Dell offers one of the broadest storage portfolios in the market — spanning entry‑level direct‑attached systems through to high‑end enterprise arrays for mission‑critical workloads. For organisations operating in Defence, government, and other high‑trust sectors, knowing the differences between each platform is essential.
As a Dell Technologies Platinum Partner, Touchpoint helps organisations cut through complexity and design storage architectures that deliver security, performance and confidence without compromise. Below is a clear breakdown of Dell’s current storage families, including pricing guidance, pros and cons, and ideal use cases.
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1. PowerVault
- Type: Entry-level DAS / SAN
- Best for: Small businesses, edge deployments
- Price guide: From ~$7,500 AUD
- Pros: Affordable, simple to deploy
- Cons: Limited scalability and advanced features
- Legacy/Lineage: Evolved from MD Series (e.g. MD1400)
2. Unity XT
- Type: Unified hybrid storage (Block + File)
- Best for: Mid-sized environments with general-purpose workloads
- Price guide: From ~$15,000 AUD
- Pros: Versatile, supports mixed protocols
- Cons: Fewer advanced data services compared to PowerStore
- Legacy: Successor to VNX and CLARiiON families
3. PowerProtect
- Type: Backup, archive, and data protection
- Best for: Enterprise backup, DR, and cyber recovery
- Price guide: From ~$22,000 AUD
- Pros: Deduplication, replication, ransomware recovery options
- Cons: Adds infrastructure complexity
- Legacy: Evolved from Data Domain, Avamar, NetWorker
4. PowerStore
- Type: All-flash storage
- Best for: Performance-sensitive workloads — databases, virtualisation
- Price guide: From ~$37,000 AUD
- Pros: NVMe-ready, intelligent tiering, VMware integration
- Cons: More complex to deploy for small IT teams
- Legacy: Built on concepts from Unity XT, VNX and Compellent SC
5. PowerScale
- Type: Scale-out NAS (file storage)
- Best for: Unstructured data, media workflows, backups
- Price guide: From ~$45,000 AUD
- Pros: Easy to scale, great for large datasets
- Cons: Not suitable for transactional workloads
- Legacy: Formerly Isilon
6. PowerFlex
- Type: Software-defined block storage
- Best for: High-performance environments and hyperconverged setups
- Price guide: From ~$60,000 AUD (varies widely by deployment)
- Pros: Extremely flexible and scalable
- Cons: Complex to design and tune
- Legacy: Formerly VxFlex OS / ScaleIO
7. ECS (Elastic Cloud Storage)
- Type: Object storage
- Best for: Archival, S3-compatible, cloud-native applications
- Price guide: Typically custom quoted — mid to high tier
- Pros: Geo-replication, multi-tenancy, high durability
- Cons: Not suited to traditional block/file use cases
- Legacy: Modern replacement for legacy object platforms
8. PowerMax
- Type: High-end enterprise block storage
- Best for: Tier-1 workloads, financial services, core databases
- Price guide: Starts from ~$150,000 AUD
- Pros: Unmatched performance, NVMe end-to-end, advanced automation
- Cons: Price and complexity — designed for large-scale enterprise
- Legacy: Successor to the VMAX family
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Why Dell Offers So Many Options
Different environments demand different approaches to availability, performance, scalability, and budget. What works for a backup cluster may not suit a Tier-1 SQL database.
Touchpoint helps customers evaluate, compare and source Dell storage solutions. Whether you’re planning a new deployment or upgrading an existing environment, we provide technical guidance and competitive pricing.
If you need guidance on storage options, pricing, or compatibility, get in touch with the Touchpoint team or call us on 02 8424 3500.