Dell/EMC at a Glance
Dell/EMC's most notable storage product lines include: the VMAX at the high end, PowerStore as a scalable mid-range, Unity XT for unified storage, and PowerMax for scale up/scale out architectures. The performance, economics and architectural design are quite different for each of these product lines. As a result, it may surprise even the most ardent Dell/EMC fans, that determining the optimal array on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and performance basis, is still very much a catch as catch can process. As a result, customers are making buying decisions with less than perfect information.
With more than fifty variables involved, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) may not be the simplest financial methodology to evaluate different data storage options, however it is by far the most illuminating one. Using array design assumptions that are as consistent as possible, it is interesting to see just how much the TCO of different Dell/EMC product lines vary from one to another. To provide as broad an analysis as possible, CIOview reviewed the TCO for Dell/EMC products with regards to 250TB, 500TB and 1PB of initial usable storage capacity. Whenever possible, we used the same set of assumptions across all arrays in terms of: drive type and capacity, RAID/DRAID, parity, annual storage growth, TCO period, and all the other factors that have been shown to materially impact the TCO of a data storage environment. To make the results as meaningful as possible the highest performing model from each product line was selected for each of the three different amounts of initial usable storage.
250 TB of initial usable storage for each Dell/EMC product line
It is perhaps not surprising that when deploying 250TB of initial usable storage Dell/EMC's Unity XT 880F AFA offers the lowest TCO of $920,975 and the VMAX has the highest TCO of just a smidge north of $5M. What may be more telling is that of that $5M only 40.7% is in the cost of acquisition meaning that almost 60% of a VMAX's cost in this case is derived from operational expenditures. In effect this means EMC's discount only applies to 40.7% of the total costs. As a result, while the TCO is the key purchase factor from a financial perspective, the Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA) is also important to know since this tells you the true value of the vendor's discount. For example, the PowerMax 8500 has the highest TCA at 57.5% and therefore the product where a discount is more meaningful.
Naturally the amount of initial usable storage required has a very large impact on the economics of one array compared to another, which is why it is illustrative to significantly change the amount of usable storage, but keep the underlying array design as consistent as possible.
500TB of initial usable storage for each Dell/EMC product line
In the case of 500TB of initial usable capacity the hybrid version of Dell/EMC's XT 880 has the lowest TCO of $1,477,342 and notably the smallest percentage of TCA at 40.1%. However, with a TCO savings of only $32K when compared to an all-Flash XT solution it's hard to justify going with the hybrid option at this amount of capacity. Meanwhile, the PowerMax 8500 TCO is less than a $200K savings over the VMAX 950F, making the VMAX more attractive on a comparative TCO basis than perhaps expected.
1PB of initial usable storage for each Dell/EMC product line
When acquiring 1PB of storage the Unity XT 880 HFA once more does not look particularly appealing with a TCA of 36.5% it is just 3% less than the AFA version and only about $100K less on a TCO basis. Meanwhile, the TCO difference between the PowerMax 8500 and the VMAX 950F has grown to more than a million dollars, but both still retain a similar TCA percentage.
Even taking great measures to try and use the same basic design drivers such as: DRAID/RAID, parity, and drive capacity there is no way to complete a true apple to apples comparison across the entire Dell/EMC product line. However, the above numbers do provide some level of insight into the financial cost a Dell/EMC customer will experience when going from one product line to another. Furthermore, being able to see what percentage of the ultimate cost TCA represents helps one focus on just how meaningful EMC discounts really are, or not, as the case may be.
While looking at the different Dell/EMC product lines at this somewhat macro level may not sway you to commit to a new data storage direction, it does provide a point of relativity and perhaps enough information to make you consider investigating an alternative option you may not have previously considered.
For most data storage professionals there is a need for a detailed assessment within a specific product line that looks at the performance, technical considerations and financial metrics of each product. Furthermore, this analysis will often consider the performance and financial metrics of different array designs such as: different drives, expansions etc. To get access to this level of detail go to CIOview's vendor profiles.
*** To see CIOview's standard set of TCA and TCO assumptions, click here.