Dell PowerScale Reviews

My role in using Dell PowerScale is as the Senior Engineering Manager for VCD, so I am typically involved in the pre-deployment process, sort of in the acquisition process. We have an entire sourcing team, but I make advisories on what to order and how to order it for customers. Most of my work involves pre-deployment and pre-sales technical support.

Dell PowerScale fits well with the growing needs for our organization, as internally we do not use it, but externally, I believe it comes back to its ability to scale and be rapidly deployed, or ease of deployment. I think for large-scale projects, it fits well in our product portfolio.

My favorite thing about Dell PowerScale is its scalability. This is going to sound ridiculous and maybe a little on the nose, but I appreciate being able to rapidly scale the product. For critical infrastructure and we work predominantly in video surveillance, retention can increase all of a sudden. You could have situations for legal purposes or you could have a hospital go from a 30-day retention mandate to a 365-day retention mandate or a casino. When that happens, provisioning additional storage can be difficult. Dell PowerScale solves a lot of those problems because you are literally just dropping in nodes to an existing infrastructure and it gets absorbed and then redistributed to all of the edge compute. Scalability and linear scalability are the key features I value.

Dell PowerScale fits well with the growing needs for our organization, as internally we do not use it, but externally, I believe it comes back to its ability to scale and be rapidly deployed, or ease of deployment. I think for large-scale projects, it fits well in our product portfolio.

The emerging challenges or opportunities I foresee in managing enterprise data include how Dell PowerScale can evolve to better support our future needs. There have been some iterative updates to the UI. It is fairly intuitive already. From an improvement standpoint, cost basis probably, which is never going to change. One of the issues that we run into, at least for us, is its price point in the market. Our market makes it a difficult sell. Mainstream IT data center use, which is where it is targeted, is not as much of a concern. The price points are less of a concern in that space. For us in our industry and for pure data storage, price per terabyte is a massive consideration. That is somewhere where the price could come down. It is unlikely that it will, but the price could come down and make it a little more accessible to some of our customers.

The areas Dell PowerScale could be improved include not so much new features, but I would like to see additional case studies done specific to my industry. There are some, but I would like to see additional case studies for our industry, the security and surveillance industry, done with particular VMS ISVs. There are some white papers out there from Dell in how Dell PowerScale interfaces with a Milestone VMS, but I would like to see more information on how it interacts with other major VMS platforms. More publicly published information about that would be beneficial.

I would assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale as excellent. I have not experienced any downtime that I am aware of.

I would evaluate customer service for Dell PowerScale as excellent. Quick engagement time is typical, usually either on the sales or support side, and engagement is always quick. When we have a project, an open project that we have sold to a customer, there is a kickoff meeting and usually setting those times, getting those resources brought in is usually very fast. It is always a pleasurable experience.

Prior to adopting Dell PowerScale, we were using PowerVault, which we still use. This is SAN-based architecture, so block architecture versus NAS.

We have seen ROI on Dell PowerScale deployments specifically.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerScale has been expensive. Setup costs or provisioning experience has been pleasant. Typically you have kickoff meetings and there are different teams that are engaged with myself and with other teams within my organization. That is a pleasant experience. It is sort of almost a white-glove experience, at least the way we order and provision these for our customers. The provisioning experience is very pleasant. However, pricing methodology is a difficult hurdle for us to sell to our customers.

I considered no other solutions before selecting Dell PowerScale. I would say we were pretty fixated on PowerVault and given that we are a partner, Dell PowerScale has been on our radar for a long time. I would say we did dabble in NetApp solutions at one point, but we moved all of our NAS business over to Dell PowerScale.

Dell PowerScale does not currently play a role in our organization's AI initiatives, but it will probably more so in the future.

The performance metrics or benchmarks I use to measure our success with Dell PowerScale include continued demand for the product. I would also say continued support of the existing product or expansion of an existing infrastructure.

I would rate Dell PowerScale a 7.5 to 8, knocking some points off from a barrier to entry from a cost perspective. Specific to our industry, it really has to be a niche deployment. It would have to be for critical infrastructure or large-scale organizations, such as casinos or stadiums, to benefit from it. I would honestly look at the particular project and only recommend it to critical infrastructure or large-scale projects or projects that I think will experience rapid growth in the near future because then scaling it will be easier and quicker. My overall review rating for Dell PowerScale is 8.

Dell PowerScale is used for keeping our company data. Continental is an automotive company, and we keep recording files on a petabyte basis. We have globally around more than 200 petabytes of Dell PowerScale storage, which we use for keeping the data and allowing users to use the data for simulation purposes for their work.

I am the IT Lead for handling all of Dell PowerScale and also managing the technical aspects for Dell PowerScale.

We are not using AI-related features in Dell PowerScale.

I have experienced a significant improvement once we switched to Dell PowerScale nodes as compared to other nodes that we use previously. The performance was outstanding, and the data access for users is very fast. The users are very happy with it, and it is very user-friendly. The capacity that they are offering is really utilized effectively. I have recommended it for other companies to consider without any doubt.

Dell PowerScale is very user-friendly for me. For my use case, we have the benefit that we can do data transfer from one place to another place with the use of their dedicated tools, which is called SyncIQ. SyncIQ is very user-friendly, and we can sync data anywhere in the world, which is the best feature.

Performance-wise as compared to the old versions of Dell PowerScale, such as H500 and HD700, this is outstanding.

The data replication tools of Dell PowerScale, specifically SyncIQ, are very user-friendly and best for using for data replications.

The disadvantage that I felt is not hardware-related. I feel that Dell needs to focus on the service aspects. Once they sell this hardware to customers, customers also expect service from them. Dell needs to focus on improving the service part. Apart from that, the hardware-wise, they have very good technologies and they are offering good service and hardware capability. Everything depends on the use case that you have, and then you can decide which option to choose, because it is a customized model, so you can customize it as per your requirements.

I have been part of Dell PowerScale since 2017.

I can tell you that if you have 99.999 percent uptime, or any number of nines you can add, it will be reliable.

Customer service is an area where Dell needs to improve more. If you look for some technical solutions and they redirect this to a different reason, for example, if you open a ticket to Dell, and the technical teams allocate the ticket to a different category, it will be hard to get the support. There may need to be improvement here, so that if the user raises a complaint, the ticket is allocated to the correct category instead of being directed elsewhere.

I can give nine out of ten for customer service.

It is easy to deploy if you have experience with Dell PowerScale. If you are new to this, it will be complicated. As I am used to this hardware, it is very easy to assemble, configure, and use.

The complicated aspect I initially experienced was the configuration. When we have some bugs that cause performance issues, it is hard for us to fix the issue without technical support from Dell.

We deploy everything on the cloud now with a cloud provider, which is Amazon Web Services (AWS).

I do not see this kind of return on investment at the moment.

I think the price is reasonable. We procured this during the time of COVID, around 2022, and the price was very competitive. If you are looking for technology, there will also be a price associated with it. Everything will be right if you look for good technology, good service, and good hardware capability, then you have to pay for that. There is not much difference price-wise. However, at the current scenario due to the shortage of chips and memory, the price is quite expensive now, but that is understandable.

The license model is a bit expensive because every year you need to renew the license. This may discourage some customers from paying the license cost. If you go with the enterprise version, it is user-friendly and you will get many additional features. If you do not go with the license version, then you will miss out on a few advantages of Dell PowerScale that you could get with the license version.

Dell has advanced technology as compared to other solutions in the market. They have also recently launched an artificial intelligence option in Dell PowerScale. It depends on the business use case that you have. For me, as I have used this hardware since 2017, it has really worked well for my use case. There is no comparison so far with Dell and others. There are multiple brands such as NetApp and HP, but what Dell is offering as compared to others is more capable.

I am a customer regarding Dell PowerScale, and I can give ten out of ten for Dell PowerScale. It is definitely user-friendly. My overall review rating for Dell PowerScale is ten out of ten.

My main use case for Dell PowerScale is implementing a pilot project at one of our clients. We are setting up a project with the scalability solution to present it to the client.

Regarding this use case, the client needs to scale their infrastructure. Some specific use cases of how my organization uses Dell PowerScale include handling the governance part and the scalability of the environment.

Dell PowerScale plays a role in the AI initiatives of my organization because in terms of automation, it will help the project, and that is one of the points we are presenting to the client. The automation will include governance over the data that will be transmitted.

Dell PowerScale has had a positive impact on my organization because the project is still in progress. The simplification it offers in its use makes it a solution that has easy usability.

At this early stage of the project, I have noticed that the scalability of the resource only occurs when it is needed. There is no need to keep the environment always expanded.

Dell PowerScale aligns with the strategic objectives of my organization because the use of its AI functionality will bring significant improvement to their process. Dell PowerScale aligns with the organization's objectives regarding support for digital transformation initiatives through the adoption of AI use in a regulated way, facilitated by the governance it provides.

The performance metrics I use to measure the success of Dell PowerScale include the automation that we will deliver in the transport area. This involves automation of delivery receipts and their reading. All the indicators that will no longer require scanning will be done directly via the system, with data flowing automatically.

The best features that Dell PowerScale offers are the simplification in how you have the environment and can scale it in a simple way.

Regarding the simplification in scalability that I mentioned, it is simpler compared to other solutions on the market.

Regarding the AI features of Dell PowerScale, I think governance and security are very functional because it ensures for us the traffic of the data we are using.

Regarding the accuracy and reliability of the results from the AI features of Dell PowerScale, I noted that in the tests we did, its response was very accurate.

I cannot give an opinion or suggest any improvement for Dell PowerScale at this time because it is a solution that, compared to other tools I have been using, is very simple and very functional for us, unlike some on the market that are very laborious.

I have been using Dell PowerScale for three years.

Dell PowerScale has been very stable in my experience so far.

I view the scalability of Dell PowerScale as very functional and very simple.

I rate Dell PowerScale's customer support as suitable for the person who needs to innovate, have governance, and use artificial intelligence.

We did not previously use a different solution. We are implementing it to help with monitoring and use of AI.

I have not yet obtained any return on investment because the project is still in progress.

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Dell PowerScale shows that the licensing has a relative cost compared to open-source solutions, but the advantage it provides is very worthwhile for the investment.

Before choosing Dell PowerScale, I evaluated an open-source solution, but it was unable to deliver the result we wanted.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate Dell PowerScale overall as nine because I still haven't discovered its problems.

Dell PowerScale is being tested in a private, on-premises environment in my organization. My role in the use or management of Dell PowerScale is as an influencer.

In this company, for this project, we have 280 employees today as the total team. The operations part, since it is a logistics company and for non-field staff, is around 150 people.

The advice I would give to others who are thinking about using Dell PowerScale is that they should evaluate it. Get to know the tool and evaluate it before making any decision because compared to what is on the market, it is a very good solution.

We use Dell PowerScale as NAS storage.

When it comes to operational efficiency, I describe Dell PowerScale as efficient in storing data, with the deduplication feature providing high storage efficiency.

Dell PowerScale hosts data for our production. We are an energy company that hosts data for seismic data for geology engineers. They manage big data that is almost graphical data for the earth and use AI applications to predict the availability of petrol inside the earth, so they use it efficiently and most of the time.

We use Dell PowerScale to provide data storage for the client, functioning as NAS storage for both clients and employees.

We find the multi-protocol features beneficial for our clients as we use it in a multi-protocol environment, such as using it as SMB for Windows and NFS for Linux and UNIX.

Dell PowerScale can specifically evolve to better support our future needs by allowing us to extend its storage for potential data expansion.

The best features in Dell PowerScale include deduplication, storage efficiency, and data protection.

I find deduplication to be beneficial in Dell PowerScale; data deduplication is particularly advantageous.

The overall operational efficiency and ease of use of Dell PowerScale is that it is easy to use and simple.

I do use the multi-protocol features in Dell PowerScale.

Dell PowerScale's reliability and availability impact our organization's data operations as we use it most of the time in a highly available environment.

I have used Dell PowerScale's data protection and security features.

They have helped to safeguard our data by protecting it from any damage, accidental deletion, or ransomware and similar threats.

The emerging challenges I foresee in managing enterprise data include the need for high capacity. Dell PowerScale can evolve to better support our future needs with its capability to extend further, as we have redundant Dell PowerScale for data protection.

I would like to see improvements in data deduplication. In our environment, the deduplication ratio is approximately 2 or 2.3 to 1, so I believe there can be enhancements in this area.

I have been working with Dell PowerScale for around four to five years.

Dell PowerScale is not just scalable but also a reliable storage solution that has not presented any crashes, downtimes, or performance issues.

We have not experienced any problems, so I have not had to contact technical support regarding Dell PowerScale.

We have attempted to scale Dell PowerScale up and out, and my thoughts on scalability are positive.

I definitely find Dell PowerScale to be scalable.

My experience with the performance of Dell PowerScale when managing complex data sets is good. We previously used Dell PowerStore as storage but now utilize both Dell PowerStore and Dell PowerScale, and both are efficient in managing data, transforming data, and cleaning and normalizing data.

My experience with the initial setup process for Dell PowerScale is that it was easy to set up. It is almost straightforward as most Dell products are easy to implement.

We bought Dell PowerScale through partners.

We have seen some return on investment with Dell PowerScale, though we do not specifically scale it with ROI, as our company is not a profit-driven entity. Instead, we measure it with uptime and performance.

In terms of pricing, I find it to be good, though not the best, as there are other products with better pricing than Dell PowerScale. However, it is value for money, and I feel satisfied with it.

I do not remember all details because we have used Dell for a long time at the start of the project. I believe we considered HP NAS storage, but it was not as good as Dell PowerScale.

We decided to go with Dell over HP due to better integration with the environment and infrastructure, even though HP offers more features, including AI and various cybersecurity capabilities.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerScale is that I serve as a system administrator.

Regarding AI initiatives, we do have them.

Dell PowerScale plays a role in our organization's AI initiatives by storing the data sets of the AI.

We have used features such as AI-driven data insights, automation, and advanced workloads with Dell PowerScale because we have massive data for production and use most of the AI features to enhance the search and strengthen AI capability.

Regarding integration, our IT infrastructure consists entirely of Dell, with Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell Data Domain for archiving, along with another Dell PowerStore, and we use them at two sites. Dell PowerScale seamlessly integrates with our entire infrastructure.

The integration was smooth and very straightforward within the Dell environment.

The key benefits that Dell PowerScale brings to the table include storage efficiency. I know that Dell PowerScale offers industry-leading data protection, supports AI and machine learning, and possesses robust cybersecurity features, along with architectures such as scale-out.

My advice for anyone looking to start using Dell PowerScale is to conduct a thorough study since each environment has different needs based on data capacity, business cases, and usage. Anyone considering purchasing Dell PowerScale should analyze their business case carefully.

I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

I have been with DTE for 30 years, and my role involves using and managing Dell PowerScale. We are in the infant stages for many of our AI initiatives, but I see that progressing with Dell PowerScale.

OneFS makes it simpler to manage, which is beneficial. I appreciate the soft and hard quotas, and I want to implement chargebacks now. I can control access through Active Directory with Dell PowerScale, allowing people to get their file shares that way, which is convenient for them. Snapshot is quite good; I had that with my Unities, but it appears to be easier to manage on the Isilon platform.

Dell PowerScale provides better performance than some of my smaller Unities that hold considerable data. I have data sitting in there that I migrated which is 10 to 15 years old, and unfortunately, nobody wants to clean it up. With Dell PowerScale, I can keep scaling where Unity had a head limit.

An example of how Dell PowerScale can be improved is that we had a situation where somebody accidentally renamed our home directory to a different folder, and then my team could not put it back because it kept recreating the home folder every time they moved it. I quickly moved it at the Unix level, renamed it, copied the original back, and recovered it immediately. However, we discovered that a bunch of user permissions got changed, so we had a challenge resetting permissions. Dell explained how to fix it, but I wish we had a method to discover such conditions before the user points it out.

I foresee challenges such as cleanup and trying to get rid of things we do not need anymore, as people find it easier to just expand rather than go through and figure out what must be removed. I do appreciate that Dell PowerScale is introducing cyber resilience, which I look forward to, and we are using Superna Eyeglass to integrate some of that functionality.

I have been using Dell PowerScale since we replaced our Unity 500 about four years ago, starting with the Isilon before it was relabeled.

I assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale to be strong. We have had a few performance issue calls, particularly from a group that does file transfers who noted that it is somewhat slow, but I do not think it is on the Isilon side. I believe it is more related to their processes.

Dell PowerScale is performing well with the growing needs of my organization, with no issues so far. We have expanded usage; we bought it fairly large and sized it for our needs, ensuring sufficient headroom capacity. I project three to five years down the road and buy that size when we upgrade. We are currently in year four and still in good shape.

I evaluate customer service and technical support as better than the support group we outsource at DTE that runs our data center.

Prior to adopting Dell PowerScale, we were using Unities. We still have Unities, but in smaller scale environments that are more stand-alone, while our big NAS is now using the Isilon.

We considered other solutions such as NetApp, which looked decent. It is not forklift, but Dell PowerScale follows that same model, which helped us make the decision.

I measure success with Dell PowerScale by noting that there are no complaints from the customer. I would rate customer service support a nine out of ten because they get my offshore support team over the hump to get things done. Those team members do not even try; they just open a ticket and let the vendor handle it, which frustrates me since I used to be hands-on and knew how to handle 99 percent of these issues. I would rate Dell PowerScale a ten out of ten, and I am very happy with it and would advise organizations considering it to definitely move forward. My overall review rating for Dell PowerScale is ten.

My day-to-day activities include cluster health monitoring and capacity management as well as SMB and NFS administration. The primary use case of Dell PowerScale is enterprise file and shared storage for application and infrastructure workloads. We use SMB and NFS depending on whether the workload is Windows or Linux based. Both environments are managed, and day-to-day, I work on capacity monitoring, share export management, access permissions, performance checks, and troubleshooting file access issues. We also use Dell PowerScale as part of our hybrid cloud environment where some applications have dependencies across on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

Recently, we used Dell PowerScale to support an application workload that required shared file storage over SMB. I checked the available capacity, cluster health, and node performance before processing the request for storage access. After configuring the required share and permissions, the application team validated file access from their servers. I also monitored the cluster after onboarding to ensure there were no abnormalities, latency, or performance issues.

We have seen a noticeable reduction in manual effort because OneFS provides centralized visibility across the cluster. For example, when troubleshooting application performance issues, I can check cluster health and node utilization. In the node, I can identify the processes causing high utilization while checking latency, throughput, and protocol activity from the same platform using OneFS. This usually allows us to narrow down the storage side of an issue much faster before involving the application or network teams. Capacity management is also easier because we can monitor utilization and pinpoint bottlenecks, latency, and performance issues centrally so we can manage and plan expansion before reaching critical levels. I do not maintain specific KPIs for hours saved, but measurable improvements for us include faster troubleshooting and less manual administration.

PowerScale has improved our enterprise file-storage operations by giving us a centralized OneFS-based platform instead of managing separate storage systems for different workloads.

We use SMB and NFS for Windows and Linux workloads, which simplifies application storage integration and access management.

The scale-out architecture also makes capacity expansion easier because we can add nodes as data requirements increase.

From an operations perspective, OneFS gives us better visibility into node health, capacity, latency, throughput, and protocol activity during troubleshooting.

Overall, the main benefits have been easier administration, better scalability, and faster isolation of storage-related issues.

Almost every feature is valuable to me, but the biggest feature is the scale-out architecture, where multiple nodes operate as a single cluster. Multi-protocol support for SMB and NFS is also very useful because we can support Windows and Linux workloads from the same platform. I find the centralized OneFS management useful for monitoring cluster health, capacity, and performance. The ability to add nodes as our capacity or performance requirements grow is important for our environment. Data protection and the distributed architecture provide good resilience for production workloads. The CLI is another useful feature for deeper troubleshooting beyond the GUI. These capabilities reduce day-to-day administration compared with managing multiple independent storage systems.

Dell PowerScale is strong overall, but a few areas such as OneFS, QA, and reporting could be more intuitive, especially when analyzing detailed performance and capacity information. Some troubleshooting activities still require using CLI and going through multiple outputs. A more consolidated diagnostic view would help. I would also like deeper cloud integration and automation for improvements, particularly for hybrid cloud environments. Better integration with monitoring, ITSM processes, and automation platforms would reduce manual operational tasks. These are mainly usability and integration improvements rather than major issues with the core storage platform.

One area I would like Dell to improve is the OneFS management and reporting experience. The integration with ITSM and hybrid cloud platforms, and monitoring areas require automation. If these areas are improved, I would rate Dell PowerScale very highly compared to other products.

I have been using Dell PowerScale for around three years.

Yes, I find Dell PowerScale stable for our day-to-day enterprise storage workloads.

The OneFS cluster architecture provides good resilience across nodes and helps avoid single-node dependency.

We have been able to run SMB and NFS workloads consistently without major stability concerns.

OneFS also provides good visibility into node health, capacity, and performance for proactive monitoring.

Overall, its stability and centralized management are strong points for production environments

PowerScale has been very scalable for our enterprise file-storage requirements because of its scale-out architecture.

Instead of replacing the existing storage platform when capacity or performance requirements increase, we can add additional nodes to the OneFS cluster.

The cluster presents the storage as a single namespace, so applications do not need to be redesigned around individual storage nodes.

This is particularly useful as data volumes and concurrent SMB/NFS workloads grow over time.

From an operational perspective, the ability to expand capacity and performance without a major storage redesign is one of PowerScale’s strongest advantages.

I would rate Dell technical support as good based on our experience.

For issues requiring vendor assistance, the support team was able to review OneFS logs, cluster health, and node-level information and guide us through troubleshooting.

The technical communication was generally clear, especially for storage and OneFS-related issues.

For critical issues, having access to Dell support and the relevant knowledge base was useful for faster resolution.

Overall, I would consider the support reliable, with room for improvement in response time for some non-critical cases.

Yes, we previously used NetApp ONTAP for some enterprise file-storage workloads.

We moved to PowerScale mainly because of its scale-out architecture, single namespace, and flexibility for SMB/NFS workloads.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward, but it required proper planning before implementation.

The main areas were network configuration, cluster setup, Active Directory integration, SMB/NFS requirements, and access permissions.

Once the basic configuration was completed, OneFS made day-to-day administration much easier through centralized management.

The more complex part was validating application access, networking, and security requirements before moving workloads to the cluster.

Overall, I would describe the setup as moderate in complexity, especially for an enterprise environment.

Yes, the deployment was supported by an external implementation team along with our internal infrastructure team.

They assisted with the initial PowerScale cluster configuration, networking, Active Directory integration, and storage setup.

The knowledge transfer to our operations team was useful for understanding OneFS administration and troubleshooting.

After the initial deployment, our internal team handled most of the day-to-day monitoring and operational activities.

Overall, the implementation support was good and helped us transition into regular operations

Yes, we have seen ROI mainly through reduced operational effort and easier capacity expansion.

The centralized OneFS management reduces the need to manage multiple standalone storage systems.

Troubleshooting is also faster because we can review cluster, node, capacity, latency, and protocol information from one platform.

The scale-out architecture allows us to add capacity as required instead of replacing the complete storage platform.

We don't currently track a formal financial ROI metric, so I would not quote a specific percentage, but the operational savings are noticeable

From my side, the initial setup requires proper planning for the cluster, networking, capacity, SMB/NFS requirements, and integration with Active Directory and backup infrastructure.

Licensing and commercial discussions were mainly handled by our procurement and management teams, so I was not directly involved in the contract negotiation.

Operationally, the main cost consideration is planning the right node and capacity requirements upfront.

The scale-out model is useful because additional capacity or performance can be added by expanding the cluster as requirements grow.

Overall, I found the platform commercially suitable for an enterprise storage environment, although pricing depends heavily on the required capacity, nodes, and support package.

We evaluated other enterprise file-storage options, mainly NetApp ONTAP and HPE Alletra.

PowerScale stood out for its scale-out architecture, OneFS single namespace, and strong SMB/NFS support for our mixed workloads.

NetApp has strong data-management and storage-efficiency capabilities, while HPE has good integration across broader infrastructure environments.

The main advantage we saw with PowerScale was the simpler scale-out model for growing file-based workloads.

The trade-off is that PowerScale’s management and reporting could be more intuitive compared with some competing platforms.

I mainly monitor IOPS, throughput, latency, node utilization, capacity utilization, and SMB and NFS protocol activity. These are the main areas to measure Dell PowerScale performance. For example, when an application reports slow file access, I check cluster and node-level performance along with protocol activity to identify whether storage contributed to this issue or not. This helps us isolate the storage layer faster. We also track capacity growth and cluster health to plan expansion before utilization becomes a concern. The main operational improvement has been faster troubleshooting and better visibility into storage performance.

Operational efficiency with Dell PowerScale is relatively easy to operate. The team is very familiar with OneFS. The centralized management of the cluster makes routine tasks such as capacity checks, node health monitoring, SMB and NFS administration, and performance checks straightforward. If you log in to OneFS, you can check everything in one centralized location. For troubleshooting, OneFS and CLI provide detailed information, though it requires some additional technical knowledge. The scale-out design also simplifies capacity planning because we can add nodes as requirements grow. Overall, I find it efficient for day-to-day administration, with the main improvement area being a more intuitive UI and consolidated reporting.

I look at AI-related capabilities mainly from a security and governance perspective. I would not allow AI-driven recommendations to directly change storage administrative reviews and approvals. We still follow the normal RBAC controls, audit logging, and change management processes for Dell PowerScale administration. AI-generated insights should be treated as recommendations and validated against actual cluster data before any action is taken. Dell could provide more detailed visibility into these processes.

We use Azure for our public cloud environment. This helps us meet storage requirements for NFS.

I rate this product a nine out of ten overall.

Before we implemented Dell PowerScale (Isilon), we used an AIX configured as NFS, and that runs on IBM Power and has its own limitations because it shares resources with other LPARs. When our data becomes large, we need to scale out enterprise storage systems like Dell PowerScale (Isilon). Since our organization is a governmental organization, and direct purchase is not allowed, we prepared an RFP, and the vendors participated with the formal bidding process. Different bidders and vendors participated in the bid, and Dell PowerScale (Isilon) fulfilled our requirement with the most cost-effectiveness. We selected Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and use it for file storage. The main purpose we use it for is large files in our environment, and it supports multiple protocols like NFS, SMB, and S3 with a single storage plus.

We primarily use Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as NFS and SMB. The features we appreciate from it are the SyncIQ feature that supports replication from two site states for disaster recovery purposes. This is beneficial for our disaster recovery plan and for business continuity. SyncIQ is a great feature that we use actively.

Additionally, NFS, SMB, and S3 are good features that we primarily use. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) deployment is user-friendly with a good graphical user interface. It is easy to use and provision the storage for different application purposes.

I have experienced a RAM failure in some of the nodes of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), and that required hardware replacement. For large file replication from site to site, it takes a long time. This leads to issues when we plan a switchover from site to site, as the replication is not finished within minimal time. It takes a long time and leads to some downtime until the file is fully synchronized. For a large amount of files, the site-to-site replication takes considerable time, leading to some downtime during planned switching over.

Otherwise, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is good. It is scalable, reliable, and it supports node cluster architecture. Overall, it is a solid solution.

I have been working with Dell PowerScale (Isilon) since 2021.

Regarding stability, I find no lagging, crashing, or downtime with Dell PowerScale (Isilon). It is a highly scalable, stable, and reliable solution that I have experienced.

I have contacted technical support for Dell PowerScale (Isilon) through Zoom sessions and email conversations. There is also a person in our country who supports the Dell solution, and they actively assist us with any issues we raise. The quality and speed of support for Dell PowerScale (Isilon) are good. From my experience, I have confidence in the support. When we face issues, we raise a ticket through the valid portal, and they respond immediately and assign a local engineer to coordinate the support process.

Positive

Before Dell PowerScale (Isilon), we used AIX as NFS. We configured the AIX server as NFS. We did not have enterprise scale storage like Dell PowerScale (Isilon) before; this is the first one we have used.

When I compare Dell PowerScale (Isilon) with AIX configured as NFS storage, there is a significant difference. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) supports multiple protocols with a single solution, including NFS, SMB, S3, FTP, and HTTP. It is beneficial to support different applications. Additionally, it has a cluster node architecture, which is beneficial for performance and to get more capacity. It is easy to maintain. When we run on AIX, it leads to long downtime when we plan a maintenance task on AIX servers. AIX shares resources with other LPARs, leading to performance issues. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a better solution in comparison.

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) requires maintenance on our end, but the maintenance tasks cannot be performed by our organization's team; they must be executed by experienced Dell personnel. We experienced a RAM issue that was replaced during planned maintenance time. Additionally, we perform planned firmware upgrades regarding the software and hardware. The RAM issue was the problem related to Dell PowerScale (Isilon).

For the initial deployment of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), it cannot be done by one person alone. In our organization, we built a team for the deployment, and from Dell, they also assigned an experienced person to deploy the solution. From our organization's side, there was a prepared team for the deployment, and from the vendor side, experienced personnel were assigned to deploy the solution. It was deployed effectively.

As I mentioned before, we did not purchase Dell PowerScale (Isilon) directly. Since our organization is a government entity, the country policy does not allow direct purchases; it goes through a formal RFP process. We prepared an RFP, and the bidders and vendors participated in the bidding process. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) fulfilled the requirement and was the most cost-effective option. This is how we made our selection.

For the support of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), I would rate it nine out of ten.

For the overall solution of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), I rate it eight out of ten because the SyncIQ replication feature takes a long time for large files, which leads to downtime during planned site switching. Additionally, we have experienced a RAM issue, which is why I rate it this way.

In terms of scalability, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is quite good. I have scaled Dell PowerScale (Isilon) once, and we also have plans to scale it again. It is beneficial for adding capacity and performance. If one node fails, the system continues to work with other nodes, avoiding interruptions and supporting business continuity. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a good scalable solution.

We immediately saw the benefits of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) because our files are large. During the deployment of this solution, we did not wait to test the solution; we immediately started migrating the files to the solution. My overall review rating for Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is eight out of ten.

Dell PowerScale serves as a secure backup target for government systems. The typical scenario involves two Dell PowerScale clusters in different remote data centers. Government systems place backups on the primary cluster, which is then replicated to the secondary cluster in the secondary data center and subsequently moved to a tape library for storage in a safe location. Automatic failover between the clusters is implemented, so if the primary cluster fails, the secondary cluster will take over. The backup target is maintained for all systems backing up to this infrastructure.

Throughput for the backup is important, as the backup windows are short. Dell PowerScale uses erasure coding, which protects the data and guarantees that there is no change in the data.

From my perspective of operation, I appreciate the mission-critical support from Dell PowerScale, which prioritizes cluster care. With any small hardware issue like a disk or ventilator failure, it has no impact on the running of the systems, but they treat such issues with high priority.

Regarding my experience with mission-critical support, spare parts are provided as soon as possible. In one situation involving another Dell system, a representative drove an Audi A7 just to deliver me a spare part that I could change immediately.

A valuable feature of Dell PowerScale is the documentation regarding protocol feature sets and integration with systems from other vendors. This documentation helps clarify whether an issue is with Dell PowerScale or the other vendor's system.

With Dell PowerScale, there is no concern about whether the system is running. Dell PowerScale operates in all circumstances. I can confirm that we have experienced six years of zero seconds of downtime.

Regarding Dell PowerScale's AI capabilities, the governance and security are very high because tenants can be separated on Dell PowerScale. We run systems with separate tenants on the government system.

To improve Dell PowerScale, the user interface could be polished to meet new standards. This is only a cosmetic enhancement, as the core functions without any issues.

I have been using Dell PowerScale for six years.

Dell PowerScale is 100% stable and as reliable as a rock. I can confirm that we have experienced six years of zero seconds of downtime.

Regarding scalability, Dell PowerScale is easy to scale. You simply purchase the additional box. When Dell PowerScale is sized well, there are no problems with performance when managing complex data sets. Success depends on the right scaling of the systems. If you understand your workload, there are no problems after that.

Customer support for Dell PowerScale functions as mission-critical support. They call you; you do not need to call them. My advice for others considering Dell PowerScale is that the solution is rock solid, and combined with the good level of support, you do not need to worry about it.

Before using Dell PowerScale, we had an HP solution with local per-system backups. We switched to the centralized backup solution to eliminate the risk of losing any backup, to monitor one backup system, and to verify that all systems have relevant backups.

I have seen a return on investment with Dell PowerScale. It clearly protects the data. Time saved means we do not need to worry about it. On our side, it requires minimum administrative efforts. Managing a few personal computers is much more intensive than managing Dell PowerScale.

Regarding my experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing with Dell PowerScale, the setup costs were low over the longer term. Licensing has no hidden costs. We won the public tender with this solution, so the pricing was very competitive.

Before choosing Dell PowerScale, when I was proposing this solution, I was confident that this solution was the best option available at that time.

Operational efficiency with Dell PowerScale is very high because you only need to monitor the system. It runs itself very well. Regarding ease of use, in some cases you need to consult the documentation, which is very well written, so there are no problems.

The performance metrics and benchmarks I use to measure success with Dell PowerScale include availability and throughput, which are very important. Dell PowerScale's reliability and availability impact my organization's data operations by making them smoother. When you do not need to solve any issues, you can fully rely on the system. I give this review a rating of ten out of ten.

I am already using Dell PowerScale for files and unstructured data, which is the focal scope purpose to propose Dell PowerScale product.

Flexibility, performance, and cooperation stand out for me in the benefits of Dell PowerScale product for unstructured data overall.

Flexibility from our side, compression of data, plus performance and usability make Dell PowerScale flexible to use, easy to install, and we can sometimes negotiate the price with Dell.

Dell PowerScale includes automation features, and I think more AI features will be added in the upcoming years.

I measure success with Dell PowerScale by ensuring the customer is satisfied with the operation and that the installation is easy. It is flexible and not a complex solution. At the same time, it offers compressed storage compatible with all file types, and price is a good point for our customer, along with compatibility with other vendor servers and networking.

I see a disadvantage if I cannot integrate Dell PowerScale with the public cloud, as I have not used this feature before. If I could use Dell PowerScale on AWS, I would recommend it for public cloud use. For a hybrid solution, I want to migrate data from on-premises to cloud, and compatibility with all cloud providers would be a good and added point.

The only concern is that integration with public cloud and hybrid cloud is not currently available.

I have been working with Dell PowerScale products for seven years now specifically.

Dell PowerScale is reliable and I do not see any problems from our side. It is good and stable.

For scalability, Dell PowerScale is a good solution, and we can scale up at any time.

Technical support is good.

For time-saving, this will be added value, as every case is different. Sometimes, we can take a good price from Dell based on the customer, especially if this is a new customer with Dell, which allows us to obtain a competitive price when replacing another vendor. This reflects both time-saving and money-saving advantages.

I have worked before with some products from HP, but I recommend Dell PowerScale all the time for files storage.

The installation and deployment of Dell PowerScale are not complex. It is quick and easy. I have a professional service engineer team experienced with Dell PowerScale installation, and I have not received any problem cases with the installation before.

The price is not dependent on the solution. It depends on the number of terabytes and user capacity, and the price will be calculated based on that.

I recommend any product integrated with artificial intelligence. For example, if the product includes more automated features from AI, this will be added value.

Dell PowerScale already serves enterprise customers and sometimes medium customers.

The primary need for small and medium organizations is flexible storage to save unstructured data and compatibility with any other servers and networking, plus a good price. This is the primary point from our customer.

The compatibility from Dell is good, and the usability and flexibility of use, along with the GUI for the interface and installation, are familiar to all engineers in the Egypt market.

I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerScale is that I'm a director, so I manage a team of systems engineers and architects that administer and support these platforms.

I have been using Dell PowerScale since we migrated from the Isilon platform this year, and during that initial migration, we noticed a noticeable increase in performance from switching over to PowerScale.

Dell PowerScale aligns with my organization's strategic goals of improving operational efficiency through platform modernization, since having Isilon before that was not all-flash. Moving to Dell PowerScale all-flash results in a noticeable jump in performance, with outreach from people on the engineering side noticing the speed in which they could open CAD/CAM workloads on Dell PowerScale, much faster than Isilon. The fact that the business saw a noticeable improvement in performance the day we switched over was a game-changer, not to mention the ability to seamlessly swap out the nodes to move from the older Isilon platform to Dell PowerScale, with no data migration, making everything seamless, done behind the scenes, and users only noticing the jump in performance.

We are extremely happy with the performance and the features that we have been given regarding Dell PowerScale, so I could not think of anything else right now, other than making it cheaper.

The pricing, licensing, and setup costs are interesting for us as we utilize Dell Flex on Demand, paying for it with a consumption-based OpEx model. There is an initial upfront commitment, and as we grow, that ability to scale out as our growth scales, while not paying anything more than what we are using, holds great value for us.

The comment about pricing improvement was more of humor, as we bought it on capital. With the consumption model, we pay a certain price per gigabyte, and as we grow and scale, that price gets lower the more we grow, so seeing that drop a bit more to be more competitive might help, but from a market perspective, Dell PowerScale was the leader from a cost standpoint when we did the pricing.

I have been using Dell PowerScale since we migrated from the Isilon platform this year, and during that initial migration, we noticed a noticeable increase in performance from switching over to PowerScale.

The stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale have been rock-solid for us. Even with Isilon, I do not think we ever had something as much as a failed drive or a bad cable, so I am expecting that same kind of consistency and performance level with Dell PowerScale.

There has been no downtime whatsoever, not even during the migration.

Dell PowerScale absolutely grows with the needs of my organization.

The Flex on Demand growth model allows us to scale up and scale out as we need to for data migrations. That seamless back-end process with no disruption was huge for us, unlike when we migrated from our older platform to Isilon the first time, which required a third-party software tool for data migration that was noisy and disruptive. This time, it was all done seamlessly just by swapping out the hardware.

Since I have not used customer service and technical support, I do not need to rate them. Dell PowerScale has been rock-solid for us from a performance perspective. We have not had to need support, which is a good thing, but we know if we ever do need them, we have a TAM on our account and, from support engagement we have done for other products in the past, there are no concerns from that perspective.

Before Isilon, we had a traditional Windows file system that ran on top of the Unity storage platform.

We switched because Unity was a hybrid flash array, whereas Dell PowerScale is now all-flash, so from a performance and a modernization perspective, it made sense for us to do so.

I think we have seen return on investment with Dell PowerScale, just in the speed in which we can access the files and the engineering capabilities. We are also seeing where engineering uses it as a landing zone to run workloads, which in the past we never really allowed them to explore doing.

We have identified other opportunities just outside of that traditional file share workload where we are permitting engineering to use it as a landing zone to run VMware workloads.

Data governance is certainly a big emerging challenge for us as managing enterprise data. It is not just going to be dependent on our strategy for file shares but also involves our landscape with SharePoint sites and so forth. I think it is really more of a purpose-built solution, giving us that visibility in that space that we have never had before.

Dell PowerScale does not currently play a role in my organization's AI initiatives, as we are a very big Microsoft shop doing a lot in the Copilot space. However, being an aerospace and defense company, we have limitations on what we can use from a cloud perspective. I think the tagging part will help because as we better understand where our data is and what access we are going to allow these AI tools to have, it will pay dividends in the future.

I would rate Dell PowerScale a 10 overall.