Dell PowerScale vs EXAScaler comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Dell Technologies and DataDirect Networks are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8, while DataDirect Networks is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0. Dell Technologies holds a 12.9% mindshare in N, compared to DataDirect Networks’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of DataDirect Networks users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerScale

Read 114 Dell PowerScale reviews

20,036 Views
11,220 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

EXAScaler

Read 1 EXAScaler review

1,454 Views
727 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale

EXAScaler

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerScale and EXAScaler 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: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NAS

October 2026

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Helped 920,939 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale

Ranking in NAS

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (1st)

EXAScaler

Ranking in NAS

17th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File System Software (8th), Cloud Storage (18th), Storage Performance (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale is 12.9%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of EXAScaler is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale	12.9%
EXAScaler	1.0%
Other	86.1%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Santosh Bharadwaj Rangavajjula

Product Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

File sharing has supported collaboration and disaster recovery but security support still needs work

Dell PowerScale can improve specifically for AI workloads, particularly on the MCPs. I would add that we have not seen an official MCP from Dell PowerScale and are relying on open source. It would be valuable to have an MCP server that we can set up directly with them. Regarding Dell PowerScale's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security could be better. We have Superna that we buy along with Dell PowerScale, but we are seeing very big problems with integrating it. Superna is primarily for the security use case, as we want to prevent cybersecurity attacks and ransomware attacks. If Dell is providing this as a supplementary feature, it should provide better support. Regarding Dell PowerScale's AI capabilities, I do not see much accuracy and reliability of output. This is actually a security problem because Dell does not provide official MCP servers while most other vendors are providing it. This forces us to rely on open source, which is not secure. Dell PowerScale plays a role in my organization's AI initiatives as we want to use the Metadata IQ functionality from Dell PowerScale; however, there is not enough support and extensive documentation for us to be able to do this.

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reviewer2544219

Chief Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Solution enables exceptional performance and immense scalability for AI cluster training

I am a system integrator, and my customers are using EXAScaler as the de facto parallel file system for Google Cloud. They primarily use it for large AI cluster training EXAScaler provides amazing performance in terms of sequential read and random access, and it has a significant scalability…

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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 single pane of glass for both IT and for the end-user is a valuable feature. On the IT side, I can actually control where things are stored, whether something is stored on solid-state drives or spinning drives... The single pane of glass makes it very easy to use and very easy to understand. We started at 100 terabytes and we moved to 250 and it still feels like the exact same system and we're able to move data as needed."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) actually combined a shared file system that scales seamlessly and works effectively, making the blocking and tackling exactly what was advertised."

"The stability of the solution is good."

"The most valuable feature is its single space of storage."

"Customer service is absolutely satisfying, rating at least nine out of ten, as they have managed previous issues well."

"Prior to Isilon, we had to access data from multiple different platforms, and this solution offers unified storage and the ability to consolidate and migrate data, which was a big step forward and allowed us to cut costs by eliminating multiple platforms and putting it all on one array."

"The solution allows me to use SSMDS to store data for end users and share it within different locations."

"Isilon is flexible in supporting various data workloads while keeping them protected. Dell continues to release updates and patches which enhance the use of this solution. This includes offering ransomware protection."

More Dell PowerScale pros

"The customers who use DDN EXAScaler are happy, especially when using large AI clusters for training."

"EXAScaler provides amazing performance in terms of sequential read and random access, and it has a significant scalability advantage as it is scalable to petabytes."

Cons

"Technical support could be improved. Whenever we have a hiccup, we'd like to get it fixed maybe quicker."

"Dell PowerScale's deployment is not easy."

"The product itself is capable of very much, but the initial deployment experience can be lacking possibly because it does not incorporate any design phase."

"The solution can be integrated with an automation system. Dell uses another framework developed in-house. They can integrate it with machines."

"We're still fairly new with it. It's been a pretty positive experience thus far. However, they could improve implementation, as we had to rack and stack it ourselves."

"Some improvements to the NFS support would be of interest to us."

"The customer support from Dell is bad, really bad. We needed support because Dell offers support sold as an add-on product, Superna, and it has been a nightmare."

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

More Dell PowerScale cons

"One challenge with EXAScaler is during upgrade time, as it can be problematic when upgrading node by node. Additionally, it is not multi-protocol by nature, requiring additional hardware to support various protocols like NFS or object storage."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price was also a significant factor in our decision to go with PowerScale. The team at EMC, now Dell EMC, came through with a highly competitive offer that tipped the scales towards their solution. There was only one other solution around the same price point, but it could not match PowerScale on features. That other solution is no longer on the market."

"We use the TNA approach which is a great opportunity for us to better manage the licenses based on how much consumption is available for the different customers so we can use that approach and scalability."

"The price of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is reasonable."

"Pricing for this solution is reasonable."

"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."

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

"This solution is priced slightly higher than others on the market but does offer good quality. With this solution's data reduction and compression, we were able to purchase less. Costs have dropped because of the data rate of compression and deduplication."

"The pricing for this solution is reasonable."

More Dell PowerScale pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	70

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

When it comes to pricing for Dell PowerScale, I find it reasonable. As you may expect, it is a high-end enterprise solution, so it comes with a price that is not expensive but not cheap. However, i...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

I believe Dell PowerScale can be improved by advancing its AI capabilities further. For instance, when we fetch data, it could potentially display multiple options of how the data looks in differen...

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

Dell PowerScale serves as a premier scale-out network-attached storage solution that I primarily use for data storage and managing mass volumes of unstructured data. I use it to handle different do...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for EXAScaler?

EXAScaler is a bit expensive, particularly when comparing the total cost of ownership.

See all answers

What needs improvement with EXAScaler?

One challenge with EXAScaler is during upgrade time, as it can be problematic when upgrading node by node. Additionally, it is not multi-protocol by nature, requiring additional hardware to support...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for EXAScaler?

I am a system integrator, and my customers are using EXAScaler as the de facto parallel file system for Google Cloud. They primarily use it for large AI cluster training.

See all answers

Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 15% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 8% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 4% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 3% of the time

More Dell PowerScale Competitors

CTERA Intelligent Data Platform vs EXAScaler

Compared 44% of the time

Nasuni vs EXAScaler

Compared 16% of the time

DDN A3I vs EXAScaler

Compared 11% of the time

More EXAScaler Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale

November 2026

Download Dell PowerScale product report

Buyer's Guide

File System Software

October 2026

Download EXAScaler product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

No data available

Overview

As a storage engine in Dell AI Data Platform, Dell PowerScale is the world's #1 scale-out NAS platform for enterprise unstructured data. Trusted by more than 25,000 customers, including more than 1,500 customers running GPU workloads, PowerScale uses OneFS operating system to provide a single namespace and unified file and object access for AI/ML training, RAG pipelines, analytics, media production, and life sciences, and other demanding workloads. PowerScale F710 was the world’s first Ethernet-based storage appliance certified with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD. Selected configurations support NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage, pNFS, and NFS over RDMA for high-throughput parallel AI data access. PowerScale supports near-linear, non-disruptive scaling from terabytes to petabytes. Available in all-flash, hybrid, and archive configurations for on-premises and cloud deployment options, including AWS and Azure. Supported next-generation configurations deliver up to 35 GB/s read throughput per node.

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

EXAScaler is a high-performance, scalable storage solution tailored for data-intensive environments, enhancing efficiency for enterprise operations.

Designed for demanding workflows, EXAScaler optimizes data throughput and reliability. It supports immense data sets, ensuring seamless integration with high-performance computing and AI workloads. Its architecture facilitates rapid data access and robust storage management to boost operational efficiency.

What are EXAScaler's key features?

High Scalability: Adapts to growing data needs by expanding storage capacity.
Optimized Performance: Delivers fast data access for critical workloads.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with various IT environments.
Reliable Data Management: Ensures data integrity and security.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating EXAScaler?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines data handling processes.
Cost Savings: Reduces storage and operational expenses.
Improved Data Insight: Facilitates analytics with swift access to data.
Enhanced Scalability: Easily adjusts to changing demands.

EXAScaler is implemented across sectors like financial services, scientific research, and healthcare, where high-speed data processing and robust storage solutions are crucial for success. Its ability to manage extensive data sets efficiently supports innovation and productivity in these industries.

DataDirect Networks

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,

Information Not Available

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

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