IBM FlashSystem and Dell PowerScale (Isilon) are both prominent in the storage solutions sector, each recognized for unique advantages. IBM FlashSystem appears to have the upper hand with high performance and reliability, while Dell PowerScale excels in scalability and integration.
Features: IBM FlashSystem offers high performance, low latency, and an intuitive interface, supporting high IOPS rates, ideal for rapid data transfer requirements. It integrates seamlessly with IBM’s infrastructure, enhancing reliability. On the other hand, Dell PowerScale is celebrated for its scalability, supporting large data environments with ease, and handles multiple protocols effectively. Its features like snapshots and deduplication improve system management.
Room for Improvement: IBM FlashSystem users have reported stability issues during upgrades and desire better cloud integration, in addition to concerns over cost and licensing for additional features. Dell PowerScale faces challenges with pricing and seeks improvements in multi-tenant management and upgrade processes. Both products could enhance cloud integration and reduce feature complexity.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM FlashSystem is primarily used on-premises with some hybrid deployments, receiving mixed reviews for customer service depending on the region. Dell PowerScale also finds its niche on-premises, with customer service that varies in quality. Users highlight its user-friendly nature despite a complex initial setup.
Pricing and ROI: IBM FlashSystem’s pricing, while competitive, has increased following IBM’s acquisition, with recommendations to invest in comprehensive licensing early to manage costs. Dell PowerScale is often considered expensive, yet its scalability and performance justify the investment. Both solutions deliver strong ROI, marked by enhanced system performance and workload efficiency.
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
They have managed previous issues well.
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
Customers of alternatives like Dell and Hitachi enjoy more reliable and comprehensive support services directly from vendors rather than third-party subsidiaries.
IBM customer support is responsible, efficient, and responsive, though it is expensive.
The customer service is good, especially online.
Due to both cost and the knowledge required to maintain and use them, there are considerations about scalability.
For larger enterprises, scalability is an issue as the price becomes prohibitive.
The problem arises when migrating data to a later IBM FlashSystem version due to issues with firmware compatibility.
Customers have infrastructure that is 100% stable.
Competitors offer more reliable data reduction with guaranteed results, sometimes providing additional capacity at no extra charge if performance ratios are not met.
There is room for improvement in the troubleshooting part, specifically related to IBM Spectrum for Insight.
An additional function that could be helpful is reducing the time it takes to delete volumes, especially if they are compressed or deduplicated.
The pricing of Dell solutions is higher than that of Huawei.
To install or upgrade any software features, the cost is high, which makes it challenging for smaller companies who do not require advanced features like deduplication or compression typically needed by larger organizations.
Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.
Eyeglass is used to monitor for malware, which is very useful for us.
There is a significant amount of data reduction, achieving a ratio of one to three.
There is built-in compression, a data reduction feature, and artificial intelligence-driven insights that calculate warnings and errors to redirect to customers automatically.
IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe is offered at a very low cost in Israel, which is advantageous for small companies.
Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) storage solutions are designed to help manage data for enterprises of all types. Dell PowerScale systems are simple to install, manage, and scale to virtually any size and include a choice of all-flash, hybrid, or archive nodes. Dell PowerScale solutions stay flexible and reliable no matter how much storage capacity is added, how much performance is required, or how business needs change in the future.
With Dell PowerScale, your data lake always stays simple to manage, simple to grow, simple to protect, and simple enough to handle the most demanding current and future workloads.
Ideal for companies of any size, from small enterprises to multi-national ones, Dell PowerScale storage provides secure collaboration, modular scalability, flexible consumption models, and easy cloud integrations, all with management tools spanning multiple platforms.
Key Benefits of Dell EMC PowerScale Storage
Reviews from Real Users
Dell EMC PowerScale storage stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its scalability capabilities and its user-friendly centralized management system.
Rachel B., a chief operations officer & acting CFO at Like a Photon, writes, "PowerScale allows us to manage storage without managing RAID groups or migrating volumes between controllers. It has really simplified things. We're not having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. That takes care of itself. We just worry about the data. It's really easy for deploying and managing storage at the petabyte scale."
Keith B., the director of IT at NatureFresh Farms, writes, "The single pane of glass for both IT and for the end-user is a valuable feature. On the IT side, I can actually control where things are stored, whether something is stored on solid-state drives or spinning drives... The single pane of glass makes it very easy to use and very easy to understand. We started at 100 terabytes, and we moved to 250 and it still feels like the exact same system and we're able to move data as needed."
IBM FlashSystem products are enterprise computer data storage systems that store data on flash memory chips. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. This hardware provides performance, reliability, and efficiency benefits versus competitive offerings.
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