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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Nasuni 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
Organizations benefit from Dell PowerScale's efficiency, scalability, cost savings, improved performance, and reliable data management without extra staffing.
Sentiment score
7.5
Nasuni users enjoy cost savings, increased productivity, and efficiency from reduced labor, cloud scalability, and improved data management.
Despite being more expensive than Huawei, it is stable and most enterprises accept the price due to its stability.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
In terms of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) specifically, we have seen a return on investment due to faster performance than our last few storage arrays, and the general usability is a lot better.
Storage & Data Protection Specialist at General Dynamics Land Systems
The second cluster of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) gives us flexibility for small things like code upgrades, all the way to scenarios where we have lost this data center or data, allowing us to check if data is still intact on the other side.
Senior System Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Dell PowerScale users generally find support satisfactory, noting responsiveness and knowledge, but highlight inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nasuni's customer service is praised for responsiveness and professionalism, efficiently solving issues with reliable and knowledgeable support.
Support online is definitely a ten out of ten.
Pre-Sale Engineer at Arab Operators
When we face issues, we raise a ticket through the valid portal, and they respond immediately and assign a local engineer to coordinate the support process.
Senior System Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Dell PowerScale offers seamless scalability, supporting diverse storage types and accommodating significant workloads to meet future storage demands.
Sentiment score
7.3
Nasuni offers scalable, user-friendly data storage, efficiently meeting diverse organizational needs and supporting physical or virtual deployments.
We started on PowerScale with around about 300 terabytes and are now two and a half petabytes, still on the same file system.
Storage Architect at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
That's really saved us in certain areas as we didn't have funding to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) until next year, which is why we utilized the cloud pools functionality to offload.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
As an unstructured data storage solution, writing into it and accessing it from the other nodes is highly scalable with no issues.
Senior Technical Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I rated the scalability as seven because even though the solution can scale, load balancing must be done manually, as it's not automated.
Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerScale is praised for stability, reliability, easy management, and high uptime, with infrequent, manageable hardware issues.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nasuni is praised for its stability, offering reliable performance, minimal maintenance, and flexibility with virtually no downtime issues.
Since we have good protection levels, the data is secured and replicated across the disks.
Pre-Sale Engineer at Arab Operators
Even if a node goes down, other nodes can respond and provide data back to the user without issues.
Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group
I assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as perfect.
Storage & Data Protection Specialist at General Dynamics Land Systems
 

Room For Improvement

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) users face integration, usability, and scaling challenges, with needs for improved support, security, and AI features.
Nasuni struggles with cloud integration, performance, and user experience, needing improvements in data retention, security, and analytics.
Hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline.
Senior Engineer at Continental Tire
I would want to see more AI features with Dell PowerScale (Isilon).
Storage & Data Protection Specialist at General Dynamics Land Systems
If I could improve one thing on Dell PowerScale (Isilon), it would be better object storage as it recently breached into S3, and that capability could be broadened.
Senior System Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
I suggest Nasuni improve their syslog forwarders to support TCP protocol, as it's more secure than UDP, which is plain text and not protected at all.
Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Dell PowerScale is costly but valued for its features, flexible licensing, scalability, and long-term cost efficiency.
Nasuni offers competitive pricing with flexible cloud compatibility, licensing per terabyte, and cost-effective enterprise solutions.
It's quite expensive for the amount of storage we have.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Cheaper nodes will cost less, while higher performance nodes will be pricier.
Storage Platform Engineer at Expedia Group
Costs align well with what it delivers, making it a fair price for a powerful tool that meets all our needs.
Tv Systems Technical Supervisor at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
I prefer solutions with lower pricing.
Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Dell PowerScale provides scalable, efficient storage with strong integration, data protection, and easy administration to enhance operational efficiency.
Nasuni provides scalable cloud-based file management with global file locking, data security, and efficient disaster recovery features.
Dell PowerScale offers high scalability and stability as well, making it a valuable solution for enterprises.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
In our AI initiatives, Dell PowerScale (Isilon) plays a significant role in data analysis, data fusion; principally, it is involved in data analysis, data extraction, and statistical analysis.
Senior Technologist at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Single files are limited to four terabytes in our configuration, however, the system can support up to 16 terabytes, so we can scale based on that too.
Systems Engineer at Unisity LLC
The features I find most valuable in Nasuni are the unlimited snapshots, antivirus capabilities, auditing, and ransomware protection.
Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

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)
Nasuni
Ranking in NAS
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (2nd), Cloud Migration (7th), Cloud Storage (13th), Cloud Backup (39th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (23rd), Cloud Storage Gateways (4th)
 

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 Nasuni is 4.2%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)15.5%
Nasuni4.2%
Other80.3%
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.
SD
Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud data management that achieves cost efficiency with advanced data protection features
I am currently using Nasuni for seismic data. We have a huge data size, and we want to reduce costs. Nasuni acts as a caching solution, so we put some data into the cache, and the rest goes to the blob, which helps us save on costs. We use it for applications like Petrol and Tech Log, where 3D…
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which NAS solutions are best for your needs.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

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 Business3
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise24
 

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...
Does Nasuni have a good pricing model?
Based on the experience of my organization, Nasuni is definitely worth the money, since it gives you an all-in-one solution where you'd usually need several programs. About the cost, there isn't a ...
Is it easy to restore files with Nasuni?
As someone who has used this feature of Nasuni I can tell you - yes, it's good for file recovery and you'll definitely benefit from very quick times. I can't tell you if it's the best one because I...
What features and services does Nasuni offer?
Hi, if you pick Nasuni, you'll be benefiting from many services for a good price. Well, it's a personalized price you get after an agreement with the company but in my organization's case, it is a ...
 

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
No data available
 

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,
American Standard, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, E*TRADE, Ithaca Energy, McLaren Construction, Morton Salt, Movado, Urban Outfitters, Western Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Nasuni and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.