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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Hitachi NAS Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Ranking in NAS
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
File and Object Storage (2nd)
Hitachi NAS Platform
Ranking in NAS
11th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 15.5%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hitachi NAS Platform is 2.7%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)15.5%
Hitachi NAS Platform2.7%
Other81.8%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

BE
Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC
Flexibility and reliability have supported seamless data growth
I cannot think of anything to improve about Dell PowerScale (Isilon). The hardest challenge we have is due to how we've bought things over time. The way that we moved to the PowerEdge platform for the newer systems creates a scale problem as I still buy the older style systems, which are more dense storage. They're different chassis, so the problem we run into in the data center is the depth of the actual equipment. The newer equipment, if we buy an FX910 or a 900, it's a lot shorter in scale than if I buy an 83,000, which is much bigger. This makes it more complicated for deployment.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
Needs standalone functionality but provides a robust NAS solution for existing SAN environments
I would suggest that Hitachi make a NAS box that can work independently, without relying on SAN connectivity. The current solution only suits customers who already have a Hitachi SAN environment and want to add NAS protocols like NFS and CIFS. It's not suitable for customers without an existing SAN, as they would first need to acquire the SAN infrastructure before adding NAS functionality.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Eyeglass is used to monitor for malware, which is very useful for us."
"Certainly, we have seen return on investment and peace of mind, especially with our two clusters that are linked together, where one is a disaster recovery solution for the other."
"The solution's scalability is very good."
"Ability to scale the number of nodes without having to build additional clusters."
"The features of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) that I appreciate the most include the scale of architecture and the way it is designed, which benefit my company by providing less downtime and less overhead."
"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."
"Its most valuable feature is the DR capabilities replication."
"The flexibility and the user-friendly interface are the most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to handle a high number of users while maintaining both stability and performance."
"Hitachi NAS has improved my storage operations significantly."
"The Hitachi storage platform is highly scalable and highly available."
"The reliability and scalability of Hitachi NAS Platform are valuable features."
"The product has valuable features for data migration."
"There are no other NAS in the current market that can compete with Hitachi in terms of performance."
"The product’s technical support services are good."
"Hitachi NAS Platform is very stable."
 

Cons

"We had some issues with level 1 support. We had to fight with them on repeated issues. There is room for improvement in level 1 support."
"The tool's support team and the way the cases are handled by the product's technical support team are both areas of concern where improvements are required."
"Some improvements to the NFS support would be of interest to us."
"One downside of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is that it is really complicated to configure."
"Dell PowerScale needs to reduce its price."
"The analytics could be improved."
"The UID mapping and how to configure mapping-related things is a struggle."
"There is room for improvement with the updates. It can take a significant amount of time to do a major OS update. However, even though it takes multiple reboots, the cluster stays up. If we want to apply a newer version of the OS, we have to roll back some of the patches so that we can upgrade. It requires a few reboots just to do that. The cluster doesn't come down, everything is still running, but it's time-consuming, at times."
"Hitachi NAS Platform is expensive."
"The monitoring tool is not well developed."
"Hitachi NAS Platform needs to improve by offering a unified storage solution. Due to budget constraints in regions like Southeast Asia, customers prefer a single machine that can handle all problems, which the current platform does not provide."
"There are insufficient improvements in certain areas."
"I encounter challenges while installing the upgrades for the product."
"We have had two stability issues: We had a bad software version that used to randomly crash both nodes in a cluster File system corruption after activating in DR site"
"Hitachi NAS Platform's pricing could be reduced. It is high compared to other competitors."
"Hitachi could be more flexible and have a simpler management interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is excellent."
"The solution's licensing cost varies based on capacity and performance requirements."
"The general cost for a system like this is expensive. The total cost depends on your use case. You need to pay for every additional feature that you use."
"Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment."
"We paid an additional fee to have Dell's ProDeploy Plus team implement it."
"Price was also a significant factor in our decision to go with PowerScale. The team at EMC, now Dell EMC, came through with a highly competitive offer that tipped the scales towards their solution. There was only one other solution around the same price point, but it could not match PowerScale on features. That other solution is no longer on the market."
"The price of the solution is high."
"Pricing for this solution is reasonable."
"Costs are based on the features and it is a considerable amount."
"Hitachi NAS Platform’s price is high and depends on SCSI disc capacity."
"This solution is priced well and there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"It is a highly-priced product."
"I would rate the solution's pricing six to seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
The solution provides massive performance, scalability, efficiency, and ease of management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
As I mentioned before, we did not purchase Dell PowerScale (Isilon) directly. Since our organization is a government entity, the country policy does not allow direct purchases; it goes through a fo...
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?
I have experienced a RAM failure in some of the nodes of Dell PowerScale (Isilon), and that required hardware replacement. For large file replication from site to site, it takes a long time. This l...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hiachi NAS Platform?
The pricing for the Hitachi NAS is higher compared to other NAS solutions since the NAS protocol is provided on top of the existing SAN environment, requiring an additional device for NAS functiona...
What needs improvement with Hiachi NAS Platform?
For the Hitachi NAS Platform, the tools are basic and don't provide much insight. They can continue to improve the interface to keep it up-to-date, and maybe add some new features or better ways of...
What is your primary use case for Hiachi NAS Platform?
We sell the Hitachi NAS Platform, and it is the best product for our customers. I sell it to banks, telecom companies, and other enterprises at the enterprise level. We have a cluster with Hitachi ...
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
Hitachi NAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,
Intersect Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Hitachi NAS Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.