We performed a comparison between Dell PowerScale (Isilon) and NetApp Private Storage based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two NAS solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Its most valuable feature is the DR capabilities replication."
"Our main goal is to do disaster recovery with whatever solution we use and Isilon makes it pretty simple to replicate those workloads over to our secondary data center."
"I don't have to rebuild the cluster to add a node."
"For maximizing storage utilization, PowerScale is great. When you write the data to it, it spreads it out to all the nodes, so you get all the performance from the entire pool."
"The solution is stable."
"Its scalability has been huge for us."
"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."
"Dell PowerScale's performance is good."
"As opposed to cloud, we have full control over security, use, who uses it. We own a number of different companies, so we can partition however we want."
"The most valuable feature of NetApp Private Storage is out-of-the-box integration with the SAN switches. They are much easier compared to Dell solutions. Additionally, the connector that comes with the solution that allows connection back to the Cisco SAN switches is very good. In Dell, I would need to use an FCIP or CIP port that is required."
"NetApp has really added a lot of features over the years to improve the product and performance. They can do things now like control ingress. They can control egress."
"Integration with other NetApp solutions and merging them is manageable."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution scales well."
"It gave us a platform which could clearly arrange all our files and volumes."
"Very stable and very scalable."
"The price of the solution could be reduced."
"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could improve the load distribution capability. For example, in some cases, the system load is not distributed automatically on all the nodes but is concentrated only on one. You have a peak request on only one node and the others don't do anything."
"The biggest weakness is small file handling. Small file compression options are not enabled out of the box. It would be good to have this enabled by default."
"Because of the magic that it does 'under the hood,' it is very difficult to find out within the system where all your storage is going. That's a little bit of a ding that we have on it. It does so much magic in order to protect itself from drive failures or multiple drive failures, that it automatically handles the provisioning and storage of your data. But by doing that, finding out why a file of a certain size, or a directory of a certain size, is using more storage than is being reported in InsightIQ, is very difficult to discern."
"The management and monitoring tools comprise a disparate suite of products and the roadmap is very unclear. We've got four different products that look after the Isilon, management-wise, and it's a bit of a mess."
"It would be nice to see tools like Superna Eyeglass built into PowerScale."
"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 solution can be a bit complex for those not well versed in the technology."
"I think that it should work better with Microsoft solutions, more integrated with Microsoft. We also need integrated NAS and block storage."
"The solution could improve by having better support experts. For example, they do not have clear instructions on configuration."
"The users find the new version's GUI complicated to use."
"They need a little more technical people in Akola. Most of the NetApp people are in Bangalore, Mumbai, or Delhi, but there are very few in Akola. I think NetApp has few technicians in Akola because they mostly rely on partners to service this area."
"The hardware does not last as long as it could with new software."
"There is room for improvement in the support. It has been a problem for our team."
"I would like to see the GUI management simplified in the next release."
"There may actually be so many features that the end-user gets lost in the volume."
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is ranked 1st in NAS with 37 reviews while NetApp Private Storage is ranked 12th in NAS with 14 reviews. Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is rated 9.0, while NetApp Private Storage is rated 8.6. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NetApp Private Storage writes "Integrates well, useful connectors, and straightforward implemention". Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is most compared with Dell ECS, NetApp FAS Series, Pure Storage FlashBlade, Qumulo and HPE StoreEasy, whereas NetApp Private Storage is most compared with NetApp FAS Series. See our Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. NetApp Private Storage report.
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