Our customers consist of banking sectors, financial sectors, infrastructure services, and service divisions, such as oil and gas-based customers. We recommend Dell PowerScale to our customers based on their business demands and data management needs. Primarily, it is used for handling large-scale data, including real-time data generation from remote locations, particularly in industries like automobile manufacturing, where vast amounts of unstructured data are gathered and processed.
Presales Solution Architect at DXC Technology
Highly scalable data management with a straightforward setup and advanced ransomware protection
Pros and Cons
- "Features like ransomware protection, file lock retention, and third-party integrations (e.g., Superna for ransomware protection) are significant benefits."
- "Improvements could be made on the object storage side."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Dell PowerScale helps our customers by providing a highly scalable and efficient data management solution that supports their operations effectively. It allows for the seamless addition of nodes to the cluster as needed, ensuring the organization's data storage can grow proportionately with their demands. PowerScale supports various use cases, from real-time data processing to maintaining data integrity and availability, which is crucial for sectors generating large volumes of data daily.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features is erasure coding, which prevents data loss even if a single node fails. The OneFS OS provides a single namespace, improving data storage efficiency and management.
Features like ransomware protection, file lock retention, and third-party integrations (e.g., Superna for ransomware protection) are significant benefits.
Additionally, the scalability and capability to handle large amounts of unstructured data, real-time data processing, and integration with AI workloads make it a robust solution for enterprises.
What needs improvement?
Improvements could be made on the object storage side. PowerScale offers object storage capabilities, but not in a fully integrated way. If customers have workloads requiring both file and object storage, PowerScale can provide up to 20% object storage, which might not be sufficient for all needs. A unified solution combining NAS and object storage, similar to other solutions that combine block and NAS, would be beneficial.
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
September 2025

Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2025.
866,744 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with Dell PowerScale for almost a year. Previously, I worked with the Isilon model before transitioning to PowerScale.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell PowerScale is very stable, with a stability rating of nine out of ten. In terms of availability and stability, I would give it a ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell PowerScale is extremely scalable. You can start with a minimum of three nodes and expand based on capacity demands. This feature allows for significant flexibility in managing storage needs. The scalability is further enhanced by its ability to integrate new nodes automatically without manual effort.
How are customer service and support?
Support for Dell PowerScale is never a challenge. There is twenty-four-seven-three-sixty-five support available, including four-hour on-site support for high-priority issues. The on-site engineer will reach the location, review the issue, and work on it within four hours. Hence, I would rate technical support a ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for PowerScale is straightforward and easy. It just requires initial configuration, followed by automated processes to complete the setup. Therefore, I would give it a rating of ten for ease of setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Dell PowerScale depends on the customer's specific requirements and capacity needs. It is generally considered a costly solution, but its features and capabilities justify the price. It's essential to align the pricing with the business needs and future scalability requirements.
What other advice do I have?
If your business demands a highly scalable data solution, including handling multiple edge locations and large amounts of data effectively, Dell PowerScale is a suitable option. It is particularly advantageous for enterprises with specific AI workloads. However, due to its cost, it may not be the best option for mid-range customers or those looking for general-purpose file services.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. reseller

Manager Broadcast IT Europe at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Single storage space with enhanced data management operations and an easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is its single space of storage."
- "The analytics could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use Dell PowerScale for storage in our data management operations.
How has it helped my organization?
Dell PowerScale has provided us with a single space of storage, which is beneficial for our needs.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is its single space of storage.
What needs improvement?
The analytics could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have about fifteen years of experience with this solution under different names.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Dell PowerScale is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of this solution is good. I would rate it ten on a scale from one to ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is excellent. I would rate it ten on a scale from one to ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Quantum before switching to Dell. Quantum was not as reliable as we wanted, and it was more difficult to use.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy. I would rate it ten on a scale from one to ten.
What about the implementation team?
Our deployment was done in-house.
What was our ROI?
There has been no massive ROI in the storage. That said, it met our expectations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of Dell PowerScale is reasonable. However, it is on the pricier side. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
Check out what's on the market and make sure it's right for you. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
September 2025

Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2025.
866,744 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of Infrastructure and Network Services at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helps reduce data silos, improves performance, and flexibility
Pros and Cons
- "Dell PowerScale includes a wealth of features that are important from a security and recovery perspective."
- "Dell PowerScale can improve on its multi-tenant part because as a service provider, we have bigger clusters in data centers where we can serve multiple customers and grant them dedicated management points and automation features that can be managed in a multi-tenant environment."
What is our primary use case?
Dell PowerScale helps us manage a variety of unstructured data for healthcare and manufacturing clients. This allows the data to be stored and accessed by different types of systems like system-to-system access and user-to-system access. Dell PowerScale helps the data make sense in environments where we are also managing the data engine portion for our customers. We are able to use different Dell technologies for moving and saving data. Dell PowerScale is the best option for cost based on the environment.
We initially deployed PowerScale on-prem and then started to take advantage of the cloud but the cost became a factor. The customers feel more confident with the on-prem deployment.
How has it helped my organization?
Our customers have seen improvement in performance, space, and flexibility for growth and management of data protection through snapshots and other systems.
The AI models are something we are looking forward to trying but are not there yet. The algorithms are specific to each company and their industry. One of the most important things is the data localization. Many scenarios require the project data traffic to be close to where it is generated and read. A lot of interaction is between users and systems. So data localization is one of the most important things in terms of using the data algorithm.
We don't need to manage our PowerScale and run its storage from any location yet but it is something that is coming for sure because several customers have centralized data in main data centers. But in different locations across the globe. So this is going to be a topic. I think that through the different functionalities that the Dell platform can grant, it will be a great player.
When it comes to the flexibility for supporting various data workloads while protecting them, the combination of PowerScale and PPDM and all the other components of the data protection solution right now is key. So the automatic integration between the products is one of the killer features of the solution itself.
PowerScale helped us to reduce data silos. This has simplified the management of large data environments in terms of scalability and management instead of having a different solution for the right reports to see how the data evolves and how to better manage them. PowerScale can do that in combination with the other components of the ecosystem.
In terms of risk reduction, We need to mention the data management and the recovery part, So of course, the integration with the data domain is key. The fact that we can rely on these functions, and the fact that we also manage different customers, and possess the recovery plans and tests that can prove the solution is working.
What is most valuable?
Dell PowerScale includes a wealth of features that are important from a security and recovery perspective.
What needs improvement?
Dell PowerScale can improve on its multi-tenant part because as a service provider, we have bigger clusters in data centers where we can serve multiple customers and grant them dedicated management points and automation features that can be managed in a multi-tenant environment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerScale for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell PowerScale is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability depends on the policy and data retention plan that is in place. The fact that we can easily upgrade the platform by moving to different versions is key.
How are customer service and support?
One of the key points for our partnership with Dell is the great support and human interaction. Not only for the setup but also the visibility into the vulnerabilities, new features, and the ease of access to data and information about how the platform is evolving.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use multi-vendor storage but Dell is one of our key partners. The pros are the fact that all the different technologies in the Dell ecosystem are integrated using themselves, and the fact that we can have the server resiliency integrated, the CAB solution that is integrated, and that, of course, is working very well in terms of performance. The other vendors propose similar solutions but in terms of integration and liability, they are not the same as Dell. We have different solutions because there are different needs of different customers, and we consider that they may have previously purchased different hardware.
PowerScale falls behind some of the competition in terms of automation. There are new players like VAST Data who started a company with an API-first approach which facilitates better automation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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. Overall, the experience is good, and this is why we are progressing in our partnership.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Dell PowerScale nine out of ten.
We manage 40 petabytes of data in different customer environments.
Just like with AI, we are adopting containerized solutions, the fact that we are a managed service provider, of course. This is a different scenario from other customers because there are customers who are not yet into containerized applications. they are slowly transforming their platform and their support. Of course, containers are coming and in those scenarios, PowerFlex is a better option.
I believe in a hybrid approach, mainly because we've seen several customers that have workloads where data flows to user protection centers. So the data needs to be analyzed on proximity infrastructure. This is the reason why I strongly believe that hybrid will progress. For some companies, a full cloud approach may work but not for all of them.
The key factors for driving our decision-making process when it comes to selecting a cloud, on-prem, or hybrid environment for our enterprise applications are, where the data needs to be accessed, and scalability to adapt to different demands we may have. It depends on the different types of industries that we are serving. We will have our own data centers. But we will have to scale using the hyperscaler in order to be flexible in terms of data movement and also flexible in terms of preparation of the infrastructure. The speed we can achieve on hyperscalers is different than the speed we can achieve on-premises.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Group manager at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Offers reliability along with an easy deployment phase
Pros and Cons
- "The tool's most valuable features are high density and scalability."
- "The tool's support team and the way the cases are handled by the product's technical support team are both areas of concern where improvements are required."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company for large files. With Dell PowerScale (Isilon), the amount of files my company deals with is humungous in size.
How has it helped my organization?
My company has only four people working on the Dell PowerScale (Isilon) platform, which has around 300 TB. With the number of people necessary to run the tool, I am not sure if it can be considered an effective product.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are high density and scalability. The high density and scalability features are important for my company since we are trying to have low electricity and power consumption, considering that the amount of data that we have to use is limited.
My company uses an on-premises deployment model for Dell PowerScale (Isilon).
No one is required to maintain the product, but since it is a huge platform in our company's environment, some things need to be replaced constantly. The aforementioned issues with the tool are not because the product or hardware is bad but something that happens since it functions in a large environment.
If I consider my assessment of Dell PowerScale's ability to interface with AI models and algorithms, I would say that my company has just started using AI after connecting it to the tool. I use the AI part a lot currently. So far, my company has only been using NFS to connect to our computers.
It can be difficult to assess the ability of Dell PowerScale to help our company manage and run its storage from any location since it is a huge platform. You can put the product anywhere, but I would say that it needs to be in big data centers. You can have one location or ten locations, but all of them need to be big locations. You can't put the product into a small office area. It is easy to manage the product from multiple locations. Generally, one can manage all locations using the product from a single point.
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) has helped a little to reduce or eliminate data silos, but all the silos we use in our company are huge, making it a hard process. My company needs to deal with silos anyways.
In terms of the flexibility of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for supporting various data workloads, while keeping them protected, I would say everything is good since they can scale up very fast with NVMe technology and disks and also with the archive data in disks along with the performance it offers. For protection, we use snapshots along with mirroring.
What needs improvement?
The tool's support team and the way the cases are handled by the product's technical support team are both areas of concern where improvements are required.
When replacing hardware parts of the tool, there are about 15 steps to follow before our company gets the parts sent over to us by Dell, making it an area that we feel consists of a lot of unnecessary work for our employees. Dell should streamline the aforementioned process and make it just one or two steps instead of making users go through 15 steps.
The support offered after installing the tool to deal with the problems associated with the tool could be a little bit better. After the installation phase, the tool's support services have certain shortcomings because our company is not allowed to use or send the automated error reports back to Dell. The aforementioned process needs to be manually handled by Dell and us, which is why it takes so long, even though we are eligible to get help from a dedicated support engineer. Processing logs and other stuff takes time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for seven years. My company is a customer of Dell.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability and reliability of the product are good. My company has only faced two big errors stopping the production in our organization over a span of seven years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
During the installation phase, Dell's support services are top-notch. I rate the technical support a six or seven out of ten. The support services during the tool's installation phase can be rated as ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
My experience with the product's deployment phase has been good.
The installation took two days for three racks, and going from zero to one hundred, it took two days. It is a simple step-by-step process that includes the physical installation and configuration. Our company is able to be up and running within two or three days.
Compared to the other vendors in the market, the setup phase of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is fast. Other products are difficult to handle when it comes to the setup process. It is actually the technology like SAN and other related technologies that make it harder for a person to deal with the setup process.
What about the implementation team?
My company opts for a 50-50 approach, meaning we take help from Dell's experts and from our own employees.
What was our ROI?
Considering my position at the company, I would say that we do not indulge in backtracking of anything associated with Dell PowerScale (Isilon).
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is easy for my company to deal with product costs and licensing. Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company uses products from multiple vendors all the time. My company is required to deal with multiple vendors, so sometimes we use Dell and others.
If I compare Dell PowerScale (Isilon) to other vendors in terms of both pros and cons, I would say that its pros are associated with the high scalability, where it is possible for one to build it in a very huge and large manner, but that has been so from ten years ago. Now, other vendors are coming out with good scalability features. I am soon going to have a one-on-one session later this week with Dell's experts.
What other advice do I have?
I don't envision the future of our company's containerized solutions in terms of cloud integration since it is not applicable as we don't use the cloud, but we do use containers.
Based on key factors and the decision-making process, my company only uses the on-premises environment for our containerized applications.
I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT & Broadcast Engineer at TV2 Media Group Ltd.
Performs well, meets our demands and easy to setup
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing is that it works. We don't have to maintain it too much; we usually upgrade once a year."
- "We had some issues with level 1 support. We had to fight with them on repeated issues. There is room for improvement in level 1 support."
How has it helped my organization?
We had to move metadata from standard disks to SSDs because we had issues with how the cluster handled metadata operations. With a lot of IO, the data lookup wasn't fast enough, causing performance problems. This setup resolved those issues.
We no longer had the performance issues with Dell PowerScale.
What is most valuable?
The platform performs really well. We're a media company with 14 TV stations. This solution is very capable of meeting our demands well. We use the SMB protocol for storage access, and it performs really well.
The best thing is that it works. We don't have to maintain it too much; we usually upgrade once a year.
We can get more than gigabit throughput from it.
What needs improvement?
The disk failure handling could be better. We had a few issues because one disk failed, which slightly impacted the whole node, but overall, the performance is stable.
We had to expand and increase the storage capacity, but it turned out we needed a totally new cluster because we couldn't expand the current one due to software incompatibilities. We think the backend network should be upgraded from InfiniBand to Ethernet networking, and we had to buy a new cluster. Dell has significantly increased the prices of new nodes, by a lot. As a result, we're considering new vendors because if prices increase by 300%, then the clients will look elsewhere.
The disc server handling is not the best. Maybe the tiering logic could be improved. It's based on our age or some other logic but not on disk usage. If you have a tier one, you don’t want to load it completely; it deserves some free space for new data, and you can’t manage that with the current tiering logic. That’s where this software or this solution could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for six years.
PowerScale, which used to be known as Isilon, was developed by EMC before EMC became part of Dell.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a six out of ten because the new nodes are not compatible with the overall brand. So, we don’t have the option to scale an old cluster. This is a limitation because I could increase the node numbers with the same version, and then it works seamlessly. However, maintaining different versions is not the best solution.
How are customer service and support?
We had some issues with level 1 support. We had to fight with them on repeated issues.
We asked them if they could escalate the support to a higher level. There is room for improvement in level 1 support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used an IBM storage solution with an IBM GPFS file system and Samba.
We switched to Dell because of performance issues we had with this setup, which were caused primarily by the Samba NAS solution. IBM now offers licensing for commercial SMB protocol implementation, and they are capable of providing a good solution for us.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being easy to set up.
The deployment process took a couple of days. It’s an on-premise solution.
We had to integrate it with our Active Directory system, and we had to implement some additional schemas, but apart from that, it was a standard process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is a really expensive solution. I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price.
What other advice do I have?
From a technical point of view, I would rate it an eight out of ten.
I would recommend using it. However, it's important to consider the high price point. Evaluate if you can get the same feature set from other vendors at a lower cost.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Systems Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
A stable solution that can be used for SMB-based storage and NFS-based storage
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution is its performance."
- "The solution’s interface and pricing could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use Dell PowerScale for SMB-based storage and NFS-based storage.
How has it helped my organization?
Dell PowerScale allows us to consolidate multiple storage units into a single storage unit.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is its performance.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s interface and pricing could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Dell PowerScale a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Dell PowerScale an eight out of ten for scalability.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used NetApp. We switched to Dell PowerScale because NetApp's support was expensive, and we were looking for something more powerful and flexible. Dell PowerScale is the solution that meets our needs.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.
What was our ROI?
The solution's performance allowed us to shrink our workflow by about two times. We are a media and payment business. A lot of our workflows are video-based, and we store backups to a second system. With Dell PowerScale, we already see performance increases by almost twofold.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Dell PowerScale is an expensive solution compared to other products like Qumulo.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Dell PowerScale, we evaluated Qumulo and a new version of NetApp.
What other advice do I have?
I suggest users talk to someone who has actually used Dell PowerScale and has experience with it. Dell PowerScale has a more integrated interface. Compared to the interfaces of the newer generations of storage like Qumulo, Dell PowerScale has a comparatively older-looking interface. Apart from that, the solution is fine.
Overall, I rate Dell PowerScale an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Data center admin at Geomar
Helps reduce our organizational risk, supports various data workloads, and is scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Dell PowerScale is its scalability."
- "PowerScale is not suitable for virtual environments."
What is our primary use case?
We use Dell PowerScale to share data between our Windows, Linux, and Azure systems.
How has it helped my organization?
Before Dell PowerScale, we had safe clusters for Linux systems and Windows file servers with separate item storage. Now, we have centralized storage together.
If we have an AI extension, data can be reordered from unstructured to structured. Scientists travel with a lot of data and ask to put the data in storage and forget about it. So there is a lot of unused data left in the storage.
PowerScale is flexible in supporting various data workloads while keeping them protected. It includes a lot of security snapshots so if a user accidentally deletes data, we can provide the snapshot for them to restore their lost data.
PowerScale helps reduce our organizational risk. We have additional security running on PowerScale for added protection. Before PowerScale, we had no security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Dell PowerScale is its scalability. If we need more storage, we can add more nodes without the need to install anything else. Also, the data compression and deduplication are valuable. The SFA recovery site sync is good.
What needs improvement?
We believed that we could share all the data between Windows RTS and Linux RTS but that is not true because we can break the RTS as a system so we must separate the data. This means we have one system but we still have two data paths.
PowerScale is not suitable for virtual environments. So we use a different solution for our hybrid environments like our VMware clusters.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerScale for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell PowerScale is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Dell PowerScale is easily scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We are supposed to have technical support from Europe, but until now we have only received support from India.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Pure Storage. We wanted PowerStore but our other partner offered us PowerScale faster.
How was the initial setup?
We ran into an issue deploying PowerScale F900 because of some bugs but with the support, it worked out.
What about the implementation team?
We used a reseller for the implementation. T-Systems from Telecom. Their engineer installed the wrong cable that was not hard enough and we had to break down the switch to replace it.
What was our ROI?
PowerScale hardware is expensive but it consumes less energy making it more efficient. In five years we will see a return on investment compared to other solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Dell PowerScale eight out of ten. We have scalability and one file system for most use cases but the GUI is terrible. If we are searching for a file we must know the full path. Also, the alerts are not clear enough.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Data Center Admin at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides features to deal with reporting issues and offers extra ransomware protection features
Pros and Cons
- "The product's scalability feature is super easy to use."
- "There are some missing features in the product, especially when our company needs to do some tape backup, and we see that the tool doesn't have integration capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company for unstructured data storage.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are Isilon InsightIQ for reporting issues and the extra ransomware protection features.
In my company, we have lots of huge amounts of data, around several petabytes, so we needed a way to have some responsive clusters with failover. In our company, we also have to give some reports to get some upgrades for the clusters recently as it is easier for us if we can give a look out to the management about how much research is done by us and how much space is required to do research. Our company has several tech people in our research facilities in Germany at the moment, and we have lost a lot of data to ransomware. One of the key features my company expects from the product is that it reduces ransomware attacks.
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) offers a sense of resilience, cyber resiliency, and security to my organization, especially with the third-party add-ons.
In terms of the benefits we experienced from the use of the product, I would say that our organization has different researchers. In our company, we have every operating system in use for different workloads. I can imagine that when our company deals with file-sharing features, the tool is way easier to use, and we can perform the procedure smoothly. The tool is also easy to deploy.
In terms of my experience with Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and its licensing part, cost of implementation, and costs of ownership, I don't have much information because our company has only been using the tool for over a year. The documentation is easy, and the management is easy and fast, so my company has had a really good experience with the tool.
The cost of ownership of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is good because our company is able to save a lot of energy, especially in terms of manpower and electricity. My company has managed to get down from four racks to half a rack.
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) has helped reduce and eliminate data silos, and it has helped our company shut down several single data storages. In our company, we had an old Dell PowerVault MD Storage, and through the PowerScale OneFS cluster, we could shut down a lot of network-attached storage devices. My company wants to consolidate everything into a central data storage and be able to manage our small team.
Based on the assessment of the tool's flexibility for supporting various data workloads while keeping them protected, I would say that we are in the process of migration. My company is in the process of migrating some video data and so on, but as of now, we use the product's services in the backend for containerization.
The product has helped reduce overall risk in my company since we just have one cluster to manage. Primarily, it is easier to have an overview and keep the clusters up to date.
When envisioning the future of our containerized solutions in terms of cloud integration, I see that in Germany considering a fully cloud-based approach can be hard. Mostly, Germans don't like to put any data on the cloud. I believe that users may opt for a private cloud or a hybrid strategy.
Based on a few key factors and the decision-making process, I would say that my company would choose an environment that offers the most amount of security features for our containerized applications since we have research data while sometimes, we also have data that is used for thesis, so there are areas where we can't afford anyone to get access to our data.
What needs improvement?
There are some missing features in the product, especially when our company needs to do some tape backup, and we see that the tool doesn't have integration capabilities. Our company has to buy another third-party software deal with tape backup.
It is a little hard to implement Dell PowerScale CloudPools. In our company, we would like to have another storage tier for data access, but it is getting too expensive when it comes to the licensing part of the product.
Sometimes, it can be bothersome to get through from the first level of support to the second one and from the second level to the third level of support. To deal with a set of similar errors, it would be great if Dell could allow users to skip some support stages. The reason a user may be forced to go through different levels of support can be because there is no automated support available to be offered.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for over a year. My company is a customer of the tool.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
My company has never had any issues with the stability of the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product's scalability feature is super easy to use.
How are customer service and support?
My company has used the technical support of the tool. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company deals with big companies that offer storage solutions. My company does not have similar products from different vendors, so we deal with different vendors and provide different solutions for different scenarios.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase was really easy because our company had technicians coming over. I feel the technicians could do better, and so now my company has a new support partner who installs the hardware. At the time our company purchased Dell PowerScale (Isilon), we had a third-party company install the product in our company. Our organization called in a third-party company to introduce us to how to install Dell PowerScale (Isilon). There were some issues after the tool's setup phase that had to be fixed, and so it got quite a little messy because of the aforementioned problems.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We received several good recommendations from partners of our organization in Germany, after which we dived into Dell PowerScale (Isilon), considering that my company is in the commercial research area, where we have to deal with contracts. My company believes that if we have contracts with Dell, then it would be easier for us to process data. The last time our company upgraded our compute, we entered into another contract with another vendor, which was not good. My company is looking into entering into more contracts with Dell.
What other advice do I have?
Considering the product still needs to add a few features, I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: September 2025
Popular Comparisons
Dell PowerStore
Red Hat Ceph Storage
Pure Storage FlashBlade
IBM FlashSystem
Dell ObjectScale
NetApp FAS Series
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)
HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
NetApp StorageGRID
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- EMC Isilon vs. Sonexion Scale-out Lustre Storage System
- How to backup Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) with Veeam or an alternative tool?
- What is the biggest difference between EMC Isilon and NetApp FAS Series?
- How would you compare the performance of DDN Storage vs Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
- When evaluating NAS, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- EMC Isilon vs. Sonexion Scale-out Lustre Storage System
- What is the difference between NAS and SAN storage?
- What are the top 8 Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices?
- What advice do you have for people considering NAS storage?
- What is the best way to migrate shares from Windows Cluster Server to Cohesity?