Dell PowerScale vs NetApp FAS Series vs Qumulo comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while NetApp is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Dell Technologies holds a 14.5% mindshare in N, compared to NetApp’s 10.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerScale

Read 92 Dell PowerScale reviews

13,669 Views
7,245 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

NetApp FAS Series

Read 110 NetApp FAS Series reviews

9,150 Views
4,575 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Qumulo

Read 9 Qumulo reviews

3,879 Views
1,862 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale

NetApp FAS Series

Qumulo

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerScale, NetApp FAS Series, and Qumulo based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS.

To learn more, read our detailed NAS Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NAS

May 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale is 14.5%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 10.6%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qumulo is 4.8%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	14.5%
NetApp FAS Series	10.6%
Qumulo	4.8%
Other	70.1%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Bill Engelmeyer

Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC

Flexibility and reliability have supported seamless data growth

I cannot think of anything to improve about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). The hardest challenge we have is due to how we've bought things over time. The way that we moved to the PowerEdge platform for the newer systems creates a scale problem as I still buy the older style systems, which are more dense storage. They're different chassis, so the problem we run into in the data center is the depth of the actual equipment. The newer equipment, if we buy an FX910 or a 900, it's a lot shorter in scale than if I buy an 83,000, which is much bigger. This makes it more complicated for deployment.

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Srikanth Purushothaman

DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems

Has supported long-term data protection and backup while requiring better part availability and pricing options

For monitoring purposes, we normally use flash access storage exclusively. We utilize a hybrid system because we need performance, combining NL-SAS for the volume and SAS flash to use as a fast cache system that provides more IOPS. We normally implement RAID 10, which we prefer over RAID 6's n plus 2 combinations. We utilize it for data redundancy, even with write intensity on. Regarding the unified storage architecture for NetApp FAS Series, we normally opt for exclusivity unless budget constraints exist. Our IOPS are very high, reaching somewhere about 50k to 150k or 1.150k. The high performance ensures minimal latency. An advantage we've seen with NetApp FAS Series is that snapshots provide very rapid backup and fast recovery. We basically use snapshots for data protection as first-level protection, with deduplication between the two storages serving as second-level protection.

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Esther Sultaana

Storage Consultant Storage at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Unified file platform has delivered secure multi‑protocol access for massive data growth

The creators of Qumulo were the ones who created Isilon, and I had a conversation with them, so any of the features within Isilon may need tweaking, but I think they resolved it here. In the year that I worked with it, I did not see anything that I had an issue with. The security is great, and it works with cloud technologies, being a hands-based tool, so you can use it with AWS or Microsoft Azure. It programs very easily. There are REST APIs, and there is a cloud connection. The management and program layer is made up of three capabilities: API, the command line, and a visual interface. In the year that I worked with it and brought it in, I think it has been effective. The only thing I would like to see added to Qumulo is for the interface to improve visually, more in line with vCenter, but that is just my thought. Overall, I appreciate it.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has simplified management by consolidating our workloads, and rather than managing all the different workloads on different storage arrays and Windows Servers, we just have one place per data centre where we manage all their unstructured data, saving us time."

"Dell PowerScale overall is easy to use."

"On a scale of one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would rate Dell PowerScale (Isilon) a ten."

"The inter-cluster replication feature, called SyncIQ, allows you to set up all of the jobs and move your data entirely, either timely or all at once."

"Its scalability has been huge for us."

"The solution's most valuable features are scalability and flexibility."

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

"My advice to other companies considering Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is that it takes a little time to understand the product, but once you have it set up and running, it will run stable for all its lifetime."

More Dell PowerScale pros

"It’s a decently mature product that has a lot of documentation and standards and is something to be relied on."

"Good bang for the buck."

"Ability to use mirroring and SnapVault have made backup no longer necessary."

"The solution has tiers inside which means we do not only need to use SSDs."

"It saves a lot of time and minimizes downtime, which is important because we're a hospital and we can’t afford much downtime."

"At the end of the day, we have reduced the time to market for all of our products, especially when we need to support our clients with new requirements."

"The performance allows me to provide backend storage for large number of VMs and databases at a competitive price point."

"NetApp FAS Series is simple to set up."

More NetApp FAS Series pros

"Overall, I would rate Qumulo a nine. I appreciate that it does snapshots, and you could use replication."

"The ratio of total operational cost to complexity versus feature set is very good."

"The feature that I like most is the analytics part of the file system."

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are the ease of management and special permissions that are quick to enable. The overall performance of the solution is good."

"The data protection algorithm to protect the data between the nodes has been the most valuable feature. The integration with backup platforms such as Veeam and Veritas has also been valuable."

"The most valuable feature of Qumulo is the ability to share files and reliability."

"The most valuable feature is real-time analytics."

More Qumulo pros

Cons

"We see room for improvement in Dell PowerScale (Isilon) because we need personnel to effectively utilize all our infrastructure; it's not easy to find skilled people to work on AI and data analysis."

"I would want to see more AI features with Dell PowerScale (Isilon)."

"That said, for the other security features, it would be helpful if Tenable - and I know it's outside the scope of this question itself - had Isilon-specific plugins."

"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."

"Dell's customer service needs improvement. Specifically, hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline."

"Perhaps if there was a local chatbot built within the system or on the dashboard where we could directly ask for anything on the OneFS, it could help us."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could improve the load distribution capability. For example, in some cases, the system load is not distributed automatically on all the nodes but is concentrated only on one."

"It would be good to have synchronized mirroring between two clusters without using a third-party program."

More Dell PowerScale cons

"With scalability, we feel the system is limited."

"The user interface could be improved."

"The AutoSupport could be improved to be more proactive in certain cases."

"It could improve by better integrating with other technologies like VMware, as there are some version conflicts."

"The biggest issue we face is parts delivery. There's no local warehouse in Myanmar, so if a customer encounters a technical problem like an IMEI issue, they have to wait a long time for replacement parts."

"It's not a cheap system. It is very expensive. The pricing has been ridiculous every time that we had to renew the support."

"Needs more SAN support."

"I would like to see NetApp add incident support."

More NetApp FAS Series cons

"The price of the software is a bit expensive, so a reduction in cost would make it more competitive."

"Qumulo should continue to expand automation and orchestration capabilities."

"Some anti-theft permissions do not transfer well to Qumulo."

"In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

"The only thing I would like to see added to Qumulo is for the interface to improve visually, more in line with vCenter, but that is just my thought."

"One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential."

"The solution could improve availability and improve data protection or data services such as compression of deduplication."

"There is plenty of room for improvement. In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

More Qumulo cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I always want things to be less expensive. However, I would say the pricing is fair. Their costs are in alignment with their competitors. It is a good value for the money."

"It is an expensive solution."

"Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users."

"The pricing is excellent."

"It is a really expensive solution."

"The solution's licensing cost varies based on capacity and performance requirements."

"It's a high-cost offering amounting to three or four million Swedish kronor, or about $400,000 or euros, for approximately 480 terabytes of storage."

"Pricing for this solution is reasonable."

More Dell PowerScale pricing and cost advice

"NetApp FAS Series is a reasonably high-priced solution, partially because we select the configuration that duplicates the entire system."

"The price it not low, but comparing features to other vendors, the price can be balanced."

"The NetApp FAS series price is very competitive compared to other solutions on the market it is a good choice."

"The price of the NetApp FAS Series is reasonable and it provides value for the money with the feature sets. NetApp FAS Series are competing with Huawei storage which has an office and does aggressive marketing with a discount. However, we found that if our customers do a technology refresh they are happy with the performance of the NetApp FAS Series."

"The solution’s cost is reasonable."

"In general, I find NetApp to be very expensive. That's the main issue I have with them. So it's a drawback in terms of pricing."

"The licensing cost is on yearly basis."

"It is a one-time license charge for NetApp FAS Series to run and we pay annually for upgrades and support."

More NetApp FAS Series pricing and cost advice

"The price of Qumulo is reasonable."

"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to others. We look at the price per terabyte."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	51

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	58

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is cost-effective.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

I think Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could improve some functions such as Apache S3 or containerized storage support, as ...

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What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

Our primary use cases include virtualization storage and external storage via NFS.

See all answers

Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?

Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?

I do not handle the pricing part of NetApp FAS Series since it is managed by the sales team.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp FAS Series?

There is room for improvement when it comes to response time and first-level support quality. If a new feature needs ...

See all answers

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Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 4% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 4% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

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HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

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VAST Data vs Qumulo

Compared 7% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Qumulo

Compared 6% of the time

Nasuni vs Qumulo

Compared 5% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Qumulo

Compared 3% of the time

Scality RING vs Qumulo

Compared 3% of the time

More Qumulo Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale

May 2026

Download Dell PowerScale product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series

May 2026

Download NetApp FAS Series product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

May 2026

Download Qumulo product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

No data available

Overview

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

NetApp FAS Series offers high availability and seamless protocol integration. Known for its robust features such as data replication and efficient storage architecture, it finds use in challenging enterprise environments and virtualization.

NetApp FAS Series delivers valuable enterprise storage capabilities with an emphasis on unified storage architectures supporting SAN and NAS functionalities. Features like high availability, robust snapshot technology, and seamless protocol integration cater to diverse workloads. Data replication through SnapMirror and reliable performance under heavy loads are appreciated. Deduplication and compression enhance storage efficiency while scalability, resilience, and strong customer support further its appeal. Improvements are desired in flexibility, documentation, speed, and affordability. Additionally, its monitoring capabilities and cloud integration need attention. Organizations employ FAS Series for enterprise storage, SQL Server LUNs, Exchange LUNs, VMware, and corporate file sharing.

What are the most notable features of NetApp FAS Series?

High Availability: Ensures continuous access and reduces downtime.
Snapshot Technology: Offers point-in-time copies for data recovery.
SnapMirror: Provides efficient data replication for disaster recovery.
Storage Efficiency: Deduplication and compression optimize storage use.
Cloud Integration: Enhances flexibility with cloud environments.

What benefits should be examined in reviews?

Scalability: Supports expanding storage needs without performance loss.
Reliability: Maintains robust performance under heavy workloads.
Strong Support: Access to helpful customer service resources.
Cost Efficiency: Consider value in context of feature set and performance.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, NetApp FAS Series is implemented for centralized data management, supporting complex protocols like NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI. This enables efficient handling of virtualization, databases, unified storage tasks, and backup solutions crucial for maintaining unstructured data and redundancy.

NetApp

Qumulo offers an efficient and reliable file-sharing platform with real-time analytics and seamless integration with major cloud services, ensuring ease of use and high IO speed for storage needs.

With its focus on file sharing, real-time analytics, and reliability, Qumulo allows for smooth operations, ease of use, and resilience. It boasts integration with AWS and Google Cloud, providing enhanced functionality with a strong operational cost-to-complexity ratio. Despite requests for software upgrades and better support for certain protocols, it remains a competitive choice for centralized media storage and object-based storage solutions.

What are Qumulo's most important features?

File Sharing: Offers seamless file sharing capabilities.
Reliability: Ensures stable and dependable operations.
Ease of Use: Designed with user-friendly interfaces.
Real-Time Analytics: Provides immediate insights and data analysis.
No Downtime Updates: Supports upgrading without interruptions.
Failover Capability: Allows disaster recovery operations.
Cloud Integration: Compatible with AWS and Google Cloud.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Performance: High IO speed in storage systems.
Cost Efficiency: Benefits from operational cost-to-complexity ratio.
Data Insights: Detailed analytics on processes and usage.
Integration Potential: Easy integration with cloud and backup platforms.

Organizations in marketing and entertainment industries rely on Qumulo for managing files, media storage, and archiving needs. On-premises deployments are common for centralized media storage, facilitating object-based storage for videos, images, and office data support. The solution appeals to solution providers and resellers seeking market presence with application versatility.

Qumulo

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,

Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College

County of Riverside Sheriff Department, Hyundai Mobis Automotive North America, University of Arizona, UCSD - San Diego Supercomputer Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Sinclair Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Kaiser Permanente, Deluxe Creative, Vexcel Imaging, University of Florida, The Madison Square Garden Company, Arizona State University, Cinesite, San Diego Padres Baseball, Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine, IHME, EllieMae, Washington State University.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, CTERA and others in NAS. Updated: May 2026.

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