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reviewer1852437 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Project Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
MSP
Easy to expand, helps consolidate data storage, and offers great support
Pros and Cons
  • "I don't have to rebuild the cluster to add a node."
  • "That said, for the other security features, it would be helpful if Tenable - and I know it's outside the scope of this question itself - had Isilon-specific plugins."

What is our primary use case?

It was a good fit for the system that we put in, as far as the amount of secondary data that was going to be generated on our system. Not only did it have the capacity for everything, but it also had the scale-up and scale-out features. We needed expansion without having to reimage the system. The larger we scaled it out, the better IOP and the bandwidth. It checked all of the boxes in terms of what we really wanted to hit for a tier-two storage system.

What is most valuable?

I just heard my SME today say OneFS is the best feature of the whole solution. The continuum improvements that OneFS has kept within the industry and kept up with standards, the ease at which it can be deployed, and the ease at which it can be upgraded, all are key features of this system. 

A key feature that I love is scalability. I don't have to rebuild the cluster to add a node. It can be scaled up and out without taking my system down.

PowerScale helps consolidate data storage and multiple applications into a single platform for easier manageability. As an example, I’d probably use the scenario of when I ingest data from a partner, and then I use the capabilities within Isilon to distribute the data across the other clusters in my enterprise. While we like to think that we're running an enterprise environment, their definition of enterprise and my definition of an enterprise are not the same. The idea here is, that I'm able to take in data from one organization at one cluster, and then use the smart features and the other features of Isilon, one of the best-operating systems, to redistribute that data to any other cluster that needs it.

The impact PowerScale had on our company's storage efficiency has been really good. I just recently saw a report on this a few weeks ago. We're actually doing really well as far as compression and deduplication go. We've over-bought compared to capacity based on the deduplication and compression that we're getting out of the system right now.

We really overbought on capacity. We have sites that are only 20% used. Then again, that goes back to the de-duplication and compression we're getting out of Isilon. They should be at 45% to 50% consumption at this point. The deduplication and compression, however, are working well. We're only using 20% of the capacity. I'll have a hard time when I go on a life cycle lease and I will have a very hard time convincing leadership that I still need the capacity. When they start reading and seeing these reports, it'll create a problem for me as I’ll have to justify it. However, to be clear, it's a good problem to have.

PowerScale has helped free up our employees' time to focus on other business priorities. We were able to do things like due diligence and research on InsightIQ and DataIQ and were able to do product comparisons while not having to worry about Isilon. It's freed up the cycles on those guys really well. I've got them to a point now where I'm cross-training them into Avamar.

PowerScale has helped reduce our overall risk in that it's dependable. The data is always going to be there. I don't have to worry about my end users. It has reduced risk across the entire enterprise.

What needs improvement?

In terms of PowerScale's cybersecurity, including its ransomware protection, considering the environment that we're in, I don't have to really worry about ransomware. That said, for the other security features, it would be helpful if Tenable had Isilon-specific plugins. That's what I'm looking for. If Tenable had specific Isilon plugins, when they do compliance scans, that would be ideal. Right now, the only plugins being used are the BSD plugins. When they scan across Isilon, they come back with all kinds of security findings which are false positives that my team then has to go and chase down. As far as Isilon security is concerned, it’s lovely. As far as being able to prove it, it’s not so lovely. I don't know if there's a partnership between Tenable and Dell that maybe we can bridge the gap on that one.

A recent development is, that there's a key feature coming out in OneFS 9.3, however, when you then try to get to 9.3 or 9.4 of the OneFS, it's been pulled from the download of the Dell website and we're referring back to 9.2.1 as the target code. The feature I'm looking for is in 9.3. If it's not going to be available to download, they should stop telling me about it.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for six years.

Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is awesome. There are a few drives every now and again, however, with the product itself, we haven't had any issues with it.

How are customer service and support?

Dell's support for PowerScale is awesome. It's probably, one of the best SEs that I've had in recent history is my PowerScale SE. If there's something I need or information that I'm looking for, I know exactly who to go to. They're really responsive. It's really cool.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This was a greenfield build. Isilon and PowerScale are what we put in from the very beginning.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup or deployment of this solution. My understanding is that it was pretty straightforward. We had a little bit of a rough spot when we went to do a OneFS upgrade, however, that's due to putting in hardening. When we had to back it off to do the upgrade, the hardening didn't back out as easily as it went in. That created some snafu and we ended up undoing all of the hardenings across the board. We created our own scripts to do it and it was much easier to manage.

When we deployed just PowerScale. Every PowerScale installment went with a complete stack, that included the switching, the server-side, the VMware, and everything that went along with building a stack. Isilon only occupied about three or four days' worth of a six-week installment period. It was pretty easy on a per-installation basis.

What was our ROI?

We've seen ROI in terms of time. We're also implementing the new version of vROps in which we can see the cost of our different applications, and how they use the different features.

From a time perspective, I have seen a return on investment in just the fact that I can take people now and redirect them to other products. I'm not going to reduce staff, however, I am going to redirect to other product lines. I have one guy that went from being our storage SME to probably one of my top guys, as far as VMware is concerned as well. It's worked out nicely.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing is great. I'm not aware of the price point. As I was just telling my crew today that our job is to come up with solutions, not worry about the price. That's the management's problem to worry about the cost. If they don't like the cost, they'll come back and tell us to find another solution. Up to this point, I'd say the price point is okay.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options. I couldn't say exactly which ones. I wasn't necessarily on the program when they did the evaluation, and therefore, I don't know what products were evaluated. That said, there was an evaluation period done.

What other advice do I have?

In terms of versions, we have a mix of X410 and H500.

I’m not sure of the solution's flexibility for supporting various data workflows while keeping them protected. I would have to refer to my SME on that one. I don't really have feedback on that.

Speaking from a point where I don't know how much money we have invested, from productivity, stability, and ease of management perspective, I would absolutely 100% back it up every time. It's never provided a hiccup. Of all the components in our IT system, it's probably the least troublesome. It has been a workhorse and solid since the day we put it in.

I'd rate it eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1852440 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Administrator at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Helps consolidate data storage, great for an SMB, and NFS file exports and offers cybersecurity
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to manage. The web UI is very intuitive, and there's CLI also that you can use to manage it."
  • "We used to have a chat feature available on the support site. It's not available to us anymore."

What is our primary use case?

The product allows us to handle NFS file systems with SMB shares. It's object-oriented as well.

What is most valuable?

Our major use is for SMB and NFS file exports for the open systems area. Both are heavily used in our company.

PowerScale is used across different platforms to help consolidate data storage and multiple applications into a single platform. We have file systems that are both NFS, and they are being shared with our open systems. However, some are also SMBs, so they can get to it from their Windows systems as well. It's very helpful for our applications.

PowerScale cybersecurity, including its ransom protection, is very important to our organization. I've got a session coming up where I'm going to learn more about that. We had a presentation on that at my work with our technical support group.

The solution in general has allowed us to move off of multiple Windows boxes where they had huge data stores, and we migrated it to the Isilon. There is just one point of contact there. It's made it easier and more cost-effective.

PowerScale has helped free up our employees' time to focus on other business priorities, however, it's hard to assess an exact number.

It's easy to manage. The web UI is very intuitive, and there's CLI also that you can use to manage it.

What needs improvement?

I'm happy with the product the way it is, however, I like the improvements that always come out with the new 1FS code upgrade.

Technical support could be improved. Whenever we have a hiccup, we'd like to get it fixed maybe quicker. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 800 people using the solution.

In terms of increasing usage, we're not going to implement it elsewhere, however, we always have new employees coming on.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support varies depending on the person you get.

We used to have a chat feature available on the support site. It's not available to us anymore. We tried to use it and it comes up saying, "No one is available."

It used to be easy. We would get on the chat and we could solve something within an hour. Now, we have to open an SR and wait for somebody to get back to us.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used an EMC product, however, I don't remember what it was called. It might have been Virtual Gateway or something like that. We use that as a front end to VMAX storage. There was newer technology which was why we made the switch.

How was the initial setup?

We have the solution deployed in two locations, in our production data center, and in another disaster recovery data center. We're syncing data between the two and it's used by all our employees. That's where their personal drives are, along with corporate drives and departmental drives, that are off this storage as well.

There are three of us that maintain the solution. It's not a lot of work once it's all set up and running.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment in terms of the amount of storage that we have. There are a lot of things watching it, it's very helpful.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not really involved with the pricing. 

What other advice do I have?

Our company is a customer.

We're not using it in the cloud. We are starting to get into the cloud a little bit in our business. We're heavily using it for the NFS and SMB shares.

I'm not sure whether it reduced our risk or not.

We just recently upgraded our Isilon nodes to the new PowerScale nodes.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I'd advise other users that it is cost-competitive. There are other solutions out there. This has an all-flash option as well. If you need the speed without the old flash, that's available as well. However, we have hybrid models of it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.
DavidColeman - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales Engineer at a government with 11-50 employees
Real User
Data storage solution that provides an easy way to manage unstructured data
Pros and Cons
  • "This has been a valuable solution for our business overall. It offers business continuity and replication features."
  • "The legacy file system for Epsilon didn't scale into the cloud and didn't have a separate OS. It would be key if this was made possible."

What is our primary use case?

We are an integrator. The main challenge our customers have had with this solution is the unstructured data they have coming in. 

How has it helped my organization?

PowerScale is flexible in supporting various data workflows and custom applications, from legacy equipment to newer functionalities. 

The solution's cyber security and ransomware protection are definitely a plus. Some of the other key benefits include performance, availability, and being able to have a data lake. It offers a single repository for multiple storage types with access at multiple points. 

PowerScale has the ability to scale data across our business, predominantly in an on-premises environment. We are able to scale to different segments within divisions.

This solution is able to create efficiencies in data storage and provide better control of data environments with an easy-to-use interface. 

What is most valuable?

This has been a valuable solution for our business overall. It offers business continuity and replication features. 

PowerScale helps our clients consolidate data storage and multiple applications onto a single platform for easier manageability. By doing this, overall performance is improved and data is better protected. 

What needs improvement?

The legacy file system for Epsilon didn't scale into the cloud and didn't have a separate OS. It would be key if this was made possible.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used this solution for four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable solution and we have not experienced any outages. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution. 

How are customer service and support?

The customer support for this solution is excellent. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated NetApp.

What other advice do I have?

This solution is scalable, fast, and reliable. With the new NVMe technology that has been built into it and the bleeding edge of switches and NVMe, I would definitely recommend this solution. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Geo-computing Manager at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Easy to manage, consolidates disparate storage products, and improves operational efficiency
Pros and Cons
  • "Our users are able to easily roll back snapshots without going through IT."
  • "The management and monitoring tools comprise a disparate suite of products and the roadmap is very unclear. We've got four different products that look after the Isilon, management-wise, and it's a bit of a mess."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is unstructured file storage. It is pretty simplistic and architected in a very simple way.

The product centralizes all of our subsurface digital data. It also includes normal PDFs and Word documentation that we have. 

How has it helped my organization?

Centralizing our data with the Isilon has helped to take the pressure off of our IT department, without having to move around our 32 old file server systems. In general, it has made our operations more efficient.

We use the CloudIQ feature to monitor performance remotely, although it represents a very small part of our storage operation.

Dell regularly adds new features and one of the recent upgrades promised performance improvements, which was a big draw. At this point, I can't confirm whether or not there have actually been any improvements noted. The SyncIQ features are changing dramatically to be a bit more flexible in the future, which is something that I'm keen to see.

This solution allows us to manage storage without managing RAID groups or migrating volumes between controllers. It's not something that took up much time before so it hasn't had a large impact, but it's good that we don't have to do it.

Using this product has enabled us to maximize the business value of our data because now, we can store all of our data in one place. This means that we have the agility of recalling large volumes that we would otherwise have had on hard drives in different places. Initially, we didn't have the storage required to hold all of the data together, and now, it's coming more into play as we look into dashboarding and TIPCO. We can now look at our data as a whole, instead of in little parts that were as such because of limitations we had in storage. 

This solution has helped eliminate data silos. At the moment, we only have subsurface data on the unit and don't have any production data. However, it's helped us to be able to compile our data and expose it to the company. In this aspect, it has stopped data silos.

We have been able to consolidate our workloads, meaning that our storage management has been simplified. Having it all in the same place, not having to expand it all the same, and not having to rejig our backups has made it easier to work with.

What is most valuable?

Our users are able to easily roll back snapshots without going through IT.

An important feature for us is scalability.

This product gives us a backup system with everything online, which is a big win for us.

Having an on-premises solution like Isilon is better for us than a cloud-based solution in terms of both price and performance. Price-wise, moving to the cloud is an unknown cost, as opposed to a known one. Performance is affected by latency because the cloud data center is between 3,000 and 3,500 kilometers away. This distance has a significant effect on latency.

What needs improvement?

The management and monitoring tools comprise a disparate suite of products and the roadmap is very unclear. We've got four different products that look after the Isilon, management-wise, and it's a bit of a mess.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) devices for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been rock solid. We've had two incidents; one of those was its fault and that was in the very beginning. It was resolved within a reasonable timeframe. The other incident was external switching.

So, it's not been without some problems, but in the time we've had it, that's nothing significant.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This product is expandable and it scales well. The scale doesn't change how you administer it. Whether it's a megabyte or a petabyte, it's all the same when it comes to managing it.

We added a node and it is easy to do. We simply asked, paid for it, and it was done. When choosing this product, it was somewhat important that we could start with a few nodes and scale very large.

This product will be able to meet unpredictable future storage needs with ease.

This is being used in a single department with no plans for expansion.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been alright and I would rate them an eight out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to having the Isilon, we had multiple file storage systems. We used to have 32 old server file systems and in conjunction with Dell, we came up with this solution as a way to consolidate them into one centralized storage.

Before Isilon, we really didn't have a solution, and now we can focus more on data management rather than storage management. All of our subsurface data was spread over the existing servers. We had an issue where we couldn't go over to terabytes because it affected the backup, so we always had to move data around and some of our projects were starting to span over to terabytes, and that was causing a headache.

With Isilon, we don't have that problem anymore and we're not shifting data around. It's all in one spot. We're not unloading hard drives and loading hard drives onto the system. We just unload them once and keep them there and then they get tiered appropriately.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. We leveraged Dell entirely to implement it, and it took between two and three days to deploy.

Without the help of Dell's ProDeploy Plus, it would have taken us weeks to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

We used ProDeploy Plus, which is Dell's implementation service that is available at an additional cost.

One storage engineer is suitable for deployment and maintenance.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment, although intangible.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

One of the reasons we chose this on-premises solution is that it's a known cost. In our case, lifting to a cloud-based solution was an unknown cost and in the current environment of tight budgets, having a known cost is a huge benefit.

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other products in advance of choosing Ipsilon.

What other advice do I have?

This product provides policy-based automation for managing storage, but we don't use automation in our use case. Similarly, it provides support for the S3 protocol but it is something else that we don't use.

In our use cases, the data remains where it is and doesn't go anywhere. We don't use any of the edge or cloud features.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this product is to purchase the extra support from Dell to deploy it. This is what we did and if anybody else is going down that path then I'm sure they'll be fine.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2403468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Division of Administration at a government with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Helps reduce costs, protect data, and scale seamlessly
Pros and Cons
  • "Dell PowerScale overall is easy to use."
  • "The price always has room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We are migrating all of the state agencies' data into one environment, onto Dell PowerScale, and doing the cluster environment to have redundancy with backups to restore and move data faster. Some of the agencies were using old equipment and since the change, they have seen a huge uplift in performance related to retrieving data, security, and locking data down. 

How has it helped my organization?

Dell PowerScale has helped reduce our costs. Most state agencies were using old equipment that cost a lot of money. With Dell PowerScale they can migrate their data and pay per gig pennies on the dollar compared to their old systems. Dell PowerScale has saved the state money.

PowerScale allows us to get granular with users' access and protection of their data. I have not gone through all the features but everything is protected as far as the permission we give through the PowerScale app that enhances the internal audit features that we need for compliance with the state.

PowerScale has helped reduce our overall risk. I review the audit reports annually and since we have been using PowerScale, the reports come back almost clean because PowerScale passes all the vulnerability and security tests.  

What is most valuable?

Scaling up with Dell PowerScale is easy. We can add more nodes when needed. Dell PowerScale overall is easy to use. 

What needs improvement?

The price always has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Dell PowerScale for two years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We replaced the Dell PowerScale H500 with the F900 almost seamlessly. We brought a new rack and migrated the data to the new cluster. I was amazed at how fast it was completed. We migrated 12 agencies over from the old cluster in under 15 hours. With the older platforms, it would take us days to migrate that volume of data.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good. I had a few minor difficulties understanding some of the advice being offered because of the support person's accent but my concerns were addressed immediately. They are responsive. When we submit an SR, we get a callback or email immediately. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What was our ROI?

Some of our agencies used old equipment and saw a great upside to migrating to PowerScale. It saved them money. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Dell PowerScale nine out of ten for its ease of use.

We only have one cluster in one location but our users are all over the state.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Information Technology Technician at Lac Viet Computing
Reseller
Top 20
Offers high availability and high storage capacity
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the solution is the unlimited scalability. The tool has high availability and high storage capacity."
  • "The support offered by the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company for our customers who are from the media, and as per the vendor, I can say that the tool is scalable for data storage.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is the unlimited scalability. The tool has high availability and high storage capacity. The tool also offers flexibility in connection.

My company uses the tool's basic features, and some of our organization's customers moved to the product after seeing its functionalities. Our customers only use the scalability offered by the product for storage purposes, along with whatever the vendor provides as an extension for the tool.

What needs improvement?

As the product is used for basic purposes, there are not many areas in the tool that require improvement. The product is just fine for now. My company does not use many of the features of the product. I can tell what my customers want to improve in the product, and I believe that they don't want anything to be changed in the solution.

The support offered by the product is an area of concern where improvements are required. My customers don't receive much support. The support has slowed down a bit. For Vietnam, the support has to be worked on since it is slow in our country.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for three years. My company has a partnership with Dell.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. We don't have issues so much with the stability part. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

My company's customers are from the media involved in games and movies.

For scalability, there is just a need to connect to the right connections.

My company's clients are medium-sized businesses.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support team is slow in Vietnam. I rate the technical support a six out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The product's initial setup phase is taken care of by the engineers from the product side, so my company does not have much experience in it. My company gets a deployment service from Dell, so we don't need to configure anything as everything is already configured. We just need the information for the configuration, though it is all completed for me.

The solution is deployed on the private cloud.

The solution can be deployed in a day.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product cost is affordable. It was not very high and not too cheap.

What other advice do I have?

Speaking about the integration part, just mapping the NIS server is enough. An NIS server can be integrated with the tool, making it possible to share parts with the client.

In the media, there is a need to switch files without connecting to the internet, so on the website, they don't use much of anything. Customers move the data to Dell PowerScale, especially the things they can't just use over the internet. We don't use AI for now.

The biggest benefits experienced by the users of the product revolve around the fact that the tool offers scalability.

I can recommend the tool to others.

If you have more data to store and need to scale up, then I recommend that you use Dell PowerScale (Isilon).

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
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Chief Operations Officer & Acting CFO at Like a Photon
Real User
Simplified our storage and enabled our IT team to move from an operational focus to an optimization focus
Pros and Cons
  • "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."

    What is our primary use case?

    Our motivation for investing in PowerScale was to provide scalable, redundant, and reliable storage for our film production pipelines. We're an animation film studio and our live data sits on it. Firstly, we were up to our capacity. We're a growing startup and we need to be able to scale into the future. The second reason we went with it is that we've got a relatively small IT team, so we needed equipment that's reliable and easy to manage. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    It's really set-and-forget. We went from our IT team from managing data, moving data, and deleting data on a day-to-day basis, over the course of six months to the point where, for the last 12 months, they have not had to touch it. It's really reliable, and the reporting heads off any issues that you might have.

    In terms of the performance improvement, we've described it as moving from a single lane highway into a multi-lane freeway. We've still got speed limits in the individual end-user environment, but now more people can move at the same time without it throttling our system. One result is that on a local test we went from 61,000 milliseconds down to 5,500 on the PowerScale, which is a massive improvement. We have been able to leverage the features of the PowerScale to optimize that down, and that was while the pandemic was on, and we were moving from 100 percent on-premises, to 100 percent off-premises.

    It has made a massive difference to how our IT team's time is utilized. It has pretty much been able to move from an operational focus, day-to-day, just keeping systems up in the environment, to now having an optimization mindset where they're looking to add new features to our production pipeline. They've got the time now to do that, whereas managing our storage before was a full-time job for them. It has saved me from having to hire one person over the last six months, and our IT team has gotten about 40 percent of its time back. It's a massive difference. We still have the same number of administrators as we had before, but it has allowed them to move from an operational focus to an optimization focus.

    Before, we had disparate storage systems that we were managing separately, and now all our production storage sits within the one environment.

    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.

    It also provides the flexibility to add the right tier of storage at the right time for data that resides at the edge, core, or cloud and that is one of the reasons we chose the solution. We haven't leveraged that as yet, we're not at that point, but we definitely invested in this asset for that reason. Currently, we can build two concurrent projects, but we expect, by leveraging that technology, that we will be able to get to six concurrent projects, which will have a huge business impact.

    Another benefit is that it has allowed us to better understand our storage usage and cost over a project's duration, and that's helping us to better plan and quote for future productions.

    What is most valuable?

    We have started to leverage the data from InsightIQ to be informed when quoting for future productions, and we're getting a better understanding of our usage and costs over a project duration.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We've had Dell EMC PowerScale for 12 months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We haven't had any issues at all. In fact, every day we say, "Oh my God, this is so amazing."

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We haven't added a node to the solution yet. We plan on putting in A200s, as we move between productions in our franchise. It's a new product for our team, so we're still trying to optimize what we already have. We haven't really looked to use any of their new features.

    We haven't scaled the solution yet, but the reason that we could convince the board to allow us to invest in this technology was the scalability. One of the next challenges that we're going to have is how to store our historical project data. We need a solution that is going to be cost-effective, yet the data will still have to be readily accessible to our current production pipeline. The PowerScale and file pool policies will enable us to utilize the archiving, so that will likely be the next way we scale.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We have found the post-installation support to be absolutely fantastic. They have helped us leverage the advanced features and that has hugely improved the performance of our custom applications that we have hosted on the PowerScale. Their tech support is great.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We didn't have a previous solution. We knew we needed a solution because every four to six weeks we were buying a new storage system. We had to make a decision on what to invest in. We reached out to our IT provider, Davichi, and they introduced us to the Dell EMC PowerScale. When we read up on it, it seemed to meet all our needs.

    As a startup, we needed a technology that we could scale with. Secondly, we've got a small IT team, so the equipment needed to be reliable, easy to use, and there had to be additional support available when we needed it. We were also looking for additional features and options that we could leverage, like cross-platform support for SMB and NFS, because we were after a high-speed server and workstation access, because that was one of our pain points.

    How was the initial setup?

    Dell EMC were incredibly attentive through the deployment process. They met us on site and they took the time to understand our current environment, our current challenges, and they worked with us to make sure that we bought the licenses that were going to meet our needs for today. They also helped us plan for the licensing that we'll need into the future.

    They met with our tech team and spent a day with us mapping out what our requirements were, looking at our environment, and making sure that we had the right networking, so that our foundation was right when we put it in. They physically installed the equipment and they continued to work with us over the next two weeks, just to make sure that everything was right. We put the PowerScale in when we were in production, at the end of a film, and we had no downtime at all. That was a massive concern for us, doing it while we were live in production, but they helped us move all the data across to the new system and we had no downtime.

    We have a local IT company that introduced us to Dell EMC and this product, and they were also a part of that scoping session. They're called Davichi Computer Services, and they're amazing. We ring if we have a problem, and within a few hours someone's out there. If they can't solve it over the phone or can't remote-in, they'll come on site and help us solve the problem. Fortunately, since we put this gear in, we haven't had many issues. But even as we were learning to understand this gear they worked hand-in-hand with our IT team.

    On our side, the deployment required one person, our IT manager. Everyone uses it, as an end-user, in our organization because all the data for our film production pipeline lives on it.

    What was our ROI?

    The total cost of ownership has been definitely worthwhile, hands-down. I had forecast the need to hire another administrator for our tech team and I haven't needed to do that.

    In addition, our IT team is now concentrating on things that help our business grow and help our business make money and help our team achieve a better end product; things we couldn't have done if we'd invested in other products.

    In addition to the standard fees, we had to buy switches. In the scoping sessions, when Dell EMC came on site, we identified what the capacity was in our server room to put the product in. The only thing that we didn't scope for was that we needed an additional UPS because the UPS that we had couldn't hold the load.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The only drawback for us is that it's a large upfront investment. This was a huge decision for a startup company to make. It took a bit for us to get over the line on it, but we have not regretted it.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We looked at another Dell EMC solution. The reasons we went with PowerScale were the simplicity of managing it, the faster write performance than RAID systems, the data access optimization features, and, of course, it's fully redundant, with high performance, and it's scalable.

    What other advice do I have?

    Make sure you take the time to understand your current environment and what additional infrastructure you might need to support the device. All that planning made it a seamless implementation for us. Sometimes that part of the process felt like it was taking forever, but it ended up being well worthwhile.

    It's allowed us to consolidate everything in one, large, redundant volume, but we expected that. Nothing has gone wrong. Everything's been exactly what we expected, which is wonderful.

    I imagine that as time goes it will become more valuable, particularly as we get into a world where we're managing archive data. And we are looking to explore the cloud options as well.

    I would rate PowerScale at nine out of 10 because of the greatly increased performance, the capacity, reliability, and the improved maintainability of our storage.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    PeerSpot user
    Atif Pervaiz - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
    MSP
    Maximizing data management with seamless integration and intuitive design
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is stable and very user-friendly."
    • "Always, there is room for improvement in terms of cybersecurity, as new challenges are continually emerging in the market."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for CCTV storage purposes.

    What is most valuable?

    In our scenarios, we haven't encountered difficulties. It is stable and very user-friendly. It's easy to monitor everything, and the interface is user-friendly. Additionally, it integrates easily with other systems. Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.

    What needs improvement?

    Always, there is room for improvement in terms of cybersecurity, as new challenges are continually emerging in the market. However, in our current usage, we find it satisfactory.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have around ten years of experience working with Dell PowerScale (Isilon).

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Dell PowerScale is very stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Dell PowerScale has high scalability.

    How are customer service and support?

    Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is easy.

    What was our ROI?

    Most enterprises prefer to go with Dell. Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing of Dell solutions is higher than that of Huawei.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We are using another Dell model for data replication, the SC5020.

    What other advice do I have?

    Dell PowerScale is stable, user-friendly, and easily integrates with other systems. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it an eight out of ten. Better solutions are available, however, they tend to be more expensive.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
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    Updated: November 2024
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    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.