Dell PowerScale vs NetApp V-Series [EOL] comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the NAS category. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% 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 V-Series [EOL]

Read 3 NetApp V-Series [EOL] reviews

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale

NetApp V-Series [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerScale and NetApp V-Series [EOL] 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:

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NAS (1st), File and Object Storage (2nd)

NetApp V-Series [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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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it_user487899

Infrastructure Administrator at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Flexible, allowing us to provide NAS and SAN solutions with the same hardware

According to my experience, for certain HPC environments, we encounter certain Memory/CPU limitations when we have a large number of IOPS. This is why, in order to support such loads, several cabs are required in parallel, complicating the configuration and administration. Another handicap is the management of the LACP that, when we are talking about environments with less than 20 calculation nodes, may not balance correctly despite setting the RR option.

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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

"There are also the policies that you set up on replication and purging files, and policies for something called WORM. That's a "write once, read many," where you can't overwrite certain files or certain data. It puts them in a "protected mode" where it becomes very difficult for someone to accidentally delete. We use that for certain files or certain directories, because we're dealing with video and some video has to be protected for chain-of-custody purposes. The WORM feature works great."

"The most valuable features of the solution are flexibility and ease of implementation."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) definitely deserves ten out of ten for scalability."

"Eyeglass is used to monitor for malware, which is very useful for us."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the unlimited scalability. The tool has high availability and high storage capacity."

"My experience with Dell as a vendor is pretty good; they are probably one of the best in the industry."

"This solution offers flexibility in supporting various data workloads and is very easy to work with, making it our go-to solution for all data storage."

"The fact that we were able to set it up, use it, and, for the most part, didn't have to worry about it after we had it set up has been valuable."

More Dell PowerScale pros

"You have the ability to connect a third-party storage back end, EMC VMAX in our case, and have all NetApp functionalities available."

"We are very happy with this solution as it brings us the scalability and stability of Data Ontap and the versatility of NetApp solutions in order to provide different types of services for our customers' requirements (NAS, CIFS, FC / FCoE)."

Cons

"I have experienced a RAM failure in some of the nodes of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), and that required hardware replacement."

"I believe the support engineers need to improve their skills."

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

"They should add some new services that should be for on-premises, and more analytics should be there for the data, allowing for a deep dive from that analytics, which is currently missing."

"The legacy file system for Epsilon didn't scale into the cloud and didn't have a separate OS. It would be key if this was made possible."

"We're struggling with the UID mapping and how to configure mapping-related things."

"The thing that they are working on now, and we are following closely is more native cloud integrations. The way that we envision workloads in the future is around moving compute to data instead of the other way around. So, we would like to have a single pane glass to manage storage across a variety of different platforms, including native cloud. That would be awesome."

"We have issues in Brazil with the procurement of solutions because we have to check the entire market and justify the pricing to our audit institutions, making it difficult to keep with the same vendor."

More Dell PowerScale cons

"According to my experience, for certain HPC environments, we encounter certain Memory/CPU limitations when we have a large number of IOPS."

"We have had some performance issues."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 pricing is excellent."

"Dell PowerScale is an expensive solution compared to other products like Qumulo."

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

"It is an 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."

"It is an expensive product with a high storage capacity suitable for large data requirements."

"The pricing is expensive, but I think it's a fair value because it does manage itself. It definitely is much simpler than any of the other scale-out storage platforms that we've looked at in the past."

More Dell PowerScale pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

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 these aspects are not well-developed. Their support system is weak; many issues ...

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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.

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Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 19% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 9% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 6% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 4% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerScale Competitors

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs NetApp V-Series [EOL]

Compared 38% of the time

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs NetApp V-Series [EOL]

Compared 33% of the time

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery vs NetApp V-Series [EOL]

Compared 29% of the time

More NetApp V-Series [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale

May 2026

Download Dell PowerScale product report

Buyer's Guide

Backup and Recovery

May 2026

Download NetApp V-Series [EOL] 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 V-Series storage virtualization controllers provide leading data protection, data management, and storage efficiency for your existing EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, Fujitsu, and NetApp E-Series storage arrays. Reclaim 35% or more capacity and reduce what you must spend for new disk drives to handle data growth by using NetApp storage efficiency features such as deduplication, thin provisioning, and compression. Optimize your workload performance with our broad flash portfolio.

NetApp

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,

City of Houston, Health Choice Network, SVC Bank, Plex Systems, Larsen & Toubro, IWD, JCVI

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

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