Dell's Unity Storage is worth the money, but there are better options
March 06, 2026

Dell's Unity Storage is worth the money, but there are better options

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Dell Unity XT Unified Storage

We used the Unity Storage as the target for our VMware environment. We had it connected to a stack of Dell Hosts and carved into appropriate LUNS that were presented to the environment. It housed all of our production server data.

Pros

  • The Unity was easy to use.
  • The Unity was incredibly reliable.
  • The Unity was affordable - not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either.

Cons

  • When the ‘renewal’ came up for the support, the up charge was off putting.
  • It wasn’t possible to just upgrade parts of the hardware, like the controllers.
  • Adding chassis/enclosures was difficult and prohibitively expensive.
  • The Unity was pretty set it and forget it - support costs were the only real driver for replacement.
  • The Unity was simple and straightforward to maintain.
  • The Unity was stable and reliable.
  • The support contract costs and lack of hardware upgrades made us reevaluate continuing to use the product.
The Unity was easy to connect, set up and maintain.
  • Pure Storage FlashArray
  • HPE StoreOnce
The Unity actually comes up short in comparison to both Pure and HPE StoreOnce. The Unity was straightforward and reliable. But Pure’s Evergreen model is impossible to ignore, allowing for in place hardware upgrades and no more ‘forklifting’. In addition, HPE was just more affordable and even simpler to connect to our other hardware. We ended up doing the majority of the setup on our own when the vendor wasn’t able to connect.

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?

Yes

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

Yes

Would you buy Dell Unity XT Unified Storage again?

No

The Unity performed amazingly. I think we only had one or two drives even need replacing over the 5ish year cycle we had it in production. It worked exceptionally well as a target that could then be carved up and presented to other hardware.

Its primary downside is the antiquated ‘forklift’ model - after 5 years, even a fully functioning unit was cost prohibitive to maintain due to escalating support or upgrade costs. We ended up switching vendors for this reason primarily.

Dell Unity XT Unified Storage Feature Ratings

Enterprise Flash Array Storage
9.3
Flash Array Performance
10
Flash Array Integration
10
Data Compression
9
Non-Intrusive Upgrades
9
Simplicity
9
Power Savings
9

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