Dell PowerFlex Reviews

We use this solution to manage software-defined infrastructure and for rapid provisioning of computer storage.

The API catalog helps us use Ansible automation. We still have to build custom providers for PowerFlex Manager to use Ansible, but what we developed has enabled us to provision computer storage power for less than 16 hours.

The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited. 

It would be great to get earlier access to beta builds because we have to develop providers on our own. The APIs and enablers for custom automation could also be improved. 

I have used this solution for eight months.

This is a stable solution. 

The solution is not as scalable as it should be.

I would rate support for this solution a three out of ten. Considering how much we use PowerFlex Manager, it can only account for a hundred nodes. We need a lot more than that. We provide a lot of input to Dell for product enhancements.  The solution is not as scalable as it should be.

Negative

The initial setup of this solution is complex and requires a lot of maintenance. We use Dell and have internal resources to handle maintenance. If there was more tooling in services to facilitate workload management across the Dell infrastructure, that would really help.

The cost of this solution is fair. 

I would advise those setting up this solution to design their data center infrastructure in a way that enables upgrades quickly.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten. 

The solution has the benefits of any hyper-converged infrastructure but also has good hardware integration. It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place. Upgrading is easy, you do not need to check all of the components in your infrastructure, when you upgrade the solution handles everything.

When checking some of the components in the RCM during upgrades, it can be difficult, you have to check and upgrade the software-defined storage because it will get out of scale with the virtualization with VMware. You always have to consider this during upgrades but the process should be simplified.

I have been using the solution for approximately two years.

The solution is stable.

With this solution you can upgrade and scale up your environment very easy, it is used in enterprise organizations that have large environments.

I have found the technical support very good.

The installation is complex.

Dell came with engineers and integrators to do the deployment for us.

The price of the solution is fair, it is priced in the average range amongst competitors.

For those who want to scale their environment, manage all the environment from a single point, and have to only deal with a single vendor this solution might be for you. If you need these requirements from a business perspective as operations management, the operational cost could be lower but I would advise speaking to professional deployment teams before you do anything.

I rate Dell EMC PowerFlexRev a nine out of ten.