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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs HPE 3PAR StoreServ comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Dell PowerScale enhances management efficiency and scalability, improving storage performance, reducing costs, and delivering strong ROI and peace of mind.
Sentiment score
7.2
HPE 3PAR StoreServ boosts performance, reduces costs, enhances efficiency, and provides quick ROI, leading to high user satisfaction.
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
In terms of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) specifically, we have seen a return on investment due to faster performance than our last few storage arrays, and the general usability is a lot better.
The second cluster of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) gives us flexibility for small things like code upgrades, all the way to scenarios where we have lost this data center or data, allowing us to check if data is still intact on the other side.
The return on investment is very good.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.2
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) support is praised for expertise but criticized for first-line issues and occasional communication barriers.
Sentiment score
7.3
HPE 3PAR StoreServ's customer service is reliable, proactive, yet experiences vary, notably in communication and escalation processes.
Support online is definitely a ten out of ten.
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
They have managed previous issues well.
If we activate the 3PAR call home function, then the remote technician always has access to our StoreServ and provides strong suggestions to improve our 3PAR performance.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Dell PowerScale offers scalable, flexible storage for growing enterprises, supporting seamless capacity expansion and stable performance with automatic tiering.
Sentiment score
7.5
HPE 3PAR StoreServ offers scalable storage, efficiently handling diverse workloads and future needs, with minimal upgrade complexity issues.
We started on PowerScale with around about 300 terabytes and are now two and a half petabytes, still on the same file system.
That's really saved us in certain areas as we didn't have funding to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) until next year, which is why we utilized the cloud pools functionality to offload.
Dell PowerScale is highly scalable, as evidenced by the reduced physical hardware and the efficient use of rack space.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerScale is reliable and easy to manage, with high availability despite occasional support and load balancing issues.
Sentiment score
8.1
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime, seamless updates, and effective support for setup challenges.
Since we have good protection levels, the data is secured and replicated across the disks.
I assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as perfect.
I find the product to be resilient and stable. There's no downtime and no crashes.
HPE 3PAR is a very stable solution from HPE, and people have been using this for more than five years.
My experience with the stability and performance of HPE 3PAR StoreServ involved one crash, which was caused by failing hardware.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale is costly and lacks cloud integration, with usability, support, and management improvements needed for better user experience.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ needs improved usability, support, integration, and cost management while enhancing performance, efficiency, scalability, and cloud compatibility.
Hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline.
I would want to see more AI features with Dell PowerScale (Isilon).
If I could improve one thing on Dell PowerScale (Isilon), it would be better object storage as it recently breached into S3, and that capability could be broadened.
In Pakistan, some parts are not readily available, and we need to import them from Singapore or other countries.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ might be missing certain features available in newer products.
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale, though costly initially, provides valuable features, ease of management, and competitive pricing for business needs.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ pricing ranges from $60,000 to $2 million, with competitive rates but costly additional licensing.
It's quite expensive for the amount of storage we have.
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Dell PowerScale (Isilon) shows it's a premium platform, so it's a big amount of money.
The pricing is excellent.
It is expensive, however, when we compare it to the features provided by HPE, the price-to-performance ratio is very good.
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale excels in scalability, performance, and security, offering efficient storage consolidation and resource optimization for organizations.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ excels in performance and integration, offering ease of use, automation, and robust storage management features.
Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.
In our AI initiatives, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) plays a significant role in data analysis, data fusion; principally, it is involved in data analysis, data extraction, and statistical analysis.
Single files are limited to four terabytes in our configuration, however, the system can support up to 16 terabytes, so we can scale based on that too.
There is no downtime when we upgrade our 3PAR systems.
I find the HPE 3PAR StoreServ valuable for its ease of use and resilience, which is beneficial.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Ranking in NAS
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (3rd)
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Ranking in NAS
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
303
Ranking in other categories
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (4th), All-Flash Storage (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 16.5%, down from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE 3PAR StoreServ is 3.2%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)16.5%
HPE 3PAR StoreServ3.2%
Other80.3%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

Scott Taylor - PeerSpot reviewer
Manages large data sets efficiently with hybrid cloud integration
My organization is quite large, with about 30,000 employees. The growth has been substantial in areas such as radiology and genomics. One of the best features we've utilized recently is offload to cloud pools due to capacity constraints on-premise. We didn't want to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) straight away, so we utilized cloud pools to offload some data to Azure. That's really saved us in certain areas as we didn't have funding to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) until next year, which is why we utilized the cloud pools functionality to offload.
Muhammad Saqib - PeerSpot reviewer
Uninterrupted upgrades accelerate performance with good support
I would rate the solution eight out of ten. It should be noted that in Pakistan, some parts are not readily available, and we need to import them from Singapore or other countries. We encountered an issue with a customer where the midplane failed and was not available. We had to wait for several days for a replacement, even in a 24/7 support case. Additionally, we faced motherboard failures in the customer's environment, encountering two motherboard failures simultaneously. We obtained one motherboard immediately, yet had to wait ten days for another. These issues should have been resolved promptly given the 24/7 support level.
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Comparison Review

it_user182013 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 1, 2015
Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR
Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise36
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business72
Midsize Enterprise74
Large Enterprise170
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
The solution provides massive performance, scalability, efficiency, and ease of management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
The cost is competitive with other vendors such as HP. I always compare prices between two vendors, and they are good in this situation.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
Sometimes, it takes too long to set up everything. That's something I would want them to improve. The main challenge I face with it now is that my team is accustomed to using other vendors, and whe...
What's the difference between HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE Primera?
HPE Primera has many great features but one of the best is that it is very easy to deploy. From an overall perspective, it is reliable, easy to set up, stable, and offers quality block storage. All...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE 3PAR StoreServ?
It is expensive, however, when we compare it to the features provided by HPE, the price-to-performance ratio is very good.
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
HPE 3PAR Flash Storage, InServ, Storeserv, 3PAR Flash Storage, HP Enterprise Storage, 3PAR Flash Array, HP 3PAR Flash Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,
Just Energy, Latisys, team AG, DreamWorks, BlueShore Financial, Erasmus MC
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
870,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.