Dell ObjectScale Reviews

We are a system integrator and this is one of the products that we implement for our clients.

This is a cloud-based object storage platform.

What I like best about this product is that it is a complete solution, both hardware, and software, by the same vendor. There are many object storage systems that are sold as a software solution, only. At the same time, some vendors only sell the hardware. With this product, they are combined to make a complete solution.

Technical support needs to be improved.

I have been using EMC Elastic Cloud Storage for about a year and a half.

This is a stable solution. In a traditional storage system, the more years that you use it, the more problems you can expect to have. With EMC Elastic Cloud Storage, we haven't experienced any such problems.

By comparison, we have experience with EMC Isilon network-attached storage, and after two or three years, you can expect to have hard drive failures and other hardware problems. This doesn't necessarily make the system unstable but there will be performance-related issues that come about because data is being rebalanced between drives.

This product is definitely scalable. We have a few hundred people who are connected to services that use this storage system. Less than ten of them are administrators and support staff, whereas the remainder is end-users.

Generally speaking, there have been some issues with support because Dell and EMC are still in the merging stage. Sometimes, after you find a solution to the problem you are trying to solve, the web page changes because they are still in the process of integrating everything. As a result, sometimes you spend a long time searching for the information that you need to resolve issues.

Another issue with technical support, in particular when it is being handled from India, is the difference in time. If you want to set up a Webex meeting with somebody from technical support then it is often not possible because of the difference in time.

I have experience with mixed-vendor solutions. For example, with Cisco, they sell the S-Series Storage Servers and you can use this hardware with software from another vendor. However, with a multivendor system, you can have trouble with interoperability between hardware and software.

The other problem with a multivendor solution is that you don't have packages that are tested for performance, so you don't know what to expect. In this cloud-based configuration, you have a product that is fully tested. Even if the performance is less than you hoped then you at least know what to expect in advance of implementing it. When we sell it to our customers, they are fully aware of what they are buying.

With a Cisco solution, you have more control over what you are purchasing. You can choose the amount of memory and cache, for example. The problem is that you aren't sure how much processing power you will need to get the results that you want. This is because they do not test the specific hardware and software bundle. With EMC, you have a tool that is guaranteed to work as marketed.

The initial setup is relatively easy. You have to take care to do it properly but overall, it is fine. It should take a few hours to deploy.

There are many ways to make products better, although, for the purpose that our customers are using this solution, you can't do it better. It is a product that I recommend. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We have about 20 computing servers on the front end. The computing servers store the data from the network to our Dell EMC storage. We have found recently that the storage has become slower and slower. The capacity is enough but the performance seems not to be enough for our application.

It's easy to use the NFS service from Dell EMC storage.

NFS is the most valuable feature.

I have no problems with our application, but we have concerns about the write performance. We would also like it to be easier to scale out, to add more boxes to the system. And we want improved performance, to use a next-generation NFS service.

It's stable and easy to use.

Their response is quick. We just email or telephone to contact their support center. Dell EMC has local service in China so the response is very quick.

We wanted to know about new solutions for storage so we read about the performance. We had more and more servers on the front-end. We needed to scale out, to easily scale out our storage solution.

Our most important criteria when selecting a vendor are that they provide local service - installation service, after-sales service, replacement service, and the response time. Also, we need a new technology that can scale out our storage.

Dell's engineers helped us to initiate the system. It seems their local engineers were not very familiar with the equipment, so they needed support by telephone or by email from headquarters. It's not complex. It was easy to install and initialize in our cabinet.

We evaluated Hewlett Packard storage, NetApp, and Huawei, a Chinese vendor.

I would recommend that others choose the newer models for scale-out storage, that are easy to scale out, easy to upgrade. With the older model we're using it is not easy to do so, so after about a year or two we need to buy a new set.

I would rate this solution at eight out of 10. Dell EMC provides good service, and their products are easy to use, to install and configure. When we first started using it the performance was okay, but when our application grew more complex, the performance was not enough for us. In our solution, it's not easy to scale out the system. We want to find another solution that is easy to scale out.

The most valuable features are the S3 protocol implementation and the integration with other DELL EMC products, like ISILON. The ISILON integration works fine and will help the customers to grow more efficiently.

The deployment of additional capacity to data center infrastructure is easier than doing it on different ISILON solutions by one customer. There are customers who use more than one ISILON solution but want to increase their capacity by adding capacity as simple as possible. So ENC ECS can be a solution.

My understanding of object storage is that that object storage is a kind of ecosystem you can build in a data center. So for EMC ECS it will be a benefit to cooperate with a lot of vendor solutions in different areas: backup/recovery, content management, file sync and share solutions; file services gateways. It would be helpful that EMC ECS will support solutions of other vendors.

I myself only have experience in testing the solution and not using it in production. I tested the solutions over the last three months for nearly five or six days.

There were no problems with stability. I didn’t have the opportunity to test the solutions in the way that we have problems. So it was quite stable in our environment.

My opinion is that scalability can be done smarter. Having some capacity solutions as the S10/S30 module like HDS HCP has would be more interesting.

I have no experience with the support. So I don’t want to rate it.

I have some experience with HDS HCP and right now I prefer using this because of complementing solutions (HCP Anywhere version 3, HDI). In my opinion, HDS in Germany will have a lead over the other vendors (DELL EMC, NetApp, IBM, HPE).

As far as I can remember, setup was straightforward referring to scalability.

It would be nice if all vendors would have licenses on “a pay per use” basis. This would make the use, or better say the interest, of buying this storage much more simple.

There is always the comparison with file solutions. Customers and sales people feel good and familiar with these solutions which will work fine for the majority of requirements.

Have a look at different use cases you are willing to fullfill.
Have a close look to the protocol and ask for the support organisation.
Talk to your network and security people prior to install or implement actions.

We use the solution for data storage, although not for ones in large quantities. 

I like that the solution is easy to scale and that's its stable.

The solution could be more cost-effective and secure. 

We have been using Dell EMC ECS for around two years.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is easily scalable. 

I have not had occasion to contact technical support. 

We did not make use of another solution prior to the current one. 

The solution is easy to install.

I do not recall how long this took. 

Two administrators are sufficient for the deployment. 

The solution could be cheaper. 

The solution is easy to manage. It does not require more storage. 

There are around two users making use of the solution. 

I rate the solution as an eight out of ten.