performance management and monitoring tools, as we are not that familiar with the other ones available.

This would be for leveraging the purchase of PowerMax storage system through a service provider, who would deliver the capacity of PowerMax on a service catalog basis. The storage capacity would be offered as a block service and the utilization of the PowerMax would be delivered on a revised written basis.

This will certainly be leveraged to deploy non-critical and mission-critical applications in our environment, in which we have plenty of both at this point in time.

We expect it to deliver exceptional performance and capacity utilization metrics. This is one of the reasons we are evaluating PowerMax 2000 and PowerMax 8000 at this point in time.

The most valuable features are compression, deduplication, and NVMe-based back-ends for flash technologies. 

I would like it to support NVMe over Fabrics, because that is the next item for consideration on the NVMe roadmap. PowerMax supports NVMe on the back-end, but when it starts supporting NVMe over Fibre Channel, suddenly various hosts can directly communicate with PowerMax, and with NVMe-oF, as well. Suddenly, Gen 6 and Gen 7 switchers will be able to help facilitate that particular communication channel.

It is very stable. We expect superior performance and reliability from this particular storage system.

We expect it to scale.

We are slowly moving towards simplifying our current complex environment, but we are not there yet.

In the past, we have been using the various versions and families of VMAX. Now, we are moving more towards PowerMax and newer versions of technology as they get released onto the Dell EMC roadmap. We have been using VMAX based platforms for many years. Suddenly, PowerMax has evolved from the lineage of VMAX. Therefore, we expect Dell EMC to continue to build upon it. 

In terms of the engineering aspects of the performance requirements, we have a variety of applications requiring a certain level of IOPS, response times, and a minimum microsecond latencies. While we understand that PowerMax can deliver to these expectation from a performance standpoint, we will certainly undergo some rigorous proof of concepts (PoCs) with the PowerMax systems to make sure that our current understanding of PowerMax capabilities, from a performance standpoint, meets our expectations.

We are not yet done any setup of PowerMax systems. We are still working on the integration plans.

We have always used Dell EMC. We have evaluated the technologies from some of the other vendors. We have done numerous proof of concepts, and we have done some real hard proof of concepts. Either in the architectural design stage, or in the engineering stage, some of those particular products do not meet the rigorous testing that we do in these types of scenarios and environments.

Use PowerMax.

• Performance
• Replication time
• It's become easier to use
• Dedup and compression

I'd like to see the dedup and compression improve. Two to one is not very good. We should be getting something like three, four, or five to one.

The setup was pretty straightforward. It wasn't that hard.

We bought it from a reseller and we used some services from Dell EMC. Our experience with them was pretty good. They showed us the basics and got us started.

The primary use case is block storage.

We are planning on deploying mission-critical applications on this solution for redundancy and performance.

Our time to response has increased significantly with the new storage tier (SSD).

We have probably replaced eight racks of equipment with one rack of equipment. So, we have seen significant cost savings and performance.

It was easy for teams to pick up the technology with very limited exposure and training, then implement and support it.

As per performance, being able to consolidate down some of our older DMZ technologies into one platform.

My team has found the Unisphere to be a valuable tool.

We haven't had any issues with the solution in the six months that it has been live. So, the stability has been very good.

We are getting ready to add to it already, so it is very scalable.

The technical support has been very supportive when we have had to call and ask for their assistance, especially during the installation of the equipment.

Our performance requirements were more about the availability and the performance, since we are running mission-critical applications. We have to have low disk latency to meet the application's performance for our Oracle Databases.

The initial setup was very straightforward. It was easy to implement. They implemented it through their normal processes in a very timely manner.

The migration process from the older VMAX arrays to PowerMax was fairly seamless. When the team came in, they migrated data from one to the other. The process was simple.

A reseller, Advisex, worked with us on the deployment. We have a close partnership with them and had a good experience.

We are happy with what we have.

We are using it for VMware, virtual infrastructures, and our physical host. All of our virtual infrastructure is pretty much mission-critical, and we have all of our virtual infrastructure migrating into the PowerMax family.

Because of the compression ratio, we are able to put more on less hardware.

The PowerMax software and CloudIQ let us get an inside view of our compression and compaction, as well as our usage of the storage.

• Compression
• Compaction
• A lot of storage in a small box.

The PowerMax software has some room for improvement. We have run into a couple bugs with it so far.

It scales well. We currently buy ours fully maxed out, so we don't really worry a whole lot about the scaling from a new infrastructure standpoint.

So far, technical support has been really good.

We are migrating from HPE 3PAR, and it's been a very easy transition.

The initial setup was complex. ESRS is a very complex solution to put into our environment, because it requires external access to the Internet. That's a very tough thing for us to do, because we are a PCI and PII company. We store a lot of data for people which is personal. Therefore, going out to the Internet is not our preferred path.

We used Dell EMC directly for the deployment. The experience has been good, so far.

We generally do a PoC. In this case, we went directly to the PowerMax because we felt it was a good solution. Our upper management chose it.

Study the integration very carefully, as far as how you're going to integrate it into your environment, such as how you're going to use ESRS and the other solutions which Dell EMC offers.

As far as provisioning, storage, and use of the array, it's been very simple to use.

For the PowerMax 8000, a million IOs is our minimum requirement. We have yet to be able to test that, but that is our minimum base requirement for a PowerMax 8000.