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Dell Unity XT Unified Storage

Dell Unity XT Unified Storage

Overview

What is Dell Unity XT Unified Storage?

Dell Unity XT hybrid flash arrays are storage systems for running general purpose workloads that do not require the low latencies and speed of all flash/NVMe architectures. Unity XT hybrid flash arrays balance performance, efficiency, features or outcomes.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Dell EMC Unity has become an essential tool for many users in various industries. Its versatility allows it to be used for a wide range of …
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Dell EMC Unity Review

9 out of 10
February 19, 2020
Incentivized
Dell EMC Unity is being used by a division of the organization. The EMC Unity I monitor and maintain is at two of the facilities within …
Continue reading
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 6 features
  • Power Savings (14)
    9.5
    95%
  • Flash Array Performance (13)
    9.4
    94%
  • Simplicity (15)
    9.0
    90%
  • Non-Intrusive Upgrades (15)
    8.7
    87%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Product Demos

Dell EMC Unity - Asynchronous Block Replication

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Dell EMC Unity Asynchronous Replication

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Kubernetes CSI 1.1 plugin for Dell EMC Unity

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Installing the Dell EMC Unity CSI plugin for Kubernetes

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Dell EMC Unity – Data at Rest Encryption

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Dell EMC Unity - Asynchronous File Replication

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Features

Enterprise Flash Array Storage

All-flash array storage is a solid state, high performance storage option.

9.3
Avg 9.1
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Product Details

What is Dell Unity XT Unified Storage?

Dell Unity XT hybrid flash arrays are storage systems for running general purpose workloads that do not require the low latencies and speed of all flash/NVMe architectures. Unity XT hybrid flash arrays balance performance, efficiency, features or outcomes.

Dell Unity XT Unified Storage Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Dell Unity XT hybrid flash arrays are storage systems for running general purpose workloads that do not require the low latencies and speed of all flash/NVMe architectures. Unity XT hybrid flash arrays balance performance, efficiency, features or outcomes.

Reviewers rate Data Compression highest, with a score of 9.7.

The most common users of Dell Unity XT Unified Storage are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(35)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Dell EMC Unity has become an essential tool for many users in various industries. Its versatility allows it to be used for a wide range of applications and environments. For example, in the development and pre-production environment, Dell EMC Unity is often employed for Oracle databases, providing easy data moving and monitoring of multiple processes. Users have also found value in the creation of multiple copies of databases through array snapshots, resulting in cost-effective data compression and space savings. Additionally, Dell EMC Unity serves as a hybrid block storage array, offering auto-tiering options and cost-effectiveness. It is frequently utilized as primary storage for virtual servers, oracle virtual disks, and databases, as well as for disk mapping to physical servers. The straightforward graphical interface simplifies configuration and management tasks, making it accessible even to less experienced users. Moreover, Dell EMC Unity plays a crucial role in maintaining data backup for Linux servers by providing sufficient storage capacity. In VMware environments, it serves as reliable storage for file sharing purposes and pre-production environment servers. The product's ability to create multiple database copies and facilitate storage upgrades has made it highly regarded among its users. Additionally, Dell EMC Unity is valued as a NAS file server, supporting file sharing for various departments with data replication between data centers with low RPO. In this capacity, it ensures high availability, reliability, and redundancy of critical files. Another notable use case is as a centralized storage solution for retaining an organization's intellectual property securely. Lastly, Dell EMC Unity offers a reliable and efficient path for migrating away from legacy systems. Overall, the product's flexibility and ease-of-use have contributed to its adoption across different industries and use cases.

User-Friendly Interface: Many users have found the user interface of Dell EMC Unity to be excellent and very user-friendly, making it easy to operate on a daily basis. The intuitive design and layout of the interface have been praised by numerous reviewers.

Reliable Performance: The Dell EMC Unity storage arrays have been consistently performing up to expectations, earning praise from users for their reliability and stability. With no issues of latency reported, the performance of Dell EMC Unity, especially with its all-flash storage option, has been deemed fast and reliable.

Seamless Integration: The integration of Dell EMC Unity with VMware has been highlighted as a valuable feature by several reviewers. This seamless integration enhances the overall management experience, providing users with a streamlined workflow and efficient data management capabilities.

Configuration Complexity: Several users have found the initial configuration and setup process to be time-consuming, difficult, and not as straightforward as other products in the market. Some reviewers mentioned that it was especially challenging compared to newer solutions.

Limited Monitoring Options: Users expressed disappointment with the limited options available in the monitoring dashboard and the inability to create custom reports. This limitation could hinder their ability to effectively monitor and analyze system performance.

Support Challenges: Users mentioned frustration with Dell EMC's support, stating that it can sometimes be difficult to get an experienced support professional for certain less common issues, leading to delays in issue resolution.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Dell EMC Unity was used as one of the Production storage platforms for the whole organization. It provided a reliable and efficient solution to migrate away from legacy systems hence eliminating technical debt.
  • Fast all Flash storage
  • Ease of installation
  • Ease of Use
  • More efficient deduplication
  • More efficient compression
Dell EMC Unity is well suited as a Production storage where footprint is at a premium. It packs excellent performance and storage in a small U-factor. The learning curve to managing the Unity is not steep at all thus can be used in environments such small businesses where a dedicated storage administrator is not needed.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
86.66666666666666%
8.7
Flash Array Performance
90%
9.0
Flash Array Integration
90%
9.0
Data Compression
70%
7.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
90%
9.0
Simplicity
90%
9.0
Power Savings
90%
9.0
  • Reduce technical debt by moving towards current technology
  • Reliable and robust thus radically reducing/eliminating downtime that could affect business operations
Due the corporations history of using Dell solutions, Dell EMC Unity fit in perfectly with the corporations technology strategy. It also was comparable to other solutions in terms of performance and reliability. The support was also exceptional.
Creating support tickets was easy to do and support was very responsive.
Yes, in order to ensure minimal downtime and optimal uptime for business operations
No
September 19, 2020

Dell EMC Unity

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Dell EMC Unity is used across the entire organization. It is used as a dedicated SAN as well as a shared customer environment SAN. It is used for hosting applications from basic web server all the way through large database applications.
  • Dell EMC Unity once stood up is reliable and performs to expectations.
  • Dell EMC Unity has improved on the end user management experience over their older product suites
  • Difficult to configure and set up out of the box compared to newer solutions in the market
Has caused us a need to look elsewhere for a better solution for our business
  • We have gone away from Unity as a future product and have moved towards Nimble or Pure to fit the same needs.
We were directed to buy these arrays and didn't have the ability to evaluate the other arrays. Once we evaluated the other products in the market that compete with Unity we saw that the younger, more built from the ground up arrays, had much better features, software, and ease of use.
Dell EMC Unity, in my honest opinion, is basically an all-flash VNX with a better interface. There is ZERO innovation coming out of EMC. If you want a company that's going to give you good support and be proud of their product instead of their profit margin, I strongly urge you to look elsewhere as there are better and more innovative products in the marketplace.
Very cumbersome compared to other vendors in the same marketplace.
August 27, 2020

Dell EMC Unity Review

Roni Peterson Alvarenga | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Dell EMC Unity300 for the entire organization. We use it within our VMware cluster and also for file storage and engineering. There is also an area for editing our institutional TV. As it provides a hybrid environment, we can take advantage of the available block and NAS functionality. We acquired it because of its auto-tiering options, cost-effectiveness, and great support from Dell.
  • Auto-tiering
  • Provisioning LUNs
  • Management reports
  • Integration with VMWare
  • LUNs with greater storage capacity
  • NAS with greater storage capacity
  • More user-friendly provisioning for end users
Dell EMC Unity is a hybrid solution. That is, it is indicated for environments that do not need specific and customized solutions. For general use, it guarantees an excellent performance, with the possibility of delivering 60TB NAS to end-users. However, if the environment is critical, there are solutions, from Dell itself, that are more appropriate. For example, do not try to use it as database storage, it will not have acceptable performance.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
78.33333333333333%
7.8
Flash Array Performance
100%
10.0
Flash Array Integration
100%
10.0
Data Compression
N/A
N/A
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
80%
8.0
Simplicity
90%
9.0
Power Savings
100%
10.0
  • Possibility of more digital processes (and less paper)
  • Increased production of multimedia and hypermedia content
  • Greater agility in obtaining information and data
  • Ease of technology migration
  • Security in the cluster environment
  • EMC VNX (Discontinued)
We acquired Unity as a replacement for our VNXe3200, due to hardware limitations, low performance, lack of features such as auto-tiering, and also its EOL.
Not only support for Unity, but for any Dell product, whether for companies or for the end consumer. Support is agile, helpful, and always focused on solving the problem. To date, there has been no problem that Dell's support has failed to resolve and help us with.
Muhammad Mulla | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization was using our Dell EMC Unity in production up until a few months ago. It is now used for our proof of concept and test environments. It was used for block storage only, serving VMware environments. Unity is a good hybrid block storage array with a mix of both flash and, HDD and slow disk providing auto-tiering.
  • Tiering.
  • Integration with vCenter.
  • Legacy tech.
  • Not as dynamic as other products.
The Dell EMC Unity is well suited to general usage VM storage or NAS usage if required. We found that using it both for file and block had a performance impact on our VMs. It is not for fast access servers, such as Oracle DBs, etc.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
60%
6.0
Flash Array Performance
60%
6.0
Flash Array Integration
80%
8.0
Data Compression
10%
1.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
70%
7.0
Simplicity
90%
9.0
Power Savings
50%
5.0
  • It is a multi-function all-in-one SAN, so it saves time on multiple devices.
Unity is the successor to the EMC VNX but has a much simpler and more user-friendly interface. It is also much more easy to manage and integrate with VMware.
Dell EMC's support for the Unity array is normally quite good. However, when there are issues with the reporting and statistics, they often are not responsive.
February 19, 2020

Dell EMC Unity Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Dell EMC Unity is being used by a division of the organization. The EMC Unity I monitor and maintain is at two of the facilities within that division. EMC Unity is used by all departments. The EMC Unity is the SAN where the departmental data is stored and accessed. Data availability, reliability, and redundancy are critical to our business. Dell Unity delivers.
  • Flexibility
  • Reliability
  • Alerting: receiving an alert when an issue occurs. That is good to know. However, if the alert is cleared, or somehow no longer in alarm, no email is received. At times I will receive the email alert on weekends, not knowing if the issue is resolved or not until Monday when I can access the unit. I have learned in most instances, the alert is a false alarm, which could be a problem.
  • The alerting itself is sometimes not clear. For example, it tells me the link is down, we reset the connection, the link is still down, a tech was dispatched, he troubleshot, and finally the alarm cleared. This incident took almost a week. It went back into alarm after he left, then suddenly it cleared on its own.
Dell EMC Unity is best suited for small to mid-size organizations. The facility has up to 100 end-users and 5 TB of space. In 4 years time, there is still some room to grow. Overall, Dell EMC Unity did what it was designed to do. A large organization may want to consider the Dell EMC as part of the HA solution, but maybe not production.
Enterprise Flash Array Storage (6)
81.66666666666666%
8.2
Flash Array Performance
80%
8.0
Flash Array Integration
80%
8.0
Data Compression
80%
8.0
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
80%
8.0
Simplicity
90%
9.0
Power Savings
80%
8.0
  • Positive impact on ROI.
  • Minimal downtime for end users.
I came into Dell EMC SC Series Compellent with only limited knowledge of the Dell EMC Unity. Don't get me wrong, the Dell EMC Unity is fine for what it needs to do. The next series or next class of storage is the Compellent. We had to go this direction with storage, as the entire organization is moving in this direction.
I am hard-pressed to give Dell EMC unity support a 10. Just the oddities with working with the support, and the last incident still fresh in my mind. Why did it take so long to send a tech on-site? This was after remote support was unable to resolve? Honestly, the on-site tech did not do much outside of suggesting we replace the cable for the connecting link. The link ultimately reset on his own. We never fully received an explanation.
Veeam Backup & Replication, VMware ESXi, Dell EMC SC Series (Compellent)
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