Dell PowerStore Reviews

My team's role in using or managing Dell PowerStore is that we run all our infrastructure for our shared infrastructure in all the data centers, and we run Dell PowerStore for our IaaS solutions and some backup DR solutions. 

Currently, we are not using Dell PowerStore for any AI initiatives in our company or for our clients; it's primarily for IaaS workloads, so Infrastructure-as-a-Service on our shared platform for customers. 

Currently, we are utilizing the 500Ts and 1200Ts models of Dell PowerStore.

We have seen the benefits of consolidation, compression, and reduction in overall storage.

I can share a specific example where Dell PowerStore made a noticeable improvement in our business operations; we were running an IaaS platform for one of our acquisitions on a different vendor, and we've moved that to a brand new platform we built based on PowerEdge and Dell PowerStore. All of our performance is now improved, and all of our customers are happy; they're not complaining anymore about performance. We've recently received feedback that there's a massive improvement—boot times are quicker, and responsiveness from their workloads is quicker.

We have realized several benefits from using Dell PowerStore; we migrated to the current Dell PowerStore models from tiered storage, and now we're using all flash. 

The dedupe and compression has been a big benefit for us versus the old storage that it was running, and we've seen the performance of all flash for our storage services. 

My company finds particular features within Dell PowerStore valuable, primarily the cost benefits for the performance that we get out of the platform. We've definitely seen the benefit on that side of it, including the cost per terabyte, and the support from Dell has been excellent as well. 

We haven't had any issues with it, so it's been very reliable as a platform for us.

The performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerStore are all IOPS and throughput. We are not using it with AI workloads on Dell PowerStore, so it's primarily just customers running IaaS, however, it is important that it's reliable and performs well, and we get that from Dell PowerStore.

Dell PowerStore has supported growth and operational success for my business; a key driver at the moment is consolidation, and the dedupe and compression ratios allow us to standardize on a single platform. This has helped improve our operational metrics and overall operations, as we now have only one vendor to support and one set of storage arrays to manage. We have a very clear path into support and escalation if there is an issue, and we are not dealing with multiple vendors.

It could be improved to be cheaper for us. Cost versus performance is crucial, and it has to have the performance and capabilities that we need for that price point.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for years.

I would assess Dell PowerStore's stability and reliability as excellent; the latest generation of Dell PowerStores that we put in has had no issues and no downtime.

I see Dell PowerStore growing with our future needs; as a company, we have standardized our compute and storage now on Dell, so that's the way it's going to grow.

Our business has around 1000 employees.

I would evaluate Dell support as a nine out of ten.

Any instance that we've had to open with Dell or any support ticket we've had has been responded to very quickly, and the quality of the team we deal with is very good. 

There's not much more I can get out of support really. They are responsive, and I've very little to complain about from a Dell perspective. There are always going to be issues with a support department, and we understand that. The escalation paths are clear, and the account managers and team I work with at Dell Ireland are always proactive in reaching out if they identify an issue.

Positive

Before moving to Dell PowerStore, I considered NetApp and Pure Storage as two of our large vendors, and we've also used HP. 

We've explored a large range of them. A huge standout in my evaluation process, both positive and negative, comparing these options was realistically the performance for the price; since we use a significant amount of Dell, they are our number one vendor for compute, and it makes sense for us to standardize our compute. When we compare the performance to the cost, it's a no-brainer for us.

We have seen a return on our investment in Dell PowerStore; definitely our cost per terabyte has been very good compared to some of the other vendors that we would have been using previously, and our performance benchmarks have exceeded what we were expecting.

At the moment, I can't think of any area where Dell PowerStore could be better; my engineering teams aren't complaining about anything, and we're happy with the performance, support, dedupe, compression, and costs. 

My advice to others considering Dell PowerStore is that the more you understand about the workloads you're going to run on the storage, the more accurate you can be, and the better solution you'll end up with. I would rate Dell PowerStore as an eight or a nine out of ten.

The use case for purchasing is that I am doing a hyper-converged infrastructure on Hyper-V. My main goal has been to really have redundancy and reliability in the system based on our production schedule. We cannot afford to have much downtime. Therefore, I needed a setup. We purchased Dell PowerStore at the same time. I needed a setup that would give me the reliability to run my operations pretty much all the time.

Our production runs from about 3:00 AM until about 5:00 PM, which is a very long production run. During that time, we have PLCs and data collection equipment on the production floor. If they were offline, that means the production is not running. Therefore, having that reliability with Dell PowerStore, with the PowerEdge, with the setup that I have, enables us to keep the production running.

For small medium-sized businesses, Dell PowerStore has supported growth and organizational success because our company has been growing for several years, and we expect it to keep growing over the next several years. Having that infrastructure behind the systems is going to definitely allow us to keep operating with our production schedule, which is very demanding as per our customers' needs, and then also improving our production efficiency and quantity through efficiencies. I see all the Dell products growing with our future needs. We have been a Dell customer for a long time, and as far as I can see, we will continue to be.

The most valuable thing for me is that what we do is not really resource-intensive. Most of our work is regular office tasks. We do not do a lot of high bandwidth tasks or tasks that require a lot of storage amount or compute power. What I am looking for is reliability and redundancy. That is built in at every level of the system. It is built in at the component level, and it is built in at the whole system level too.

I have seen a reduction in downtime. Unfortunately with the PowerEdge and the new setup, I cannot really answer that because it is so new. We have not had any downtime yet with it. Hopefully, we will not, however, so far we have not had any downtime.

I like having products from the same vendor. It reduces a lot of headaches. When you have multiple vendors, there can be finger-pointing. With one vendor, you can get a turnkey solution.

The big problem that we had with Dell PowerStore comes to pricing. There seems to be a lack of a price range in the small company, small medium company segment. There is a bit of a blind spot.

Regarding additional features, it is so new that I cannot really give a comprehensive answer. I think feature-wise, it is very feature-rich. Maybe some of those features could be paired down in order to give lower price range options for companies such as us that are not IT companies, but manufacturing companies, where IT is not at the forefront of things.

I have been using Dell PowerStore since January when we bought our first one very recently. That is our first Dell PowerStore product.

It is scalable with those needs. Our growth in that sense is not very intensive as far as storage or compute goes, but it has been scalable when we have needed it.

I assess customer service and technical support as very good. I have found them to be very knowledgeable and very responsive. I do not really have any problems there. They have been very great to deal with. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the customer service as a nine.

Positive

Before purchasing Dell PowerStore, we were using a Hyper-V cluster with the Hyper-V purpose-built servers from Dell. That product line has been discontinued now, so we had to go with Dell PowerStore instead.

I have seen some return on investment. Since we were refreshing our infrastructure, the return on investment has been that I am able to concentrate my time on high-level items rather than small-level items that come from the aging infrastructure that we had before.

There is a big pricing increase once you get to our level, and for our size company, it was almost too large when we went from previous generation products to current models. It was a sticker shock, I have to admit.

I did not consider other solutions before purchasing Dell PowerStore.

The advice I would give to other organizations who are considering Dell PowerStore is because of the price, make sure that you right-size the equipment so you are not paying more for capacity that you are not going to use. That is probably my best advice.

To assess that before purchasing, you basically have to look at a couple of things. First of all, what is your current use of storage? Then, of course, you have to figure out how this is going to grow over the lifetime of the next product. From there, as an IT manager, director, or CIO, you have to be tuned into the company's C-level perspective on what they think the growth is going to be over the next four or five years of the product lifecycle.

We don't currently have any AI initiatives; we may in the future. Right now, our business is manufacturing and very traditional. 

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore a nine overall.

My customers usually use Dell PowerStore for their infrastructure workloads and for their business needs.

Customers mainly use it for infrastructure workloads.

Improving operational efficiency is one of the default use cases, and it is paramount.

The main positive impact of Dell PowerStore on organizations is the total cost of ownership, which is one main advantage.

Moving and optimizing workloads within the cluster is quite easy based on my experience with Dell PowerStore.

The clustering feature, the Metro Cluster, deduplication capability, and compression are all important and valuable based on customer requirements.

Dell PowerStore's compression and deduplication technologies are very important for customers. These features increase operational efficiency and reduce their hardware footprint.

Operational efficiency is improved based on the customer industry and how their day-to-day operations and overheads are reduced. The management capabilities of Dell PowerStore are extremely easy to use and user-friendly. The benefits include ease of management and time savings.

Customers have been able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore by 25% to 30% at least.

The data resiliency and cybersecurity features of Dell PowerStore are just normal and would be considered medium; we need additional components such as cybersecurity vault for increased resilience.

If the data resiliency and cybersecurity features are optimized, it would be very beneficial, as it's something we look forward to.

While the workload performance of Dell PowerStore is above average compared to other storage solutions, there's always room for improvement.

Staying updated with the industry is important, though no specific improvements come to mind for Dell PowerStore's next releases.

I have been working with Dell PowerStore for about three to four years now.

I have not heard of any outages or power decreases with Dell PowerStore.

My impression of Dell PowerStore's stability is that it's quite stable.

About 10% to 15% of the time we might come across a bug and we reach out to Dell support to get it resolved. 

I'd rate stability nine out of ten. This level of stability is very important for our customers. If it wasn't highly stable, they likely wouldn't buy the product. 

Expanding Dell PowerStore, in terms of scaling up and scaling out, is extremely easy; it's all online.

Ease of expansion is extremely important for customers. This avoids any unnecessary maintenance windows and outages. There's also better visibility.

Dell's technical support is always available for us. Technical support helps in resolving issues in a timely manner, which is why we open cases.

I would rate the technical support of Dell PowerStore between nine and ten out of ten.

Positive

The compression and deduplication are quite good compared to other vendors. It helps customers increase operational efficiency. There will be less hardware to manage. 

My experience with the deployment of Dell PowerStore is that it's quite easy and straightforward, typically completed within one to three days maximum.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore is straightforward and uncomplicated.

Operations in the government sector, hospitality, and medical data storage are all examples of implementation.

Performing upgrades is quite easy, and I didn't face any challenges in this process.

Customers manage to see ROI thanks to these features, as they reduce their hardware footprint. The reduction of capital expenditures is about 30%.

Licensing for Dell PowerStore is all-inclusive, which is a good point, though from a price perspective, it is higher priced and could be more competitive.

The pricing is based on opportunities, so it varies widely.

We're a consultant. We work with small to medium-sized businesses.

Focusing on data resiliency and cybersecurity features is crucial.

Customers are satisfied but would like to see it improved in the future.

I would rate Dell PowerStore at nine out of ten. It's a very good product.

In my role, I am both the storage engineer and administrator and architect managing Dell PowerStore. Currently, we have two 3200T models and one 3000T model, which is a Gen 1, all running Dell PowerStore version 4.0 OS. 

We use Dell PowerStore almost exclusively for high-performance workloads, mostly Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and MySQL databases.

The thing that I appreciate the most about Dell PowerStore is how easy it is to upgrade; the upgrade process is very simple, and I really appreciate how easy it is to connect my hosts to Dell PowerStore, as the environment automatically detects new fiber channel HBA ports for all the hosts that we connect to.

Dell PowerStore has simplified my workload pretty dramatically as an organization. It is very easy to manage Dell PowerStore; we have other Dell products, such as Dell Compellent and Dell PowerVault, and the PowerStore is much simpler to use. I have experienced dramatic time savings with Dell PowerStore. I estimate that I'm probably saving six to 10 hours a week in management with Dell PowerStore.

I would really appreciate the ability to implement file on Dell PowerStore after I've already provisioned the environment, as right now I have to choose between unified file and block or exclusively block when I first deploy.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for three years.

I have experienced some downtime with Dell PowerStore, particularly due to a bug with Emulex HBAs during an upgrade process.

Dell PowerStore has been able to grow with and scale with the growing needs of our organization. We started out with just the 3000T, and then we bought one 3200T, and expanded to another 3200T for our production environment, slowly expanding as we need.

I evaluate Dell support as incredibly good, as I've dealt with a lot of support companies and found their service much better than others. Dell differs positively from HPE, as HPE support tends to be extremely proactive, but not as technically skilled, making my interactions with Dell support much easier.

Positive

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Dell PowerStore was that the Dell team was very open, and their expertise makes me want to only buy Dell products, even though the university requires multiple vendors.

I do not have any AI use cases on Dell PowerStore. I'm not sure if we're planning to use Dell PowerStore for AI workloads, but we are planning to use AI in the near future. As a university, we are still trying to figure out how to implement AI in our environment. T

he feature set of Dell PowerStore is extremely robust in comparison to other storage arrays that I manage, and I would appreciate feedback that makes the Dell ME storage arrays as good as the old Dell Compellents. 

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Dell PowerStore a 9.

We use Dell PowerStore for our manufacturing or MES system and data warehousing.

Dell PowerStore has benefited our organization through cost savings. It is simple to use, and so far, it has been perfect without any issues.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is its immutable storage, which is what we are looking for. It offers high protection in terms of ransomware protection. 

The design needs to be something similar to Pure Storage. It would be beneficial if there are different color or lighting options for different product casings. Different colors are helpful when working in the data center server room.

Pure Storage is simplified. We can do a lot of things online. They have a lot of information and training. We can go through their YouTube channel. Dell should be doing more like that. The main reason why people move to Pure Storage is because it's simplified.

I've been using it for two years.

The stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore are good.

Dell PowerStore scales with the needs of our company.

Worldwide, we have 200,000 employees, and in Malaysia, we have about 20,000 employees. We are in production line use and soon will deploy it in the data center for the Asia region support.

Their support in our country is very good.

We have an account manager in our country. The account manager is very aggressive. He could be less aggressive. 

Positive

Dell is quite good compared to HPE. Over the last few years, HPE is changing. They are acquiring many companies, and it's getting too complicated. One of the reasons we are using Pure Storage is that it is very simple. I hope Dell can do something like Pure Storage. However, Dell PowerStore is cheaper than others, and their support in our country, Malaysia, is very good.

Dell and our system integrator help us with it. We provide the requirements and they take care of the setup.

Our experience with Dell has been good.

As compared to others, PowerStore is cheaper.

Overall, I would rate Dell PowerStore a seven out of ten, as it still has room for improvement.

My use cases for Dell PowerStore typically involve consolidating older storage and bringing the future of storage to our customers. Because we are a Dell partner, I sell a lot of Dell PowerStore storage, especially to modernize their infrastructure and consolidate workloads on a modern infrastructure based on Kubernetes. Dell PowerStore fits perfectly in the modern IT landscape, especially with AI. 

We talk about AI, and Dell PowerStore fits perfectly for our customers, enabling a variety of user workflows and customer workflows. For manufacturing, Dell PowerStore is perfect because it empowers and speeds up their jobs, providing future-ready storage. 

One of our customers uses Dell PowerStore for AI, which is currently still in study, aiming to develop an autonomous agent to capture payment. This system will implement a responsive AI agent based for each store, which needs to react quickly, and Dell PowerStore provides the low latency needed for such use cases, supporting not just one shop station but potentially thousands, handling large amounts of data and logs.

Customers see benefits from implementing Dell PowerStore, as it significantly speeds up their workloads. When we change the repository for our data and speed up the workload, including applications and databases, our virtual environment or private cloud speeds up. Everything about the work done in the company speeds up, from the warehouse to the offices, and every part of the company improves.

For me and my customers, the most valuable features of Dell PowerStore are the data reduction and scalability. The data reduction of 5:1 with the latest version of the software is very good because it saves a lot of money and space, allowing us to use the budget for other things. 

Another valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is its scalability, as you can add one drive at a time to grow without having to purchase multiple drives.

Connectivity is another notable feature; you can use many PCIe cards to connect to the back end. With AI and the push for faster workflows, we need to integrate 100 Gigabit cards and faster switches. Additionally, because it operates within a broader ecosystem, Dell PowerStore is very compatible with various systems, including SAP and Oracle, enhancing speed and latency for numerous use cases. I believe Dell PowerStore fits 90% of companies and meets their storage needs.

In terms of improvement for Dell PowerStore, I think data mobility is crucial. A compelling feature would be seamless mobility of data without disruption, from local storage to the cloud. It would be much easier if Dell PowerStore implemented this form of data mobility. Currently, migrating from one model to another is not very straightforward, although it's on the roadmap. Upgrading an old model to a new one can be complex, particularly when using VMware.

I do not give it a ten because other storage solutions may offer better features. For instance, Dell acquired a company called Compellent, which had a feature called live migration, allowing multiple storage-to-storage transfers, including three hops. With Dell PowerStore, you can only replicate data between two storages systems, needing a separate appliance for more complex replication, which competitors like NetApp or Pure Storage provide as built-in features. I suggest this capability be considered for future development, alongside enhancements to data security and analysis.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for about five years.

My role in using or implementing Dell PowerStore is to design the infrastructure and analyze where it fits, considering the needs of the customer. We sell a solution that perfectly fits what the customer needs, as Dell has a lot of tools to implement the right solution. Before we sell a product, we conduct thorough analysis and discuss it with our customers, which makes them happy because we provide documentation containing all necessary parameters. We explain why they need to invest in such enterprise storage, and typically our work involves analysis, selling the storage, and empowering the customer's company.

Considering ROI for customers using Dell PowerStore, the cost is important, especially with the more affordable prices of the PowerStore 500 model. The lifecycle of the product is significant, and sometimes the renewal of maintenance costs more than a new product. Thus, the product lifecycle should ideally cost less.

We started working with the first generation Dell PowerStore in 2020, and our customers are already migrating to the second generation. Dell PowerStore is currently at version 4.0, and new features are released every six months. It is Kubernetes-based storage, so it's not disruptive to upgrade the firmware; every time we update the firmware, we have new features, and our customers are very happy.

It's a long partnership since Dell initially focused solely on servers. Now, they are a powerhouse offering everything from servers to storage and clients, presenting significant opportunities for business discussions. 

I rate Dell PowerStore a nine out of ten.

My usual use cases for Dell PowerStore include LUN creation for particular servers such as VMware and AIX servers.

I am working as a storage admin for a company in the banking insurance sector where Dell PowerStore has been installed, and I am providing service for this company. I am a consultant.

I am using two appliances of Dell PowerStore, which are PS5200 and PS3400. I am not clustering multiple Dell PowerStore appliances. 

Dell PowerStore is GUI-based applications storage. It is easy to use and understand, making storage management tasks such as provisioning and reclaim activity quite manageable.

Dell PowerStore has helped me improve operational efficiency, particularly for a small project where I manage a limited number of servers, making it very easy to handle applications with lower IOPS, especially since we use Oracle on the back-end for some of the LUNs. 

Dell PowerStore is suitable for consolidating data in mid-segment companies where it handles small applications and there are not many IOPS required. The ability to add capacity in single drive increments for Dell PowerStore is important for organizations that frequently need to extend their storage based on capacity requirements.

The compression is good, and we have also enabled deduplication to function automatically. This means that any files already stored will not be retained again.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the one that allows for auto replication, which I have enabled, as well as the auto snapshot feature that has been newly introduced to Dell PowerStore, where we can schedule snapshots on a weekly basis. 

Some areas of Dell PowerStore that could be improved include reporting features, such as performance reports, which are lacking compared to VMAX and PowerMax. For instance, with VMAX and PowerMax, you can access detailed reports that show Input/Output (IO) operations, read and write metrics, and response times for specific storage groups. You can monitor IOPS and latency metrics for particular ports, and view heat maps for visualization. Unfortunately, these types of reports don't seem to be available in PowerStore.

Additionally, if a customer reports latency issues, such as the OS team mentions they're experiencing delays from a specific LUN, we lack sufficient options to investigate those reports in Dell PowerStore.On VMAX and PowerMax, we have Unisphere as a tool to check performance metrics. In contrast, PowerStore lacks such a feature, from my perspective.

I have been working with Dell PowerStore for the last one year.

Dell PowerStore is stable and reliable. It has been effectively used for many years.

It is easy to enhance Dell PowerStore by scaling up and scaling out as needed, by adding new devices and extending the storage pool accordingly.

I often communicated with Dell PowerStore's technical support to address requirements such as enabling SyncIQ. My impression of the technical support team is that they are effective and understand our problems well, solving them promptly within the SLA. I would rate the technical support provided for Dell PowerStore as more than six. I don't think there's anything missing in the technical support; they deliver the help we expect.

Neutral

Dell PowerStore is deployed on-premises in my customer's local data center. I was not involved in its deployment.

My experience with CloudIQ has been limited; I have seen health check reports, and the Dell team gets alerts if there are any issues on the storage side. 

In terms of integration, I have connected VMware with Dell PowerStore, and it is good for managing storage from the ESXi host. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight out of ten.

My use case for Dell PowerStore is for database information and database protection.

Dell PowerStore has helped me address challenges in my organization. The old storage was too slow, while with this storage, we can recover the information very fast.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the speed. The speed of information and the ability to recover information are exceptional. 

To be honest, I don't think I could improve Dell PowerStore..

I've used the solution for about four years. 

When comparing the stability and reliability of Dell PowerStore to the old storage, the old storage never worked properly. This solution is more stable from that standpoint. 

The scalability of Dell PowerStore is very good. It's easy to expand. Though I'm not a technician, we have added more memory twice.

I have never worked with the customer service support for Dell PowerStore.

Positive

I previously used HPE, though I don't know which specific product.

Dell PowerStore is a very expensive storage solution. That said, the speed for recovering information is amazing. I would make the product cheaper. The discounts from Dell to South America are not sufficient because we need better pricing. 

The discounts for small PowerStores are not enough to close deals since I'm a distributor. As both a user and seller, it's challenging to sell Dell PowerStore to the channel or final customers because we don't have enough discount from Dell. We need to find deals worth a million or higher, and in my country, I have never sold a Dell PowerStore worth one million dollars.

I did not evaluate other solutions besides HPE because we are distributors of both Dell and HPE. The other vendors didn't have suitable storage solutions for us.

I am only a user of Dell PowerStore. 

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore a ten. It's working now, and I never find problems with this storage.