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Dell Compellent (discontinued) vs. HPE Nimble Storage vs. Synology DiskStation

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Dell Compellent (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASince it's acquisition in 2011 Compellent became a Dell product line of storage solutions (e.g. Dell Compellent Storage Center). Compellent products became part of the Dell EMC SC Series of enterprise flash and SAN storage devices and are now EOL.N/A

    HPE Nimble Storage

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ANimble Storage was acquired by HPE in 2017. The enterprise flash array product line now goes by the name HPE Nimble Storage.N/A

    DiskStation

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ADiskStation is a line of network-attached storage (NAS) solutions from Synology headquartered in Taiwan.N/A
    Pricing
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Considered Multiple Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Chose HPE Nimble Storage
    The main selling point for Nimble was the high availability and read/write speeds, and how well it integrates with our virtual infrastructure. The support was also by far one of the best we have experienced across any of our vendors, with any queries we have had being resolved …
    Incentivized
    Chose HPE Nimble Storage
    All of the storage vendors we tested in a shoot-out performed pretty well, though I don't have the raw numbers. What sold us on Nimble is the service and support, which the others cannot touch.
    Incentivized
    Chose HPE Nimble Storage
    With the offerings available at the time in a similar price range, we perceived Nimble to offer better performance, better UI resulting in ease of configuration and ongoing access to information about the array and a minimal rack space requirement. Those were the differences we …
    Incentivized
    Synology
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    29 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    29 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    29 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    27 Answers
    Features
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Enterprise Flash Array Storage
    Comparison of Enterprise Flash Array Storage features of Dell Compellent (discontinued) and HPE Nimble Storage and Synology DiskStation
    Feature
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    8.3
    3 Ratings
    7% below category average
    HPE Nimble Storage
    8.7
    12 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Synology DiskStation
    -
    Ratings
    Flash Array Performance8.03 Ratings8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Flash Array Integration8.03 Ratings10.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Compression8.03 Ratings10.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Non-Intrusive Upgrades8.03 Ratings10.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    Simplicity9.03 Ratings9.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    Power Savings9.03 Ratings5.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Everpure FlashArray
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    FreeNAS
    Score5.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Everpure FlashArray
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Everpure FlashArray
    Score8.2 out of 10
    FreeNAS
    Score5.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (28 ratings)
    9.2
    (30 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    9.7
    (7 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Dell Compellent (discontinued)HPE Nimble StorageDiskStation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    All in all this series great in addressing issues applications that need flash storage as a backend storage supply. It addresses the need for fast, responsive servers that need to boot quickly. It is easy to use and for the most part there are few issues and none that can't be addressed/fixed quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    HPE Nimble Hybrid storage is very cost effective that can provide the same Latency, I/O and Bandwidth compared with any other All FLASH storage which is 3 times expensive than this. From a feature comparison standpoint of view, there isn't much difference between Hybrid Vs ALL Flash. HPE Nimble Storage uses ALL Flash disk at the front end to process the data thus by reducing the cost by using a regular SAS disk at the back end. Its the software and the algorithm that HPE Nimble StorageE uses to achieve this. having said that, the overall data reduction, de-duplication and compression is above the mark as what the sales team promised initially. Overall, the storage is performing well without any challenges.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    The Synology DiskStation is well suited as a NAS solution, easy enough to mirror a Windows file server shares setup. Access to the Hyperbackup utility eliminates the need to purchase a tape backup solution. A portable USB drive can be used as the initial backup target. For air gap purposes can connect Hyperbackup to the various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP to copy backup data there. Utilizing it as a backup solution has also been great, instead of purchasing a tape solution, tapes and an offsite tape repository. Active Backup for Business is another excellent backup utility for physical servers, VMWare virtual machines, etc. Restoring files is fairly intuitive. Until Synology introduced the dual controller setup, using it as a SAN was less appropriate as there was occasional downtime when the controller had an issue but this was less important for the scenarios we were using it for. It would be more of a concern if we had used it for things that require more robust uptime requirements. Overall we are happy with the features of the Synology DiskStation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Dell Compellent support (Co-Pilot) and the add-on service (Optimize) are critical services that Dell Compellent does very well. Alerts from the array are sent to Co-Pilot where tickets are automatically generated and customers are notified of events. Of greater importance at times is the proactive support Co-Pilot and Optimize provide by contacting us of inefficiencies in the array and consulting on resolutions.
    • Enterprise Manager (Dell's "single pane of glass" management framework) is a useful tool for configuration/evaluation of the array and other Compellent products.
    • Ease of management. From firmware upgrades to managing server volumes the process is much simpler than with other arrays.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • HP Nimble is basically an all in one SAN with SSD cache or in some cases fully SSD based however the thing it does the best is its front end GUI and user management capability making it easy for anyone to ramp up on managing it quickly.
    • The Nimble SAN is also very easily managed when it comes to hardware management. Outside of some major internal parts such as the mainboard, almost everything in the system is duplicated so single failures never bring the system down. Power supplies and drives are easily swapped out.
    • Nimble has incredibly capable and easily accessible support that is available 24/7.
    • The price point on Nimble, though higher than piecing together a home made SAN out of spare Windows Servers, is perfect even for some SMB's.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    • Synology DiskStation offers lots of options for creating links to share files or request that some uploads files. It makes it really easy to just share a link that can have an expiration or a set number of times it is accessed.
    • We always had enough storage on our Synology DiskStation, we never had to worry about something being too big to upload or share.
    • Love how you can create folders that are shared and also have some that are private. This makes it so easy to have shared collaborations with coworkers or clients, but also allows you to have a private place to save things that only you need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • The GUI could be a little more updated with a lot more information regarding usage.
    • There could be some assistance with high I/O times where snapshots go to consolidate. There seems to be issues when that attempts to occur, and there will times where the virtual machine stuns due to the I/O intensity.
    • Modification of multiple volumes or the creation of multiple volumes is a pain in the DSM management console.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • I'd like the GUI to include more information for some of the features such as replication data totals each night. You have to go to the command line for this.
    • It would be nice to have a feature built into the GUI that would show you the command line equivalent to get the same results you are seeing in the GUI.
    • Although the intial setup was easy, they could always improve on that portion. During my setup, I did have to do a lot of back and forth with research on their site as to what each setting was that I was setting up. They could have provided some sort of description for each field within the setup that would have made it easier to know what they were having us set up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    • While BTRFS is a more advanced file system than ext4, it also is in a perpetual state of development, with many features not fully functional and a plethora of bugs. Synology has managed to overcome many of these limitations by placing BTRFS on top of a LVM, but there are much better file systems that Synology could have used, such as OpenZFS.
    • DSM's built-in backup software, HyperBackup, while robust, oftentimes runs into issues. Specifically, backups can be working fine for months or years, and then suddenly the backups will fail. Sometimes these failures can be resolved, but oftentimes the backups need to be completely restarted. Fortunately, even when the backup fails, the existing backups are still accessible, it is just that new backups can not be performed.
    • The underlying Linux OS provides significant benefits, but also adds a fair amount of complexity. Most of that complexity is wonderfully hidden by the DSM interface, but when certain problems arise, delving into the Linux command line is not out of the question.
    • Perhaps the biggest issue with Synology DiskStation is Synology's support. The issue isn't that the support is bad, but it can be frustratingly slow when dealing with a major issue. Synology does have a very active community that is always willing to help, but nothing beats first-party support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Nimble is doing its job well and any issues that do come up cause the Nimble support team to alert us before we would potentially see an impact to our production environment. I do wish we could expand into the unused space in the CS210 shelf which is limited by what I assume is a marketing/sales strategy, but we will likely add shelves moving forward.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    As long as Synology give us support for our hard drivers we will not change. I know Synology has now forced their hands to buy their own hard drivers and their new line of products. But if we still have support for old hard drivers from other manufacturers then we will still use Synology Nas. Otherwise we change manufacturers
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Almost perfect, some hoops to jump through after major upgrade, but overall simple and effective. Our storage administrator really likes the integration with vmware as it makes his life easier. Also it was no trouble integrating it with our active directory credentials. The only issue we had was getting the plugin in VMWare going initially.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    The Synology DiskStation is easy to set up and manage. The interface is clean and features are well documented. These units are reliable and can be set up to do scheduled integrity checks so failures can be mitigated before they halt business operations. The available packages for expanded roles makes these devices versatile.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    This is not solely based on the support engineers themselves but more so that the logging and gotcha's that their array has. There have been multiple times where logs are pulled, but the folder is not large enough, and it crashes the array. Other times there are certain aspects that support either does not know of or isn't knowledgable about how to look at particular issues that could be causing problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Any time I have had to contact support, they have always been quick to respond, and very efficient in resolving any issues. When an action has been required on our side for a fix, they have been very helpful in explaining step by step what was required, and when replacement parts have been needed, we've had them within 24 hours.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    Unfortunately, the one time I've had to reach out to DiskStation support, it did not go well. My NAS appliance wasn't appearing on the network, and no matter what the support team tried, they could not get it back online. Instead of offering to send me a new unit, they told me to go buy a new one - obviously, this was a disappointing response and not very eco-friendly either! Fortunately, through some internet research of my own, and some ingenuity, I figured out I could restore my NAS to factory settings by removing all the drives and resetting. Only then did I realize I had a bad disk. I had to experiment for a while to figure out which one it was. Once I had done that, though, I was able to get the latest DiskStation loaded back on, no thanks to the DiskStation support crew. If notifications were rock solid, I suspect I would have caught the bad disk before it because an OS problem, but I never received a bad-disk notification.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    We selected Compellent solely based on price. Honestly I would rate it only slightly better than a QNAP we used (which was even cheaper). If performance and reliability are factors in your decision (and they should be) I would recommend looking at something like a VNXe.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    We used a Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage array for many years and it worked well. A big issue was that upgrading firmware required system downtime and during one upgrade I was unable to bring the systems back up afterwards. I spent several days on the phone over a holiday weekend with Dell and VMware support in order to get my systems back up and running. It made me very nervous about doing firmware upgrades after that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    Synology DiskStation packs a punch with the latest and greatest feature set which goes above and beyond many other vendors. It allows for a turn-key solution to cover almost every use case in the SMB market leaving other vendors behind.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • The SC9000 has been able to serve our current and futures needs well enough to not need to upgrade anytime soon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • 100% uptime 4 years and counting in a 24/7 environment.
    • Long hardware support lifecycle, with extremely affordable maintenance renewal plans that provide real value.
    • Nimble has been the most cost-effective SAN solution I have ever deployed.
    • The inital costs, ongoing maintenance, and administration requirements were all 50% less than EMC and NetApp.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Synology
    • Minimal investment in the hardware, big return on productivity
    • Streamlined IT needs, we no longer have to hire our IT vendor to assist us as regularly as we did when we were running servers
    • Productivity on the road through web access has increased productivity and billable hours for remote employees
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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