Dell PowerStore Reviews

I use Dell PowerStore in my organization mainly for our server environment, so all of our virtual servers run on it. I also use Dell PowerStore in my organization to clone our environment to a test environment and some storage devices. The aforementioned details explain the main reason why our organization prefers Dell PowerStore.

With new features in the product, my organization hopes to get some more output. When our organization moved Dell EMC XtremIO to Dell PowerStore, we knew that the functionalities revolving around cloning and copies would become a little slower, but we made the decision to do so because it was cheaper for our environment, making it a cost-based decision.

The deduplication functionality provided by the solution is fairly good. The speed offered by the product is enough for our organization. Our organization also has Dell EMC XtremIO, which is a bit faster, though Dell PowerStore alone is more than enough for us.

After the smooth launch of the product in our company, only the areas around upgrades are a bit problematic. In our organization, we face difficulties when updating the product. Since Dell PowerStore's system health check runs correctly, there is a need to bypass the health check during the upgrading process. Sometimes, the replication part of the product doesn't work, and because of this, our organization has to contact Dell's support to fix it. In my organization, we have had to go through two weeks with no replication, which is not very handy for our production environment.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for two or three years.

My company faces issues when we attempt to update Dell PowerStore, but under normal circumstances, we don't face any issues with the product.

When you have someone on the line from Dell's support team, then everything becomes perfect, especially if they are early to address some of our issues since, in our organization, we have multiple appliances and storage areas, and to maintain it at a level, it's very difficult. My organization needs to create an incident and schedule a call with Dell's support team, which sometimes can be a bit of a rough process.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The implementation phase of the product was not difficult. An engineer from Dell came to our company to install Dell PowerStore, and afterward, we configured the zones and WWNs, and the product started to work perfectly. There were no problems at all with the implementation phase of the product.

I don't know how much time the deployment process takes since one of my colleagues handles it, as I am only a supervisor.

A third-party help was required to install the product.

My company chose Dell PowerStore over other products mainly because we have very good contact with Dell in the Netherlands. My company uses the server and storage devices from Dell. Our company's main support is from Dell. My company did take a look at Pure Storage. With the discounts and everything from Dell, my company runs about 30 servers, which cannot be the storage provided by Pure Storage.

In my organization, there were no problems or challenges that we wanted to address through the implementation of Dell PowerStore.

I don't know how much money my organization saved after moving from Dell EMC XtremIO to Dell PowerStore, but I know that we have received some discounts from Dell. I don't know what the prices were when my company chose Dell EMC XtremIO or Dell PowerStore.

My organization doesn't use CloudIQ to manage and analyze Dell PowerStore.

I don't know how my organization assesses Dell PowerStore for its overall energy consumption. I don't know what kind of power it uses for anything.

I know that Dell PowerStore is a bit, if not much, better when it comes to areas like significant data consolidation and footprint reduction when compared to Dell EMC XtremIO. Dell EMC XtremIO was also a very good product for areas like significant data consolidation and footprint reduction.

It is a good product, considering my assessment of Dell Technologies' environmental, social, and governance values. My organization maintains good contacts with Dell, and Dell also supports us by providing good governance.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for visualization and protection of the environment.

The solution's most valuable features are the quick data compression process and ease of scalability for all types of support contracts.

The solution's pricing could be better.

We have been using the solution for half a year.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. We have more than 300 end users and two administrators using it. We also plan to increase the usage.

The solution's customer service is excellent.

Positive

The solution's initial setup was straightforward. It took one or two days to complete it.

Our in-house team of two executives implemented the solution.

The price of the solution is high compared to IBM. There are additional costs for storage and support apart from the standard license.

We evaluated IBM and Fujitsu storage before. In comparison with Dell, IBM has stable software. But Dell is perfect for technical support and training, helping us make the right decisions. Also, we can choose between different strategies or configurations. It is more intuitive and complex as well.

I advise others to prefer more disks for the solution than standard ones. Also, wait to install updates after release. Overall, it is a great product. I rate it as a ten.

Dell PowerStore is primarily used for high-performance applications, such as databases, but it is also suitable for virtualization and other applications.

Dell PowerStore has helped in resolving latency issues in our applications. Our customers mostly use it to improve performance.

The most valuable features of Dell PowerStore are the support for NVMe and SCM, which provides end-to-end performance and high IOPS, minimizing latency. It is a full-fledged storage solution.

Dell PowerStore is a good solution overall, but some models could support hypervisors better by allowing for more customization and flexibility for customer needs.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for approximately three years.

I rate the stability of Dell PowerStore a nine out of ten.

We have five to six customers using this solution and we plan on increasing our customers.

I rate the scalability of Dell PowerStore a nine out of ten.

The technical support from Dell PowerStore has always been good, they respond quickly and you can reach them 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore requires expertise, but for someone trained in the solution, it's not too complicated.

One person is needed for configuration, and two people are needed for installation and cabling.

By using Dell PowerStore's best deduplication and compression features, its ROI is very good.

I rate the price of Dell PowerStore a seven out of ten.

We evaluated options like HPE Primera and Huawei Dorado.

Dell PowerStore provides the best performance, deduplication, and compression, although other storage is also supporting these features. However, the Dell PowerStore guarantees 4:1 compression and deduplication, which goes up to 20:1.

If anyone wants to implement Dell PowerStore, I would advise that they seek help from an expert rather than deploying it by themselves.

I rate the scalability of Dell PowerStore a nine out of ten.

Our clients mainly use it for additional workloads in databases and EDI.

Typically, high-performance and high-availability features, such as application snapshots and remote and local replication, are highly valued.

There is room for improvement in the support. 

I have been using Dell PowerStore for over a year.

For stability, I would rate Dell PowerStore as a seven out of ten. 

The scalability varies depending on the model. The smaller models are not very scalable, while the larger ones offer better scalability. So it really depends on the specific model. For example, the 400 series models are less scalable.

Our customers are a mix of small, medium, or enterprise businesses. 

The customer service and support are bad. The response time from the support team was not very satisfactory. They also struggled with handling cases from different time zones.

Neutral

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy. 

I would rate it as a six out of ten, one being cheap and ten being expensive, because pricing depends on the model and negotiation. Sometimes we manage to get good discounts, sometimes not.

It's an all-inclusive license, so there are no additional charges. It's a one-time license fee for the device.

Overall, Dell PowerStore is a good platform, but it's not the best, in my opinion, due to the support issues and stability concerns. 

Additionally, the shift from a storage controller to Dell servers as the controller is not ideal for a storage operating environment. Ultimately, it's a Dell Server working on the software for PowerStore.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We utilize Dell PowerStore for VMware and to establish an OpenShift environment for deploying applications on the customer's end.

The solution is easy to use and has good performance.

Horizontal scaling has room for improvement.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for around five years.

I give the stability a nine out of ten.

I give the scalability a seven out of ten. While the solution can be vertically scaled without issues, horizontal scaling presents challenges.

The technical support is usually good but they are not very robust.

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward. I give the setup a seven out of ten. To ensure successful deployment, a certain level of technical knowledge is necessary. Typically, a team of one to two engineers can complete the deployment within a few hours. However, the duration may vary and take up to two days depending on the specific configuration requirements.

We implement the solution for our customers.

The solution is expensive. I give the cost a two out of ten.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

The solution requires hardware maintenance. Depending on the customer's contract agreement, we can maintain the solution and provide replacement parts by the next business day.

Our clients are enterprise-level.

I recommend Dell PowerStore because it is a highly stable solution.

Our company partners with the solution to offer customers storage as a service. We currently use the solution internally for our data center and to conduct tests or demos. 

We have not yet used the solution for customers because product lead time is slow and long. 

We are focused on providing our customers with quality service. The solution saves customers time and money because it handles migrations quickly and does not require additional IT resources or staff. 

The solution's scalability, capacity, and performance are great. 

Migrations are very easy and fast. The solution works well with native products such as VxRail, Unity, or VMware. 

Products that are not native sometimes cause migration issues. 

The solution should include access to Dell Demo Center. Our prior partnership included it and I was able to learn more about products, schedule demos, view functionalities, and run tests in real-time. Without access, I have to wait to get answers to my questions. 

More demonstration and training options are needed. It is important to understand the solution before speaking with customers about its functionality and benefits. 

Documentation and videos are not very rich and should include the whole interface with detailed information that can be shared with customers. 

I have been using the solution for one year. 

We don't have enough use cases to determine overall stability. The solution does perform well when scaling. 

The solution's scalability is great. Customers view this as an advantage because they can roll out in stages. 

The company previously used Dell Demo Center.

In my role as presales engineer, I implement products for a demo environment. I have knowledge of HPE 3PAR and NetApp but have worked almost exclusively with Dell products for twelve years. 

The setup is advertised as plug-and-play but it is not quite that easy. 

We installed the solution in-house for our demo environment. 

The price is high compared to the Tunisian market. The solution is T-level but is not priced that way. Customers want the option to scale in or out while managing costs. 

We are using PowerStore 1000 but that is already secondary level since 1200T and 1200X have been released. 

The price is more exciting when you consider the solution's scalability and performance. 

We were already with Dell so we knew the solution would easily manage our migrations. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We are a reseller, and we use them to demonstrate to our customers the PowerStore interface as well as to power our own lab demos, running vCenter, NSX, and other software utilities.

For our demo lab, before we got PowerStore, we were running on a really outdated storage platform that was running out of space and didn't have enough internal resources to be able to power our customer demos. This product really helped facilitate and we do quite a few PowerStore demos since we have that device. 

Our older PowerStore is where most of our demos are located. We're just using it as a block of storage and storage to power the VMware environment. That's been our main use case.

The networking was difficult and complicated. It took as long to configure it correctly for the networking, as to roll it out. It would be good if there was a way to simplify the network complexity. 

It's also only supported with a limited amount of switches. If I hadn't bought the Dell switches, I would've had some issues with my legacy switches. That's been our number one issue with customers, when they say, "oh no, I'm going to use this other switch."

We have two PowerStores. We have one that's three years old, and we have a new one we just implemented a couple of weeks ago.

The solution is extremely stable. We haven't had any issues with it.

We only have the product in one location. Only six people have touched the solution. That's between the people who maintain it and sales architects who use it for demonstrations.

We have full Dell support. One time, my engineer was in the lab and knocked a power cable loose. I got an email within 15 minutes saying "you had an unexpected node failure, and do you need help?" They were on top of it. They are right there and they reach out proactively.

Positive

We had Compellent previously and that had aged out. It was six years old. Then we had EqualLogic that was in place just for NAS storage. That one also aged out and was running out of space. This product replaced both of those units.

I was involved in the initial setup of this solution. It was pretty straightforward. With the first implementation, we were done in about 12 hours. That included the networking switches. The unit, PowerStore itself, is probably deployed in only six hours.

The solution requires maintenance. I am not the one who performs the maintenance. Our lead engineer handles it.

We used Dell Professional Services during the implementation. I also had my lead PowerStore engineer and some of our sales architects shadow it, as well as a couple of my other engineers who hadn't used PowerStore. Dell let us have about four people shadow the installation so that my staff could get some knowledge as it got deployed.

We've seen an ROI. We're a reseller. Being able to do those demos for our customers helps us sell more products.

I don't really have any line of sight on the pricing. I heard it's comparable to the other Dell storage units.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. It's a really good product.

I'd advise potential new users to have a demo or do a hands-on lab to try it out. Also, make sure you buy supported switches.

PowerStore is joined to four application servers in a cluster. We're running an application that we use to monitor our activity in the financial markets. We collect all the data from the market—books, trades, orders—that we send to the market. In terms of volume, we are collecting about 100 million rows a day for the books, 10 million a day for the orders, and about 500 rows for public trades.

It is a mission-critical application because of compliance and the regulators. We have to maintain this kind of monitoring because it's a direct link to our activity in the regulated market.

An interesting feature is the guaranteed reduction when it comes to the physical capacity of the disk. We have 30 terabytes of SSD and that is equivalent to 100 terabytes of effective capacity. It allows us to reduce the costs of capacity.

Our previous solution was Dell EMC Compellent. What we have seen immediately is how easy it is to use PowerStore compared to Compellent. PowerStore is much simpler to manage.

The most valuable features include 

• easy of use 
• performance in terms of read-write capacity.

It is also important that you can add compute and capacity independently. We have sized the solution based on our current needs, but in the future we can choose to increase capacity if we grow our activity in the market. And if we have more business in our monetary system, we can increase compute. The ability to choose what we increase is a good feature.

The only area I can highlight for improvement is that the 4:1 data reduction target has not been reached. This may be due to an issue with Dell EMC's initial analysis of data compression. As a result, we have had to add new physical disks to reach our goal of total available disk space. Dell EMC has met us partway on this DRR issue by providing some of the additional disks free of charge, but we have had to purchase the remaining quantity of the disks we need.

We have been using PowerStore in our production environment for a few months, after using it in pre-production for about two months.

The stability has been very good so far.

We have not tested the scalability yet. All our data is well supported in the current solution, but we sized the new solution with more capacity than the previous one had.

The initial setup of PowerStore is a straightforward process. Setting up the Compellent was much more complex.

Overall, the setup took us about three weeks.

We ran it in a pre-production environment initially. We loaded all the data that was in production into the new environment and ran our application in both the pre-production and the production environments, just to test the stability and the availability of the application.

There are four people involved with the solution in our IT operations, and there are about 50 people who use the application that runs on it. Our application is a specific, department-level application, that is used for monitoring the activity in financial markets, so its use is limited to our business area. That is why the number of users is limited.

Dell EMC's support was very efficient during the setup of the entire solution. They handled the complete setup in terms of connections and also helped us with the software configuration and moving data from our old solution into the new solution.

We haven't seen ROI yet, but the return for us will be in the efficiency of monitoring our activities.

The pricing is in line with other vendors' pricing, more or less. There are no costs in addition to the standard fees.

We did not evaluate other solutions because Dell EMC is a partner for us and we're satisfied with them. We have evolved with their solutions and PowerStore is the best. Dell EMC is our vendor and provides us with all our other client-server solutions.

At the moment, I am satisfied by the simplicity and ease of use of the PowerStore.