Dell PowerStore Reviews

Our primary use case for Dell PowerStore is in a production facility as we are a beef manufacturer, predominantly beef, and we also have lamb facilities in Ireland and affiliates in Poland. Essentially, it's for storage and factory systems, so we're storing and collecting data points, along with office functions like file and print. We have on-prem systems on site, including SCADA-like systems for collecting data points throughout the manufacturing facilities. Our core Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge use case includes a data center footprint for central managed services, finance, and our ERP system, collecting data from our factory sites and storing it centrally so that we can pull it back for reporting. Additionally, our Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge serve our disaster recovery needs, allowing us to run a site remotely from our data center.

The features of Dell PowerStore that I appreciate the most include how very easy it is to expand. In terms of scale, I also appreciate the reaction and support; if a hard drive fails, we're informed that there's a hard drive or part failing, and we get alerts on it. There's a part shipped out and a replacement part shipped out to replace it, which gives me a sense of reassurance.

Since using Dell PowerStore, I think what we realized was that at the beginning, we sat down with Dell and explained our use case, and we got the build of Dell PowerStore that we required for our business, allowing us to grow as needed. It is fit for purpose, which is a major improvement; what we had before wasn't fit for purpose and was more about money. The previous setup got us into a lot of holes, whereas the Dell solution has been absolutely fantastic for us regarding support and expansion.

We use Dell PowerProtect solutions with our Dell PowerStore, specifically the Avamar backup solution, which is a Dell product. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell support as a ten, focusing on that aspect alone, because it's what allows me to sleep at night. I don't have to worry about the servers or storage going offline since I know it's being monitored, and we get replacement parts if needed, which is not that common, but it allows me to relax more.

Positive

I used a different vendor which was a mix of two vendors but the storage side wasn't up to scratch, probably because we went in low-end. It's an issue that I inherited in my current role, and we had to address it.

My experience with deploying Dell PowerStore is relatively straightforward, and we have had Dell's support whenever we've rolled out a new upgrade.

We've worked with Dell each time we do a refresh; we discuss the current state and our future goals, and they've delivered a model that fits, ensuring we don't overscale while getting the right fit, which has been really positive.

I have seen a return on investment in Dell PowerStore, particularly regarding the throughput improvements.

Before selecting Dell PowerStore, I primarily considered pricing around different vendors in the market.

What stood out to me in the evaluation process, both positively and negatively, was the long-standing relationship I've had with Dell over the past 20 years. The personal relationship has been massive, backed by positive customer care stories from other customers in the food manufacturing sector recommending this choice as the right thing to do.

My role in using and managing Dell PowerStore involves approving purchases in ABP, so for any refreshes or site refreshes we do for our production sites or data center, I will approve the purchase.

Dell PowerStore may play a role in our company's AI initiatives as we are on a journey to analyze all the data we're pulling back from our factory systems. We're working on getting that data into one place, and now we're looking at doing something meaningful with that data to make better-informed decisions. I'm currently having conversations with Dell to explore potential use cases for this.

The performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerStore include the ease of getting through data, the storage capabilities, the processing of storage, response time, and the speed of our backups restore. Restoring a VM from Dell PowerStore is relatively quick when compared to what we've had in the past.

Dell PowerStore makes a noticeable improvement on a site level within our production facilities; for example, we collect data through a simple process of weighing and labeling products across a network. We weigh a box or a tray of meat and send a file to a server that prints a label. The difference between what we had previously and what we have now is a matter of milliseconds. The improvement is massive; even a couple of milliseconds makes a significant difference to our production throughput. It is a huge benefit for us, even if it may seem insignificant. Reducing that time is crucial because the impact means getting our throughput quicker, allowing products to leave the door more efficiently, which also cuts back on overtime and ensures we can complete our daily tasks in the required hours. Quicker throughput also enables us to implement online retail labeling, printing labels every half second, which requires quick networking, storage, and CPU capabilities.

On-premises

I use it in the financial sector for banking, specifically for core banking applications, to serve our applications. We served different types of customers, ranging from oil and gas to the financial sector, education, and healthcare. We deployed Dell PowerStore in different industry segments, such as manufacturing and retail, for example.

The most impactful benefit is the data reduction and the deduplication.

Replication is easy to implement, and you don't need higher bandwidth to do replication across sites. It's quite useful.

The most impactful feature is the data reduction. Data reduction significantly saves costs. If I purchase, for example, twenty terabytes of storage, the effective capacity gives me somewhere around eighty terabytes. I pay for ten terabytes but gain eighty terabytes or fifty terabytes, for example. It depends on the type of data I am storing on Dell PowerStore, but usually, the reduction ratio is very good. It's a fantastic feature.

I have read about the new ability to cluster multiple PowerStore appliances and it sounds like a very good feature.

Its management capabilities are very strong. It is easy to implement and very easy to manage. The interface is very user-friendly.

Dell AIOPS is quite useful. It sends helpful notifications. It tells you what bottleneck is in your storage environment. It gives you detailed orientation of why you are getting a bottleneck and where the problem is. 

We have been able to consolidate data using PowerStore.

PowerStore's compression and duplication technologies are very important and useful. It's a good feature.

The data resiliency and cybersecurity are good. It covers all the aspects that modern storage should have. 

The PowerStore cybersecurity and resiliency features meet our organizational needs.

PowerStore's built-in integrations for VMware are beneficial. It has all the features that need to be integrated into the environment. It's well aligned and tightly integrated.

One challenge in clustering is that when I create a cluster, the overall pool doesn't increase. Separate pools must be created for each controller node in the cluster. For instance, if I am creating a four-node or four-controller node cluster, I will have four different pools. If I want to enhance a pool beyond the maximum capacity of one controller node, I cannot increase it and must create a separate pool. This is a drawback in Dell PowerStore clustering. 

Synchronous replication covers the entire replication process, but there are scenarios where implementing synchronous replication is necessary, and that feature is missing. Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example. It is quite expensive price-wise.

Feature-set wise, PowerStore is very rich. I think all of the necessary features are there. Price-wise, PowerStore is quite expensive compared to the competition in the market like HP Alletra, Huawei, or Hitachi storage. Dell is more expensive. 

Competitors come in with better pricing and a similar feature set. Customers who already have PowerStore are very satisfied but when it comes to new storage requirements or a tech refresh, customers consider other options as well because of the price.

I have used the solution for roughly five to seven years.

It's very stable.

Scaling up is quite easy, whereas scaling out my storage requires deployment in a clustered manner from day one. If it's not deployed in a clustered manner and I want to scale out, I cannot do so. Careful planning is required at the start of implementation to determine if scaling out will be needed in the future. If this is not addressed in time, I will have to start from scratch, which is a daunting task. There are challenges with scaling out if the environment is not prepared at the initial deployment. Otherwise, it is straightforward. It is very useful, as I can add drive storage incrementally instead of a large batch of disks each time. It is both very useful and cost-effective.

Dell technical support is very good. They reach out to me promptly, deliver replacement parts quickly, and have local depots in three different cities across the country. Overall support is good.

Positive

There are two major aspects when it comes to the setup. One is the migration from existing storage, and the other is how fast I can complete the initial setup of Dell PowerStore. From a migration perspective, Dell PowerStore has the capability to migrate data from existing storage, even from other brands. The second phase is the initial setup, which is very straightforward. In a few steps, I am ready to set it up. Then, in the third phase, configuring replication, it is very straightforward and can be done in a few clicks. In all three phases—from migration to initial setup and to replication of the DR side, or the secondary side, or a third site—Dell PowerStore is easy to install and implement.

When I plan a tech refresh, other competitors offer better pricing with similar feature sets. This is a challenge for customers who are already satisfied with Dell PowerStore. However, when it comes to new storage requirements or a tech refresh, I consider other options as well.

Normally, Dell PowerStore is an NVMe storage, but it does not offer all NVMe protocol support like NVMe over RoCE, NVMe over fiber channel, and NVMe over TCP while other competitors do offer various connectivity options that Dell PowerStore lacks. For example, it lacks F5 and NVMe over RoCE and NVMe over fiber channel. Although it's NVMe-ready storage, it is not end-to-end NVMe ready from a technical angle.

My advice to anybody considering PowerStore is that if you need a scale-out feature in the future, you should consider it from day one. If Dell PowerStore is set up as a single appliance, scaling out will not be possible. This is the main point that needs consideration. 

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

My main use cases for Dell PowerStore on a day-to-day basis are mainly for a compute-heavy, high-performance, converged platform. Dell PowerStore does play a role in my company's AI initiatives, as we are looking at a couple of partnerships with Dell, along with Discover, to explore the AI aspects of it.

I see it in the future as contributing to data efficiency and the quality of the data, which is important when working together with AI.

The features of Dell PowerStore I like the most include the simplicity, unified storage, and high availability.

The high availability feature of Dell PowerStore is the key aspect of a storage need because I want to make sure data is available and I don't want any glitch in it, so HA is our key.

Dell PowerStore has features that specifically cater to the needs of companies such as mine.

The features I am mainly looking at are the performance benefits because of the NVMe disks.

Dell PowerStore is pretty good and can still be improved.

Speed is something I would like to maximize in its features, as there is a need for speed.

I have been using Dell PowerStore since this year.

I have not experienced any downtime or crashes, so the solution is stable and reliable.

Dell PowerStore scales well with the growing needs of my company, as those were pretty quick. It scales up and scales out both ways, and as our data keeps growing, it is very easy to just keep attaching and keep growing. It just fits into the model.

The customer service I experience is excellent.

Positive

I was not using another solution prior to Dell PowerStore to address my needs; we were on Dell EMC.

I would describe my experience with deploying Dell PowerStore as very smooth and flawless, and I have not seen any challenges, as right out of the box, you power on and you're good to go.

The biggest return on investment when using Dell PowerStore is that we are getting more value out of it in a longer span, just the way we do it for the server side, so that is very good.

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerStore are pretty good; it is very good actually from the price point of view.

I considered switching to other solutions, and we are looking at other pure block-level storage, as there is always room for growth to understand what the technology is.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerStore is that we use it for storage needs. I specifically use it as just the user.

The big selling point for choosing Dell PowerStore is the relationship and partnership with Dell and the type of support they provide.

I would rate Dell PowerStore a 10 out of 10.

My advice to other companies considering it is to go Dell all the way.

I use Dell PowerStore for SAP and some databases along with a file server.

The best features of Dell PowerStore that I appreciate the most are its efficiency, as I can provide sufficient space due to data reduction and compression, and the performance, which is adequate according to our applications.

These two aspects are very beneficial for me where we are getting good performance and space as well.

Dell PowerStore has helped my organization improve operational efficiency by providing proper performance for whatever application a customer uses, making it easy for our production environment.

I can say that nowadays, Dell PowerStore is giving very good performance and fulfilling the requirements of the customer.

After Unity, I think it is a very good product.

As of now, I do not have anything specific that comes to mind regarding room for improvement, but I can say some AI improvements would be welcome.

Otherwise, I think it is good because we continue to get updates and improvements in storage features and efficiency.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for the last two years.

I would rate the stability of Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten.

Dell PowerStore is very easy to expand, and I would rate it a ten out of ten.

There is some maintenance required for Dell PowerStore, and my sales and procurement teams are working with Dell for the new storage.

Currently, we have some requirements in place, and they are working on that.

Due to SSDs, the workload performance by Dell PowerStore is boosting, so it is good.

My experience with technical support has been very good, and I would give it a ten out of ten.

Positive

The deployment of Dell PowerStore is easy because I am already working with it, so it is easy for me.

The deployment duration varies depending on the requirements, but if I talk about the configuration of storage for Dell PowerStore, then it takes hardly two days.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is cost-efficient.

Comparing Dell PowerStore with other IT solutions and vendors on the market, it is a really good product.

If I compare it with NetApp storage, HP, or any other vendor, I am getting a very good result from Dell PowerStore, so it is good for me, and I prefer this.

I am using the 500T model of Dell PowerStore, and currently, I have around five or six PowerStore appliances.

I am using multiple Dell PowerStore appliances.

It is very easy for me to move and optimize workloads within clusters, but I am not taking care of all the parts because some of the parts are managed by another team, such as configuration and integration with VMware.

I cannot provide more information on that part.

I think more than five thousand users use the solution because I am utilizing it in five or six sites.

Currently, I do not have the option to consolidate any data.

Dell PowerStore's compression and deduplication technologies are very important because earlier we were not using these technologies, but nowadays they are very efficient.

For example, if I purchase ten terabytes or one hundred terabytes, I can allocate around three hundred, four hundred terabytes, or five hundred terabytes.

This is very good, and I appreciate these features, which is why this technology is moving in a different way.

I find Dell PowerStore easy to use.

Due to security reasons, we are not using Dell PowerStore APEX AI because our storage environment is totally disconnected from internet connectivity.

Currently, we are not using it, even though we have approached the end customer, but they have not allowed it.

I suggest enrollment in the lifecycle extension, but for lifecycle, either replacement or upgrade, there is another team handling that.

I utilize the built-in integration with VMware.

Built-in integrations are important for my organization because all of my applications and production are running there.

I would recommend this product because I prefer it, so it is definitely preferable for me.

I would rate this review a ten out of ten.

On-premises

Other

The main use cases for Dell PowerStore in my company are for file and block storage.

I appreciate the ease of use and storage presentation features of Dell PowerStore the most. By storage presentation, I mean how easy it is to present up storage and the data reduction. 

These features are valuable to me due to the savings and cost benefits. In terms of reducing our storage usage, I have realized some cost savings already. I estimate that we have reduced it by four to one.

Dell PowerStore could improve in the updating process and lifecycle management, as the upgrades seem to take a long time, along with some of the management features. Additionally, better integration with cloud platforms for offloading storage to hyperscalers could be beneficial. For example, being able to copy backup sets into the cloud.

I have been using Dell PowerStore in my company for four years.

I would assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore as good; we did have a few outages concerning the controllers. Overall they were pretty stable.

Dell PowerStore scales effectively, which was another reason for our satisfaction, as we were able to expand or add additional shelves, and the process was straightforward.

I would evaluate support on a scale of one to ten as an eight. 

To make support a ten, I would want improvements in terms of speed, response time, and the expertise of who you're dealing with, as generally on an installation, you won't get your level three; you'll get your level one or level two.

Positive

Before Dell PowerStore, we used HPE 3PARs. We decided to switch since they were end-of-life.

My experience with deploying Dell PowerStore was that the installation was straightforward, and the documentation that was available, along with the support, left me with no complaints.

Post-storage migration made a noticeable improvement in our business operations, particularly in what we were able to reduce from the capacity usage, which was the main driver.

Before selecting Dell PowerStore, I considered HP and Pure as other solutions. 

During my evaluation process, both positive and negative aspects stood out to me, particularly from a pricing perspective, as it hit the pivot point for our budget, and we were offered a guarantee in terms of storage savings where if those metrics weren't met, we would get additional storage at no extra cost.

Currently, Dell PowerStore does not play a role in my company's AI initiatives. The solution doesn't offer the full 100% online capabilities, however, I'm assuming that's coming down the line. 

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore an eight.

On-premises

We are resellers and Dell partners, so we install Dell PowerStore for our customers.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is its easy-to-use feature, specifically the simplicity. What makes Dell PowerStore simple is that users don't have to worry about the storage group; they just set up the storage and are ready to go without worrying about which kind of RAID group to set up or the protection of this group, as everything is managed by the storage itself.

The first benefit of Dell PowerStore for my company is the speed and low latency with low latency working workload of the storage. The second feature is the security, because it has Secure Snapshot and other security features, ensuring the data is fast and protected in a good way.

I would improve Dell PowerStore by enhancing the replication feature because currently, users are limited to one applier, from one cluster, a Dell PowerStore cluster, to another Dell PowerStore cluster, but are not able to configure a three-site scenario. 

The second improvement would be to enable quantification of the snapshot footprint. 

The replication feature mentioned is what I find missing in Dell PowerStore.

I have been using the product for about four years.

The overall stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore is very good because I perform many upgrades without any downtime.

The solution is scalable. Dell PowerStore has features that specifically cater to the needs of small or medium business organizations because users can choose small size disks that are scalable to the smaller size of some companies.

I would evaluate customer service and tech support as fair. Nine out of ten times when I open a case, it's solved in the right time and in the right way, but there could be one out of ten times when it takes longer than expected.

Positive

Before using Dell PowerStore, I used Compellent, which is the generation before Dell PowerStore. It still has some features that are not included in Dell PowerStore, but I hope that the gap will disappear in time.

For lower budget needs, I have considered other solutions that aren't Dell, such as ME products, which are the main two products we use, choosing the right one with the right budget.

Dell PowerStore has grown with my company. We already have some customers who buy upgrades to their storage, in terms of expanding the size or buying new models. 

Dell PowerStore has supported our growth and operational success by providing a deeper discount, which is great from a selling point of view. We also received a demo unit, which is a storage we can use in a customer environment without any strings attached, so the customer can try the product before buying.

My advice to organizations considering Dell PowerStore is to start small because from both the perspective of speed and space, you probably don't need to buy a bigger Dell PowerStore because the performance is already there, even in the lower products. 

For space, you can always expand the one you have, so don't buy too much space, but the right amount for you at that time, and then expand if you need.

I would rate the overall Dell PowerStore product an eight out of ten.

The main use cases for Dell PowerStore involve using it for applications that are compute and storage-sensitive. It is mainly the monitoring system that has a heavy load. Other than that, there are some critical internal applications that cannot have any time drift. 

One of the specific challenges we are trying to address is migrating from our existing infrastructure. The power consumption isn't entirely dependent on Dell PowerStore, but when it comes to heavy applications, the power consumption goes high. We have a Dell PowerStore at three or four sites right now. We are trying to see if we can roll it out to another three to five sites. 

We have about five Dell PowerStore appliances, and we are using the 500T model.

Dell PowerStore's compression and deduplication technologies are a big help for our organization. It's saving us a lot of storage compared to what we were previously using. We are transitioning from a typical infrastructure to a cloud-native infrastructure. It is helping us move applications to a containerized environment and getting the performance we need.

Its pricing is good when compared with what we were paying for the previous storage appliance and other things. We now have everything together. The management is pretty easy for us. A new person can easily understand it. It works very well for our mission-critical applications that can't have any delays.

Dell PowerStore’s data resiliency and cybersecurity features meet our organization's needs. 

The specific features of Dell PowerStore that I find the most impactful for our organization include using it for our NAS and SAN storage, which is a relief for us. It's natively supported with our VMware infrastructure. We are still trying to figure out how we can utilize it more. Due to the low latency on IOPS, it helps us with our critical apps that cannot afford delays. It decreases the number of incidents. The IOPS part works out well for us. 

The management UI is pretty decent and gets the job done, but the upgrade process is challenging. 

I've been working with Dell PowerStore for a year and a half.

I haven't had any performance issues with Dell PowerStore so far. 

Scalability is something we are looking at. Hopefully, we can get it in a cluster formation. At the moment, we are seeing if we can get it to a point where we do not have to interact with it every day.

We have more than 2,000 users and 11 people working with Dell PowerStore.

Dell's technical support is good. Dell has always been helpful for technical support. I didn't personally have a chance to open a case with them for Dell PowerStore, but my colleague did, and he had a good experience with them. We struggled a bit due to our time zone differences because the site we purchased it for is not in India; it's in the EU. That was the only thing that we struggled with a bit. Otherwise, the support has been good.

Positive

We used Pure Storage. We transitioned to Dell PowerStore because, with the VMs that we were running, Pure Storage used to crash. It was a pretty old solution. It hadn't been changed for a while, so the decision was made to go with Dell PowerStore.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore was straightforward. It was pretty easy for us to set up. It took two to three days, maximum, to deploy Dell PowerStore in one location.

The migration part was a bit daunting for us. We had to move our existing data from one appliance to another.

In terms of maintenance, we haven't had any failed hard drives. It has been running fine. We just have to do maintenance every six months and make sure that the BIOS and firmware are up to date.

It required three people for deployment: one for the physical work and two engineers for migrating and managing our data.

In the long term, Dell PowerStore will help reduce our organization's CAPEX, but right now, it is a pretty hefty investment for our team.

The pricing structure and licensing model of Dell PowerStore are pretty decent. It's pretty competitive. The pricing has never been an issue, and it's fairly good. We are getting NVMe drives, so it's better than the market.

We considered distributed storage options such as Cohesity for storage solutions. We probably also checked HyperFlex with Nutanix.

Dell PowerStore's UI is good. The upgrade process is a bit complex, but there are no performance issues. Dell's hardware has always been pretty solid.

We have the VMware ecosystem and KVM. We have multiple OS running. We are looking into using it as a backup solution. We are thinking of replacing our existing storage infrastructure and have our backup solution running on Dell PowerStore.

It's a pretty reliable solution if someone's looking for a total replacement of their existing infrastructure. It's pretty easy to implement. That's one of the pros we've seen personally. It's a straightforward product, and there's not much hassle. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight out of ten.

On-premises

My current use cases for Dell PowerStore mostly involve VDI and Virtual Desktop Interface connections.

We are almost at the point of using approximately 20 Dell PowerStore appliances as separate systems, and we are using it for disaster recovery as well. We have replication and everything set up with that.

Dell PowerStore is a mid-range product that can suit small companies and provides good IOPS and performance. The relatively small setup we have with Dell PowerStore works well for mid-range customers and some high-end customers as well. If they want to separate workloads accordingly, they can go with it.

We do use Dell PowerStore's data resiliency and cybersecurity features for authentication, and we are using SSO and all those things. Dell PowerStore is quite resilient, and we have not seen any kind of corruption.

Dell PowerStore is expandable up to only three expansion modules. If you want to increase the capacity, we cannot go beyond three enclosures. One is a base enclosure and there are three expansion enclosures. I think Dell PowerStore could add some more expansion enclosures, perhaps seven to eight, to get more capacity.

With CloudIQ, I have seen that when we get access to it, we do not see all the products that we have in CloudIQ. We have to struggle a lot to get access to CloudIQ because it is managed by Dell.

We have not tried using Anytime Upgrade (Lifecycle Extension) from Dell as of now. We are doing an upgrade but not using that Anytime Upgrade, as we have a planned one.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for the last two years in my career overall.

A firmware upgrade can take around three to four hours, and no downtime is needed. I have seen issues where the node gets crashed and the replacement is needed for hardware. That will be as per the plan and as per the organization policy.

We are not clustering multiple Dell PowerStore appliances.

I have contacted Dell's customer support or technical support. Earlier the quality of support was excellent, but now it has deteriorated. We do not get quick support, and we have to wait longer to get the support.

I have used alternatives to Dell PowerStore, such as IBM FS 7300 and other solutions.

IBM is a hybrid solution, whereas Dell PowerStore is completely flash-based. Dell PowerStore is more performance-driven, providing more performance.

Dell PowerStore is pretty easy to install. It comes with a pre-installed operating system itself. You just need to plug it in and plug it into the network, configure IP addresses, and handle a few basic things.

Setup can take approximately three hours minimum for a new client.

One person in the data center can manage the setup.

Maintenance for Dell PowerStore includes a maintenance contract with Dell. However, some issues during troubleshooting require reaching out to Dell.

Dell PowerStore management capabilities are pretty easy to use and user-friendly. I would rate this review a 9.