Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Qumulo comparison

Dell Technologies and Qumulo are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Qumulo is ranked #12. Dell Technologies holds a 15.5% mindshare in N, compared to Qumulo’s 5.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qumulo users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Read 80 Dell PowerScale (Isilon) reviews

11,424 Views
5,826 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Qumulo

Read 8 Qumulo reviews

3,217 Views
1,544 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Qumulo

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and Qumulo compete in providing scalable storage solutions. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is noted for its strong support and competitive pricing, while Qumulo is recognized for its superior innovative features.

Features: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is praised for its robust scalability, seamless integration capabilities, and strong financial value. It is renowned for its reliable performance and ability to integrate with other solutions. Qumulo stands out with its enhanced data analytics, real-time visibility, and data-driven decision-making capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) can enhance its ease of deployment and reduce technical resources needed for traditional processes. There's room to streamline its feature updates and documentation. Qumulo's pricing can be a hurdle, requiring cost reductions or more accessible pricing structures. It may benefit from improved failover capabilities and enhanced customer engagement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qumulo is praised for its simplicity and efficiency in deployment, supported by expert customer service. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) follows a more traditional deployment process, offering comprehensive customer support that's well-regarded.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) offers competitive pricing with a satisfactory ROI due to its balanced feature set. In contrast, Qumulo's premium pricing reflects its advanced features, justifying a high return on investment for those leveraging its capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Qumulo Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Qumulo

March 2026

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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

Ranking in File and Object Storage

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Qumulo

Ranking in NAS

12th

Ranking in File and Object Storage

21st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 15.5%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qumulo is 5.2%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	15.5%
Qumulo	5.2%
Other	79.3%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Bill Engelmeyer

Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC

Flexibility and reliability have supported seamless data growth

I cannot think of anything to improve about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). The hardest challenge we have is due to how we've bought things over time. The way that we moved to the PowerEdge platform for the newer systems creates a scale problem as I still buy the older style systems, which are more dense storage. They're different chassis, so the problem we run into in the data center is the depth of the actual equipment. The newer equipment, if we buy an FX910 or a 900, it's a lot shorter in scale than if I buy an 83,000, which is much bigger. This makes it more complicated for deployment.

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VinceVitro

Senior Storage Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Useful data sharing, simple cluster scaling, and excellent support

One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential.

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

"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) integration with other solutions because of the standard file system protocol."

"The most valuable feature is its single space of storage."

"Dell PowerScale helps in saving costs related to power and rack space, reducing physical hardware from over one hundred to twenty-nine chassis."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) stability is solid as a rock."

"Based on the flexibility of the system itself, it was easy for us to manage the growth by buying individual nodes as needed."

"The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) has powerful security, which makes it a very reliable storage solution for our content, and also the support and observability of our system; the call home feature is fantastic because when it presents an issue, Dell automatically opens a ticket regarding any warnings or alerts, allowing us to have a complete view of our system's health."

"What I appreciate about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) are its best features: it supports both file and object storage, and it is very easy to manage."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pros

"The most valuable feature is real-time analytics."

"The data protection algorithm to protect the data between the nodes has been the most valuable feature. The integration with backup platforms such as Veeam and Veritas has also been valuable."

"The feature that I like most is the analytics part of the file system."

"The most valuable feature of Qumulo is the ability to share files and reliability."

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are its rolling updates and all-day availability."

"It is a very stable product. I never faced any issues."

"The ratio of total operational cost to complexity versus feature set is very good."

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are the ease of management and special permissions that are quick to enable. The overall performance of the solution is good."

Cons

"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 switch to a more efficient environment with all-flash."

"Backward compatibility is something Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could work on."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a bit expensive compared to other products."

"There aren't many templates still coming out for it. They need to provide templates so we can copy and paste what we've done in the past to future, new things."

"Dell PowerScale can improve on its multi-tenant part because as a service provider, we have bigger clusters in data centers where we can serve multiple customers and grant them dedicated management points and automation features that can be managed in a multi-tenant environment."

"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."

"My experience with customer service and technical support has been challenging. The reason is that it is difficult to find subject matter experts around the solution."

"Improvements could be made to reduce the costs and the high level of knowledge needed to maintain and use them."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cons

"The support for iMac and protocols should be improved, not all features are available."

"Some anti-theft permissions do not transfer well to Qumulo."

"The price of the software is a bit expensive, so a reduction in cost would make it more competitive."

"In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

"Qumulo should continue to expand automation and orchestration capabilities."

"In the next release, I would like to see the ability to have more control at a terminal level of the file system."

"The solution could improve availability and improve data protection or data services such as compression of deduplication. In a future release, we'd like to have more cloud API integrations."

"One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell PowerScale is an expensive solution compared to other products like Qumulo."

"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 price of the solution can fluctuate. The price can be competitive or other times not. The price of the solution could be better."

"We use the TNA approach which is a great opportunity for us to better manage the licenses based on how much consumption is available for the different customers so we can use that approach and scalability."

"It's a high-cost offering amounting to three or four million Swedish kronor, or about $400,000 or euros, for approximately 480 terabytes of storage."

"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."

"We paid an additional fee to have Dell's ProDeploy Plus team implement it."

"It is an expensive product with a high storage capacity suitable for large data requirements."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pricing and cost advice

"The price of Qumulo is reasonable."

"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to others. We look at the price per terabyte."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	44

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
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)?

As I mentioned before, we did not purchase Dell PowerScale (Isilon) directly. Since our organization is a government entity, the country policy does not allow direct purchases; it goes through a fo...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

I have experienced a RAM failure in some of the nodes of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), and that required hardware replacement. For large file replication from site to site, it takes a long time. This l...

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Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 20% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 11% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 4% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 4% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Competitors

NetApp FAS Series vs Qumulo

Compared 11% of the time

VAST Data vs Qumulo

Compared 9% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Qumulo

Compared 7% of the time

Nasuni vs Qumulo

Compared 6% of the time

MinIO vs Qumulo

Compared 4% of the time

More Qumulo Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

March 2026

Download Dell PowerScale (Isilon) product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

March 2026

Download Qumulo product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

No data available

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

Qumulo is a data storage and management platform that promotes object-based storage for users, backup archives, and surveillance. Its primary use case is to provide a cost-effective and feature-rich solution for managing large data.

Qumulo's data protection algorithm ensures the safety of node data, while its integration with backup platforms like Veeam and Veritas makes it easy to manage backups. The platform offers a good balance between operational cost and complexity versus feature set, making it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

Qumulo

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,

County of Riverside Sheriff Department, Hyundai Mobis Automotive North America, University of Arizona, UCSD - San Diego Supercomputer Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Sinclair Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Kaiser Permanente, Deluxe Creative, Vexcel Imaging, University of Florida, The Madison Square Garden Company, Arizona State University, Cinesite, San Diego Padres Baseball, Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine, IHME, EllieMae, Washington State University.

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Qumulo

March 2026

Free Report: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Qumulo

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