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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 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 provides scalable, efficient storage with automation, improved performance, reliability, and integrates seamlessly for better ROI.
Sentiment score
7.6
Nutanix Unified Storage boosts ROI through reduced costs, increased efficiency, enhanced productivity, and improved data security and uptime.
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.6
Dell PowerScale support is responsive and knowledgeable, though experiences vary, with reliable 24/7 service and technical assistance.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Unified Storage is praised for responsive, knowledgeable support, though complex issues might require escalation, leading to high satisfaction.
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
They have managed previous issues well.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Dell PowerScale offers scalable storage solutions with easy expansion, strong infrastructure, and efficient handling of large data volumes.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Unified Storage offers flexible, scalable solutions with intuitive expansion and efficient integration, highly rated for minimal effort.
Due to both cost and the knowledge required to maintain and use them, there are considerations about scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Dell PowerScale is highly stable, offering exceptional uptime and reliability, with minimal maintenance and robust performance for critical tasks.
Sentiment score
8.6
Nutanix Unified Storage is praised for reliability, minimal downtime, high availability, redundancy, prompt support, and effective data movement.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale needs pricing improvements, better cloud integration, enhanced redundancy, and user interface upgrades to address various performance issues.
Nutanix Unified Storage users seek a simpler implementation, enhanced features, better integration, improved support, and more competitive pricing.
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale is costly but offers fair value; negotiable pricing, modular licensing, and scalability appeal to enterprises.
Nutanix Unified Storage balances competitive pricing with robust features; valuable for existing users but possibly expensive for smaller companies.
The pricing of Dell solutions is higher than that of Huawei.
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale offers scalable, efficient storage management with robust data protection and seamless integration across diverse enterprise environments.
Nutanix Unified Storage provides scalable, secure data management with cloud integration, high availability, and simplified analytics through Data Lens.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Ranking in File and Object Storage
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
NAS (1st)
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
Ranking in File and Object Storage
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (6th), Software Defined Storage (SDS) (4th), Public Cloud Storage Services (6th), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 8.7%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is 2.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File and Object Storage
 

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.
Juan-Contreras - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures streamlined management, simplified infrastructure, and efficient data handling
It has effectively managed our unstructured data, including audio and video files. We've experienced smooth operations without any complaints regarding uploading or downloading videos. While video usage isn't as frequent, we primarily utilize it for downloading videos related to specific incidents for administrators or our police department. We've encountered no issues uploading files of any kind. Transitioning from VMware to Nutanix has highlighted the overall flexibility of Nutanix's platform. Unlike VMware's three-tier system, Nutanix simplifies the learning curve by streamlining operations. The update process, in particular, has been favorable, with no critical issues encountered. The resiliency of Nutanix hasn't been thoroughly tested in our environment so far. However, I routinely check fault tolerance settings to ensure they meet our requirements. During the update process, I've observed critical errors occur as hosts restart, but Nutanix's self-healing mechanism handles these issues seamlessly. The benefit of using Nutanix is evident in several ways. Firstly, we've effectively compressed our storage while significantly expanding our overall storage pool. Previously, our service had a capacity of twenty-five terabytes, but with Nutanix, we've scaled up to a hundred and twenty terabytes physically and approximately fifty terabytes logically. This expansion has been accompanied by noticeable improvements in performance, particularly with reduced latency and IOPS well within the boundaries of our equipment. All our resources are centralized in a single location for managing and running storage: our data center. We operate three Nutanix nodes within this center, effectively managing everything from one central location. We don't have any other locations outside of our data center running a Nutanix cluster. Nutanix's capability to eliminate silos within our organization's storage infrastructure was discussed during our recent call with the engineer. Although we haven't explored this feature extensively yet, there's a forthcoming project where we anticipate leveraging it.One thing I'd appreciate is having a desktop application similar to what VMware offered. With VMware, I could download a separate client program onto my computer, allowing me to log in directly rather than accessing the host through a browser.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
31%
Educational Organization
27%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
3%
 

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)?
Improvements could be made to reduce the costs and the high level of knowledge needed to maintain and use them. We had old hard drives with moving parts in Dell PowerScale, and due to this, we must...
What do you like most about Nutanix Unified Storage?
Nutanix has excellent product documentation available on their portals, written in simple, easy-to-understand language.
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
Nutanix Files Storage, Nutanix Volumes Block Storage, Nutanix Objects Storage
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

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,
JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.