Dell PowerStore vs Dell PowerVault comparison

Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerVault are both solutions in the Enterprise SAN category. Dell PowerStore is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Dell PowerVault is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. Dell PowerStore holds a 30.3% mindshare in ES, compared to Dell PowerVault’s 29.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell PowerStore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Dell PowerVault users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerStore

Read 83 Dell PowerStore reviews

1,067 Views
658 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerVault

Read 23 Dell PowerVault reviews

921 Views
673 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerStore

Dell PowerVault

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerVault based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Enterprise SAN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerStore vs. Dell PowerVault Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore vs. Dell PowerVault

April 2025

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Helped 848,989 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 PowerStore

Ranking in Enterprise SAN

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (2nd), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)

Dell PowerVault

Ranking in Enterprise SAN

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Fibre Channel (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 30.3%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerVault is 29.4%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise SAN

Featured Reviews

Brian Ricci

President at Pinnacle Computer Services, Inc.

It's constantly enhanced and has impressive reliability and data compression

The maintenance is a bit expensive. The service and support are there for three years, but after the third year, it is pretty pricey for renewal. I hope Dell addresses that. Everything is pricey these days anyway. It is not like the old days of Compellent. We used to be able to see the metrics for our customers. On Compellent, we could look up that customer and see all the metrics. That is not allowed for us now. We cannot do that anymore. I have to be explicitly allowed by the customer to do that, and some companies' security does not allow that.

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SigfridCecillon

Director at Arsium

Offers good stability and simplicity

The room for improvement lies in the responsiveness and real-time feedback of the web server setup. We could set up the installation through a web server, but it's not very reactive on the web server. For example, when you launch a task, and you don't know exactly if the task has begun or if the task is in progress, or if it's finished. You have to wait for three to five to ten minutes to be sure that the task is running or in progress or finished. So at that point, it's not very good. For the rest, we have a good organization for the platform. And it's working everywhere. Another area of improvement is duplication.

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 is the functionality of the integration between the storage and the domain."

"Its flexibility is valuable because we have had some moments where we had to adapt, and it has been quite flexible."

"The compression is excellent."

"The supportability of SCME drives for faster data access from the PowerStore and is the most valuable feature."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"The PowerStore's compression ratio is even higher than the Unity system."

"The simplicity and performance are great."

"The use of NVMe is notable, and the speed and performance it provides are commendable."

More Dell PowerStore pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is easy to manage and easy to use."

"The solution is reliable and stable."

"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its ability to provide small to medium-range storage. It doesn't have any specific standout features, but it's great for applications, such as surveillance where a large number of videos need to be recorded and performance isn't a priority."

"The Dell warranty is the most valuable feature."

"Dell PowerVault offers valuable full flash storage."

"The most valuable features are stability and response time."

"The most valuable features are that it's easy to set up PowerVault. I also like the provisioning of storage."

"PowerVault comes with free software that performs functions like data deduplication and replication, which is cost-effective and delivers added value to the product."

More Dell PowerVault pros

Cons

"The cost always has room for improvement."

"The solution’s security and technical support could be improved."

"Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example."

"The support team should have more people with experience in the solution's installation process, as it is one of the areas where I see certain shortcomings."

"The solution only does thin provisioning."

"When you create a case on Dell's support website, you don't always get someone who is experienced in the kind of systems you need help with...making it an area where Dell's support team needs to make improvements."

"After upgrades, there were a few bugs in the product, and it can be considered as an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The maintenance is a bit expensive. The service and support are there for three years, but after the third year, it is pretty pricey for renewal."

More Dell PowerStore cons

"Sometimes integrating into a cluster can be difficult as you have to do it manually."

"If the solution came with a synchronous application, it would be particularly advantageous for small businesses operating across multiple sites."

"I would like to see improvements made to the user interface."

"The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level during these upgrade processes, as we sometimes need to shut down both controllers. This could be an area for improvement."

"Dell PowerVault is block-oriented storage only."

"I would like Dell to improve on the configuration of the disk groups. Only one group is expandable. Once you configure the other disk group types, you cannot expand them. It limits scalability. If you want maybe to grow a disk group, you lose information, and then you need to build it up again, which is not a good use case for customers."

"The implementation process takes a while."

"The tool needs to improve its UI."

More Dell PowerVault cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of licensing, my organization has Dell Technologies End User License Agreement (EULA), but I don't know exactly how it works, though it is a big bundle of licenses for Dell Data Domain, Dell EMC Unity XT, Dell PowerStore, Dell ECS, and all such kinds of storage arrays."

"It is easy to work with Dell from the licensing perspective."

"The price of Dell PowerStore could improve. The price should be managed more compared to Huawei Dorado or IBM All-Flash series."

"With compression, we were able to have a solution within our company's budget. We include a clause in the contract with Dell that states if the compression ratio is not met, we will adjust the workload accordingly."

"It is very expensive though when you get to this point of using the 3000 with a client. They will start to think about using another vendor. There are a lot of solutions similar to PowerStore in regards to networking capacity and their prices are very cheap compared to PowerStore."

"Dell PowerStore has been priced aggressively, especially when compared to other NVMe storage options. It is likely one of the most cost-effective options for organizations seeking a pure NVMe play in terms of pricing."

"PowerStore's pricing is reasonable."

"Dell PowerStore is more expensive than Dell EMC Unity All Flash. Dell PowerStore's performance metrics were way higher than what Dell EMC Unity All Flash offered."

More Dell PowerStore pricing and cost advice

"The cost, compared to other solutions, is on the higher end."

"The solution is more cost-effective than the competitors. It’s an affordable option for small businesses."

"I would rate the pricing model a nine out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap."

"I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

"It is important to remember that the retail price may seem high, but the final price is usually different."

"I rate Dell PowerVault a six or seven out of ten for pricing."

"The price of Dell PowerVault could be reduced. It is more expensive than some IBM solutions."

"They are offering a wide range of support models for the customers such as basic support that is budget-friendly, but they also provide a professional support solution that is a bit costly"

More Dell PowerVault pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell PowerVault?

Dell PowerVault offers valuable full flash storage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerVault?

I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerVault?

The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level durin...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 15% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 6% of the time

More Dell PowerStore Competitors

HPE StoreOnce vs Dell PowerVault

Compared 20% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Dell PowerVault

Compared 14% of the time

Lenovo Storage V Series vs Dell PowerVault

Compared 4% of the time

Huawei OceanStor SNS vs Dell PowerVault

Compared 3% of the time

Quantum DXi Series vs Dell PowerVault

Compared 1% of the time

More Dell PowerVault Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore

April 2025

Download Dell PowerStore product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerVault

April 2025

Download Dell PowerVault product report

Also Known As

PowerStore

PowerVault

Overview

Dell PowerStore stands out for its high performance, flexibility, and easy integration with VMware. It offers notable data compression and deduplication capabilities while providing powerful NVMe support and machine learning to optimize IT operations.

Dell PowerStore is designed to offer a comprehensive approach to IT infrastructure by enhancing performance and simplifying management. It is particularly suitable for companies that require scalable solutions to increase compute or capacity independently. Featuring built-in intelligence, PowerStore allows efficient storage consolidation and reduced footprint, while integration with CloudIQ enhances monitoring and analytics. However, there are areas for improvement, such as stability, enterprise features, and the user interface. Pricing is high, and support responsiveness needs attention. Organizations primarily use PowerStore for VMware environments, storage, and data protection, supporting high-performance databases and VMware workloads. It is utilized in data centers for disaster recovery and hybrid setups.

What are the key features of Dell PowerStore?

Flexibility: Independently scales compute or capacity
High Performance: Offers powerful NVMe support and machine learning
Integration: Easily integrates with VMware
Data Efficiency: Provides data compression and deduplication
Simplified Management: Built-in intelligence for efficient storage management

What benefits should users consider?

Performance Optimization: Enhance IT operations with machine learning
Scalability: Increase compute or storage capacity as needed
Integration Potential: Improve efficiency with VMware and CloudIQ
Data Protection: Reliable for disaster recovery and hybrid environments

In industries like IT, finance, and healthcare, Dell PowerStore supports efficient data management and enhances infrastructure performance. Organizations leverage it to manage extensive data, streamline virtualization processes, and facilitate migration from legacy systems, while integrating cloud and on-premises infrastructures for improved operations.

Dell Technologies

PowerVault MD3 storage arrays help you cost-effectively address the challenges of data growth with versatile solutions that are optimized for smaller-scale storage consolidation, flexible virtualization projects and high business continuity.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Dayco, FAW Foundry, University of Cambridge, Finder, Stadtwerke Pforzheim GmbH & Co.

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerStore vs. Dell PowerVault

April 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerStore vs. Dell PowerVault

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerStore vs. Dell PowerVault and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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