Dell PowerStore Reviews

I use Dell PowerStore for block storage and also have some shares on it.

We decided to cluster these because we need more capacity, as we are managing petabyte-scale storage. In order to have this capacity, clustering is necessary.

We can consolidate to minimize the workload storage space. We work with it to make it a consolidated storage solution and remove unused and useless data.

Let me give you an example. We have multiple sites and our storage in one site is replicated to another site. We faced an issue with a cluster before in the virtual machines and started the VM on another site.

Dell PowerStore is easy for implementation and for day-to-day operation. It is very good for day-to-day operations, LUN mounting, and everything.

Dell PowerStore is very good storage that is highly available, and we are managing very high workloads with multiple I/Os, so it fits our organization perfectly. It works well with our organization.

Dell PowerStore is very stable. All storage from Dell is very stable compared to other vendors.

The networking of Dell PowerStore needs to be enhanced. Previously, Unity only had storage without any connectivity to network. Dell did not work with switches integrated with storage before, but now they are providing network switches and TCP/IP connectivity.

The iSCSI features of Dell PowerStore need to be enhanced. Perhaps we do not need to rely on SAN switches anymore. We need TCP/IP switches with high utilization and high bandwidth.

I have used Dell PowerStore for five years.

Dell PowerStore is very stable. All storage from Dell is very stable compared to other vendors.

Dell PowerStore is very scalable. We can expand, and we have already expanded our storage multiple times. It is expandable.

The support for Dell PowerStore is very good and available 24x7. When we open a ticket, they chat with us at the same time and join the session with us. They can join a session any time with the support, which is helpful.

I have worked with Isilon, PowerStore, and Data Domain PowerProtect, all Dell technologies.

We work with Dell PowerStore and it is very good.

It is very easy to manage and makes the lifecycle easy, managing everything from one portal.

We implemented it ourselves.

All business needs for RPO and RTO are being met to minimize them.

We have NetApp and also storage from HP 3PAR.

Dell PowerStore is easier to manage than NetApp. Dell is easy to manage for administration, easy to administer, and easy to solve issues. The support is very good. Everything about Dell makes it easy to support customers.

Clustering is recommended for cluster storage.

Cluster storage is a very good program to upgrade our environment, to make all systems the same version, and to close any vulnerability at the storage level.

We upgrade to any new release from Dell. We currently have the latest release.

We are working with all these solutions. We have clusters for Kubernetes and Tanzu, virtual machines, and also OpenShift. We utilize Dell PowerStore storage for everything.

It is straightforward for Dell PowerStore and also for RecoverPoint for Data Domain, but I think for another storage it was difficult.

If all workload is VM-based, Dell PowerStore can be chosen because it is easy to manage.

I would rate this review an eight out of ten.

Dell PowerStore is used for first-line archiving and GDPR-related issues. It offers seamless integration with SQL Server and Oracle, aiding in quick access during GDPR issues.

Dell PowerStore plays a role in clustering multiple appliances and helps in optimizing workloads, despite requiring some planning and workarounds.

The biggest advantage of Dell PowerStore is the quick access provided during GDPR issues. The system also aids in first-line archiving and integrates well with SQL Server and Oracle.

The cybersecurity features and data resiliency of Dell PowerStore are strong, confirmed by a white-hat hacking test.

Additionally, compression and encryption provide enhanced security for our use cases.

The management interface of Dell PowerStore could be simplified, as it can be challenging to find issues amidst various screens. Introducing AI could help with identifying critical issues or deadlocks faster.

Currently, we foresee no other areas for improvement but acknowledge this might change as deployment progresses.

I have been dealing with the product for about a year and a half, closer to two years.

Currently, we don't have any unplanned glitches with Dell PowerStore. We had a few maintenance issues, which were planned and have been resolved.

Dell PowerStore is relatively easy to expand in terms of scalability. We haven't encountered any major scalability problems as our setup is quite large.

Technical support from Dell is quite good. I would rate Dell's support an 8.5. We had some minor issues, but the server-side support was excellent with a rating of 10, although there was some trouble with other parts.

My experience with the deployment procedure is that it was quite straightforward.

We used a local integrator for deployment, and all the rest was done in-house. The local integrator was CGK.

In terms of performance and operational efficiency, Dell PowerStore hasn't shown a noticeable ROI yet, as it is still being rolled out. However, it does save us close to 11% cost savings.

Regarding the pricing of Dell PowerStore, it is still quite pricey but we did get a good deal when bundled with workstations.

Most of our in-house development minimizes reliance on external SQL products. Additionally, we are evaluating Dell AI Ops and may consider it in the next budget cycle.

Lifecycle updates are well-managed in coordination with support staff. Dell PowerStore's built-in integrations are smooth, albeit with minor glitches.

Capacity expansion in single drive increments hasn't been a concern yet. I would rate this review a 9.

This is a medium-scale solution, and in our country, we use Dell PowerStore for medium-scale data center solutions. 

We have done two replication solutions where we use the Dell PowerStore capability to replicate between them. These are the case scenarios we do for basic consolidation VMware. 

In Telco companies where we use Dell PowerStore, the IOPS we obtain in certain consolidations is very high. We used to use Unity and could get approximately 100k thousand IOPS in a typical consolidation with four hosts and one data in one storage. With Dell PowerStore, we're getting close to 200,000 IOPS, which has doubled our performance.

Compression, deduplication, and speed are excellent features that we get with Dell PowerStore. The real good IOPS are particularly notable features.

With the compression deduplication of Dell PowerStore, it becomes a real business advantage as people don't need to invest so much in hardware. The initial investment might sound high, but when you get five times the deduplication compression, the numbers show customers are getting a good deal for their money. At the same time, they get 4X, 4 6, 4 9s on the quality of service, making it a reliable solution for clients.

The migration from Unity to Dell PowerStore is seamless without requiring high-level technical migrations. We can replace a 10U solution with a 2U solution in Dell PowerStore. Initially, I was surprised because I wasn't really calculating the benefits of compression and deduplication, and it seemed expensive. However, once you see the 2X, 3X, 4X compression capacity, it makes sense and proves to be a good deal. 

Customers react positively to the Dell PowerStore solution, and the energy consumption and space consolidation are beneficial features.

The solution is good and we feel comfortable with it. It's a process of continuous improvement, similar to our experience with Unity. As we complete more installations, our efficiency improves.

The compression is nice, and we discovered the opportunity to make backups directly to data domain, which is good and something we expected. However, improvements could be made in the replication solutions of Dell PowerStore. Even though replication between Dell PowerStores is possible, high latency connectivity is problematic.

The interconnection between units presents challenges when dealing with latency and doing replication. The algorithm might be stronger in Unity. The delay time allowed between data connection should possibly be higher or not as sensitive as it is currently. In our country, where communications aren't the best, we have two clients with replication sites who experience these problems approximately once a month.

We've been in a partnership with Dell for 24 years.

In terms of support, regarding our partnership experience, the first 15 years were extremely good, however, the recent three years have seen some challenges due to personnel reduction and strategic changes, leaving room for improvement. Five years ago, we would have rated it a a ten out of ten. Now, it's probably a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

The migration from Unity to Dell PowerStore is smooth without requiring high-level technical migrations. We replaced a 10U solution with a 2U solution in Dell PowerStore. In Telco companies, the IOPS obtained with Dell PowerStore in certain consolidations is significantly higher. With Unity, we could get 100k thousand IOPS in a typical consolidation, while Dell PowerStore achieves close to 200,000 IOPS.

The installations have been successful, and we are now doing second generation installations where initial Dell PowerStore customers are looking for new models.

With the compression deduplication of Dell PowerStore, it becomes advantageous for businesses to reduce hardware investment. 

Though the initial investment might seem high, achieving five times deduplication compression provides good value for money. 

Our main competitors are Hewlett Packard and Huawei. Pricing is a significant issue, especially with Hewlett Packard at present. They and Huawei's OceanStor compete aggressively against Dell PowerStore in the market. Our key advantage is that we integrate the complete package - switches, servers, storage, and backups - while they only provide one section of the solution.

We are slightly concerned about AI and are investigating the logical equipment needed to promote AI solutions. While we've been working with servers, we recognize the need for good storage for AI solutions.

I'd rate Dell PowerStore nine out of ten. Potential users should try it and get references from existing customers.

Dell PowerStore is sold in government and education, oil and gas, and manufacturing, making this product a versatile technology that applies across all industries.

In government, I sold one Dell PowerStore with 300 TB effective capacity in one appliance, and since Ecuador is a small territory, this technology is substantial for this region.

For the government use case, they are using an on-premises only deployment model.

The best features of Dell PowerStore include the effective capacity, which I believe is its strongest feature, and the dynamic RAID of disks.

The benefits of Dell PowerStore are that its effective capacity is the best benefit, providing six nines of availability, and it offers unified storage, which has the best features for client technologies.

Clients are able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore for some virtual machines and databases, although unstructured data is not a good fit for PowerStore.

Compression and deduplication technologies are important for my specific clients, as the effective data technology in Dell PowerStore is a strong proposal for them.

I would rate Dell's customer service as good; however, the call centers and escalation teams are problematic and slow, with the process being very bureaucratic, which frustrates clients. Despite these problems, the technology is solid and balances these issues.

I have worked with Dell products for approximately 10 years and have previously worked at Ingram Micro.

Dell PowerStore is stable, and I have approximately 10 clients with Dell PowerStore, so we do not experience problems with technology performance.

Dell PowerStore expands and scales up easily.

I would rate Dell's customer service as good; however, the call centers and escalation teams are problematic and slow, with the process being very bureaucratic, which frustrates clients.

Neutral

When comparing Dell PowerStore to other data warehouses I use for different clients, the best technology advantage is that unified storage is a significant benefit over IBM, which does not have unified storage, while IBM offers the best cost per TB. I would rate this review 9 out of 10.

Dell PowerStore is used for backing up some of the infrastructure. It is not used entirely across the whole infrastructure, only for some parts. One isolated system uses Dell PowerStore for backing it up.

The number of users utilizing Dell PowerStore is small because it is used mainly for systems, not users. If considering how many systems have access to it, the estimate is a maximum of twenty.

Dell PowerStore's capabilities with compression or deduplication technologies have not been explored for the business. Since it is not being used as primary storage, only for on-site backups, this focus has not been prioritized.

Built-in integrations with VMware, Kubernetes, or containers in Dell PowerStore have not been utilized.

Dell PowerStore is used on both Linux and Windows. There are no complaints about having to work with both Linux and Windows when using Dell PowerStore.

The structuring of the feature and the management console of Dell PowerStore are particularly valued. This management console is very easy to navigate through, and there have been no problems accessing it in any of the common browsers used, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. The interface and management console are a bit easier to navigate through. Being the foundation of where work is actually done and configurations are put in makes other features and factors a bit easier to deal with because everything is visible in plain sight through a graphical interface.

The management capabilities of Dell PowerStore have been improved with the introduction of the new GUI, which is easy to use. Across all Dell products, including PowerVault, improvements with management are appreciated, especially regarding the elimination of older LAN technologies, which simplifies the configuration and setup of alerts.

Return on investment with Dell PowerStore has not been quantified yet. Previously, an external drive was used for backups, but now Dell PowerStore is relied upon to ensure automated processes are working properly. The health of what has been captured can be confirmed. Previously, the process was manual, and errors were common, but now visibility and automation are available, which have significantly improved the processes, even if the improvements have not been quantified in percentages.

The areas for improvement in Dell PowerStore would be to provide trainings and seminars. The philosophy here is to teach how to fish rather than giving a man a fish. Trainings and seminars are of most interest because after trainings, people here would improve their skills. If webinars or trainings are offered in the future, participation would be valued, or if training opportunities are recommended, attendance would be considered. Understanding some technologies better would make it easier to suggest areas of improvement. Currently, information available online from forums is being used, which is straightforward.

Dell PowerStore has not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches. Although some systems depend on Dell PowerStore and some challenges are faced there, these issues are not due to Dell PowerStore itself. It can be given a rating of more than eight, somewhere around eight, nine, or even ten.

Dell PowerStore fits the requirements regarding scalability. Based on theory, hot swapping can be done and it is easy to change disks. Disks can be merged and data can be migrated across the disks, so it is considered scalable.

The technical support of Dell PowerStore would be rated somewhere from eight and going up, although support has not been used that much on Dell PowerStore itself.

Positive

Dell PowerStore is being explored to understand its full capabilities. Currently, it is only being used for backing up some of the systems, whereas there is a sort of production storage that is used. Testing has been done, and from the tests that have been run, it is doing quite well. A situation where data would have to be restored from Dell PowerStore after a disaster has not been encountered, but it gives hope that in case of a disaster, data can somehow be recovered.

The deployment of Dell PowerStore would not be described as easy, and it would not be described as challenging. More features are still being explored since the infrastructure is relatively new. It would be described as easy, but there is more to come, and some challenges might be found as the infrastructure grows. So far, it is easy to deal with.

Dell PowerStore was purchased through suppliers that are resellers, not directly through the vendor.

Return on investment with Dell PowerStore has not been quantified yet. Previously, an external drive was used for backups, but Dell PowerStore is now relied upon to ensure automated processes are working properly. The health of what has been captured can be confirmed. Previously, the process was manual, and errors were common, but now visibility and automation are available, which have significantly improved the processes, even if the improvements have not been quantified in percentages.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is considered fair. It was cheaper, and the features that came with the solution were quite justifiable. It would not be described as cheap, but rather the price and the features matched well.

Comparing Dell PowerStore with other vendors or products is difficult. However, based on the ones that have been used, it is quite positive. Many features come positively with the solution. Two similar solutions are being run, but Dell PowerStore would not be preferred over the other. They are just on the same level, as there are features in Dell PowerStore that would not be found in the other solution being used.

Consolidation with Dell PowerStore was not needed because all that was needed was a central place to store the data. What was managed to be achieved was one point where the data being sent through to Dell PowerStore can actually be managed. It was not about consolidating it, but rather having a centralized point to manage the infrastructure regarding data.

Dell PowerStore's APEX AI Ops or CloudIQ have not been explored that far.

There is no knowledge about enrollment in the lifecycle extension for Dell PowerStore. It is doubted that enrollment for that has occurred.

Dell PowerStore would be recommended because of how easy it is to navigate the management interface, which is crucial for utilizing the resources and functionality of the solution. It has simplified the processes, making them more robust and helping to meet business needs. The overall review rating given to Dell PowerStore is seven.

My main use case for Dell PowerStore is storage for the SAN.

I probably appreciate the AIOps integration aspect of Dell PowerStore the most.

Some examples of the features that benefited my organization include cluster observability and CPU fluctuations, along with the dashboard itself, which is excellent.

We do use Dell AIOps.

The insights offered by Dell AIOps are very robust when it comes to mitigating traffic flow and data resiliency. Dell PowerStore has impacted my organization positively in terms of performance and operational efficiency, but I haven't seen any measurable benefits or ROI that I can share examples with.

Dell PowerStore can be improved with integration with Dell's Agentic AI platform, which is a feature I want to see in the next release.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for about a year now.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate customer service and support a five out of five.

Prior to adopting Dell PowerStore, we were not using another solution; we were using a legacy device that reached its end of life.

I haven't seen ROI with Dell PowerStore, but as the admin, it does make my life easier.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is above my pay grade.

In my role as a network administrator, I manage the storage array of Dell PowerStore, formerly Unity, and I work with our technical account manager to mitigate system downtime and memory fluctuations.

The Dell PowerStore models we are using are clustered, and I don't remember the model number off the top of my head, unfortunately, but it's the latest PowerStore.

I would describe my experience with Dell PowerStore's data resiliency, availability, and cybersecurity features as having met all of our needs currently.

The difference was made by the support.

I believe that we are enrolled in the Lifecycle Extension, formerly Anytime Upgrade program.

From the program, my organization has realized benefits, and we upgraded from our old platform to the newest Dell PowerStore.

We have been able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore. We have consolidated approximately 20% of our data.

Our data reduction rate is three to one.

Before using Dell PowerStore, we have been a Dell customer for longer than I have been with the company, and that is what stood out most for me during the evaluation process.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell PowerStore overall an eight, as I am still learning, and I would recommend working with the technical account manager to forecast data utilization within a clustered deployment.

The main use cases of Dell PowerStore for me or my clients are mostly virtualization for virtual machines, where we put some servers into a cluster, add Dell PowerStore under it, and use it as their production environment.

My favorite feature of Dell PowerStore is the Metro Volume replication, which allows for two sites to have an active-active configuration and ensures synchronization between two cities, for example.

We also use Dell AIOps and we are always recommending it to our customers to use, especially if they have more Dell products. The reason for this is that they have everything in one place to check for potential issues with their system, and if they use Dell AIOps, they do not need to check each management interface. I find it pretty useful to have information in general about what is wrong with the system or what could be done better, to always give information to the customer regarding what they can do to improve their current system and make it work even better.

The impact of Dell PowerStore on our clients' organizations or my organization in terms of performance and operational efficiency is positive, as Dell PowerStore itself is super easy to manage for the customer, which is great for our customers, and we manage to educate a lot of customers with Dell PowerStore, so they can install those themselves. We do a lot of workshops for Dell PowerStore.

If I could improve Dell PowerStore in any way, the straightforward answer is to add more performance to it by software or try to improve some algorithms to get more deduplication, but that is easier said than done, so I would suggest just continuing to improve the performance.

Regarding pricing and licensing, if it is possible to decrease the prices, that would be great for the customer, but considering the current situation with chip shortages and RAM, it is kind of hard and is going more in the other direction.

I have been working with Dell PowerStore directly for around two years.

Dell PowerStore systems are mostly configured as standalone, and almost all are standalone. They do not need the cluster functionality for more IOPS or more storage because a cluster most of the time is just not needed for the customers we are supplying. They just need one Dell PowerStore to manage their whole infrastructure.

I have worked with customer support, including technical support.

My experience with the support is that I mainly used the online support chat, which was really helpful, especially for licensing subjects. If Dell PowerStore was not getting the license, the support could always help by retrieving the license and activating it.

As for rating the support from one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would say the support is an eight. It is hard to tell because I have not had that much interaction with Dell PowerStore support, but from what I needed, it was always very good.

Deploying Dell PowerStore is pretty easy if the networking itself is configured properly and if the firewall is allowing through all the traffic. It is a pretty straightforward deployment process.

My clients do consider other solutions, such as Everpure, which is a competitor of Dell PowerStore, and both are systems with a similar feature set, but it really depends on pricing. Some features might be on Dell PowerStore that Everpure does not have, or vice versa, and most of the time it is also based on whether the customer is already using Dell products and wants to continue with them.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerStore involves doing pre-sales and installation for customers, and also troubleshooting when customers have issues with the system and they just need assistance on it.

I have hands-on experience.

I think most customers are very happy with Dell PowerStore and their features, such as the deduplication and replication, and now also the replication over Fibre Channel. These are all features that our customers really look forward to and really appreciate.

I have been able to consolidate data with Dell PowerStore, where most of the deduplication is about 2:1 to 3:1, which means compared to other systems that may not have deduplication, you can save a lot of data and also raw storage, making the system cheaper.

I would rate this review a 9 out of 10.

Our primary use case for Dell PowerStore is in a production facility as we are a beef manufacturer, predominantly beef, and we also have lamb facilities in Ireland and affiliates in Poland. Essentially, it's for storage and factory systems, so we're storing and collecting data points, along with office functions like file and print. We have on-prem systems on site, including SCADA-like systems for collecting data points throughout the manufacturing facilities. Our core Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge use case includes a data center footprint for central managed services, finance, and our ERP system, collecting data from our factory sites and storing it centrally so that we can pull it back for reporting. Additionally, our Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge serve our disaster recovery needs, allowing us to run a site remotely from our data center.

The features of Dell PowerStore that I appreciate the most include how very easy it is to expand. In terms of scale, I also appreciate the reaction and support; if a hard drive fails, we're informed that there's a hard drive or part failing, and we get alerts on it. There's a part shipped out and a replacement part shipped out to replace it, which gives me a sense of reassurance.

Since using Dell PowerStore, I think what we realized was that at the beginning, we sat down with Dell and explained our use case, and we got the build of Dell PowerStore that we required for our business, allowing us to grow as needed. It is fit for purpose, which is a major improvement; what we had before wasn't fit for purpose and was more about money. The previous setup got us into a lot of holes, whereas the Dell solution has been absolutely fantastic for us regarding support and expansion.

We use Dell PowerProtect solutions with our Dell PowerStore, specifically the Avamar backup solution, which is a Dell product. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell support as a ten, focusing on that aspect alone, because it's what allows me to sleep at night. I don't have to worry about the servers or storage going offline since I know it's being monitored, and we get replacement parts if needed, which is not that common, but it allows me to relax more.

Positive

I used a different vendor which was a mix of two vendors but the storage side wasn't up to scratch, probably because we went in low-end. It's an issue that I inherited in my current role, and we had to address it.

My experience with deploying Dell PowerStore is relatively straightforward, and we have had Dell's support whenever we've rolled out a new upgrade.

We've worked with Dell each time we do a refresh; we discuss the current state and our future goals, and they've delivered a model that fits, ensuring we don't overscale while getting the right fit, which has been really positive.

I have seen a return on investment in Dell PowerStore, particularly regarding the throughput improvements.

Before selecting Dell PowerStore, I primarily considered pricing around different vendors in the market.

What stood out to me in the evaluation process, both positively and negatively, was the long-standing relationship I've had with Dell over the past 20 years. The personal relationship has been massive, backed by positive customer care stories from other customers in the food manufacturing sector recommending this choice as the right thing to do.

My role in using and managing Dell PowerStore involves approving purchases in ABP, so for any refreshes or site refreshes we do for our production sites or data center, I will approve the purchase.

Dell PowerStore may play a role in our company's AI initiatives as we are on a journey to analyze all the data we're pulling back from our factory systems. We're working on getting that data into one place, and now we're looking at doing something meaningful with that data to make better-informed decisions. I'm currently having conversations with Dell to explore potential use cases for this.

The performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerStore include the ease of getting through data, the storage capabilities, the processing of storage, response time, and the speed of our backups restore. Restoring a VM from Dell PowerStore is relatively quick when compared to what we've had in the past.

Dell PowerStore makes a noticeable improvement on a site level within our production facilities; for example, we collect data through a simple process of weighing and labeling products across a network. We weigh a box or a tray of meat and send a file to a server that prints a label. The difference between what we had previously and what we have now is a matter of milliseconds. The improvement is massive; even a couple of milliseconds makes a significant difference to our production throughput. It is a huge benefit for us, even if it may seem insignificant. Reducing that time is crucial because the impact means getting our throughput quicker, allowing products to leave the door more efficiently, which also cuts back on overtime and ensures we can complete our daily tasks in the required hours. Quicker throughput also enables us to implement online retail labeling, printing labels every half second, which requires quick networking, storage, and CPU capabilities.

As a Senior Data Center Engineer, I look after the storage for multiple vendors including Dell PowerStore. Dell PowerStore is primarily used for storing historical data; we work in the energy sector, so a lot of our feeds come in from the grid and power systems, and we use it for storing and then pulling it out for hyper-processing.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore for me is definitely compression; we seem to be growing at an exorbitant rate at the moment and are getting good results with the compression data. Dell worked with us to tweak the algorithm, allowing us to achieve a higher compression ratio of about 5:1, which has saved us an absolute fortune in disk capacity compared to our previous 2.5 to 3:1. This has delayed costs by a year or two, helping us significantly, and there have been no side effects on performance—same IOPS, same throughput. It has been excellent.

This has saved so much time in my hands; I am not constantly maintaining systems. It does free up IT staff; we have other storage and SANs from other vendors that require a bit more maintenance, such as a Compellent solution, which was getting end of life and needed constant attention, while Dell PowerStore just works without needing to contact Dell. In terms of performance and operational efficiency, we do not drive the storage as hard as we should; it serves its purpose for our EMS system, and we have not needed to expand it yet.

I cannot think of any improvements for Dell PowerStore offhand.

I have been at my company for three years, and we have been using Dell PowerStore for about 9 to 10 years now, going through our second round of about five-year support with them.

Dell PowerStore is stable and reliable; we work in a critical national infrastructure scenario where stability is crucial, and it does its job with minimal intervention—monthly updates keep everything running smoothly.

We did not need to expand externally; we were able to take existing hardware, existing space, and through algorithms and software, we managed to compress it down, all while maintaining a robust system—it has been fantastic.

I have used customer support for Dell PowerStore occasionally, mostly for parts such as hard drive failure and routine maintenance, and while we have a support contract with Dell, I rarely need to engage them.

The previous vendor was HP. I think they switched because it was the end of tender; a tender came through, and that was it—Dell PowerStore won the tender.

Dell PowerStore has helped lower my TCO by relieving stress and allowing me to focus less on maintenance and more on other areas of my work.

Regarding pricing compared to competitors, Dell PowerStore is slightly more expensive, but the return on cost and the reliability we have experienced justifies that extra cost.

The exact model number of Dell PowerStore we are using is a Q, though I should know this offhand.

We have not used AIOps yet, but that is why we are here; we are starting to introduce AI to the data we have stored in petabytes and are analyzing it traditionally, looking to move that into an AI model of analysis, which is the groundwork stage we are at now.

We are enrolled in lifecycle extension; however, it is not something I handle in my role, so I would have to pass on that one.

I have given this review an overall rating of 9.

My main use case for Dell PowerStore involves SAN storage connecting to the ESXi hosts, and it also includes SMB storage from it; however, it wasn't the only storage we have since we had different types of storage, with Dell PowerStore being a mid-range option where the IOPS was medium.

When we tried to use it with a database virtual machine, we faced an issue because it was a large VM and we encountered an issue with the IOPS.

Regarding the database machine scenario, I'm a system administrator, not a database admin, but the database team was complaining about a big delay when searching or querying the database, which was about three to four seconds.

My main uses for Dell PowerStore include power efficiency, data reduction, and simplifying management, but regarding performance, Dell PowerStore performance wasn't that good compared to the IBM FlashSystem and Dell PowerMax.

We are using the classic usage of Dell PowerStore as block storage, and we had a very small use case for SMB storage.

One of the best features Dell PowerStore offers is a very big storage capacity with a lower price, and I also find the dashboard relatively easy; the solution itself is easy to administer, maintain, and upgrade, which are the main useful cases.

I mentioned that we had several storage options from different vendors, and one of the easiest dashboards was Dell PowerStore, where I was able to create volumes, zone, add hosts, and update the firmware, as well as extend the volumes.

Dell PowerStore has positively impacted my organization by adding a very big storage capacity at a relatively low price, and it has also been very easy to use.

When I say it was easy to use, it saved time for the system admin team; for instance, when we are adding or creating volumes and adding them to the ESXi hosts from the vCenter, it was easy and took just a couple of minutes, making this the easiest part, and updating and upgrading the firmware was also very easy compared to other vendors.

The most impactful feature for my organization was managing it from the dashboard, as it was the easiest aspect, making it simple to operate and maintain.

Dell PowerStore's IOPS needs to be better; this is the only downside I faced.

I don't have specific ideas on how Dell could improve the IOPS or performance; as I'm not an architect, all I experienced was that the IOPS was high, with high latency and a noticeable delay, indicating a need for the IOPS to be higher to lower latency.

Dell PowerStore's AI capabilities include Dell AI Ops, which was connected and performed fairly well, but I did face an issue with it due to a bug indicating an inhibitor or security issue with the current firmware level of Dell PowerStore; I updated it, yet the security advisor did not disappear, compelling me to communicate with Dell support to have them manually remove it.

I have used Dell PowerStore for about three years.

Dell PowerStore is stable; however, the only issue we have faced is related to the IOPS because the input and output was delayed.

We only had one box, so we didn't scale; I didn't experience the scaling aspect.

The customer support experience was good.

We have used different solutions simultaneously, including a Dell PowerMax 2000 as our main production storage for core systems and a FlashSystem 9100, while we are using Dell PowerStore as a medium range for its high capacity and low price.

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good, suitable, and relatively acceptable.

We have saved money, time, and required fewer employees; it was very easy to maintain and only one person was enough, plus it was relatively cheap compared to other solutions.

I didn't try additional capabilities; all my scope on Dell PowerStore is to administer it, creating volumes, extending the volumes, and updating or upgrading the firmware.

We weren't consolidating the data; I believe it auto-consolidated from the box itself, but I didn't engage with that issue directly; the ratio might be around 1:8, but I'm not entirely sure.

If they are looking for a simple solution with many features in a mid-range and low price, they should go for Dell PowerStore.

I have mentioned all I know. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.