We compared Dell ECS and Dell PowerScale (Isilon) based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
In comparing user reviews of Dell ECS and Dell PowerScale (Isilon), Dell ECS is praised for its efficient performance, while Dell PowerScale (Isilon) shines for its exceptional data scalability. Dell ECS receives positive feedback for its reasonable pricing and satisfactory ROI, whereas Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is commended for its prompt customer service and support. Both products have areas for improvement, with Dell ECS needing enhancements in reliability, customization, and customer support effectiveness, while Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could benefit from improvements in interface, performance speed, scalability, compatibility with other systems, and technical support.
Features: In terms of valuable features, Dell ECS is praised for its efficient performance, seamless integration, and reliable storage capabilities. On the other hand, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is known for its exceptional data scalability, efficient storage management, and reliable performance.
Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for Dell ECS is considered straightforward and easy with no major complications, accommodating different business needs. On the other hand, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) also has a straightforward setup cost without any hidden charges or complexities, ensuring smooth integration and use of the product., Users have reported positive ROI with Dell ECS, citing cost savings, improved resource allocation, increased productivity, and streamlined processes. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) users appreciate its performance, scalability, efficiency, seamless integration, and cost savings from improved productivity and data management.
Room for Improvement: Dell ECS could benefit from improvements in product reliability, user interface intuitiveness, customer support effectiveness, and customization options. In contrast, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) needs enhancements in interface, performance speed, scalability, compatibility with other systems, and technical support.
Deployment and customer support: The user reviews for Dell ECS indicate that the timeframes for establishing a new tech solution varied, with some users taking three months for deployment and an additional week for setup. In comparison, the reviews for Dell PowerScale (Isilon) also mention varying timeframes, with some users spending three months on deployment and others reporting a week for setup. However, it is important to note that in cases where a week was required for both deployment and setup, these terms refer to the same period and should be evaluated together., Dell ECS has received commendations for their exceptional customer service, with users expressing satisfaction with the prompt response time and efficiency in resolving concerns. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is highly commended for its exceptional customer service, with users praising the promptness, efficiency, and effectiveness of Dell's assistance. The level of expertise and professionalism demonstrated by the support team is also praised.
The summary above is based on 35 interviews we conducted recently with Dell ECS and Dell PowerScale (Isilon) users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"It's definitely good for unstructured data. In earlier days, we had Centera, so for the DR it's really good. It has load balancing facility, and we're using it with the Kemp Load Balancer."
"The technology is very good, it performs well."
"The most valuable feature for me is off-site storage."
"The performance is good."
"Competitive object storage platform that's stable and scalable."
"We face very few hardware failures."
"What I like best about Dell ECS is its stability. I also like that you can use it for large-scale data purposes. The solution works fine for me, and I haven't encountered any issues with it."
"The performance is good."
"Its most valuable feature is the DR capabilities replication."
"It assists with eliminating storage silos because it provides SMB and NFS protocols. PowerScale has also helped free up our employee's time to focus on other business priorities."
"Dell PowerScale is a scalable solution. It allows non-disruptive upgrades and maintenance of the system."
"The single pane of glass for both IT and for the end-user is a valuable feature. On the IT side, I can actually control where things are stored, whether something is stored on solid-state drives or spinning drives... The single pane of glass makes it very easy to use and very easy to understand. We started at 100 terabytes and we moved to 250 and it still feels like the exact same system and we're able to move data as needed."
"PowerScale has made it extremely easy to scale file data across our organization. We have two implementations of Isilon. One is a replica of the other. When scaling, we add nodes to each location and expand the cluster. The process is straightforward."
"The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content."
"This has been a valuable solution for our business overall. It offers business continuity and replication features."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is all the capabilities together."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"Dell ECS could improve the price of the solution. It is expensive."
"They could provide centralized reports."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"The troubleshooting feature of this solution needs to be improved, to allow organizations to fix issues without having to contact the support team."
"The setup is very complex."
"You should be able to calculate so that when it's full it's 100% full, not just 90%."
"The disaster recovery could be improved because there should be something in-built within the ECS. Search and recovery should be in-built. Right now, we have to use some external tools for performing the recovery itself. For example, we're using Atempo or deploying Golden Superna, so it has dependency on the external third party vendors."
"The solution’s interface and pricing could be improved."
"Its configuration needs to be more straightforward."
"I'd like to see more Iceland products in the cloud so that we can port our data into different environments if needed. I would also like to see a virtual appliance or software-defined Iceland product."
"We used to have a chat feature available on the support site. It's not available to us anymore."
"We lost our technical sales reps about two years ago. We haven't gotten one assigned to us and we'd love to have one."
"The product needs to improve CLI since commands are complex. The search option is also difficult since you must give the full path."
"The only thing that I think PowerScale could do better is improving the HTTP data access protocol. At the present, you cannot protect access to data via HTTP or HTTPS the same way that you can secure data access through other protocols like NFS or SMB[...]the Unified Permission Model that would allow a user to authenticate before being able to access a private file, does not apply."
"I would like to see increased reporting and statistics functionalities."
Dell ECS is ranked 5th in File and Object Storage with 25 reviews while Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is ranked 2nd in File and Object Storage with 37 reviews. Dell ECS is rated 8.0, while Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Dell ECS writes "Enables multiple protocol support, but its IOPS functionality needs improvement in terms of performance ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) writes "We can easily deploy, manage, and maintain systems without needing a huge amount of expertise to facilitate them". Dell ECS is most compared with Amazon AWS, NetApp StorageGRID, MinIO, Red Hat Ceph Storage and Scality RING, whereas Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is most compared with NetApp FAS Series, Pure Storage FlashBlade, Qumulo, HPE StoreEasy and Red Hat Ceph Storage. See our Dell ECS vs. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) report.
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