Item: Dell Unity XT Unified Storage
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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.

Return on Investment

Positive impact on ROI.
Minimal downtime for end users.

Alternatives Considered

Dell EMC SC Series (Compellent)

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.

Support Rating

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.

Key Insights

Do you think Dell Unity XT Unified Storage delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Dell Unity XT Unified Storage's feature set?

Yes

Did Dell Unity XT Unified Storage live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Dell Unity XT Unified Storage go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Dell Unity XT Unified Storage again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Veeam Backup & Replication, VMware ESXi, Dell EMC SC Series (Compellent)

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Dell EMC Unity Review

Overall Satisfaction with Dell EMC Unity