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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Veeam Data Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.0
PowerScale enhances data management efficiency, reducing costs and energy usage while boosting performance, reliability, and operational efficiency for enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.6
Veeam Data Platform enhances efficiency with reduced errors, decreased costs, fast restores, and significant time and storage savings.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerScale customer service is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, though some report mixed experiences with first-level support.
Sentiment score
7.4
Veeam Data Platform's support is praised for expertise and efficiency, though some desire improved communication and response speed.
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.
Most cases are handled perfectly.
I would rate their technical support a 10 out of 10.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Dell PowerScale efficiently scales with large data demands, seamless expansions, and supports diverse applications with on-premise and cloud integration.
Sentiment score
7.5
Veeam Data Platform provides robust scalability across environments, easily expanding through proxies or licenses, supporting seamless workload scaling.
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.
It involves acquiring additional licenses as needed.
In order to scale Veeam Data Platform, we have to pay a lot more money.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) offers excellent stability with minimal downtime, efficient clustering, and high user ratings for reliability.
Sentiment score
7.9
Veeam Data Platform is reliable, but scaling and specific configurations like Oracle backups and Azure scale-out may cause issues.
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.
There are no issues with stability in Veeam Data Platform.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale struggles with high costs, complex updates, limited improvements, and lacks cloud and multi-tenant capabilities.
Veeam Data Platform needs better support, automation, plugin enhancements, lower pricing, and improved scalability, security, and technology integration.
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.
The improvement we would like to see is the option to scale Veeam Data up in smaller sections rather than large sections, which requires paying much more.
Reducing it by 20% would make it more accessible to a broader range of customers.
OpenStack is something Veeam Data Platform doesn't support, and they haven't indicated that they will support it in the future.
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale is costly but offers fair pricing and scalability, appealing to enterprises with extensive data requirements.
Veeam Data Platform offers cost-effective, flexible licensing with minimal setup costs, making it attractive to enterprise buyers.
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.
I don't consider the price expensive given its importance.
A reduction of 20% in the current cost would make the solution more attractive to clients.
Veeam Data Platform is more expensive than OpenStack because we pay for it in US dollars, while we pay for OpenStack in Egyptian pounds.
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale excels in management, scalability, and performance, offering flexibility, resilience, and cost-effective storage with advanced monitoring.
Veeam Data Platform offers seamless integration, user-friendly design, reliable backups, encryption, scalability, and comprehensive tools for efficient data recovery.
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.
The platform is user-friendly, comprehensive, and compatible with numerous market solutions, including virtualization and bare metal servers.
The most important aspect of this platform is data security with immutable data in the storage.
Veeam Data Platform is valuable for its stability and the ability to easily contact support for assistance.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
NAS (2nd), File and Object Storage (2nd)
Veeam Data Platform
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
428
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (1st), Cloud Backup (1st), Virtualization Management Tools (4th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and Veeam Data Platform aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is designed for NAS and holds a mindshare of 17.5%, up 17.5% compared to last year.
Veeam Data Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Backup and Recovery, holds 14.5% mindshare, down 19.5% since last year.
NAS
Backup and Recovery
 

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.
Edward Hore - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable with good support but needs a better navigation menu
We use Veeam Data to back up our VMware infrastructure Veeam Data Platform is valuable for its stability and the ability to easily contact support for assistance. The support team provides answers whenever we need them. It is also one of the most scalable backup solutions I've worked with. The…
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Comparison Review

it_user159711 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 9, 2014
VMware SRM vs. Veeam vs. Zerto
Disaster recovery planning is something that seems challenging for all businesses. Virtualization in addition to its operational flexibility, and cost reduction benefits, has helped companies improve their DR posture. Virtualization has made it easier to move machines from production to…
 

Answers from the Community

GG
Nov 19, 2021
Nov 19, 2021
Assuming you want to keep the data within the datacenter, there are a few options: For Small deployments (~20-100TB's), you could mount share(s) on any backup (media) server and backup the data up over the network using a file-system agent - Veeam could easily support this. For Medium deployments (~100TB - 1PB), you could use any backup system that supports NDMP. Not sure if Veeam supports NDMP...
2 out of 5 answers
SimonClark - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 5, 2021
There are a number of alternative cloud solutions available e.g. Druva.  However, if the price is a key factor then you may benefit from by using an Managed Service Provider (MSP). MSP's white label large, credible & established platforms. They provide the same level of speed, uptime, resilience and security as a key brand name but can be as much as half the price. The management of the backup will be optionally yours or fully outsourced to the MSP.  Another benefit of the MSP model is that they will have other skills to complement your own internal resources potentially adding further layers of security and backend IT people to support your operation.
CvanderH - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 5, 2021
I have no experience with Dell EMC PowerScale though I do know that it is supported by Veeam.  A Veeam Scale Out Backup Repository can distribute the load across the PowerScale cluster via multiple Backup Repository Extents each defined to use a different cluster node DNS A record and path. When backups exceed the maximum file size limitation even with Veeam deduplication and compression, other considerations should be made.   Note:  Disable the write coalescer on the share directory and all sub-directories used by Veeam. PowerScale is a complex system and therefore I would advise you to contact Veeam experts on how to deploy Veeam in accordance with PowerScale. But a Scale Out Back Repository is an option, also XFS with reflink supports any Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) configuration.  MSP's are fine too if you are comfortable with having data outside your datacenter.   dsmISI VEEAM (general-storage.com)
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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)?
It's considered between mid and high-end regarding. Dell usually knows how to position each model. If the customer wants something inexpensive, there's PowerVault. The system is marketed for mid-ra...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
With every iteration of the OneFS system, new features are being added, and the UI is being updated here and there. So far, the system is adequate as a whole. Perhaps if there was a local chatbot b...
Major Differences Between These 4 Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions?
Comparing the features of the four is not the right approach. You need to develop a list of requirements for backup and DR that are specific to your organization and then compare each of the four ...
How do the backup solutions of Veeam and Veritas compare?
Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too. But Veritas Netbac...
How does Nakivo compare with Veeam Backup & Replication?
Nakivo is my favorite backup software. Below are the main benefits of Nakivo compared to Veeam 1. Low cost. 2. Backup storage with global deduplication (this is the main requirement of a backup sol...
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE, Veeam Backup & Replication
 

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,
Business & Legal Resources Inc., Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, Alliance Healthcare, Poulin Grain Inc., Linear Technology, Northwestern University, ARKEMA, Sogegross, City of Lynchburg
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hitachi Vantara and others in NAS. Updated: August 2025.
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