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Dell PowerScale 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
6.3
Dell PowerScale offers cost savings, enhanced productivity, and simplified management with scalability, reliability, and efficient data handling capabilities.
Sentiment score
7.2
HPE 3PAR StoreServ offers varying ROI, with benefits in performance and efficiency, though not all users see measurable returns.
Something such as Dell PowerScale puts us ahead of all of our competitors because of the speed at which we can iterate while we are on set.
Chief Executive Officer at Orbital Virtual Studios
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
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.
Storage & Data Protection Specialist at General Dynamics Land Systems
The return on investment is very good.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Dell PowerScale support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though experiences vary with occasional delays and escalations needed.
Sentiment score
7.3
HPE 3PAR StoreServ support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, despite occasional language barriers and regional satisfaction variations.
Support online is definitely a ten out of ten.
Associate Business Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
When we face issues, we raise a ticket through the valid portal, and they respond immediately and assign a local engineer to coordinate the support process.
Senior System Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell's technical support a ten.
System Support at City of North Las Vegas
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.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Dell PowerScale excels in scalability, enabling seamless storage growth and adaptability with minimal management, ensuring efficient future data handling.
Sentiment score
7.5
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is praised for scalability, ease of expansion, and adaptability, despite some complexity in older versions.
We started on PowerScale with around about 300 terabytes and are now two and a half petabytes, still on the same file system.
Storage Architect at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
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.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
As an unstructured data storage solution, writing into it and accessing it from the other nodes is highly scalable with no issues.
Senior Technical Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Dell PowerScale offers reliable stability, effective hardware management, and seamless scalability, ensuring high uptime and data integrity.
Sentiment score
8.1
HPE 3PAR StoreServ offers reliable performance with minimal downtime, quick issue resolution, and effective support for seamless operations.
Since we have good protection levels, the data is secured and replicated across the disks.
Associate Business Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Even if a node goes down, other nodes can respond and provide data back to the user without issues.
Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group
I assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as perfect.
Storage & Data Protection Specialist at General Dynamics Land Systems
HPE 3PAR is a very stable solution from HPE, and people have been using this for more than five years.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
My experience with the stability and performance of HPE 3PAR StoreServ involved one crash, which was caused by failing hardware.
Information Systems & Security Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale needs improvements in deployment, integration, pricing, UI, technical support, AI features, replication, and security.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ users seek improved UI, simplified updates, enhanced virtualization, better reporting, scalability, cloud integration, and support.
Firmware or software updates become effortless with Pure, but with Dell PowerScale (Isilon), we must evaluate or conduct trial runs to ensure that these operations will not harm our customer's system; their software is not adequate.
Senior Ai Architect at Logicalis
It should be made more user-friendly in the sense that if I manage it, I should be able to deploy it without having to have a lot of interaction from support.
Manager, Information Technology at a transportation company with 11-50 employees
Hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline.
Senior Engineer at Continental Tire
In Pakistan, some parts are not readily available, and we need to import them from Singapore or other countries.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
HPE 3PAR StoreServ might be missing certain features available in newer products.
Information Systems & Security Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees
We just need to verify whether our current virtual server setup is acceptable to the RBI, as they had raised questions about the VSO, ISO configurations we had implemented.
Asst. Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale is seen as premium, costly but justified by features, offering flexible licensing and competitive pricing strategies.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ pricing varies widely, with negotiation potential; performance and reliability often justify initial and ongoing costs.
It's quite expensive for the amount of storage we have.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Cheaper nodes will cost less, while higher performance nodes will be pricier.
Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group
Costs align well with what it delivers, making it a fair price for a powerful tool that meets all our needs.
Tv Systems Technical Supervisor at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
It is expensive, however, when we compare it to the features provided by HPE, the price-to-performance ratio is very good.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
Any customer will always ask for the cheaper price.
Asst. Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale offers scalable, high-performance storage with easy management, supporting hybrid strategies and efficient data workload handling.
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is ideal for enterprises, offering easy management, high performance, scalability, reliability, and seamless system integration.
Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
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.
Senior Technologist at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC
There is no downtime when we upgrade our 3PAR systems.
System Engineer at Hybrid Tech
We are expecting on-site support, which is the main benefit we are getting with HP.
Asst. Manager at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
I find the HPE 3PAR StoreServ valuable for its ease of use and resilience, which is beneficial.
Information Systems & Security Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale
Ranking in NAS
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (1st)
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Ranking in NAS
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
304
Ranking in other categories
Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (2nd), All-Flash Storage (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale is 14.6%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE 3PAR StoreServ is 4.3%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale14.6%
HPE 3PAR StoreServ4.3%
Other81.1%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

SK
Solutions Architect at a university with 10,001+ employees
Operates seamlessly and minimizes downtime while meeting enterprise file share demands
The features of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) that I appreciate the most include the scale of architecture and the way it is designed. These features benefit my company by providing less downtime and less overhead. While I have not calculated an exact number regarding the reduction in downtime, we have always been using the product, so we have no baseline to compare it to. However, it is a very good product. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) scales very well with the growing needs of my company.
CO
Information Systems & Security Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees
Ease of use in data center boosts resilience and infrastructure efficiency
I find the HPE 3PAR StoreServ valuable for its ease of use and resilience, which is beneficial. The main benefits I have seen from having HPE 3PAR StoreServ include its use at a small branch I managed for about three years with around 60 users. It operates effectively because it is an HPE product we use there. I have not experienced any significant issues besides occasional IT-related ones, such as local database problems. Since handing over the administration of the system to someone else and moving to another department, there have not been any issues. There are many features that exist but I haven't needed to try. Before moving out of that role in my organization, I knew it was a product I enjoyed working with for infrastructure purposes. After completing my new role, I intend to return to infrastructure.
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Comparison Review

it_user182013 - PeerSpot reviewer
Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise53
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise74
Large Enterprise170
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerScale has been expensive. Setup costs or provisioning experience has been pleasant. Typically you have kickoff meetings and there...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
I believe the support engineers need to improve their skills. In our case, the engineer provides adequate hardware support, but they lack expertise in supporting Dell PowerScale's API and Kubernete...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
Dell PowerScale's primary use case for our organization is server virtualization.
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?
As a customer, I always prefer to have a lower price. Any customer will always ask for the cheaper price.
What needs improvement with HPE 3PAR StoreServ?
I have no specific ideas for improvement at present. We just need to verify whether our current virtual server setup is acceptable to the RBI, as they had raised questions about the VSO, ISO config...
 

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 vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,051 professionals have used our research since 2012.