Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Quantum ActiveScale comparison

Dell Technologies and Quantum are both solutions in the File and Object Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Quantum is ranked #24. Dell Technologies holds a 7.1% mindshare in FaOS, compared to Quantum’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Quantum users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Dell PowerScale and Quantum ActiveScale compete in the enterprise storage market. Dell PowerScale has an edge in pricing and support satisfaction, while Quantum ActiveScale offers advanced features potentially justifying its higher price.

Features: Dell PowerScale stands out with scalability, seamless expansion, and robust data protection. It also excels in data management efficiency. Quantum ActiveScale handles massive data sets seamlessly, emphasizes durability, and integrates well with cloud environments. It additionally prioritizes extensive data set management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerScale offers straightforward deployment with extensive support resources, simplifying integration into existing systems. Quantum ActiveScale's deployment is slightly more complex but supported by thorough documentation and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerScale provides competitive setup costs with rapid ROI, appealing for cost-efficient businesses. Quantum ActiveScale requires a higher initial investment but is justified through long-term benefits, focusing on durability and advanced capabilities. The choice depends on immediate budget versus long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Quantum ActiveScale Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Quantum ActiveScale

December 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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.3%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 7.1%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quantum ActiveScale is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	7.1%
Pure Storage FlashBlade	5.3%
Quantum ActiveScale	1.0%
Other	86.6%

File and Object Storage

Featured Reviews

MikaelHellström

IT Manager at Regin Dalarna

Has handled backup storage needs reliably and supports seamless upgrades

In environments requiring high throughput and low latency, Pure Storage FlashBlade provides high throughput and normal latency, but we do not have any application that requires low latency right now, so the latency of three to five milliseconds is considered kind of high. Pure Storage FlashBlade's ability to integrate with enterprise applications is not important for us, as we only want to present an S3 bucket for our backup, which we have done, and it works very fast. We use the Purity software's data reduction techniques; we have a backup software that compresses everything before sending it to the S3 bucket, achieving a data reduction of 1.1 to one. I would recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade to other companies because it's a very fast and scalable solution for anyone who needs it. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution an 8.

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Bill Engelmeyer

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.

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Frank Lai

Architecture Department at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Good performance and reliable but the setup is complex

We would like to see a self-sufficient installation. Nowadays it's open-source, but the installation is still tied to the vendor, which means it is unlikely that it is going to scale. I want them to tap into the broader community. It is really emerging, they have a year over year, 50% annual growth. With a 10-year-old company, it will certainly bring a lot of interest, and will certainly make it more successful, if they tap into that growing customer base. They have to make themselves relevant to the industry. The industry is totally geared to the Cloud, DevOps, and geared for agility. The software with the appliance in my set is already outdated, and it is not that it cannot sell, but it has to be tapping into the emerging and growing sectors to continue with the customers and businesses. This is what the requirement is, to improve their technology. Which means that they have to make themselves relevant to the industry.

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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 most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"The product is scalable and easy to expand."

"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."

"The initial setup was straightforward. If you know how to plug in power and network you're pretty much qualified. They were on site to configure the network, the box to fit into our network architecture. Other than that, we self-managed from there."

"It uses the same platform for connectivity so integration is seamless."

"FlashBlade offers low latency, high throughput, and seamless scalability."

"The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great."

"The initial setup is pretty quick."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The solution allows me to use SSMDS to store data for end users and share it within different locations."

"On a scale of one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would rate Dell PowerScale (Isilon) a ten."

"My experience when deploying Dell PowerScale (Isilon) was very straightforward, as we had Dell come on site to do all the actual setup, which was a big help."

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

"It assists with eliminating storage silos because it provides SMB and NFS protocols. PowerScale has also helped free up our employee's time to focus on other business priorities."

"The technical support has been excellent. I would give them a ten out of ten for support."

"The recent introduction of inline deduplication and compression has drastically improved our efficiency ratios to make it an economical product. This solution has also had a positive impact on our employees' productivity because it reduces the amount of admin that our staff needs to handle."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is brilliant for scalability and really, really good in that regard."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pros

"Workflow is easy to manage and maintain."

"The technology is stable which is good."

Cons

"I would like to have Snapshots and Snapmail in the next release. People who came from a NetApp background, especially expect these features."

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

"In the realm of micro-services, I think that Pure Storage can do well if they start getting in there and making their arrays more micro-services ready."

"Recently, while upgrading the version code, one of the controllers failed. Replacing the controller took between 14 to 20 days."

"It's on the expensive side, as expected for a niche product."

"We haven't been able to use much of the cloud area of Pure Storage. We have a storage server and it would be better if it could integrate with other cloud features of this solution."

"In terms of technical support, the experience has been mixed. The support is done through email and is not that great, making it a very problematic area I've been dealing with for over four years."

"I would like to see more monitoring capability included in the next release of this solution."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"Dell's customer service needs improvement."

"My experience with customer service and technical support has been challenging. The reason is that it is difficult to find subject matter experts around the solution."

"They could improve implementation, as we had to rack and stack it ourselves."

"There aren't many templates still coming out for it. They need to provide templates so we can copy and paste what we've done in the past to future, new things."

"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."

"The analytics could be improved."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) could improve in terms of having some problems with using IPv6 and IPv4 on the same namespace at the same time, which is one of our biggest problems as you have to do some really bad workarounds to get that working."

"Improvements could be made to reduce the costs and the high level of knowledge needed to maintain and use them. We had old hard drives with moving parts in Dell PowerScale, and due to this, we must switch to a more efficient environment with all-flash."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cons

"Lacks some ability to integrate with different systems."

"We would like to see a self-sufficient installation."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We used a reseller for the purchase."

"I have seen ROI. It has allowed me to increase the density of my VMs without having to purchase anything additional."

"Licensing fees are paid yearly."

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"The price could be cheaper."

"The price is a little high."

"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"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."

"It is an expensive product with a high storage capacity suitable for large data requirements."

"I always want things to be less expensive. However, I would say the pricing is fair. Their costs are in alignment with their competitors. It is a good value for the money."

"Our company finds the pricing high, but it decreases over time."

"The pricing is excellent."

"The price of the solution is high."

"We paid an additional fee to have Dell's ProDeploy Plus team implement it."

"The price of the solution can fluctuate. The price can be competitive or other times not. The price of the solution could be better."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pricing and cost advice

"Quantum ActiveScale is open-source."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

University

11%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	42

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Regarding pricing, it is okay; we needed exactly this in size, and the price was a lot lower than competitors, making...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

In my opinion, one way Pure Storage FlashBlade can be improved is by having more compatibility between the FlashArray...

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What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

The solution provides massive performance, scalability, efficiency, and ease of management.

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

As for my experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing, we have had Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for a while no...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

I think Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is very good right now. Perhaps improvements could be made on the CPU level with a b...

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Comparisons

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 9% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 9% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 7% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 6% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 6% of the time

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NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 18% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 7% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 5% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 4% of the time

VAST Data vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) Competitors

Dell ObjectScale vs Quantum ActiveScale

Compared 22% of the time

Cloudian HyperStore vs Quantum ActiveScale

Compared 17% of the time

Qumulo vs Quantum ActiveScale

Compared 15% of the time

Huawei FusionStorage vs Quantum ActiveScale

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp StorageGRID vs Quantum ActiveScale

Compared 12% of the time

More Quantum ActiveScale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

January 2026

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

January 2026

Download Dell PowerScale (Isilon) product report

Buyer's Guide

File and Object Storage

December 2025

Download Quantum ActiveScale product report

Also Known As

No data available

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

ActiveScale, Quantum ActiveScale Object Storage, ActiveScale Object Storage

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

StorNext File System
Increase productivity and reduce time to critical business insights with StorNext® File System. StorNext architecture delivers the necessary performance to get your business moving forward.

Quantum

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

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,

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Quantum ActiveScale

December 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Quantum ActiveScale

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Quantum ActiveScale and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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