Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Reviews

We use the solution for unstructured data storage.

The solution has centralized file storage at the scale it does that.

The solution is a complete package, but its most valuable feature is the DR capabilities replication.

I would like to see PowerScale become a multi-site active-active solution. I would like to see increased reporting and statistics functionalities.

I've used the solution for at least six years now.

Based on the last three years, I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten. The stability has been very good.

I rate PowerScale's scalability an eight out of ten.

Before PowerScale, I more or less just used Windows file servers.

The initial setup is moderately easy.

I have seen a return on investment.

Our company finds the pricing high, but it decreases over time.

We looked at NetApp.

My advice before choosing PowerScale is to take training up front on it because it has a lot of capabilities. Do some good training before you try to deploy it. I rate PowerScale an eight out of ten.

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

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.

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. 

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

The solution is stable. 

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.

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.

Positive

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.

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.

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.

I'm not really involved with the pricing. 

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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.

We have used this solution for four years. 

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

This is a scalable solution. 

The customer support for this solution is excellent. 

Positive

We evaluated NetApp.

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. 

We utilize Dell PowerScale for storing files as it is the sole solution that possesses advanced features that meet our customer's needs.

Dell PowerScale can be deployed on-prem and in the cloud but I prefer a Hybrid model and primarily use AWS, Azure, and Oracle.

The flexibility and the user-friendly interface are the most valuable features.

The cost of Dell PowerScale is currently high and there is room for improvement.

I have been using Dell PowerScale for seven years.

I give Dell PowerScale a ten out of ten for stability.

I give Dell PowerScale a nine out of ten for scalability.

The technical support team is responsive.

Positive

The initial setup is easy for an engineer. The time required for deployment, however, depends on the environment. If we're transferring data to existing infrastructure, a few hours should be enough. But if we're working with a new infrastructure, we must first fulfill certain requirements before we can migrate the data.

We implement the solution for our customers.

The price of the solution is high.

I give Dell PowerScale ten out of ten.

We are a Dell partner.

Many of our customers in the banking and parts sectors utilize Dell PowerScale.

Three to four engineers are required to maintain the Dell PowerScale.

I highly recommend Dell PowerScale.

The solution has helped improve our service, lower the running cost of the solution, and made it more scalable so we could address more customers at the same time.

We use the solution internally to support our own managed servers and run our own support center. From a business point of view, I like the way the solution cooperates.

Dell PowerScale works well to help our organization manage and run its storage from any location. We used to have systems at different locations, which required a lot of coordination. We made it work, but with the current solution, one guy can do the work that earlier required two or three full-time equivalents.

Dell PowerScale has helped us to reduce or eliminate data silos.

I rate the solution's flexibility a six out of seven for supporting various data workloads while keeping them protected.

It did not really limit risk. It gives a lot of operational flexibility in a way that reduces risk because then the solution is better up to date every time you use it and is consistent across the different data sources. That's good and adds value, but we were already doing that in the old situation. Dell PowerScale just made it easier.

When envisioning the future of our containerized solutions in terms of cloud integration, we will adopt a hybrid strategy. Some of our customers are not able to move to the cloud, where we have to support them. We're following what the customer can do. In many cases, their initial transition into the cloud was not as successful as they thought. In the Dutch market, people are now a little more business-minded while looking into the cloud. That's why I believe that hybrid will be the way forward.

As an integrator, the needs of our customers drive our decision-making process when it comes to selecting a cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environment for containerized applications.

The pricing could be reduced.

I have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for two years.

Dell PowerScale is a stable solution, and not many escalations were brought to my notice.

The solution's technical support team is good, knowledgeable, and quick.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is bad and ten is good, I rate the solution's technical support seven and a half out of ten.

Neutral

I see a return on investment in that my people can do more for more customers in less time. The team now covers a larger number of customers than it did in the past, so I did not need to hire new staff for that.

Dell PowerScale clearly delivers what it promised to deliver.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The solution is primarily used by companies with extremely large file systems to manage. They typically have one or two petabytes of files and usually a lot of videos as well.

The solution is extremely easy to manage. This is its most valuable feature.

The solution isn't suitable for small environments or small customers.

The price point would be too high for companies that don't need a very large amount of storage space.

The redundancy is a little bit expensive.

The solution is stable.

The solution can scale well. It has an automatic tiering system. You can have 60 petabytes of storage. The solution offers very powerful scaling.

The initial setup is not complex. However, if you're not dealing with it regularly, it could be complex. It has a moderate amount of difficulty.

Deployment takes about two weeks and you need two people to handle it.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

The solution is very good for file management, but not for other things.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use the product for ETA data storage.

Dell PowerScale is a scalable solution. It allows non-disruptive upgrades and maintenance of the system.

The product’s expansion capacity, pricing clarity, and ease of use need improvement. There could be power sizing tools available similar to OneFS or H-Series.

We have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for three or five years.

Our organization has 100 to 200 Dell PowerScale (Isilon) users. Its scalability is an eight or nine out of ten.

We used NetApp before. We switched to Dell for better scaling features.

The implementation is simple. I am unsure about the deployment time as I work in the pre-sales department. But it might take approximately five to ten minutes to complete.

It is an expensive product with a high storage capacity suitable for large data requirements. They do not have an option if a customer wants to purchase 20 TB storage space.

I recommend Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and rate it a seven out of ten. It doesn’t have an HTTP protocol. There are other alternatives like Unity and Pure Storage with essential features.

We connected our mainframe system to Isilon. The NFS is being provisioned from Isilon and hosts millions of files. It is our primary storage solution. 

Isilon is flexible in supporting various data workloads while keeping them protected. Dell continues to release updates and patches which enhance the use of this solution. This includes offering ransomware protection.

We are working with Dell to implement a cyber security solution, which is called the air gap solution. We also have Dell Data Domain systems. We back up the data from Isilon or any other system into Dell Data Domain. From Dell Data Domain, we offload to the air gap and secure the data into the air gap or Isilon. 

The system is robust. It has had a big impact on the efficiency of our organization. It serves as storage for our core application, which is a revenue-generating application. It plays a key role in our business. 

Isilon has the ability to scale file data, although we have not explored this within our business yet.

The offloading of data from Isilon to ECS object storage has been cost-effective.

Isilon has limitations on the number of files that can be generated.

I have been using this solution for seven years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

The customer service for this solution is really good. We have a dedicated support account manager and system engineer from Dell who assists us when we need it. 

Positive

We do have another solution that we leverage for our NFS protocols. The other system is a little bit more efficient or robust. We also have protocols that we leverage on the other system. They are really good compared to Isilon.

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. 

I'm impressed by the way the system provides scalability. From an administration standpoint, it's really simple to use. The GUI and interface is easy to manage. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.