Dell PowerVault Reviews

I work with Dell PowerStore, PowerEdge, and PowerVault, but not PowerProtect. I have been dealing with Dell PowerVault for one year. I use Dell PowerVault for backup storage, as this is the major use case and medium for backup. For Dell PowerVault, I do not work with the bidirectional asynchronous replication of ME5 because we use the medium for its standalone node, so we don't have the options to synchronize to another.

The biggest advantage of the product that really stands out for me is its price and the comparison of price with performance; its price is very good, and the performance according to this price is sufficient based on backup requirements, so it is perfect. My experience with the HTML5 Dell PowerVault Manager GUI for ME5 is good; it is easy to manage, clear, and very easy to find what we need. The configuration is very friendly, so I configured it, and for one year, it works without any activities from my side. It is also connected to cloud monitoring from Dell, so we receive all information and alerts in one point, integrating with this monitoring tool from the vendor, where I have all information from Dell PowerVault and PowerStore, and it is easy to configure alarms and notifications. I do not find anything that is missing or wrong with the product; it is suitable for my needs.

I do not see the option for scheduled snapshots in Dell PowerVault because I did not find the information. However, I do use the snapshot option on Dell PowerVault to protect against cyber-attacks. The negative aspect I mentioned is regarding the support; sometimes I spend a lot of time explaining issues and it is not time-effective. I prefer waiting for support from another country, depending on time zones, as I often waste time before switching to a proper engineer when necessary. Generally, I am happy with the product, but sometimes I wait too long to switch to a higher-level engineer when I have a major issue that requires more expertise.

I do not see any disadvantages or areas for improvement; it is the solution I expect. I bought, configured, installed, and that is all I need. It does not require many activities from my side after configuration; it is stable, performance is acceptable, and has good integration with backup, with interfaces like Fibre Channel and SMB to expose to the client, so I do not find anything missing. I save time managing it because it does not require daily, weekly, or monthly activities from my side. I am happy that it works without activity; it has been operational for over a year without issues. The solution provides good integration tools for monitoring from my side, and the disks are working without any errors, although I do not know how it will be in the future since I have used it just over a year.

Scalability is not a problem, and I know that there is the possibility to scale out.

I have never purchased anything from AWS Marketplace, including Dell PowerVault. I do not have the occasion to discuss technical support for Dell PowerVault, as it works without any issues, so it is acceptable. The Dell support is good, but I recommend that the engineer should be from our area, as I have observed that support from Dell provided from Asia is not as good as when I have experience with support from Europe or America.

Before, I used two devices from another solution; one was too old and very expensive, while the second often had stability issues, requiring activities like patching the protocols over iSCSI. The first one was expensive in comparison, but stability was worse, requiring monthly maintenance, so I looked for something new. The second was stable with the same performance, but its price was twice as much, so I found a proper solution within our budget.

The deployment process for Dell PowerVault is easy; it does not require much experience or the assistance of an engineer. Using only the GUI, it takes me about one to two hours to configure and expose it to the backup system.

I used QNAP and Data Domain before. I stopped using Data Domain from Dell because it is very expensive and has issues with data deduplication; the main functionality of Data Domain is its deduplication, but if the data is encrypted, deduplication does not work. Since current regulations require all data, including backups, to be encrypted, the deduplication feature becomes unusable, so I need something cost-effective that can handle our data backup needs.

My data management strategy helps to protect my data, ensuring that it is protected against cyber attacks. I use Dell PowerVault because the requirement for backup is to have three copies: two copies on disk and one on tape. This is a continuous process in my backup strategy, where one copy is to disk and the second is to tape. I give this review a rating of ten.

A few use cases for Dell PowerVault that I would mention are backup, storage, and VMware vSphere. Dell PowerVault helps the company streamline workflows, and in general, we use it more as a file server. We have connected the storage to a Windows file server.

Dell is a good company to work with. They are stable and work really well.

The bi-directional asynchronous replication feature in the ME5 product is something I use. PowerVault Manager is the management tool from Dell. It is effective for me to allow configuring and using the system quickly. It is easy to use. If you want to take a snapshot on a volume that you have connected to vCenter or vSphere, it is easy to use.

If we speak about the negative side of Dell PowerVault, I do see some areas for improvement. A quicker management user interface would be beneficial. It is a bit slow, but it is acceptable. It still could be a bit better. The GUI is sometimes a little bit slow. Maybe the quality could be improved and the response time could be faster. Regarding improvements, the quick management interface could be better, and the support response time could also be improved in these two areas.

Regarding stability, when I am using Dell PowerVault, it is stable and very stable.

Regarding scalability, Dell PowerVault is a really scalable product. I see some limitations for scalability or maybe it could be expensive to scale. We have just one Dell PowerVault, so I do not know for certain. For me, it is enough, basically. I do not see any limitations, and it is enough for me.

I have stable support from the vendor with stable servers and storage. Regarding technical support from Dell, if I ever communicated with them, I would say support is good or sometimes could be better. On average, it is good.

Negative

I am not using HP, and I do not have experience with HP.

Regarding the deployment process for Dell PowerVault, the initial setup is quite easy if you know how to do it.

The implementation was done by me in-house.

In terms of return on investment, I do not see any ROI in Dell PowerVault. There are some savings in terms of time and money. Another storage system from any vendor could have been purchased, but we usually buy it from Dell. HP has something similar.

The cost depends on which model you use for Dell PowerVault. If you use a PowerVault with SSD hard disk, it begins to be rather expensive. If you use it with an ordinary standard hard disk, the price is acceptable. In my case, I do not see a cost benefit.

We are also using Dell PowerStore, which is a larger system. When comparing Dell PowerVault with Dell PowerStore or any other products, I see some differences. This is more of a low-end product than PowerStore. PowerStore is a larger or quicker storage solution. Dell PowerVault is a little bit more for smaller companies. I would not say that is a con or advantage; that is just the difference. Dell PowerVault is mainly for small customers and is a complement to a bigger storage product.

We are a customer of Dell. I am not using the HTML5 PowerVault Manager GUI for ME5. I use the web user interface. I do not measure the performance. I am more of a storage manager to manage the data. I am not in a position to buy from different vendors. As for the price, I really do not know if Dell PowerVault is generally expensive or quite an affordable product. 

Our entire database in our data center runs on Dell PowerVault. A quick, specific example of how we use this solution on a daily basis is as a database server. We are analyzing a migration to an entirely new data center, but always with the idea of continuing to work with Dell.

Dell PowerVault has had a positive impact on my organization because we were able to achieve better performance and scalability, which helps significantly, and also in terms of cost.

Regarding the performance gains and cost reductions, the cost aspect is because we are able to have much more available resources at a lower market price, and that is reflected in operations. Any operation where we can reduce costs is beneficial for the company, so that is one of the main factors.

The best feature that Dell PowerVault offers is scalability.

Dell PowerVault's scalability makes a difference in my day-to-day work because it really makes our work easier and, as we need more resources, it is much easier to add capacity, not only for me, but also to provide the service we offer for our entire state, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.

Dell PowerVault could be improved if it continues to deliver what it already delivers, as it is already very good, but certainly, having more resources, more availability, and better energy performance to reduce CO2 emissions, and also having lower energy costs would be the best of both worlds.

My company has been using Dell PowerVault for about five years.

Dell PowerVault is very stable.

Dell PowerVault's scalability is excellent.

Customer support for Dell PowerVault is excellent.

When I joined the company, all solutions were already based on Dell technology, so I do not know if there was a previous solution.

I evaluated other options before choosing Dell PowerVault, mainly HP.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate Dell PowerVault a nine.

I believe every product needs to be improved, and I just did not give it a 10 because otherwise I would not find things to improve, so simply because of that.

Regarding the AI features of Dell PowerVault, we are in the process of implementing governance and security. These features are not being used yet, and that is why we are interested in this event, to participate and learn more about the product with artificial intelligence.

The advice I would give to others who are considering using Dell PowerVault is that it is difficult to give that guidance without knowing the use case, but mainly, analyze the environment and check whether the environment is suitable. However, Dell PowerVault technology really makes a difference in the final delivery of performance and results.

My main use case for Dell PowerVault is to use it as a cyber vault to make immutable backups in case of a cyber attack.

Fortunately, I never had to use Dell PowerVault for a real case scenario, but the main thing is the configuration was pretty easy to do, and the backups ran perfectly as far as I could identify.

The only thing we did was get our current backups and replicate them into the cyber vault using Dell PowerVault.

Since we didn't face a real case where we could use Dell PowerVault, I can only speak to what we observed. Back then it was easy to see the space that we were utilizing and the throughput that we were getting from the replication. Dell PowerVault did not impact us negatively.

I did some forecasts in the beginning of the project, and after the project was in production, the compression rate we got was a little bit better than we expected. Instead of having 75% utilized as we expected, we ended up having 68%.

Dell PowerVault didn't help my organization streamline workflows as we didn't use it that way.

Dell PowerVault has contributed to staying within budget for our operations, but I don't have the specific numbers because it was out of my pay grade.

In my opinion, the best features Dell PowerVault offers are that they make the backups immutable and hold them in a secure place that could be easily separated from the main network in case of a cyber attack.

It was very easy to manage Dell PowerVault, and it integrated easily with our current backup tools, which were IDPA and Avamar.

Regarding Dell PowerVault's AI capabilities, I think they were very strong. I found Dell PowerVault's accuracy and reliability of output when it comes to AI capabilities to be very reliable, as it never made any significant mistakes and was accurate and reliable.

I assess the ease of managing comprehensive storage data management features like snapshots, replication, and provisioning with Dell PowerVault to be very easy; the interface was very intuitive and we could make the most of it.

We used scheduled snapshots with Dell PowerVault, and it was good to have them in place because it is easy and quicker to restore in case of an issue.

Dell PowerVault was working fine for us, so I couldn't visualize anything that could be improved by now. My answer was a nine out of 10 because the customer support still needs some improvement.

I have used Dell PowerVault for the last five years.

Dell PowerVault is stable.

I found Dell PowerVault's scalability to be easy, as we did have an increased number of space needed and it was easy to add more disks to it, set up and configure with another node as well.

I would rate the customer support on a scale of 1 to 10 as nine. The customer support still needs some improvement.

That was the first time we were using this kind of solution.

We used the HTML5 PowerVault Manager GUI for ME5, and it was very easy to configure and put into production.

We didn't evaluate other options because we had our ongoing contract with Dell.

I would rate Dell PowerVault a nine out of 10. My advice to others looking into using Dell PowerVault is that it's a very powerful tool and very reliable, and I would recommend it.

My usual use case for Dell PowerVault is as an end user. I am using the HTML5 PowerVault Manager GUI for ME5.

What I appreciate most about Dell PowerVault is its multipathing. In workflow, Dell PowerVault is effective and runs on schedule to help streamline our workflows. Dell PowerVault contributes to staying within budget for my operations.

I would like them to improve the controllers, specifically the stability of the controllers.

I have been using Dell PowerVault for around five to seven years.

The overall stability and reliability of Dell PowerVault are very good. I have experienced issues with the stability and reliability as more known features concerning controller management and controller management ports mostly stuck, and I have to reboot the management controller.

Dell PowerVault is scalable.

Technical support professionalism and skills with Dell PowerVault are something I have communicated about.

Reliability-wise, we chose Dell PowerVault after evaluating other options.

I participated in the initial setup of Dell PowerVault.

We are using Dell PowerVault, so I have seen some return on investment.

Regarding the effectiveness in allowing me to configure and begin using the system quickly, multipathing has been a key factor.

We are not using on-demand and scheduled snapshots with Dell PowerVault, but we tried it for testing purposes and they work effectively.

How I feel about managing comprehensive storage data management features concerning snapshots, replication, and provisioning with Dell PowerVault is that these features are valuable.

I have no additional remarks about my experience with Dell PowerVault. I would rate Dell PowerVault as a strong product based on my overall experience.

I am currently working with implementations and deployments for Dell servers, and I work as a pre-sales engineer. I have good experience with Dell solutions, and previously I worked with Dell EMC.

I work on ME storages, Unity storages, PowerMax, PowerStore, and Dell PowerEdge servers, including T-series and R-series servers. I also work on Dell PowerVault.

Dell PowerVault is maximally used with NLSAS disks and SAS SSDs, where the NLSAS RPM is 7.2k and the SAS RPM is 10k. This type of disk is well suited for Dell PowerVault, and whenever there is low latency data, Dell PowerVault is the best solution.

Dell PowerVault can be maximally used for backup purposes, which includes maximally NLSAS disks that are available with that storage, and ME40 and ME storages are available in this category.

The technologies used determine the application. Dell PowerVault is used for backup purposes maximally, and whenever performance is not required, Dell PowerVault is the solution.

Dell PowerVault helps customers stay within budget, but some customers still use Synology boxes because their budget is very low. That is the reason they are using Synology boxes. If you are buying a pizza from McDonald's, the price is very high, but if you are buying food from the street, the price is very low. That is a standard. Dell maintains a standard, which is the reason the pricing is high.

Implementation with Dell PowerVault is very simple, where I can complete the implementation within 15 to 20 minutes maximum.

Dell PowerVault needs to include additional features.

Ransomware protection features need to be included, as all other features are good for Dell PowerVault.

I have worked with Dell PowerVault for around four years.

I did not face any issues regarding Dell PowerVault.

Dell's technical support is very good when evaluated.

I would rate the technical support of Dell at 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I also have experience working with HP technologies.

Every storage has different utilizations. If you are using it for dumping data, you do not require any performance, and for that scenario, Dell PowerVault is the best solution. If you require performance and other things, then PowerStore is the best solution.

Whenever I work with Indian clients, maximally all persons are asking about the price differences or what kinds of securities are available. For Dell PowerVault, there is no ransomware protection available, but according to the MSA storage and Dell PowerVault storage, both are similar storages.

Since I work on the implementation parts maximally on this, I cannot commit on that because whenever implementations are done on new storages only and not on old storages, day-to-day basis issues face the work.

Dell PowerVault helps customers stay within budget, but some customers still use Synology boxes because their budget is very low. That is the reason they are using Synology boxes.

Regarding backup devices, Data Domain is available with Dell, while HP StoreOnce exists as well, and HP recommends StoreOnce with a maximum compression of around 20 to 1. However, Dell's Data Domain achieves better rates due to its technologies. The best solution comes with the combination of Dell PowerStore and Data Domain, where you can dump data on Data Domain for great compression ratios. For smaller customers without a budget for hardware, Data Domain virtual appliances such as DDVE could be very helpful.

Clients mainly use Dell PowerVault for some SMB customers or for customers that need low performance and high capacity storage, as well as for customers with budget constraints.

The biggest advantages of Dell PowerVault are its small size that can fit customer budgets, and it can be used to create high availability clusters for customers with just a limited budget. Additionally, it has availability features, supports RAID configuration with ADAPT RAID, and allows the ability to expand the pool to bigger drives and larger numbers of drives, resulting in faster rebuild times in case of failure and increased overall performance.

The bidirectional asynchronous replication capability of ME5 has a positive influence on the data protection strategy because normally customers with storage will need to replicate to a second site, so having these kinds of features is a good addition within that budget.

I would say it is quite easy to manage storage data management capabilities such as snapshots, replication, and provisioning, especially with the HTML5 interface, which makes it easy to manage the platform, intended for customers without a lot of IT administrators. Generally, a standard IT admin can manage this platform.

I am working with on-demand and scheduled snapshots with Dell PowerVault, which you can use to create a snapshot either as a scheduled part of the data protection policy to ensure multiple milestones are available to go back on time in case of a failure, or if I need to create some snapshot for testing.

Snapshots help with the data management strategy in general as they are part of the lifecycle management of the data, allowing me to create multiple points in time copies of the data to return to any point based on the requirement, such as if batches I am applying do not go well, I can roll back to the snapshot before going to production.

Dell PowerVault is capturing an area that is needed for our customers, and it can be improved if this part could include a NAS option as well since the entry-level NAS part is currently missing in the portfolio, which would be a very good offering for customers, especially for their small and medium businesses.

I have been using Dell PowerVault for six years.

Dell PowerVault is a very stable and reliable product without any observed glitches or bugs or downtime.

There are no limitations with scalability for Dell PowerVault; you can scale as needed, and I do not feel that there is any limitation regarding scalability compared to the requirements.

Regarding technical support for Dell PowerVault from Dell, I would say support is excellent and I have not had problems with them.

While I have not directly sold or worked with anything similar to Dell PowerVault, there are other platforms in the Dell portfolio such as Unity and PowerStore, which serve unified SAN and NAS use cases, but it ultimately depends on the customer's budget and requirements, where Dell PowerVault can provide a benefit compared to other platforms.

The implementation team and deployment procedure should be straightforward and very easy to manage, as it is designed to be customer-installable.

I usually deploy Dell PowerVault on-premises.

Dell PowerVault is budget-friendly and the pricing is quite affordable. When we speak about return on investment, I do observe ROI as the platform allows customers to consolidate multiple workloads in a compact design, making it very cost-effective and budget-friendly.

Normally these kinds of IT spending come under cost rather than an ROI, but in general, when you spend on IT, you see ROI in the whole IT infrastructure or an application that enhances the business operation.

I have experience working with the HTML5 Dell PowerVault GUI for ME5, which offers a better user interface that is simpler to manage and easier to navigate. I would rate this review an 8.

I use Dell PowerVault for basically all use cases.

It's a cheaper storage option that is easy to manage and provision.

The day-to-day operation is very straightforward, and once deployed, there are not many operational tasks required.

Dell PowerVault is very simple and easy to use and understand.

It is very easy to manage.

For customers who require entry-level storage, Dell PowerVault is an excellent choice.

The price point is very good compared to mid-range options.

The product offers multiple options including all-flash and hybrid storage, so both options are available to customers.

For Dell PowerVault, the deduplication and compression features need improvement.

The deduplication and compression are not very effective on this storage. If they work on this feature, it would be very beneficial.

I have been working with Dell PowerVault for approximately eight years.

Dell PowerVault has a limitation of scalability.

It can go up to only 250 drives, as far as I remember.

Customer expectations are that if they have purchased the product from the vendor, at least the startup should be completed by the vendor.

It will not take more than 30 minutes to deploy the box.

Negative

Dell PowerVault is the same product as HP MSA.

Both are OEMs from Seagate, so both storage solutions are the same with no difference.

I am still deploying Dell solutions as well as HP and Huawei products.

PowerEdge servers are the basic servers, and I am also working with Dell PowerVault.

I have not done bi-directional replication on ME5, but I have knowledge about it.

It is basically asynchronous replication, and it only supports async.

I have not configured the snapshot feature, but it has the option to schedule snapshots.

When discussing AI applications, block storage will not work in that context.

Those applications require a parallel file system, which is an altogether different kind of storage.

I work on both remote and on-premises deployments, and I usually work on-premises.

I am not 100% certain about the cloud deployment model.

I would rate this product a 10 overall.

Dell PowerVault is our primary solution for providing out-of-band and out-of-reach backup capabilities. We utilize it to create a secure cyber vault backup where we maintain a mirror of our system. In the event of a critical incident such as ransomware or other compromise, we can spin up the system in a location that is not connected to the main network and cannot be infected or compromised in any other way. This air-tight environment allows us to spin up our hypervisor and then select restore points to effectively restore and move them to production.

We have established a certain window during the day when we open the connection between our cyber vault environment and the production environment. During this time, the entire set of data covering the last 24 hours is replicated within Dell PowerVault. As soon as the replication is completed, the connection is shut down. We only use single direction replication from production to Dell PowerVault, and until now, there has been no need to use bi-directional replication.

The security of the backup and the overall system that Dell PowerVault brings to the table is definitely the most valuable feature. We have a system running in the background as a mirror of our production system, yet that system is completely cut off. This mainly gives us time to react and provides us with peace of mind that if something happens, we can be up and running within a span of approximately 30 minutes.

Provisioning with Dell PowerVault is very easy, and replication can also be straightforward. Snapshots, when using Veeam, have a tendency to go haywire and we have had to go on site to clean up some snapshots that went stuck or jammed and start over.

Beyond that one issue where Veeam went haywire and we had to clear up a certain amount of snapshots and restart the replication job, nothing else has happened until today, and I hope it will remain that way.

I have only had one deployment of Dell PowerVault, which is bank-related, so I am not certain how much data I am allowed to share. This was a customer-related deployment with Dell PowerVault. However, I have played quite extensively with Dell PowerVault in our lab environment.

Until today, we have experienced no stability issues. Dell PowerVault is running on VMware, which is the underlying OS on the Dell PowerEdge servers. Everything has been smooth sailing until today.

We have not experienced any scalability issues. Until today, we did not have any need for the scalability of Dell PowerVault. I am not certain that we will in the future because Dell PowerVault is fairly simple software to maintain.

Dell PowerVault is very easy to set up as an environment. With either VMware or Linux operating on SUSE, you are ready to go within an hour or two. You can either utilize the OVA or deploy it in a containerized environment. At our client location, we are running Linux with Dell PowerVault and a Data Domain connected to it. On certain periods of the day, it establishes the connection with the on-production Data Domain, performs the replication, and then cuts the connection off. This effectively gives us backed up data that is out of the reach of the main network, which from our perspective is an extremely safe way to move forward.

The setup process is very straightforward. The only difference between Dell PowerVault and setting up the Data Domain within the production environment is that you have one extra OVA and one extra network connection.

From what I know, Dell PowerVault is fairly within the budget for our operations and for our client's operations.

I have never encountered a similar product to Dell PowerVault. There are products that provide a certain extent of secure backups or secure backup repositories, but not the type that Dell PowerVault offers.

I can discuss the user experience and the technology itself, as long as it is not related to any customer data.

We only worked with the in-built GUI of Dell PowerVault, so I am not certain which version it was. If you are using the in-built GUI of Dell PowerVault for the first time, there will be some learning curve, though any software has a steeper or less steep learning curve when used for the first time. For me as somebody with experience, the learning curve was not tremendous. It is easy to navigate around. However, if you are at a junior level, you might need certain adjustments.

For my use at this time, there is literally nothing missing in Dell PowerVault. The product, as it stands, is as perfect as it can get. I rate Dell PowerVault as a ten on a scale of one to ten.

We mostly provide the PowerEdge 760 series server along with implementing VXRail, and sometimes we offer backup solutions with Dell PowerVault and others.

Last year we set up a Dell server together with Dell PowerVault, and there is also a higher model that I forget the name of, but we provide Dell PowerVault for the backup solution.

We also use it for the production SAN storage at some other data centers, which makes managing comprehensive storage data management features such as snapshots, replication, and provisioning effective.

As for now, I don't work with Dell products much since we focus on Oracle products. We have another team that addresses networking products such as Dell and other solutions.

Dell PowerVault has two controllers, and I find that feature most valuable.

It is easy to configure.

Dell PowerVault is easy to integrate, especially with third-party solutions, as we use it inside Oracle VM and Oracle Linux virtualization along with a backup solution.

Dell PowerVault has contributed to staying within budget since it's an entry-level product that allows customers to decrease their budget.

As for now, I have no idea about any additional features I would like to see for Dell PowerVault in the future.

For the IT field, I have been working for over six years.

As far as I have been working with the product, I don't face many issues with Dell PowerVault's hardware, indicating good stability and reliability.

Mostly, at our customer sites, they are small-medium business networks, so I think they don't scale much with Dell PowerVault.

I would rate the technical support of Dell at a seven.

The technical support from Dell could be better.

Positive

I worked with something similar before Dell PowerVault.

It's easy to deploy and configure.

They can contact me if they have any questions about my review.

I believe Dell PowerVault is the best option on the market at the moment, especially for entry-level and budget solutions.

Dell PowerVault is an entry-level backup solution and storage. Dell PowerVault does provide an all-flash model.

It's well-known in our region. There are two partners of Dell that mostly do events, twice a month or so, and they demonstrate their hardware. If we ask them, they provide training, demonstrations, and good documentation.