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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Scality RING comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 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
6.6
Pure Storage FlashBlade reduces total cost of ownership by enhancing efficiency, enabling fast restorations, and supporting diverse use cases.
Sentiment score
6.6
Dell PowerScale offers scalable, cost-efficient storage enhancing data management, performance, and durability, benefiting business growth and resource optimization.
Sentiment score
7.3
Scality RING provides cost-effective storage reducing operating costs, but security and redundancy may increase expenses for some users.
It does not require much management once you set up correctly, so it saves time, allowing an admin to focus on other work.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
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
I think RING's ability to maintain predictable costs while providing scalable storage solutions impacts our budget by allowing us to pay only for capacity.
Infrastructure architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
For instance, while the cost per gig on a block storage platform may be $2, it's $1.50 for NAS, and only $0.50 for object storage, leading to a remarkable 75% reduction in costs by utilizing the Scality platform.
Storage Engineering Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Scality RING has reduced our operating costs.
Engineer at MinArm
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Pure Storage FlashBlade's support is generally praised for responsiveness, despite occasional delays and communication issues, maintaining a favorable reputation.
Sentiment score
7.1
Dell PowerScale's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though some suggest improvements in first-line response times.
Sentiment score
6.8
Scality RING's customer service is praised for expert, responsive support, with personalized help making most users highly satisfied.
I would rate them an eight out of ten.
IT Field Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Their technical support has been perfect lately, so I would give it a 10.
IT Manager at Regin Dalarna
Support online is definitely a ten out of ten.
Pre-Sale Engineer at Arab Operators
Dell provides support within four hours, and they always fulfill their promises.
Senior System Engineer at Atlas Security
They have managed previous issues well.
IT Manager at Regional Health Services
I've always received responses within the required timeframe, the answers were technically relevant, and there was follow-up—people called us back to check if everything was okay and if the ticket could be closed.
Infrastructure architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Individuals such as Peter Mikolastik really make a difference by saying, 'Come on, what is the problem? I will help you,' rather than just brushing things off.
data center manager at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Technically, when we have major issues in P1, they are very responsive and we can't say that we don't get a response.
Operational Infrastructure Pilot at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Pure Storage FlashBlade excels in scalability, with seamless expansion, downtime-free growth, and praised support across various sectors.
Sentiment score
7.2
Dell PowerScale offers seamless scalability, efficient petabyte-level storage, and easy integration, with some initial complexity and node compatibility challenges.
Sentiment score
7.1
Scality RING offers high scalability and adaptability, though experiences vary with rebalancing challenges and some seeking improvement.
Pure Storage FlashBlade is scalable.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
There are between 5 and 10,000 people using it in our organization.
IT Manager at Regin Dalarna
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
Upwards, I think, almost unlimited by what we can imagine.
System Engineer - Head of Engineering at a retailer with 11-50 employees
I've never had issues with scalability.
Infrastructure architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We are relatively well informed about their new features, what will be implemented in future versions, and the scalability of the solution.
Operational Infrastructure Pilot at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Pure Storage FlashBlade offers exceptional reliability and impressive stability, featuring 99.999% uptime, seamless upgrades, and high performance.
Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerScale (Isilon) provides high stability, minimal downtime, with easy management and frequent upgrades ensuring nearly 100% uptime.
Sentiment score
7.4
Scality RING offers dependable performance with high uptime, seamless maintenance, quick recovery, and strong resilience against failures.
In case there is any issue with any blade, the data is moved to another.
IT Field Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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
It is a platform that is very stable at the customer level and does not generate incidents or blockages that you might encounter with standard storage solutions, where you can lose data.
Operational Infrastructure Pilot at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
I find that Scality RING is very stable because it allows for many maintenance operations without service loss.
Infrastructure architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
There are factors that can cause Scality RING to become occasionally unavailable, but due to the system's resilience, it is capable of recovering or degrading gracefully.
Senior ICT Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users recommend better pricing, cloud integration, support, documentation, and analytics for Pure Storage FlashBlade, improving efficiency and compatibility.
Dell PowerScale needs cost reduction, better usability, improved cloud integration, enhanced security, and streamlined management and support features.
Scality RING requires improvements in rebalancing, feature expansion, UI, administration, S3 compatibility, and performance during scaling and upgrades.
Technical support definitely needs significant improvement.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Its configuration should be easier.
IT Field Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
One way Pure Storage FlashBlade can be improved is by having more compatibility between the FlashArray and FlashBlade.
IT Manager at Regin Dalarna
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
Encryption and data security need improvement. We don't have a solution for customers who need confidentiality.
Operational Infrastructure Pilot at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
They should prioritize quality over timeliness to minimize customer disruptions and not force customers into a cycle of fixes that interfere with daily work.
Storage Engineering Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
What we are currently missing and will be demanding in the new tender is an additional external backup of all data, ideally on a simple system, to safeguard against any severe local incidents so that we still have the data protected elsewhere.
data center manager at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Pure Storage FlashBlade is costly but valued for performance, reliability, and reduced administrative overhead, justifying its premium price.
Dell PowerScale's ease of management and flexibility justify its higher cost against competitors, offering a compelling total cost of ownership.
Scality RING targets enterprises with 10 PB needs, high setup costs, expandable licenses, and "Pay As You Grow" model appeal.
The pricing of Pure Storage FlashBlade is expensive compared to other products I used from other companies in the past, but one benefit is that they have built-in ransomware protection.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Regarding pricing, it is okay; we needed exactly this in size, and the price was a lot lower than competitors, making it good for us.
IT Manager at Regin Dalarna
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
Fortunately, in terms of the license, we are able to expand the disks without having to adjust the license.
System Engineer - Head of Engineering at a retailer with 11-50 employees
In the end, it always depends on how much you pay for it.
Senior ICT Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Regarding setup costs and licensing, our initial experience is somewhat dated now as we made a comprehensive purchase, including hardware, software, and system setup, which Scality handled at the time.
data center manager at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Pure Storage FlashBlade excels with ease of use, fast performance, scalability, seamless integration, and efficient storage features.
Dell PowerScale excels in scalability, flexibility, data management, and cost-effectiveness, offering seamless integration and efficiency for large-scale operations.
Scality RING excels in scalability, S3 integration, performance, and cost-effectiveness, offering robust security, data protection, and easy administration.
We can plug in many blades, and we can have data up to one terabyte.
IT Field Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The best features of Pure Storage FlashBlade include better throughput and better performance.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Pure Storage FlashBlade's scalability is one of the most valuable features, and importantly, it always works, allowing for seamless upgrades.
IT Manager at Regin Dalarna
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
When a server is lost, the data is still accessible.
Operational Infrastructure Pilot at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
It is even better stored when there is only one copy on a system and there is a second copy on an immutability system, which is almost equivalent to backing it up on tape and taking it offline, making it completely inaccessible.
System Engineer - Head of Engineering at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Scality RING has influenced our approach to scaling in different dimensions by providing a cost-effective solution for the tremendous amount of data we generate every day for each customer.
Storage Engineering Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Pure Storage FlashBlade
Sponsored
Ranking in File and Object Storage
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (12th), Software Defined Storage (SDS) (8th)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)
Ranking in File and Object Storage
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
NAS (2nd)
Scality RING
Ranking in File and Object Storage
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (7th)
 

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 Scality RING is 3.7%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File and Object Storage Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)7.1%
Scality RING3.7%
Pure Storage FlashBlade5.3%
Other83.9%
File and Object Storage
 

Featured Reviews

MikaelHellström - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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.
Sebastien Foucou - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Leverages seamless data access with efficient storage management
I would improve Scality RING by bundling the Operating System with RING and modernizing the graphical interfaces. As for areas for improvement—if I had to summarize—a technical aspect would be the Operating System part, which today isn't really covered by Scality RING, whereas it is with Artesca. It would be a real advantage for customers to have a bundle that includes both the Operating System and Scality RING, with an install and maintenance model handled by Scality. Secondly, perhaps a more cosmetic point—the graphical interfaces could be modernized a bit. There's been work done on Artesca; maybe it should be extended more to RING. I believe that should come with version 10, so I'm not too concerned. I find RING's cyber resilience against ransomware threats somewhat complicated to assess. The product itself offers sufficient protection, and the features provided via S3 allow you to protect against this kind of attack—provided you implement these features, such as object lock with retention and everything that goes with it. If I had to identify an area for improvement, it would be the OS part—but that doesn't necessarily concern RING, unlike Artesca, which comes bundled with an OS. There's been real work done by the Scality teams to secure the system layer in Artesca. It didn't influence us. We know the product and what needs to be implemented to protect data, and it's part of the best practices we also pass on to our clients.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
 

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...
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...
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...
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 for my experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing, we have had Dell PowerScale (Isilon) for a while no...
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...
What do you like most about Scality RING8?
Another feature I like is the life cycle management that helps me with data storage efficiency.
What needs improvement with Scality RING8?
There are areas that may have room for improvement, and the Scality team is aware of it. You can obtain information d...
What is your primary use case for Scality RING8?
Scality RING serves multiple use cases for storage, for GenAI and analytics, unstructured and structured data, backup...
 

Also Known As

No data available
PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon
Scality RING, RING8
 

Overview

 

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,
Comcast, TimeWarner Cable, EuroSport, Orange, Deluxe, DailtMotion, SFR, RTL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Telstra
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. Scality RING and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.