Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Hitachi NAS Platform comparison

Dell Technologies and Hitachi Vantara are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8, while Hitachi Vantara is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 16.5% mindshare in N, compared to Hitachi Vantara’s 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hitachi Vantara users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Read 67 Dell PowerScale (Isilon) reviews

10,602 Views
5,089 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Hitachi NAS Platform

Read 12 Hitachi NAS Platform reviews

789 Views
789 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Hitachi NAS Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Hitachi NAS Platform and Dell PowerScale are competing in the enterprise storage solutions category. Hitachi NAS Platform appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support, whereas Dell PowerScale excels in scalability and performance.

Features: Hitachi NAS Platform is known for its high data throughput, efficient data management, and advanced security features. Dell PowerScale offers seamless integration, comprehensive analytics, and exceptional scalability, making it highly suitable for large-scale deployments.

Room for Improvement: Hitachi NAS Platform could enhance its scalability and integration features to better compete with larger deployments. Improvements in handling mixed workloads and expanding analytics capabilities are also potential areas. Dell PowerScale could benefit from simplifying its deployment process and improving customer support responsiveness. Additionally, it may need to address initial setup costs to appeal more broadly to budget-sensitive enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deployment with Hitachi NAS Platform tends to be straightforward, supported by an effective customer service team. Dell PowerScale also provides a good deployment model; however, its support quality may sometimes fall short, which can affect the overall implementation experience.

Pricing and ROI: Hitachi NAS Platform typically presents lower initial setup costs, offering an appealing choice for businesses with budget concerns while still promising satisfactory ROI. Dell PowerScale, though costlier upfront, offers substantial ROI over time with its robust features, appealing to enterprises with strategic long-term investment goals focused on scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,771 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Ranking in NAS

2nd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (3rd)

Hitachi NAS Platform

Ranking in NAS

12th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 16.5%, down from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hitachi NAS Platform is 2.5%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	16.5%
Hitachi NAS Platform	2.5%
Other	81.0%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Scott Taylor

Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Manages large data sets efficiently with hybrid cloud integration

My organization is quite large, with about 30,000 employees. The growth has been substantial in areas such as radiology and genomics. One of the best features we've utilized recently is offload to cloud pools due to capacity constraints on-premise. We didn't want to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) straight away, so we utilized cloud pools to offload some data to Azure. That's really saved us in certain areas as we didn't have funding to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) until next year, which is why we utilized the cloud pools functionality to offload.

Read full review

Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Needs standalone functionality but provides a robust NAS solution for existing SAN environments

I would suggest that Hitachi make a NAS box that can work independently, without relying on SAN connectivity. The current solution only suits customers who already have a Hitachi SAN environment and want to add NAS protocols like NFS and CIFS. It's not suitable for customers without an existing SAN, as they would first need to acquire the SAN infrastructure before adding NAS functionality.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My experience when deploying Dell PowerScale (Isilon) was very straightforward, as we had Dell come on site to do all the actual setup, which was a big help."

"The fact that we were able to set it up, use it, and, for the most part, didn't have to worry about it after we had it set up has been valuable."

"The most valuable feature we started using, beyond the initial scope for the solution, is the multi-protocol system that allows you to access the same set of files using different network protocols like NFS or SMB. PowerScale’s Unified Permission Model ensures that data security and access permissions are honoured regardless of whether the client is a Windows desktop or a Linux server"

"You plug in a new node and data starts migrating over to it, and IT spreads out the load. We've added multiple nodes to the system since deploying it. The process is pretty seamless, and we are able to do it with no downtime. It's a very easy process to do."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) definitely deserves ten out of ten for scalability."

"The best thing is that it works. We don't have to maintain it too much; we usually upgrade once a year."

"The guaranteed performance, combined with the scalability through its scale-out capability, makes it an excellent choice."

"Our main goal is to do disaster recovery with whatever solution we use and Isilon makes it pretty simple to replicate those workloads over to our secondary data center."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pros

"The product’s technical support services are good."

"Simple and extremely reliable."

"The pricing of this solution is good, which is an advantage that positions this product well."

"Hitachi NAS Platform is very stable."

"Hitachi NAS has improved my storage operations significantly."

"Hitachi is reliable with high availability and solid performance. It performs well regardless of the workload."

"The Hitachi storage platform is highly scalable and highly available."

"Hitachi NAS has improved my storage operations significantly."

More Hitachi NAS Platform pros

Cons

"We used to have a chat feature available on the support site. It's not available to us anymore."

"The UID mapping and how to configure mapping-related things is a struggle."

"Perhaps if there was a local chatbot built within the system or on the dashboard where we could directly ask for anything on the OneFS, it could help us."

"The solution can be a bit complex for those not well versed in the technology."

"I would make Dell PowerScale (Isilon) better by improving SmartSync in the graphical user interface. Currently, everything has to be done through the command line, and I prefer having a graphical interface."

"The solution's rate structure or rate redundancy needs to be improved."

"We see room for improvement in Dell PowerScale (Isilon) because we need personnel to effectively utilize all our infrastructure; it's not easy to find skilled people to work on AI and data analysis."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could improve the load distribution capability. For example, in some cases, the system load is not distributed automatically on all the nodes but is concentrated only on one. You have a peak request on only one node and the others don't do anything."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cons

"I rated Hitachi NAS a seven out of ten, primarily due to the interface or insufficient improvements in certain areas."

"The monitoring tool is not well developed."

"I would like to see the inclusion of support for cloud-connectivity to providers like AWS."

"Hitachi NAS Platform needs to improve by offering a unified storage solution. Due to budget constraints in regions like Southeast Asia, customers prefer a single machine that can handle all problems, which the current platform does not provide."

"I do not like Hitachi NAS because it's an old-school NAS solution, compared to the other, newer-type solutions such as Isilon from Dell or Qumulo."

"Hitachi could be more flexible and have a simpler management interface."

"For the Hitachi NAS Platform, the tools are basic and don't provide much insight."

"Hitachi NAS Platform is expensive."

More Hitachi NAS Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users."

"The general cost for a system like this is expensive. The total cost depends on your use case. You need to pay for every additional feature that you use."

"The pricing is expensive, but I think it's a fair value because it does manage itself. It definitely is much simpler than any of the other scale-out storage platforms that we've looked at in the past."

"Price was also a significant factor in our decision to go with PowerScale. The team at EMC, now Dell EMC, came through with a highly competitive offer that tipped the scales towards their solution. There was only one other solution around the same price point, but it could not match PowerScale on features. That other solution is no longer on the market."

"The platform is not cheap. However, on the software side, you can choose what you want license. So, you can start your licensing with the features that you need, then after buying the platform add some other features."

"It is a really expensive solution."

"This solution is priced slightly higher than others on the market but does offer good quality. With this solution's data reduction and compression, we were able to purchase less. Costs have dropped because of the data rate of compression and deduplication."

"The pricing is excellent."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pricing and cost advice

"Costs are based on the features and it is a considerable amount."

"I would rate the solution's pricing six to seven out of ten."

"Hitachi NAS Platform’s price is high and depends on SCSI disc capacity."

"It is a highly-priced product."

"This solution is priced well and there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which NAS solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

869,771 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	36

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

The cost is competitive with other vendors such as HP. I always compare prices between two vendors, and they are good in this situation.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

Sometimes, it takes too long to set up everything. That's something I would want them to improve. The main challenge I face with it now is that my team is accustomed to using other vendors, and whe...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hiachi NAS Platform?

The pricing for the Hitachi NAS is higher compared to other NAS solutions since the NAS protocol is provided on top of the existing SAN environment, requiring an additional device for NAS functiona...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hiachi NAS Platform?

For the Hitachi NAS Platform, the tools are basic and don't provide much insight. They can continue to improve the interface to keep it up-to-date, and maybe add some new features or better ways of...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Hiachi NAS Platform?

We sell the Hitachi NAS Platform, and it is the best product for our customers. I sell it to banks, telecom companies, and other enterprises at the enterprise level. We have a cluster with Hitachi ...

See all answers

Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 16% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 10% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 9% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 8% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Competitors

NetApp FAS Series vs Hitachi NAS Platform

Compared 22% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs Hitachi NAS Platform

Compared 19% of the time

NetApp Private Storage vs Hitachi NAS Platform

Compared 13% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Hitachi NAS Platform

Compared 8% of the time

More Hitachi NAS Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

October 2025

Download Dell PowerScale (Isilon) product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

September 2025

Download Hitachi NAS Platform product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

Hitachi NAS

Overview

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

Hitachi NAS Platforms help you with file sharing, file server consolidation and application storage for Oracle, Microsoft and virtual environments. Deploy the highest performance per node in the industry. Apply capacity efficiencies that let you actually do more, but with a lot less. Realize significant cost savings for your organization.

Hitachi Vantara

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,

Intersect Australia

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform

September 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

869,771 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform report.

See our list of best NAS vendors.

We monitor all NAS reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.