Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Reviews

Dell PowerScale helps to capture large amounts of data in a short time. 

The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content. 

Dell PowerScale needs to reduce its price. 

I have been working with the product for ten years. 

The solution is stable. 

Dell PowerScale is scalable. 

The tool's support is good. 

Dell PowerScale's installation is fast. You need one engineer to handle the deployment. Its maintenance is easy because of its high redundancy. 

I rate the product a ten out of ten. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

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.

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. 

Neutral

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.

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.

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. 

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.

The tool's most valuable features are scalability and stability. 

Dell PowerScale's deployment is not easy. 

I have been using the product for eight years. 

I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

Dell PowerScale is scalable. 

We use the solution for high-performance storage.

The solution's configuration needs to be more straightforward. Also, its performance could be better than Panasas. In addition, its price needs improvement as well.

We have been using the solution for three to four years.

The solution is stable.

We have two end users for the solution.

The solution's technical support is better than Panasas. They resolve the issues quickly.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is complicated.

The experts from Dell's support team remotely configure the solution for us. They execute the process efficiently. It takes one or two days to complete.

It is an expensive solution. They should include technical support services with their contract.

Dell is more expensive than Panasas. But it has good technical support services.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. It has a seamless AI system. I advise others to work with good network engineers during the configuration.

My customers are using the solution in a few areas, such as DFSA and pharma, for their application.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is all the capabilities together.

The price of the solution could be reduced.

I have been familiar with Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for approximately one year.

I rate the stability of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) a ten out of ten.

My clients have been satisfied with the support from Dell PowerScale (Isilon).

The setup of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is not difficult for our team. However, it could be complicated for my clients.

The length of time of the deployment depends on the infrastructure. If there are more servers it could take more time. However, typically it does not take more than one day.

We did the implementation of this solution for our customers.

The price of the solution can fluctuate. The price can be competitive or other times not. The price of the solution could be better.

I rate Dell PowerScale (Isilon) a ten out of ten.

The solution is easy to use.

The product has global name recognition.

The performance, overall, is quite impressive.

The stability of the solution is good.

The solution lacks a cloud version.

It would be useful if the solution could direct to AWS or Google Cloud effectively or have an AWS version. With the global lockdown conditions, you can't get to the site. It would be easier if it was connected to the cloud.

The solution can be a bit complex for those not well versed in the technology.

I've been using this solution for a few years now.

The solution, so far, has been very stable for us. We don't have issues with Isilon itself, however, every once in a while we do face a few stability issues.

The solution is scalable, however, it's quite complex, so it's not exactly straightforward. For organizations that have a lot of items they need to upgrade, it's good to have support to help. However, the solution can scale if a company needs to.

We have a few hundred users on the solution right now.

The technical support aspect of the solution has been good. We've been satisfied with their level of attention and find them to be knowledgable and helpful.

We didn't previously use a different solution, however, we are looking to switch solutions now, simply due to the fact that we would like to migrate to the cloud.

The initial setup was a bit complex for personal not knowledgeable with the solution. When you are just shown a manual, it does take a while to understand how everything works. It's not exactly straightforward.

While the initial setup isn't too expensive, it can end up being expensive depending on how many machines you have or how big you are.

We're a reseller of Isilon products.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we are using. It's one of the version seven releases.

Right now, we are researching moving from on-premise to cloud, and want to know whether there is something that is more convenient than Isilon when moving to a cloud server. 

For example, with EMC, if you have something on-premise, and if you want a cloud version, you should rather take ECS. The company finds the concept a bit confusing, so they are looking around for something that is similar in terms of ease of use, and yet has a cloud version as an option.

As it stands now, I'd advise new users to rather use the Dell EMC service and learn on the job. It will be faster to get set up and be able to handle the solution.

It's still a fairly good solution. Overall, I'd rate it eight out of ten.