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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Dell PowerStore comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Dell PowerScale enhances data management with cost-efficiency, improved performance, storage capacity, resource optimization, and workload automation benefits.
Sentiment score
7.0
Dell PowerStore delivers significant ROI with cost efficiency, improved performance, and reduced infrastructure, despite some users yet to quantify gains.
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
We have reduced infrastructure but the same performance.
With Dell PowerStore, even if the report runs and taxes out the database server heavily, the tool doesn't suffer from a performance hit.
It identified some areas in which we could get some good reductions and could decrease the data center footprint.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.2
Dell PowerScale support is generally responsive, with some escalation needed; users appreciate assistance with complex technical issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
Dell PowerStore customer service is generally effective, with proactive communication, though complex issues sometimes delay resolution in certain regions.
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
They have managed previous issues well.
The service, particularly about hardware issues and support ticket handling, is an area that needs significant improvement.
It's very hard to get an engineer when we need one.
If necessary, they will search for a specialist within their Dell network who we can approach with our questions.
The solution's technical support is excellent.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) offers strong scalability, easy integration, and minimal overhead, supporting large data and numerous connections efficiently.
Sentiment score
7.2
Dell PowerStore offers flexible scalability and modular expansions, though scaling costs can be high for medium-sized businesses.
Dell PowerScale is highly scalable, as evidenced by the reduced physical hardware and the efficient use of rack space.
Due to both cost and the knowledge required to maintain and use them, there are considerations about scalability.
The customer likely exceeds 20,000 users globally.
However, it can not scale out.
By continually extending NVMe, the drives can now reach up to 15 terabytes, which may differ from previous specifications.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) offers exceptional stability, minimal downtime, easy management, and resilience, maintaining outstanding performance even in challenging environments.
Sentiment score
8.0
Dell PowerStore is generally stable and reliable, despite minor issues, with users appreciating its performance and failover capabilities.
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
I would rate the stability of Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten.
There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale is expensive, lacks cloud version, complicates operations, and needs improvements in encryption, interface, and object storage performance.
Dell PowerStore needs improvements in replication, integration, stability, pricing, support, automation, analytics, security, and NAS functionality.
Hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline.
If a customer finds out SSD is not supported, they will look for another option.
If you want to delve into where your I/Os are going, the reporting might need more in-depth information to make informed decisions.
In my organization, we have had to go through two weeks with no replication, which is not very handy for our production environment.
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale is costly initially but offers value through comprehensive features, ease of management, and flexibility long-term.
Dell PowerStore offers good value for features despite higher pricing, appreciated for all-inclusive licensing and cost benefits.
The pricing of Dell solutions is higher than that of Huawei.
Likely the cost is $400,000 whereas IBM may be $250,000.
It is likely one of the most cost-effective options for organizations seeking a pure NVMe play in terms of pricing.
It's expensive, yet fits within our budget.
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale offers scalable management, reliable performance, data security, and efficient storage with minimal administrative effort and cost management.
Dell PowerStore offers high performance, flexibility, efficient storage, robust security, and seamless VMware integration with advanced scaling and machine learning.
Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.
Dell PowerScale helps in saving costs related to power and rack space, reducing physical hardware from over one hundred to twenty-nine chassis.
Eyeglass is used to monitor for malware, which is very useful for us.
One of the benefits of their continuous improvement approach is that each update comes with additional features, without any extra charges for previously missing functionalities.
This digital machine can be managed entirely remotely, with an automatic download available from Dell.
The solution's most valuable features are the quick data compression process and ease of scalability for all types of support contracts.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Ranking in NAS
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (3rd)
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in NAS
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), Enterprise SAN (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 17.6%, up from 17.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 12.1%, up from 10.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

Eric Burgueño - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplified data management, tremendously reducing our users’ cognitive overhead
The only thing that I think PowerScale could do better is improving the HTTP data access protocol. At the present, you cannot protect access to data via HTTP or HTTPS the same way that you can secure data access through other protocols like NFS or SMB. You can either access a file because it can be access by anyone in the organization, or you cannot at all. There is no in-between. HTTP is not considered a first-class data access protocol, so the Unified Permission Model that would allow a user to authenticate before being able to access a private file, does not apply. However, with the recent introduction of S3 starting from OneFS 9, I believe the necessary plumbing is already there for HTTPS to also be elevated to a first-class protocol in the future because both protocols sit behind a web server under the hood. It does not sound like it would be too complicated to implement, but it would be a valuable feature and it is currently missing.
Hamed Mohamed - PeerSpot reviewer
Straightforward with great snapshots and no complicated configuration
The usage of the system is very straightforward. It is simple and easy to use. It has great snapshots. I can take a million snapshots and also schedule the timing. There is no complicated configuration for queries and calls. You just create a model and go. This generation of the product, overall, has been very nice. It is stable. The solution can scale.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
The solution provides massive performance, scalability, efficiency, and ease of management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
Every time we purchase a PowerScale solution, we buy four nodes for one data center and four for another, with five years of maintenance covered by Dell. It's a high-cost offering amounting to thre...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
Dell's customer service needs improvement. Specifically, hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline. I face difficulty in tracing and finding the right suppor...
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...
What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?
Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
PowerStore
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,
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Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
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