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Dell PowerScale vs Hitachi NAS Platform comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale
Ranking in NAS
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (1st)
Hitachi NAS Platform
Ranking in NAS
13th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale is 13.3%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hitachi NAS Platform is 2.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale13.3%
Hitachi NAS Platform2.7%
Other84.0%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

RahulSharma8 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group
Unified file sharing has simplified multi-tenant access and has delivered seamless data replication
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) includes its replication features; when we decommissioned our old Isilon cluster, we migrated all of the data to a new cluster, and it was pretty seamless. All you have to do is create the certificates and make those certificates available to the target cluster, then initiate a few jobs. 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. Another suitable feature is the ability to back up your directories; you can take snapshots for all of your directories, and in fact, I believe you can take around a thousand snapshots for a single directory. The inter-replication, geo-replication is one feature. Dell provides a variety class of hardware suitable for your workloads, meaning if your data is just lab and not critical, you don't have to spend much on the hardware; conversely, if your data is mission-critical, you can buy a high-performance node from Dell. Additionally, you can span Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cluster to a large number of nodes, and code upgrades are pretty smooth because all protocols will be upgraded under a single piece of code. Since it provides a single file system that spans across the nodes, you don't have to worry about that directory structure being separately created on individual nodes, making it a fitting solution for a data lake solution because you can access the same data from multiple protocols.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
Needs standalone functionality but provides a robust NAS solution for existing SAN environments
I would suggest that Hitachi make a NAS box that can work independently, without relying on SAN connectivity. The current solution only suits customers who already have a Hitachi SAN environment and want to add NAS protocols like NFS and CIFS. It's not suitable for customers without an existing SAN, as they would first need to acquire the SAN infrastructure before adding NAS functionality.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) that I prefer the most include some of the newer technologies that are on it, which would include SmartSync and the ability for the data mover to continue to make incremental changes."
"Operational efficiency with Dell PowerScale is relatively easy to operate."
"Dell PowerScale's performance is good."
"Customer service is absolutely satisfying, rating at least nine out of ten, as they have managed previous issues well."
"PowerScale is one of those things that will grow in your environment; once you start it with one thing, you'll learn that it can do much more, very quickly."
"The solution is extremely easy to manage. This is its most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its performance."
"Dell PowerScale includes a wealth of features that are important from a security and recovery perspective."
"The product has valuable features for data migration."
"The pricing of this solution is good, which is an advantage that positions this product well."
"Hitachi is reliable with high availability and solid performance. It performs well regardless of the workload."
"Simple and extremely reliable."
"Hitachi NAS has improved my storage operations significantly."
"It creates a NAS environment on top of Hitachi SAN, which facilitates customers who need NAS protocols along with their existing SAN portfolio."
"Hitachi NAS Platform is very stable."
"Some bugs cause issues but I love the ASIC architecture behind it."
 

Cons

"I would want to see more AI features with Dell PowerScale (Isilon)."
"I would make Dell PowerScale (Isilon) better by improving SmartSync in the graphical user interface. Currently, everything has to be done through the command line, and I prefer having a graphical interface."
"The solution is expensive. It's quite expensive for the amount of storage we have."
"The solution can be a bit complex for those not well versed in the technology."
"There is room for improvement with the updates. It can take a significant amount of time to do a major OS update. However, even though it takes multiple reboots, the cluster stays up. If we want to apply a newer version of the OS, we have to roll back some of the patches so that we can upgrade. It requires a few reboots just to do that. The cluster doesn't come down, everything is still running, but it's time-consuming, at times."
"The only thing that I think PowerScale could do better is improving the HTTP data access protocol. At the present, you cannot protect access to data via HTTP or HTTPS the same way that you can secure data access through other protocols like NFS or SMB[...]the Unified Permission Model that would allow a user to authenticate before being able to access a private file, does not apply."
"There is room for improvement in its handling of object storage."
"The product needs to improve CLI since commands are complex. The search option is also difficult since you must give the full path."
"Hitachi NAS Platform needs to improve by offering a unified storage solution. Due to budget constraints in regions like Southeast Asia, customers prefer a single machine that can handle all problems, which the current platform does not provide."
"The Hitachi NAS Platform is too complicated, not simple, and not cost-effective, sometimes being inappropriate for most situations."
"I rated Hitachi NAS a seven out of ten, primarily due to the interface or insufficient improvements in certain areas."
"I would like to see the inclusion of support for cloud-connectivity to providers like AWS."
"I do not like Hitachi NAS because it's an old-school NAS solution, compared to the other, newer-type solutions such as Isilon from Dell or Qumulo."
"There are insufficient improvements in certain areas."
"Hitachi NAS Platform's pricing could be reduced. It is high compared to other competitors."
"I encounter challenges while installing the upgrades for the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is excellent."
"It is a really expensive solution."
"The solution is expensive; it is not the cheapest solution out there. If you look at it from a total cost of ownership perspective, then it is a very compelling solution. However, if you're looking at just dollar per terabyte and not looking at the big picture, then you could be distracted by the price. It is not an amazing price, but it's pretty good. It is also very good when you consider the total cost of ownership and ease of management."
"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 price of the solution can fluctuate. The price can be competitive or other times not. The price of the solution could be better."
"It is an expensive product with a high storage capacity suitable for large data requirements."
"Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment."
"The platform is not cheap. However, on the software side, you can choose what you want license. So, you can start your licensing with the features that you need, then after buying the platform add some other features."
"This solution is priced well and there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"Hitachi NAS Platform’s price is high and depends on SCSI disc capacity."
"Costs are based on the features and it is a considerable amount."
"I would rate the solution's pricing six to seven out of ten."
"It is a highly-priced product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise65
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
The on-premises solution with Dell PowerScale, when we buy directly from Dell, is economical. We have done some level of comparison. Although in the current markets we have seen the price differenc...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
There should be some enhancement where Dell PowerScale can have block level functionality or block storage kind of functionality. Although there is a different product line from Dell, if there is s...
What is your primary use case for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
We use Dell PowerScale for our object scale and different kinds of storage, including both object storage and file storage.I am part of the solution architect team, which is a techno-commercial rol...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hiachi NAS Platform?
The pricing for the Hitachi NAS is higher compared to other NAS solutions since the NAS protocol is provided on top of the existing SAN environment, requiring an additional device for NAS functiona...
What needs improvement with Hiachi NAS Platform?
For the Hitachi NAS Platform, the tools are basic and don't provide much insight. They can continue to improve the interface to keep it up-to-date, and maybe add some new features or better ways of...
What is your primary use case for Hiachi NAS Platform?
We sell the Hitachi NAS Platform, and it is the best product for our customers. I sell it to banks, telecom companies, and other enterprises at the enterprise level. We have a cluster with Hitachi ...
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
Hitachi NAS
 

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,
Intersect Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale vs. Hitachi NAS Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.