Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Panzura CloudFS comparison

Dell Technologies and Panzura are both solutions in the NAS category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Panzura is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 17.8% mindshare in N, compared to Panzura’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Panzura users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Read 55 Dell PowerScale (Isilon) reviews

6,556 Views
3,512 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Panzura CloudFS

Read 5 Panzura CloudFS reviews

812 Views
579 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Panzura CloudFS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 12, 2025

Panzura CloudFS and Dell PowerScale compete in the storage solutions category. Panzura leads with user satisfaction and pricing, while Dell stands out with robust features and long-term value.

Features: Panzura CloudFS focuses on cloud interoperability, rapid data access, and global file access needs. Dell PowerScale emphasizes scalability, strong data security, and advanced on-premises capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Panzura offers a straightforward deployment model with favorable support. Dell PowerScale provides complex deployment options and comprehensive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Panzura CloudFS offers a cost-effective entry point with a favorable ROI due to lower setup expenses. Dell PowerScale's higher initial costs are balanced by long-term value and functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Panzura CloudFS Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Panzura CloudFS

March 2025

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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

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (3rd)

Panzura CloudFS

Ranking in NAS

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File System Software (4th), Cloud Storage (13th), Cloud Storage Gateways (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 17.8%, up from 17.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panzura CloudFS is 3.0%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS

Featured Reviews

Eric Burgueño

High-Performance Computing Services Manager at The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited

Simplified data management, tremendously reducing our users’ cognitive overhead

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. You can either access a file because it can be access by anyone in the organization, or you cannot at all. There is no in-between. HTTP is not considered a first-class data access protocol, so the Unified Permission Model that would allow a user to authenticate before being able to access a private file, does not apply. However, with the recent introduction of S3 starting from OneFS 9, I believe the necessary plumbing is already there for HTTPS to also be elevated to a first-class protocol in the future because both protocols sit behind a web server under the hood. It does not sound like it would be too complicated to implement, but it would be a valuable feature and it is currently missing.

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Andy Knauf

CIO at Mead and Hunt, Inc.

Reliable file management and disaster recovery with minimal overwrites

For me, it is the stability aspect. It is a lot more stable now than it ever has been, but just keeping that stability is important. Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server. We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had any issues like we had early on. There could be a slightly better dashboard or a better pane of glass. When something goes wrong somewhere, there should be a little bit better alerting with issues before they become a big problem.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's most valuable features are high density and scalability."

"The tool's most valuable features are scalability and stability."

"There are also the policies that you set up on replication and purging files, and policies for something called WORM. That's a "write once, read many," where you can't overwrite certain files or certain data. It puts them in a "protected mode" where it becomes very difficult for someone to accidentally delete. We use that for certain files or certain directories, because we're dealing with video and some video has to be protected for chain-of-custody purposes. The WORM feature works great."

"The most valuable feature we started using, beyond the initial scope for the solution, is the multi-protocol system that allows you to access the same set of files using different network protocols like NFS or SMB. PowerScale’s Unified Permission Model ensures that data security and access permissions are honoured regardless of whether the client is a Windows desktop or a Linux server"

"The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content."

"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."

"Our users are able to easily roll back snapshots without going through IT."

"PowerScale helped free up our employees' time to focus on other business priorities. There are now automated jobs such as backing up and replicating data, that reduce the footprint we have. Those types of tasks were previously done manually."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pros

"It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file."

"Primarily, it is the way Panzura CloudFS handles the file locks and the way these filers, along with the authoritative copy of all our data, which is about 27 terabytes located in an AWS bucket in the cloud, operate."

"The core function of Panzura CloudFS, with its synchronizing of files across multiple servers, provides us with a much more efficient workflow for our production staff."

"Its most valuable features are the collaboration, the file snapshots, and the data protection the solution provides."

"The assistance of support has been excellent."

"Panzura is a hundred percent better than what we had before."

"Panzura has not increased its data storage costs."

"The main thing in Panzura is that there are three key components: PanFS, NAS, and collaboration. These are strong features, and a big benefit is that you can access everything from anywhere."

Cons

"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."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a bit expensive compared to other products."

"Dell PowerScale needs to reduce its price."

"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."

"Some improvements to the NFS support would be of interest to us."

"If they integrated some functions, as they have on Data Domain with a cyber recovery vault, it would be ideal."

"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."

"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."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cons

"It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license."

"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS. Specifically, the GIS data formats, such as a geo database, have been found better kept outside of Panzura CloudFS."

"Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server."

"There could be a slightly better dashboard or a better pane of glass. When something goes wrong somewhere, there should be a little bit better alerting with issues before they become a big problem."

"It has not reduced the data storage cost."

"Master Snapshot feature is the only exceptional feature, but the rest of the features are similar to other storage solutions."

"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS."

"It should be easy for people not on the network to connect and access their files."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users."

"The solution is expensive; it is not the cheapest solution out there. If you look at it from a total cost of ownership perspective, then it is a very compelling solution. However, if you're looking at just dollar per terabyte and not looking at the big picture, then you could be distracted by the price. It is not an amazing price, but it's pretty good. It is also very good when you consider the total cost of ownership and ease of management."

"It is a really expensive solution."

"We use the TNA approach which is a great opportunity for us to better manage the licenses based on how much consumption is available for the different customers so we can use that approach and scalability."

"The price of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is reasonable."

"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."

"The platform is not cheap. However, on the software side, you can choose what you want license. So, you can start your licensing with the features that you need, then after buying the platform add some other features."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pricing and cost advice

"The solution's pricing is on the expensive side."

"The pricing seems high on certain products and features, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. They should consider more attractive pricing for companies of our size. The renewals are yearly, but the pricing is a little high for us."

"It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

23%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Construction Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

Every time we purchase a PowerScale solution, we buy four nodes for one data center and four for another, with five years of maintenance covered by Dell. It's a high-cost offering amounting to thre...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

Dell's customer service needs improvement. Specifically, hardware failures under warranty should be addressed within the promised timeline. I face difficulty in tracing and finding the right suppor...

See all answers

What are the products that Panzura provides?

Panzura offers four main products: CloudFS, data services, smart apps, and global services. They call this "all-in-one solution" and it's for end-to-end cloud data management. Why is it called that...

See all answers

What kind of industries does Panzura serve?

Hello, I think businesses from all industries that have their data on a cloud can benefit from Panzura. Especially if you have offices in various locations or your employees are working from home a...

See all answers

Why was Panzura acquired? Is the acquisition going to cause a change?

I think Panzura may change in a positive direction now that it's been bought by Profile Capital. That's a very big investment company for technology businesses and I think it's an opportunity for ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 11% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 9% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 7% of the time

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Nasuni vs Panzura CloudFS

Compared 79% of the time

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Panzura CloudFS

Compared 11% of the time

More Panzura CloudFS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

March 2025

Download Dell PowerScale (Isilon) product report

Buyer's Guide

Panzura CloudFS

March 2025

Download Panzura CloudFS product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

Panzura Freedom

Overview

Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) storage solutions are designed to help manage data for enterprises of all types. Dell PowerScale systems are simple to install, manage, and scale to virtually any size and include a choice of all-flash, hybrid, or archive nodes. Dell PowerScale solutions stay flexible and reliable no matter how much storage capacity is added, how much performance is required, or how business needs change in the future.

With Dell PowerScale, your data lake always stays simple to manage, simple to grow, simple to protect, and simple enough to handle the most demanding current and future workloads.

Ideal for companies of any size, from small enterprises to multi-national ones, Dell PowerScale storage provides secure collaboration, modular scalability, flexible consumption models, and easy cloud integrations, all with management tools spanning multiple platforms.

Key Benefits of Dell EMC PowerScale Storage

Centralized management: Manage your storage infrastructure from a single unified platform.
Data protection: Dell PowerScale offers security, data protection and replication tools. Back up and protect your data from cyber-attacks with an integrated ransomware defense system.
Artificial intelligence: PowerScale is the foundation for building an integrated and optimized IT infrastructure for AI projects, from concept to production.
Cloud support: Store and manage your data on the cloud and move data between your data center and the cloud. Dell PowerScale runs data-intensive cloud workloads with no outbound traffic costs.
Long-term storage: Dell PowerScale offers highly efficient and resilient active archive storage or long-term data retention for large-scale data archives. With the proven scalability architecture of PowerScale, you can meet your growing archiving demands. Dell PowerScale has a wide variety of enterprise-grade data protection and security options to keep your archived data safe.

Reviews from Real Users

Dell EMC PowerScale storage stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its scalability capabilities and its user-friendly centralized management system.

Rachel B., a chief operations officer & acting CFO at Like a Photon, writes, "PowerScale allows us to manage storage without managing RAID groups or migrating volumes between controllers. It has really simplified things. We're not having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. That takes care of itself. We just worry about the data. It's really easy for deploying and managing storage at the petabyte scale."

Keith B., the director of IT at NatureFresh Farms, writes, "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 Technologies

Panzura CloudFS connects data across a distributed network, offering an efficient solution for file storage and management in a cloud environment.

Designed for businesses needing robust data management, Panzura CloudFS enables seamless access and high availability by providing advanced capabilities for distributed file systems. This technology ensures collaboration and data consistency across multiple locations, optimizing enterprise storage strategies and enhancing data governance and compliance. Effective in reducing latency and operational complexity, it addresses the demands of global enterprises seeking scalable and reliable cloud file services.

What are the key features of Panzura CloudFS?

Global File System: Offers a unified view of file storage across multiple sites.
Data Consolidation: Merges various data silos into a single, cohesive storage network.
Security and Compliance: Ensures data protection with built-in encryption and compliance features.
High Availability: Provides continuous access to data with fault-tolerant architecture.
Quick Deployment: Enables rapid integration into existing infrastructure with minimal downtime.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Cost Reduction: Minimizes data storage costs through efficient use of cloud storage.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitates real-time file access and sharing across geographies.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs without significant infrastructure investment.
Enhanced Productivity: Reduces operational inefficiencies with streamlined data management.
Security Enhancements: Protects critical data assets with advanced security measures.

Panzura CloudFS finds applications in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and media, where data integrity and accessibility are critical. Financial institutions benefit from secure and synchronized data access, while healthcare providers utilize it for managing patient data across locations. The media industry leverages its capabilities for collaboration and efficient media file handling worldwide.

Panzura

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,

Petrofac, Komatsu, HCA Healthcare, Vanguard, Disney, Pokemon, US Department of Justice, Gensler, Fluor, AFRY, Milwaukee Tool, Navy Federal Credit Union, TechTarget

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Panzura CloudFS

March 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Panzura CloudFS

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Panzura CloudFS and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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