SDS and HCI comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
2nd 4th 4th
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
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Analysis expand by Herman Rutten by Herman Rutten by Herman Rutten
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General expand
0%
0%
0%
  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + Extensive platform support
  • + Extensive data protection capabilities
  • + Flexible deployment options
  • + Flexible architecture
  • + Broad range of hardware support
  • + Built for performance
  • + Extensive QoS capabilities
  • + Considerable data protection integration
  • + Built for performance
Cons
  • - No native data integrity verification
  • - Dedup/compr not performance optimized
  • - Disk/node failure protection not capacity optimized
  • - Limited data protection capabilities
  • - No stretched clustering
  • - No dedup capabilities
  • - Single hypervisor support
  • - No stretched clustering
  • - No native file services
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
  Assessment  
  •  
Overview
Name: SANsymphony
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: 1998
First Product Release: 1999
NEW
Name: PowerFlex
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: Early 2011
First Product Release: dec 2012
NEW
Name: Acuity (AC)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2016
First Product Release: 2017
  •  
Maturity
GA Release Dates:
SSY 10.0 PSP12: jan 2021
SSY 10.0 PSP11: aug 2020
SSY 10.0 PSP10: dec 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP9: jul 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP8: sep 2018
SSY 10.0 PSP7: dec 2017
SSY 10.0 PSP6 U5: aug 2017
.
SSY 10.0: jun 2014
SSY 9.0: jul 2012
SSY 8.1: aug 2011
SSY 8.0: dec 2010
SSY 7.0: apr 2009
.
SSY 3.0: 1999
NEW
GA Release Dates:
PowerFlex 3.5: jun 2020
VxFlex OS 3.0.1.1: jan 2020
VxFlex OS 3.0.1: sep 2019
VxFlex OS 3.0: mar 2019
VxFlex OS 2.6.1.1: jan 2019
VxFlex OS 2.6.1: oct 2018
VxFlex OS 2.6: may 2018
VxFlex OS 2.5: feb 2018
VxFlex OS 2.0.1.4: oct 2017
VxFlex OS 2.0.1.3: mar 2017
VxFlex OS 2.0: mar 2016
VxFlex OS 1.32: may 2015
VxFlex OS 1.31: dec 2014
VxFlex OS 1.30: sep 2014
VxFlex OS 1.20: oct 2013
VxFlex OS 1.10: dec 2012
NEW
GA Release Dates:
AC 10.6.1: feb 2019
AC 10.6: dec 2018
AC 10.5.1: oct 2018
AC 10.4: jun 2018
AC 2.3.3: mar 2018
AC 2.3.2: jan 2018
AC 2.2: oct 2017
AC 2.1.1: aug 2017
AC 2.1: apr 2017
NEW
  Pricing  
  •  
Hardware Pricing Model
N/A
N/A
Per Node
  •  
Software Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
NEW
Per TB
Per Node (all-inclusive)
  •  
Support Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
Per TB
Per Node
Design & Deploy expand
0%
0%
0%
  Design  
  •  
Consolidation Scope
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
Compute
Storage
Compute
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
  •  
Network Topology
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE (iSCSI)
8, 16, 32, 64 Gbps (FC)
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE
10 GbE (or 1GbE)
  •  
Overall Design Complexity
Medium
High
Low
  •  
External Performance Validation
SPC (Jun 2016)
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
ESG Lab (oct 2016)
ESG Lab (dec 2017)
  •  
Evaluation Methods
Free Trial (30-days)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC; up to 12 months)
Free Download (forever)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
Cloud Edition (forever)
Online Labs
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
Partner Driven Demo Environment
  Deploy  
  •  
Deployment Architecture
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer (primary)
Dual-Layer (secondary)
  •  
Deployment Method
BYOS (some automation)
BYOS (some automation)
Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
Workload Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Virtualization  
  •  
Hypervisor Deployment
Virtual Storage Controller
Kernel (Optional for Hyper-V)
vSphere: Virtual Storage Controller + kernel module
Hyper-V/KVM: OS Drivers and packages
Virtual Storage Controller
  •  
Hypervisor Compatibility
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5-7.0U1
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019
Linux KVM
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0 (XenServer)
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5-6.7U3*
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019**
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0./8.1 (XenServer)
NEW
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5-6.7
  •  
Hypervisor Interconnect
iSCSI
FC
PowerFlex
iSCSI
  Bare Metal  
  •  
Bare Metal Compatibility
Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5/6.6/7.3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0SP3+4/12.0SP1
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS
CentOS 6.5/6.6/7.3
Oracle Solaris 10.0/11.1/11.2/11.3
Microsoft Windows Server
Linux Distributions
IBM AIX
NEW
Many
  •  
Bare Metal Interconnect
Block Device Driver
iSCSI
  Containers  
  •  
Container Integration Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Container Platform Compatibility
Docker CE/EE 18.03+
Docker EE 1.12+
Mesos
Docker CE 17.06.1+ for Linux on ESXi 6.0+
Docker EE/Docker for Windows 17.06+ on ESXi 6.0+
  •  
Container Platform Interconnect
Docker Volume plugin (certified)
Docker Volume Plugin (certified)
Docker Volume Plugin (certified) + VMware VIB
  •  
Container Host Compatibility
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
Virtualized container hosts on VMware vSphere hypervisor
  •  
Container Host OS Compatbility
Linux
CentOS
CoreOS
Debian
Red Hat
Ubuntu
Linux
Windows 10 or 2016
  •  
Container Orch. Compatibility
Kubernetes 1.6.5+ on ESXi 6.0+
  •  
Container Orch. Interconnect
Kubernetes CSI plugin
PowerFlex-CSI Plugin
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
  VDI  
  •  
VDI Compatibility
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
  •  
VDI Load Bearing
VMware: 110 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 110 virtual desktops/node
VMware: unknown
Citrix:unknown
VMware: 272-317 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 167 virtual desktops/node
NEW
Server Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Server/Node  
  •  
Hardware Vendor Choice
Many
Many
Dell
Lenovo
  •  
Models
Many
Many
8 compute+storage models:
X5-2000, X5-2500, X5-6000, X5-6500, X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 compute-only models:
X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 storage-only models:
X3-2000s, X3-6000s, X5-2000s, X5-6000s
NEW
  •  
Density
1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
1 node per chassis
  •  
Mixing Allowed
Yes
Yes
Partial
  Components  
  •  
CPU Config
Flexible
Flexible
Flexible: up to 7 options
NEW
  •  
Memory Config
Flexible
Flexible: up to 4 options
NEW
  •  
Storage Config
Flexible
Flexible
Flexible: disk capacity
NEW
  •  
Network Config
Flexible
Flexible
Flexible: 2 or 3 options
NEW
  •  
GPU Config
NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
X5: NVIDIA Tesla
X3: N/A
  Scaling  
  •  
Scale-up
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
Memory
Network
  •  
Scale-out
Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Compute+storage
Compute-only (SDC)
Storage-only
Compute+storage
Compute-only (iSCSI)
Storage-only
NEW
  •  
Scalability
1-64 nodes in 1-node increments
3-512 storage nodes in 1-node increments
X5 Hybrid: 3-12 nodes in 1-node increments
X5 All-Flash: 3-16 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 Hybrid: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 All-Flash: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
  •  
Small-scale (ROBO)
2 Node minimum
3 Node minimum
3 Node minimum (data center)
1 Node minimum (ROBO)
Storage Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  General  
  •  
Layout
Block Storage Pool
Block Pool
Block Pool
  •  
Data Locality
Partial
None
None
  •  
Storage Type(s)
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (VoV)
SAN or NAS
Direct-attached (Raw, RAID, File)
Direct-attached (Raw)
  •  
Composition
Magnetic-only
All-Flash
3D XPoint
Hybrid (3D Xpoint and/or Flash and/or Magnetic)
NEW
Magnetic-Only
Hybrid
All-Flash
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
  •  
Hypervisor OS Layer
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
SD, USB or DOM
USB, SSD, SD
  Memory  
  •  
Memory Layer
DRAM
  •  
Memory Purpose
Read/Write Cache
Read Cache
Read Cache and Write Buffer
  •  
Memory Capacity
Up to 8 TB
Configurable
Configurable
  Flash  
  •  
Flash Layer
SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
  •  
Flash Purpose
Persistent Storage
Read Cache
Write Buffer (Flash Storage Pools)
Storage Tier
NVMe PCIe: Read/Write Cache
SSD: Persistent Storage
  •  
Flash Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB per device
0 - 64 devices per node
All-flash:
X5-6500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe +16x SSD
X3-6500: 1x NVMe U.2 + 8x SSD
X5-6000: 16x SSD
X3-6000: 8x SSD

Hybrid:
X5-2500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe + 2x SSD
X3-2500: 1x NVMe U.2/PCIe + 1x SSD
X5-2000 2x SSD
X3-2000 1x SSD
  Magnetic  
  •  
Magnetic Layer
SAS or SATA
SAS or SATA
Hybrid: SATA
  •  
Magnetic Purpose
Write Buffer (HDD Storage Pools)
Storage Tier
  •  
Magnetic Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB (per device)
0 - 64 devices per node
X3 Hybrid: 12 SATA HDDs per host/node
X5 Hybrid: 8 SATA HDDs per host/node
Data Availability expand
0%
0%
0%
  Reads/Writes  
  •  
Persistent Write Buffer
DRAM (mirrored)
Flash/HDD
NVMe PCIe (mirrored)
  •  
Disk Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1) + opt. Hardware RAID
1 Replica (2N)
+ opt. Hardware RAID
Erasure Coding (EC1/EC3/EC5)
Global Virtual Sparing
  •  
Node Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1)
1 Replica (2N)
+ opt. Hardware RAID
Erasure Coding (N+1/N+3/N+5)
  •  
Block Failure Protection
Not relevant (usually 1-node appliances)
Manual configuration (optional)
Fault Sets
Not relevant (1-node chassis only)
  •  
Rack Failure Protection
Manual configuration
Fault Sets
  •  
Protection Capacity Overhead
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
Mirroring (3N) (primary): 200%
+ Hardware RAID5/6 overhead (optional)
Replica (2N): 100% + Hardware RAID overhead (optional)
EC1: 9%-51%
EC3: 25%-72%
EC5: 36%-92%
  •  
Data Corruption Detection
N/A (hardware dependent)
Disk scrubbing (software)
In-flight integrity checks
Persistent integrity checks
NEW
Metadata verification (software)
Predictive drive analysis (software)
Disk scrubbing (software)
  Points-in-Time  
  •  
Snapshot Type
Built-in (native)
NEW
Built-in (native)
  •  
Snapshot Scope
Local + Remote
Local + Remote
  •  
Snapshot Frequency
1 Minute
1 minute
GUI: 15 minutes (Policy-based)
  •  
Snapshot Granularity
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
NEW
Per Volume
  •  
Backup Type
Built-in (native)
External
Built-in (native)
  •  
Backup Scope
Local or Remote
N/A
To local and remote clusters
To remote cloud object stores (Amazon S3)
  •  
Backup Frequency
Continuously
N/A
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
  •  
Backup Consistency
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
N/A
File System Consistent (Windows); Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
  •  
Restore Granularity
Entire VM or Volume
N/A
Entire Volume (snapshots/backups)
  •  
Restore Ease-of-use
Entire VM or Volume: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
N/A
Entire VM: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
  Disaster Recovery  
  •  
Remote Replication Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
NEW
Built-in (native)
  •  
Remote Replication Scope
To remote sites
To MS Azure Cloud
To remote sites
NEW
To remote sites
To AWS Cloud
  •  
Remote Replication Cloud Function
Data repository
Data repository (AWS)
  •  
Remote Replication Topologies
Single-site and multi-site
Single-site
NEW
Single-site and multi-site
  •  
Remote Replication Frequency
Continuous (near-synchronous)
30 seconds (Asynchronous)
NEW
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
  •  
Remote Replication Granularity
VM or Volume
VM (Vvols) or Volume
NEW
Volume
  •  
Consistency Groups
Yes
Yes
NEW
Yes
  •  
DR Orchestration
VMware SRM (certified)
N/A
NEW
VMware SRM (certified)
NEW
  •  
Stretched Cluster (SC)
VMware vSphere: Yes (certified)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Configuration
2+sites = two or more active sites, 0/1 or more tie-breakers
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Distance
<=5ms RTT (targeted, not required)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Scaling
<=32 hosts at each active site (per cluster)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Data Redundancy
Replicas: 1N-2N at each active site
N/A
N/A
Data Services expand
0%
0%
0%
  Efficiency  
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Engine
Software (integration)
NEW
Software (Limited)
Software
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Function
Efficiency (space savings)
Efficiency
Efficiency and Performance
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Process
Deduplication: Inline (post-ack)
Compression: Inline (post-ack)
Deduplication/Compression: Post-Processing (post process)
NEW
Deduplication: N/A
Compression: inline (post-ack)
Deduplication: Inline (on-ack)
Compression: Inline (on-ack)
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Type
Optional
NEW
Optional
Always-on
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Scope
Persistent data layer
Persistent Storage
Read and Write caches + Persistent data layers
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Radius
Pool (post-processing deduplication domain)
Node (inline deduplication domain)
NEW
Volume
Storage Cluster (vPG)
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Granularity
4-128 KB variable block size (inline)
32-128 KB variable block size (post-processing)
NEW
4 KB fixed block size
256 KB - 1.5 MB variable block size
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Guarantee
N/A
N/A
N/A
  •  
Data Rebalancing
Full (optional)
Full
Full
  •  
Data Tiering
Yes
N/A
N/A
  Performance  
  •  
Task Offloading
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; Space Reclamation (T10 SCSI UNMAP)
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (partial)
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
  •  
QoS Type
IOPs and/or MBps Limits
IOPs and/or MBps Limits (maximums)
IOPs/MBps/Latency Guarantees (minimums)
  •  
QoS Granularity
Virtual Disk Groups and/or Host Groups
Per client and volume
Per volume
  •  
Flash Pinning
Per VM/Virtual Disk/Volume
Per Volume
  Security  
  •  
Data Encryption Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
Built-in (native)
  •  
Data Encryption Options
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: SANsymphony Encryption
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: Dell EMC CloudLink
NEW
Hardware: N/A
Software: Pivot3 Acuity data encryption; HyTrust DataControl (validated)
  •  
Data Encryption Scope
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: N/A
Software: Data-at-rest (Pivot3); Data-at-rest + Data-in-transit (HyTrust)
  •  
Data Encryption Compliance
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SANsymphony)
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (Dell EMC CloudLink)
Hardware: N/A
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (Pivot3;HyTrust)
  •  
Data Encryption Efficiency Impact
Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: N/A
Software: No (Pivot3); Yes (HyTrust)
  Test/Dev  
  •  
Fast VM Cloning
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Hypervisor Migration
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
  File Services  
  •  
Fileserver Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Compatibility
Windows clients
Linux clients
N/A
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Interconnect
SMB
NFS
N/A
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Quotas
Share Quotas, User Quotas
N/A
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Analytics
Partial
N/A
N/A
  Object Services  
  •  
Object Storage Type
N/A
N/A
N/A
  •  
Object Storage Protection
N/A
N/A
N/A
  •  
Object Storage LT Retention
N/A
N/A
N/A
Management expand
0%
0%
0%
  Interfaces  
  •  
GUI Functionality
Centralized
Centralized
NEW
Centralized
  •  
GUI Scope
Single-site and Multi-site
Single-system
Single-site and Multi-site
  •  
GUI Perf. Monitoring
Advanced
Basic
Advanced
  •  
GUI Integration
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
VMware vCenter plug-in for SANsymphony
SCVMM DataCore Storage Management Provider
Microsoft System Center Monitoring Pack
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
NEW
VMware HTML5 vSphere Client (plugin)
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
  Programmability  
  •  
Policies
Full
Partial
Full
  •  
API/Scripting
REST-APIs
PowerShell
REST-APIs
PowerShell
sCLI
  •  
Integration
OpenStack
OpenStack
EMC ViPR Controller + ViPR vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in
VMware vRealize Automation (vRA)
  •  
Self Service
Full
N/A (not part of PowerFlex license)
N/A
  Maintenance  
  •  
SW Composition
Unified
Partially Distributed
Partially Distributed
  •  
SW Upgrade Execution
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
  •  
FW Upgrade Execution
Hardware dependent
Hardware dependent
1-Click
  Support  
  •  
Single HW/SW Support
No
No
Yes
  •  
Call-Home Function
Partial (HW dependent)
Partial (HW dependent)
Full
  •  
Predictive Analytics
Partial
Full

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • DataCore
  • Dell EMC
  • Pivot3
  •  
  • 2 nd
  • 4 th
  • 4 th
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