Dell PowerStore Reviews

Dell PowerStore is useful in the area of virtualization and block storage.

My company has benefited from the use of the solution since it is possible to have the monitoring functionality everywhere with the product in place.

Dell PowerStore's valuable feature stems from an area named Metro Volume, which is quite simple to implement. The feature works fast and is good.

It has high levels of deduplication and compression.

The challenge my company was trying to address with the implementation of Dell PowerStore was performance. For some applications, Dell PowerStore was not so good, but in general, it is a good product.

I have worked on all of the models offered under Dell PowerStore.

Speaking about the increase in performance of our company's applications, I would say that though in some cases, the performance was reduced, the overall performance was increased by 20 to 30 percent.

My organization uses Dell CloudIQ to manage and analyze Dell storage.

I use VMware with Dell PowerStore's integration feature. The integration of VMware with Dell PowerStore has improved our company's ability to see information about virtual machines directly from the storage console.

Sometimes, my company has been able to reduce our organizational footprint or data consolidation using Dell PowerStore by helping us reduce the number of devices and by helping us migrate from old to new storage products.

In terms of the environment where the solution is used, my organization deploys it on multiple sites. At times, my company deploys the tool at a single site, depending on the needs of our customers.

From an improvement perspective, the tool should focus on making it possible for users to configure the tool in a uniform mode with its good features.

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.

I have been using Dell PowerStore since it was launched. My company is a business partner with Dell. Our organization is also a service provider of Dell.

I think Dell PowerStore is a good product that offers stability.

The product's scalability is good because my company can group multiple Dell PowerStore boxes together, helping us increase capability and performance.

Sometimes, I have contacted the solution's technical support, and I would say they were good, but it all depends on the problem. I remember that I had called the support team once to resolve an issue associated with the product, and they resolved it quickly. I rate the support team an eight out of ten.

Positive

My company has never worked with other products that can be compared with Dell PowerStore.

The product's deployment phase has been simple.

The primary deployment model for Dell PowerStore can be described as an on-premises one.

Though I have no data, I think that our company's customers have experienced an ROI from using the product.

The licensing model offered by the product is simple for our company to look into.

I rate Dell PowerStore a nine out of ten.

We use Dell PowerStore for our SAN appliances. It holds and runs pretty much all of our infrastructure. All our network devices connect to it, and then that runs block-based storage for all our VMs.

Dell PowerStore has really expanded our storage abilities, whereas we were earlier locked up with physical space storing stuff. We used to run out of space, and getting that extra footprint helps.

The solution's most valuable features are its form factor and switching to NVMe. Dell has lowered its footprint and power consumption. Regarding functionality, the management in the box itself between the nodes and automation between the nodes are quite nice.

CloudIQ is a fantastic feature that gives us a good overview of everything we have. With the depreciation of the SRS, we have to use that quite a lot more because they're moving everything over to CloudIQ. CloudIQ has been nice on a very broad term for our multiple appliances. Even with Dell PowerStore, we have the ability to keep an eye on two because they're not clustered together.

Dell PowerStore has been amazing in its overall energy consumption. The solution's ability to not have to max out a circuit just for our storage rack is amazing. It gave us a lot more freedom to expand with the existing power that we already have without having to get electricians to redo everything.

We were looking to address the challenges of physical storage size and power consumption by implementing the solution.

The data-at-rest encryption and its encryption features allow us to get to a higher consistent level of security possible.

The ability to use Dell PowerStore for our AI-driven workloads is very important. The processing isn't done there, but the AI systems being processed are still stored on the endpoints.

We have been able to reduce our organizational footprint by one standard rack using Dell PowerStore.

We had an issue where we lost both nodes, completely lost all our caching, and had to rebuild that whole appliance from scratch. We need to find a way to ensure the cache data is safe and secure. When we're maintaining it, it takes five to ten extra minutes to confirm it so we don't run the risk of something happening. There needs to be some sort of better feedback between the two nodes.

The one was running online as a master, but somehow, the caching was lost because both the nodes were offline. No one had any references to that cached data, which completely destroyed our data. Something needs to be done with the caching to ensure that if some issue occurs, there needs to be an ability to disable caching during maintenance to make it static, safe, and good.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for two years.

The solution's stability is good.

Dell PowerStore is a super scalable solution.

The solution’s technical support is amazing.

Positive

We switched from our previous solution to Dell PowerStore because it was getting old and taking up too much space in the rack. Since we didn't have any more racks, we didn't have any more plugs.

Since Dell did the deployment for us, it was as smooth as it could be.

Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

We expedite the process for our clients. We use it for database processes.

It's a great product. Integrating PowerStore with the IT workflow is easy. 

The most valuable functions are those that facilitate balance and sharing. This includes storage sharing, adding servers to the service, and the wireless host connection on the network side.

Easy understanding. That is important for the user. When the client has a manual, when the user will take the PowerStore and take the PowerStore, easy installation means. If you click the volume, it will show the order valid. 

It's the network side also and the storage side as upgrading of the versions, like firmware versions.  

Everything is pretty good. Just improve the network side. When adding the address for the host on the Dell side, it is not easy.

When you evaluate deployment after purchasing the Dell storage, you have to add the ESXI host to the Dell server. That time, the IP address is not taken easily.

Please improve that side. When we are on the VM website, the storage side is also not easy when adding storage to the host on the PowerStore side.

The support team doesn't always provide adequate assistance. So, there is room for improvement in the support. 

I have been using it for four years. 

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

The scalability is good. There are no issues. 

It is suitable for medium-sized companies.

When they create the ticket, it takes time. When they reach after that, they are doing a good job. But when we raise the ticket, that is taking time.

So, it's a long and only procedure to get support from the vendor.

After Dell connect with the customer, they are doing follow-up fine. Everything is good.

Neutral

We also have HPE Nimble Storage.

The initial setup is simple. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I would recommend PowerStore to other users. 

We primarily use the solution for storage and data reduction. 

The initial setup is very straightforward.

The architecture is very good.

It's a reliable product. 

The data reduction feature is quite useful. It has a good reduction ratio during migrations.

The solution is stable. 

The solution only supports NPE. It doesn't support SSD or Flash. We'd like the option to be more flexible. If a customer finds out SSD is not supported, they will look for another option.

I implemented the solution around two years ago. I haven't used it for very long. 

It is a reliable, stable product. We haven't had any issues with it. Of course, it is not that old. That said, there are no failures and we have not had controller issues. there are no bugs or glitches. 

It is a scalable product. However, I have not needed to go and upgrade it or add more enclosures, et cetera. It can scale up. However, it can not scale out.

I have three customers that have already implemented the tool. More are coming online soon. Most of them are enterprises. We do expect expansion in the coming years. 

Technical support is more than perfect. We are quite pleased with the level of support on offer. 

I'm also aware of HP, which is a very similar solution. Sometimes the pricing of HP can be better.

The solution is very simple to set up. It is not a complex process. I monitor the process from a design and implementation point of view. 

The deployment takes about 15 minutes if everything is correct and on-hand. Then you move on to the management and you can have the flow up and running. We do the configurations and create the volume and handle the storage of the whole system.

I've implemented the solution three times at different sites. We implement the tool and do the migration. I work with a separate partner and we deploy to the users. 

The pricing is fixed. We have received a good price overall. Users must pay for the licenses. Most of the tools are included in an out-of-the-box delivery. There are no extra fees.

We're partners.

The solution is acceptable for both small and large companies. 

I'd advise new users to be mindful during the implementation process and make sure it is done right. They need to choose the correct solution and implement either block or unified. It's a good idea to look at the documentation before setting everything up.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We have a lot of distribution centers, and we are looking at infrastructure that gives us that low latency and helps us with the IoT and edge computing, like, robotic arms and things like that.

We implemented Dell PowerStore to address security and latency in our infrastructure.

The biggest benefit we have seen from Dell is the speed to market. In the past, we struggled to meet demand in our facilities, and with the Dell partnership, we are seeing the benefit.

Dell PowerStore helps with our workload reduction. At the end of the day, our goal is to reduce our TCO. 

The latency and the security are the most valuable features of Dell PowerStore. The latency is important because we are a distribution center that has workers who pick drugs and medical devices off the conveyor belt, so the efficiency is important. We also want to make sure that everything is secure and that we have an easy way to manage our infrastructure. 

Dell PowerStore can improve the integration with VMware.

I have been evaluating Dell PowerStore for six months.

So far the stability has been good.

We have not had any concerns about the scalability so far.

The technical support has been good so far but we are still in the evaluation phase and have not run into any major issues.

Positive

We previously used Pure Storage and a lot of legacy tools. We switched to Dell PowerStore based on the recommendations from Dell about the increased security and what we heard from others that PowerStore is a better solution.

The deployment was good.

We used Storage IT and Dell for the implementation.

We evaluated Pure but decided on PowerStore because of the cost.

I would rate Dell PowerStore eight out of ten for its security and TCO.

We usually use Dell PowerStore in enterprise environments like banks and financial insurance companies that use it for their core banking.  

Dell PowerStore improves our customer's resilience. Working in this mission-critical infrastructure is one of the most important features.

CloudIQ is a friendly interface where we can manage and expand on different solutions from one place.

Dell Technologies' ESG values are one of the most important factors in our customer's decisions. They are more focused on a friendly environment than other aspects and Dell is a step ahead of other vendors when it comes to this.

From my position as CEO, no feature was required by our customer specifications that PowerStore does not cover. It can address all of the requirements.

The cybersecurity world is developing quickly and the integration with storage solutions is important. Dell is ahead of other competitors in basic cyber resilience.

Our last PowerStore implementation has reduced our customers' footprint by up to 80 percent by replacing other technology like IBM. This was an important feature for our customer because their space in the data center was limited and this represented a huge improvement for them.

For our customers who require the data reduction guarantee, we can offer that commitment with Dell's support. Dell backs this guarantee for our critical accounts and global accounts where these requirements are important to be reached. 

The most valuable features of Dell PowerStore are the resilience, scalability, flexibility of expansion, and ease of managing the entire solution including the servers and storage.

There is an issue with Dell PowerStore related to future expansions which are software-related. This caused some issues with my largest customer in Romania. Hopefully, the new model will increase performance making it more efficient. 

I have been using Dell PowerStore for eight years.

Dell PowerStore is stable.

Dell PowerStore is scalable.

The Dell customer support is responsive.

Positive

My team has good experience deploying PowerStore because they have been working in this area for many years. Our customers are happy with our implementation services.

We implement the solution for our customers.

It is easy to work with Dell from the licensing perspective. I hope they will keep this part as it is not moving very fast into the subscription because, in some accounts, this can generate a big disruption. Especially in the public sector. From that perspective, the licensing flexibility that Dell offers is bigger than other vendors.

From the technological perspective, PowerStore and other vendors like HP always have good technology. The biggest difference is the way we implement it. We are more confident implementing PowerStore and usually working with global customers. That means for us, it's easy, and we are very confident when we implement this type of solution compared with other vendors. But from a technical perspective, other vendors like HP also offer good technology.

I would rate Dell PowerStore nine out of ten.

In terms of power consumption, I don't see a difference in the amount of power Dell PowerStore consumes compared to other vendors.

We use Dell PowerStore in all corporate infrastructures. It is being used in the two data centers that we have here in Madrid. We have it deployed on all our systems.

By implementing Dell PowerStore, we mainly wanted to cover all the needs for our ERP and our entire corporate system.

The performance of the storage layer has improved.

We use CloudIQ to manage and analyze our Dell storage. It has significantly simplified storage management and helped us feel more calm about this issue.

The overall energy consumption of Dell PowerStore is appropriate.

I have felt a change in terms of the data consolidation/footprint reduction as compared to our old system, but I cannot say exactly how much reduction there is.

When it comes to the values around environment, social, and governance (ESG values), they are very committed to the whole issue of sustainability. I am happy to know that their goals are in favor of this issue. It is an initiative that stands out in today's market.

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

We are happy with the service in general. The only thing would be the price of the platform.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for three years.

The stability is very good. We have not had any problems with them. They are very robust storage cabins.

We have already scaled several times, and the result has been very satisfactory.

Their support is very good.

Positive

We used CX 340, CX 500, VNX, VPLEX, and a few others. We switched mainly because of technological evolution and performance.

Nowadays, we are required to find a solution that gives storage options for high-weighted data. It is something that the management is asking us to do. We need to incorporate services that are sustainable and that help us reduce our impact and our carbon footprint.

The implementation was not complex. The whole process was very simple.

We had a clear migration strategy. We have had virtualized storage for a long time. In the end, it was a replacement of other EMC arrays because we had the old VNXs and Unity deployed. The migration process was done in the best recommended way, considering the client’s use case. We relied on VPLEX, and that allowed us to have no loss of service and quite high flexibility. We used KISER services for this.

I have seen an ROI in terms of the reduction of the space that we need in the data centers and reduction in the computing capacity. We have reduced infrastructure but the same performance.

It is an expensive service but within the market range.

We did not evaluate other solutions.

I would rate Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

Simplifica la gestión del almacenamiento y mejora el rendimiento

¿Cuánto tiempo llevas usando esta solución?

He estado usando Dell PowerStore durante tres años.

¿Cuál es su principal caso de uso de esta solución? (Incluya detalles sobre su entorno).

Lo utilizamos en todas las infraestructuras corporativas. Se está utilizando en los dos centros de datos que tenemos aquí en Madrid. Lo tenemos implementado en todos nuestros sistemas.

Al implementar Dell PowerStore, principalmente queríamos cubrir todas las necesidades de nuestro ERP y de todo nuestro sistema corporativo.

Comparta cómo Dell PowerStore ha mejorado su organización. Si no fue así, explique por qué.

El rendimiento de la capa de almacenamiento ha mejorado.

Usamos CloudIQ para administrar y analizar nuestro almacenamiento Dell. Ha simplificado significativamente la gestión del almacenamiento y nos ha ayudado a sentirnos más tranquilos sobre este tema.

El consumo de energía general de Dell PowerStore es apropiado.

He sentido un cambio en términos de consolidación de datos/reducción de huella en comparación con nuestro sistema anterior, pero no puedo decir exactamente cuánta reducción hay.

Cuando se trata de valores ambientales, sociales y de gobernanza (valores ESG), están muy comprometidos con todo el tema de sostenibilidad. Me alegra saber que sus objetivos están a favor de este tema. Es una iniciativa que destaca en el mercado actual.

¿Qué características le han parecido más valiosas y por qué?

Su flexibilidad es valiosa, hemos tenido algunos momentos en los que hemos tenido que adaptarnos y ha sido bastante flexible.

¿En qué áreas se podría mejorar Dell PowerEdge PowerStore?

Estamos contentos con el servicio en general. Lo único sería el precio de la plataforma.

¿Utilizó anteriormente una solución diferente? De ser así, ¿por qué la cambió?

Usamos CX 340, CX 500, VNX, VPLEX y algunos otros. Cambiamos principalmente por la evolución tecnológica y el rendimiento.

Hoy en día, debemos encontrar una solución que brinde opciones de almacenamiento para datos de alto peso. Es algo que la dirección nos pide que hagamos. Necesitamos incorporar servicios que sean sostenibles y que nos ayuden a reducir nuestro impacto y nuestra huella de carbono.

¿Antes de elegir, evaluaste otras opciones? ¿De ser asi, cuales?

No evaluamos otras soluciones.

¿Qué aconseja a otros sobre el costo de instalación, el precio y/o la licencia?

Es un servicio caro pero dentro del alcanc

e del mercado.

¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la escalabilidad de esta solución?

Ya hemos escalado varias veces y el resultado ha sido muy satisfactorio.

¿Cuáles son sus impresiones sobre la estabilidad de esta solución?

La estabilidad es muy buena. No hemos tenido ningún problema con ellos. Son cabinas de almacenamiento muy robustas.

¿Has visto el ROI (Retorno de la Inversión)? En caso afirmativo, ¿de qué manera (es decir, métricas/puntos de datos)?

He visto un ROI en términos de reducción del espacio que necesitamos en los centros de datos y reducción de la capacidad informática. Hemos reducido la infraestructura pero mantenemos el mismo rendimiento.

¿La configuración inicial fue sencilla o compleja y de qué manera?

La implementación no fue compleja. Todo el proceso fue muy sencillo.

Teníamos una estrategia migratoria clara. Hace tiempo que contamos con la modalidad de almacenaje virtualizado. Al final, fue un reemplazo de otros arreglos de EMC porque teníamos implementados los antiguos VNX y Unity. El proceso de migración se realizó de la mejor manera recomendada, considerando el caso de uso del cliente. Confiamos en VPLEX y eso nos permitió no tener pérdida de servicio y tener una flexibilidad bastante alta. Para ello utilizamos los servicios de KISER.

Cuéntanos tu experiencia con el servicio y soporte al cliente.

Su soporte es muy bueno.

¿Cómo calificaría esta solución en una escala del 1 al 10 en cuanto a servicio y soporte?

9.

En una escala del 1 al 10 (1=peor, 10=mejor), ¿cómo calificaría Dell PowerStore? Por favor explique por qué.

Calificaría a Dell PowerStore con un diez.

We use it to host all the VMware workloads in production. It has all the types of workloads that any data center would have, from AD to file servers as well as SQL, Exchange, and BI. It holds all our high-tier VMs.

PowerStore helps to simplify IT operations. At the site where it is installed, we have consolidated two tiers with the high-IOPS and lower tiers. We have enough capacity with lower power consumption and enough performance to handle the required overload.

It gives us the capacity and the performance we need. Before, things were on 10K disks, while this is flash. There is a very big difference. Previously, we were connected directly, with a back-to-back connection between servers and storage. Now, we have multiple servers connected to SAN switches and those switches are connected to the storage. For sure, the performance of the system is sky-high. In terms of IOPS we are fully satisfied by the PowerStore.

We use the solution’s built-in VMware hypervisor to run VMs and virtualized applications, directly on the storage appliance. We manage multiple sites and we don't have enough teams to allocate support at all sites. So our support team handles all our sites. It's very important for us to have a consolidated infrastructure that we can manage remotely, without needing someone available locally to do the patching/power-up/creation and life cycle management tasks. Having this box, along with the integration with VMware, and VMware's capabilities, gives us what we need.

I like the performance of the PowerStore. When you talk about PowerStore, it's mainly about flash systems and high-end IOPS. The 1000T is a midsize box, in terms of the way the vendor positions it, but it is more than enough for our needs. At the site where it is located, there are about eight servers connected. The high IOPS support our needs. It is very performant.

We have an issue with the integration of this box and VMware. I have downloaded so many books from Dell EMC's website. We created the volumes as VVols. The information they gave us said we would directly see the capacity. Unfortunately, that is not true. You only see it after you put data on it. When you create the volume but there is no data, you don't see how the actual capacity grows. This is peculiar regarding this box.

We installed it at the beginning of September, about three months ago. By the end of September it was put into production with all the loads we required.

It is stable, but we have only operated it for less than six weeks, which is not that much. But performance-wise it is giving us what was promised, so far.

Because we have changed the topology of our data centers' interconnectivity and the data movement between sites—we have multiple sites in multiple locations and countries—we asked Dell EMC to give us additional expansion for the box, but with disks at the lower tier. In that way, we are insuring our investment in this box and doing a consolidation. But it also means we don't need to buy high-end disks for it. We may go with 10K disks for the lower-tier data.

I think we will go for a second box like this one in the near future, but in a different location.

When I tried to open a ticket with the Dell EMC team, during the installation phase, they kept bouncing me from one support center to another, from the United States to France to wherever. I ended up preferring to finish the installation without continuing the case. Dell EMC's support case management wasn't really set up to suit our needs. When I gave them the serial number of the box, they said, "Ah, it's a PowerStore. It's not this department, you need a different department." The support is not very well structured.

In addition to the licensing issue I mentioned, we also opened a ticket concerning the dedupe and the data showing on the storage interface. No one answered so we escalated it to our partner and they escalated it to a consultant.

Overall, support is not smooth when it comes to the portal and the standard support system. I had to go to our reseller to ask him to get us the information we needed.

To be fair, I spent a huge amount of time working with IBM, versus only the two to three months on Dell EMC. But knowing Dell EMC as a brand, as a competitor to IBM, I know it can do much better in terms of support and awareness of customers' needs.

Neutral

We were not searching for a particular brand. We were searching for storage that would be delivered ASAP with a certain IOPS capacity. And, of course, pricing was part of it. The vendor that sold us this box said they were able to send it right away. From that point, the discussion went to Dell EMC versus ordering IBM. Our discussions about how to move forward with our storage took at least four to six weeks. If we had then put in an order with IBM, it would have taken at least another six weeks. So we would have had a 10 to 12-week process. We didn't have this luxury. We couldn't wait that long, so the decision was based on the time of delivery.

We will move everything off our old Lenovo storage that is now four or five years old, and that will be used for backup only. All our production VMs will be on the flash and all the less important pieces, like the file servers, will be on the 10K disks.

During the installation phase, the licensing part was not straightforward. It was very difficult for the technicians, who are not trained Dell EMC technicians, to do the licensing because the information on their website is not straightforward. You can't find your way easily. You spend some time getting the information. So the licensing activation was a little bit tricky for us. Maybe the installation issue was due to our lack of knowledge, but the licensing part and the escalation need to be smoother. Eventually, I had to pass this task to our business partner and they did it for us.

There is a web interface for LAN creation, host mapping, and digital capacity. We created it as a VVol, mapped it to the box, and started moving data from the old Lenovo to this box.

Because my background is not Dell EMC, it took us about two to three days to finish not only the boxes but the installation of the SAN switches as well. We had to migrate all the data from the old Lenovo to it, and we had to do work related to the ESX servers.

We only used internal resources.

I was a technical manager for about 20 years in a company that is a business partner for IBM. My "DNA" is in IBM. However, when I shifted to my current company, they have multiple types of hardware vendors, both IBM and non-IBM. Before the acquisition of the Dell EMC PowerStore 1000T, I did a comparison with information from IBM sources, from Dell EMC sources, and from neutral sources. At that time I downloaded information from IT Central Station. After that, we acquired the box.

I would like to wait another few months before giving any advice about the product, to see if there are any other hassles or any issues. But if someone is considering going with PowerStore, I would say yes. It's a good box.

Ultimately, it's about performance, capacity, and price, as opposed to AI learning et cetera, the same as it has always been.

I was not concerned about the fact that it is a relatively new platform because the Dell EMC brand is number-one in the market.