Dell ECS Reviews

Name: Dell ECS
Brand: Dell Technologies
Rating: 4.1 (29 reviews)

Vendor: Dell Technologies

4.1 out of 5

29 reviews
96% willing to recommend

679 followers

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What is Dell ECS?

Enterprise-ready. Future-proof. Data-first.

Get the Dell ECS Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about Dell ECS, Red Hat Ceph Storage, MinIO and more!

Dell ECS is the #5 ranked solution in top File and Object Storage solutions. PeerSpot users give Dell ECS an average rating of 8.2 out of 10. Dell ECS is most commonly compared to Red Hat Ceph Storage: Dell ECS vs Red Hat Ceph Storage. Dell ECS is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 70% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 22% of all views.

Helped 839,422 peers since 2012

Featured Dell ECS reviews

SamuelThomas

Consultant at Key Information Technology L.L.C.

We normally recommend Dell ECS to enterprise customers and government customers Dell ECS is very easy to handle, primarily because the web UI dashboard and everything is very easy to manage for every customer. They can monitor the DPS, access failures, bandwidth, failed requests, and latency.…

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Muhammad Alihyder Bhuiyan

Head of IT Operations at NCC Bank PLC

Dell ECS enables multiple protocol support, and we recommend it to other users. Anyone can purchase it depending on specific storage quantity requirements. There are certain IOPS limitations in terms of performance. A loss in IOPS can lead to decreased performance across various aspects, including general system performance, production, and overall functionality. In comparison, IBM has no IOPS limitations and relies on web controllers. I rate the product a seven out of ten. IBM and NetApp also provide good storage and a lot of features.

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Jerome Edwards

Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I contacted the customer service and support team and found that they were great with ECS. However, when it came to PPDM, the experience was not as good due to its complex multiple layers. It required going through multiple people to determine responsibility for each part. This complexity was partly due to the split between Dell and EMC, which caused some issues initially, but they gradually resolved it over time.

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Dell ECS mindshare

As of March 2025, the mindshare of Dell ECS in the File and Object Storage category stands at 8.2%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage

PeerAnalyst reports based on Dell ECS reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	File and Object Storage	Mar 4, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Mar 4, 2025	Download
Comparison	Dell ECS vs MinIO	Mar 4, 2025	Download
Comparison	Dell ECS vs Red Hat Ceph Storage	Mar 4, 2025	Download
Comparison	Dell ECS vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	Mar 4, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Red Hat Ceph Storage	4.1	20.6%	81%	25 interviews Add to research
MinIO	4.0	20.7%	100%	24 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

S3 protocol implementation, integration with DELL EMC products like ISILON, and NFS are highly valued. Stability and scalability are praised. It offers a complete solution with both hardware and software. Dell ECS is cost-effective, easy to deploy, and competitive. Features like compliance mode, load balancing, excellent data compression, and reliable technical support enhance its value. Users appreciate its ease of use, good performance, and efficient handling of unstructured data.

"Dell ECS is very easy to handle, primarily because the web UI dashboard and everything is very easy to manage for every customer."
"I would rate scalability ten out of ten since you buy what you want."
"The support is good."

Room for Improvement

Dell ECS requires improvements in various areas including write performance, scalability, and integration with other systems. Technical support, especially in Taiwan, is lacking, and security, cost, and documentation need enhancement. There are challenges in disaster recovery and the infrastructure setup, particularly SUSE Linux, is complex. Users express the need for more features in remote management, a better pricing plan, a more user-friendly interface, and streamlined garbage collection processes. Enhanced marketing and support for Azure would be beneficial.

"The deployment is not easy, and some expertise is required to configure the virtual data center and replication groups."
"We have had issues when the ECS is expiring or the NetBackup is expiring images."
"We have had issues when the ECS is expiring or the NetBackup is expiring images."

Pricing

Enterprise buyers describe Dell ECS pricing as varied, with some suggesting it is expensive and others finding it competitive. Pricing depends on licensing models and negotiated discounts. Some users highlight bundled hardware requirements. The annual subscription is mainly noted, with suggestions for more flexibility. Many find the solution cost-efficient long-term, despite a need for pricing improvements. Offers are often capacity and feature-based. Some users benefit from vendor discounts, although there's room for cost reduction.

"The solution's cost is quite reasonable."
"It is an expensive solution. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."
"Dell ECS is a cost-effective solution."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use Dell ECS for cloud-based object storage, archiving, and backups. It serves as a storage platform for enterprises, often used in roles like disaster recovery, document archiving, and handling unstructured data. Users store and integrate large quantities of data, regularly deploying it for long-term retention and backup solutions. Dell ECS is suitable for hosting applications, voice recordings, and healthcare data, supporting systems with multiple environments and operating systems.

Service and Support

Responses are varied, with some expressing satisfaction due to quick and efficient service, while others mention delays and complexity from merging Dell with EMC. Time differences, particularly involving India, and inadequate local support in Taiwan are noted issues. However, several users rate the support highly, highlighting prompt assistance, especially when licenses are maintained. Some users suggest improvements in engineer expertise and cross-functional knowledge to reduce delays for complex issues.

Deployment

Dell ECS's initial setup varies in complexity based on prior experience and support availability. Some users found it straightforward with support from local and headquarters engineers, while others mentioned challenges. Deployment duration ranged from days to months, often requiring multiple personnel. Dell provided guides and assistance to ease the process. Although the setup was user-dependent, most found it manageable, especially with professional assistance. Maintenance often involved Dell EMC's ongoing support.

Scalability

Dell ECS scalability is praised for its adaptability, serving diverse organizational sizes and providing an ability to expand storage efficiently. Users mention its suitability for larger entities and appreciate its easy expansion through node additions, although some note the necessity of purchasing version upgrades. While most users find it satisfactory, opinions vary on its scalability rating. Despite differences, there are numerous instances highlighting its capability to accommodate significant user and storage demands.

Stability

Users express confidence in Dell ECS's stability, finding it reliable, bug-free, and not prone to freezing or crashes. Stability is praised as a strong point, with users experiencing minimal issues, such as occasional disc failures, which are insignificant given the scale of petabytes in use. Ratings frequently range from seven to nine out of ten, underscoring satisfaction with its dependable performance and robust design, suitable for on-premises and multi-tenancy implementations.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Dell ECS Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Educational Organization

Retailer

University

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Non Profit

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Transportation Company

Legal Firm

Real Estate/Law Firm

Wholesaler/Distributor

Media Company

Hospitality Company

Outsourcing Company

Performing Arts

Aerospace/Defense Firm

Consumer Goods Company

Recruiting/Hr Firm

Pharma/Biotech Company

Compare Dell ECS with alternative products

Learn more about Dell ECS

Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) is a file and object storage solution from Dell EMC. ECS has been created to support both traditional and next-generation ecosystems equally. ECS boasts unrivaled economics, manageability, resilience, and scalability to satisfy the demands of today's next-gen, robust business enterprise ecosystems. ECS can easily be deployed in a software-defined model or as a turn-key appliance. ECS is software-defined and multi-layered for unlimited scalability. Every layer is abstracted and scalable with no single point of failure.

Data service layer: Provides S3 access along with access to SWIFT, CAZ, NFS, HDFS.
Storage service layer: Stores, retrieves and protects data.
Fabric layer: Provides clustering, configuration management, health monitoring.

Everything is done within the software, which is containerized, using docker.

ECS is currently deployed using basic commodity hardware, which can easily be federated across as many as eight different locations and managed as a single resource. Additionally, ECS can also protect data at the site level, locally, disk, node, and rack levels. The federation enables a single global namespace with everywhere access to content. Applications can quickly rewrite in an active/active or everywhere active manner.

ECS is also able to be used as secondary storage or archival storage. This will free up valuable primary storage of data that is stale, redundant, or used infrequently, and the data will remain easily accessible. ECS uses policy-based tiering such as Data Domain, Cloud tiering, Isilon using cloud polls, and Geodrive, which give Windows systems direct access to ECS. Windows users can still use server message block (SMB) while leveraging the more expansive ECS storage.

ECS is enterprise-grade and offers valuable features such as retention, multi-tenancy, metering, monitoring, quotas, and more. ECS builds in robust security from the ground up and encrypts data. ECS is compliant with STIG guidelines and adheres to SEC rule 17A-4F.

ECS is an enterprise-ready solution that allows organizations to easily simplify object storage management and visualize information in intuitive new ways, and empowers your business to do even more with data. With ECS, enterprise organizations can deliver cloud-scale economics in-house that will lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and scale, creating greater levels of productivity and profitability.

Reviews from Real Users

One user, who is a deputy director at a tech service company, says ECS offers “good performance, reliability, and technical support”.

Dell EMC ECS is “a stable solution which is easy to scale, install and manage”, relates another user, who is a senior buyer at a tech service company.

"What I like best about this product is that it is a complete solution, both hardware, and software, by the same vendor," summarizes a system engineer at a tech services company.

Dell ECS was previously known as EMC ECS, Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage, EMC Elastic Cloud Storage.