

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform and Dell PowerStore are competing solutions in enterprise data management. Dell PowerStore seems to have the upper hand in features with strong integration capabilities and scalable storage providing long-term benefits that justify its initial investment.
Features: CTERA focuses on secure file sharing, offline access, and effective pricing strategies to enhance ROI quickly. Dell PowerStore offers flexible integration through VMware environments, impressive scalability options, and innovative machine learning for automation. Its AI and machine learning capabilities enhance IT operations and include advanced deduplication and compression features.
Room for Improvement: CTERA could improve in deployment speed and customer service robustness. Dell PowerStore could benefit from better cost management and initial investment reduction. Improved data reduction ratio offerings would also enhance Dell PowerStore's appeal. Simplifying its complex integration process could lead to better user experiences.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerStore's deployment is streamlined, with comprehensive customer support that outshines competitors. CTERA's deployment is effective but overshadowed by Dell's robust support structures that facilitate user progression.
Pricing and ROI: CTERA is competitively priced with setup costs that encourage quicker returns on investment. Dell PowerStore requires a higher investment upfront but supports performance gains and cost efficiencies over time, delivering compelling value through its feature set.
Adding SSD storage to Windows file servers is expensive, and we no longer need to back up those devices.
I am positive that CTERA has helped reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for manual storage management and reducing storage service processes.
If you purchase storage with 300 terabytes, you can easily achieve one petabyte of effective capacity.
It's been trouble-free the entire time, with very high performance, as it has been designed and built properly.
We have seen a return on our investment in Dell PowerStore; definitely our cost per terabyte has been very good compared to some of the other vendors that we would have been using previously, and our performance benchmarks have exceeded what we were expecting.
They swiftly address concerns and take ownership of the call, providing a very satisfactory support experience.
The quality and speed of support for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is some of the best in the industry.
High-priority issues are handled promptly.
I would rate the technical support of Dell PowerStore between nine and ten out of ten.
They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.
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.
If we need to upgrade CPU and memory, we should be able to do that without a license upgrade.
CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow.
It offers good scalability options, including vertical and outward scalability.
The solution's scalability is a ten out of ten.
It scales up and scales out both ways, and as our data keeps growing, it is very easy to just keep attaching and keep growing.
Scaling up can be done from a single enclosure that already has two controllers to a maximum of four storage units with up to eight controllers, and a massive amount of storage can be added.
It has been pretty stable since then.
We had things deployed for years, and we were suddenly getting cloud sync issues that were crashing our sites.
It is very stable and reliable.
When I removed all the cables, it failed over within five minutes.
It's quite stable and reliable in general.
I have not experienced any downtime, bugs, or glitches, and it's much better than previous technologies.
AI and automation features could enhance the platform, such as AI-powered search, predictive storage analytics, and intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring.
The main problem is that if two people are working on the same file, for example, one in the U.S. and one in Israel, they can overwrite each other’s work without any notification.
It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices.
Something needs to be done with the caching to ensure that if some issue occurs, there needs to be an ability to disable caching during maintenance to make it static, safe, and good.
Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example.
The main reason why people move to Pure Storage is because it's simplified.
Unlike other solutions that require hardware purchases, CTERA offers software licensing with flexibility across multiple infrastructure providers.
CTERA’s pricing should be more proportional and accessible so that cost is not the factor preventing customers from purchasing.
CTERA's pricing seems to be on par with some of the other players, such as Nasuni and Azure.
Likely the cost is $400,000 whereas IBM may be $250,000.
Based on my experience, the cost of Dell PowerStore for around 500 GB of capacity is very competitive compared to any other platform in the market.
I asked for a new quotation on a server, and it is quite expensive; it is really expensive.
As soon as something is written to the device, CTERA copies it to the cloud, where it's versioned with snapshots so we can recover it.
A vital advantage of this platform is its instantaneous recovery capability, allowing seamless access to a secondary gateway if the primary one fails.
It is a three-in-one solution for us. It is a file-sharing platform, an archiving solution, and also a backup solution.
This includes storage sharing, adding servers to the service, and the wireless host connection on the network side.
Dell PowerStore offers good integration capabilities, especially since it helps with backup, which is an important aspect.
In terms of whether my company could reduce the power consumption with Dell PowerStore, I would say that my company had a use case with a customer around three weeks ago where their old Dell EMC VNX Storage System used to draw about 2500 watts compared to Dell PowerStore which drew about 800 watts, which is a really a big saving looking at the twenty-four hours and seven days of usage of the system.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Dell PowerStore | 10.4% |
| CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform | 3.2% |
| Other | 86.4% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 2 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 8 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 54 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 34 |
| Large Enterprise | 81 |
The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform provides a cloud-native global file system over public and private object storage, revolutionizing the world of hybrid cloud data solutions. Enhanced by a rich data services ecosystem, CTERA enables enterprises to gain full control of their data for optimal edge performance, data insight, and governance. The platform focuses on security, providing features like data encryption, access controls, and ransomware protection. Centralized management tools enable efficient data control and monitoring. The platform is being used to replace legacy NAS and file servers, especially at remote locations, and simplify backup and disaster recovery of file data while providing the flexibility of multi-cloud deployments with infinite scalability. CTERA is at the core of hybrid cloud transformations of some of the world’s largest banks, healthcare organizations, global media groups, and government agencies, in deployments that scale to tens of petabytes.
Dell PowerStore is a scalable, high-performance platform supporting both modern and traditional workloads, enhancing IT operations with AI-driven automation and advanced data reduction features.
Designed for flexibility, Dell PowerStore integrates seamlessly with VMware, providing robust security and high IOPS. Users benefit from fast NVMe storage, intelligent data management, and scalable performance to handle diverse workload demands. However, improvements are needed in replication, enterprise functionalities, and UI complexity. Stability and support issues highlight the need for enhanced monitoring and pricing strategies.
What are the key features of Dell PowerStore?
What benefits does Dell PowerStore offer?
In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Dell PowerStore is critical for VMware virtualization, high-performance databases, and backup storage. It supports hosting virtual machines, mirroring storage, and handling SAP and Oracle databases effectively. Its role in hybrid and on-premises setups showcases its adaptability and integration capabilities for mission-critical tasks.
We monitor all NAS reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.