Dell PowerStore Reviews

The use case for this solution is based on VMware and that is why we chose PowerStore X. During the first period of the pandemic, we decided to use our VMware infrastructure for HPC workloads. We were looking for high-performance storage that could be inserted inside our VMware environment in an easy way. PowerStore, which had just been announced, seemed like the right solution and so we decided to buy. We have this storage environment inside the virtual HPC.

In our environment we are doing medical analysis related to genomic workloads. The data are acquired remotely from experiments and stored on the PowerStore. The PowerStore is exposed to the user through virtual machines, and the data are analyzed in this environment.

During the pandemic, we were looking for something that could easily increase our scientific computing capabilities. It was not for something related to our university's enterprise applications. We were looking for something that was easy to provide inside our virtual scientific computation environment. PowerStore was really the best we could buy. And it has changed things completely. Our scientific computations were traditional before, in the sense of NFS or traditional HPC. PowerStore, now, is a key factor for the virtual HPC environment that we have.

Also, the solution's Anytime Upgrade program is a key factor so that we can keep the storage upgraded without any downtime. We have experienced some software upgrades on the system over the last year, and everything has run quite smoothly and we are very happy about that. I expect the Anytime Upgrade program will save us money and it saves time, for sure. It's difficult, in our environment, to estimate how much time this program has saved us because we don't typically track the time we spend. But if you take into account the fact that the upgrade is almost automatic, almost without people intervening, that is the reason we save time. You can schedule an upgrade, so you know when you are upgrading, but you don't need people looking into it. We save the amount of time people would typically have to devote to an upgrade.

We bought the PowerStore for performance and flexibility, and we are 100 percent satisfied with both.

• Flexibility
• Performance
• Easy of use

It also has some very good compression capabilities. 

We were looking for a solution that was easy to install in our VMware environment, that was flexible. PowerStore X is a type of a VMware cluster that you install inside your environment. If you have a VMware environment, like we have in production, it's easy to install and use.

It enables us to add compute or capacity independently. We have also deployed some apps on PowerStore, even though the PowerStore we have is not the biggest one you can buy. One of the main characteristics of PowerStore is that it is like another piece of VMware, so you can run applications on top, applications that have direct access to the storage. The ability to add compute or capacity independently is great because it adds more flexibility to our environment. You are not adding only storage, but you're adding some not-so-big computing capability. You have the possibility of adding some virtual machines, running NVMe storage, and that is a real plus for this solution.

In addition, PowerStore's built-in intelligence for helping to simplify IT operations is incredible. When we approached PowerStore, we had an idea that it was a normative platform, but we were impressed by the capability of the solution. It's probably one of the best pieces of storage that we have installed here.

Where the system needs to improve is by adding more enterprise features like replication on other sites. We would also like it to be much more aligned with the VMware version. For example, today we have two different versions of VMware ESXi running to keep the PowerStore online. It would be better if the software cycling was faster.

We have been using Dell EMC PowerStore for almost a year. 

It's a stable solution.

PowerStore is the latest and the best technology available. The design for scalability of the solution is perfect. It's something that can grow vertically and horizontally, by design. Of course, it's NVMe storage, so it's not cheap. You can expand the solution using less expensive storage upgrades in the PowerStore, so it's very good. By design, it's a wonderful machine. Of course, if you want to go all-NVMe, you have to be able to afford it.

Dell EMC's customer and technical support are the best in the market, for sure. We have almost all the Dell EMC solutions here, so we know the support very well and it is absolutely the best in the market.

The installation was quite smooth and easy. After one week, everything was up and running.

The installation was done by Dell EMC people and us, together. Our experience with them was incredible, as usual. We have several types of Dell EMC storage here, so we know their abilities. Everything was smooth.

ROI was a key factor for us, for this infrastructure. We have seen ROI in that we have been able to give our researchers an environment that they didn't have before. It has been a complete success. It's a completely new environment. We didn't have anything similar before. Every cent spent has been worth it.

The price is not cheap, but it's worth it for the features you get from the storage. If you can afford it, you are probably buying the best solution that you can have for this virtual environment.

For this environment, PowerStore was almost unique when we chose it, so we did not evaluate other solutions.

We weren't concerned that PowerStore is a relatively new platform. We were not inserting it in an enterprise environment. We were inserting it in a scientific computing environment, which is where we tend to install all the latest technologies. It was not a problem.

If you have a production VMware environment, the platform is no longer new and is probably the most flexible performance storage system that you can buy today.

We are not using the solution's load balancing at the moment but it's something that we are looking into. We use PowerStore's built-in VMware hypervisor to run VMs and virtualized applications, but we are not using it at the edge. We know that is one of the capabilities of this kind of solution, but we are using it in our central computing facility.

We experienced some small issues, but the virtual machine was new. But our choice was a good one. The machine is easy to use, the performance is there, and we are happy.

Our primary use case for Dell PowerStore is for data protection and data transfer.

I find all of the Dell PowerStore features to be valuable. 

When it comes to Dell PowerStore, I would like to see more integration and more security features included. It's unfortunate that the solution does not feature Flash trace. 

We have been using this solution for the past one or two years.

My impression is that Dell PowerStore is highly stable.

My opinion is that Dell PowerStore is highly scalable. Currently, we have many users of this solution as we have three hundred people in our company. We also have plans to increase the usage of this solution, but that will depend on the storage and customer data and its size.

My opinion is that the initial setup process is quite straightforward.

I would recommend this solution for middle-range customers.

Overall, I would rate this solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

PowerStore's management console could be improved. In the next release, PowerStore should add more artificial intelligence features.

I've been working with PowerStore for a year.

PowerStore is stable.

PowerStore is scalable.

Dell's technical support is ok.

The initial setup was straightforward.

PowerStore's pricing is reasonable.

PowerStore is more suitable for enterprise companies than smaller businesses. It is reliable, with comprehensive features and a well-established support base. I would give PowerStore a rating of nine out of ten.

We use this solution for VM and some AI storage. It's mostly an internal use server. We use it for the lab, and customers can access it. We use iSCSI on it. 

This solution is very useful to us as we use it internally for all of the services that we need. We use it as a lab and we showcase new technology to the customers and how it can help them going forward.

The interface is very easy to use and easy to install. Everything essentially comes with it. All of the software is there for us.

I do not like having to use VPLEX for synchronous replication, as opposed to having the store software built-in.

We have been using this solution for one year. 

This is a stable solution. 

We use the 500T model which is not scalable but there are other options that offer scalability from Dell. 

The technical support for this solution is really good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward. We did all our prerequisites before the Dell representative came on-site to help finish it off. It is a plug-and-play setup. I was the only person involved in setup and deployment. I made sure that all the information needed was provided to Dell. The only maintenance that has been needed so far is some software upgrades.

We implemented this solution with help from Dell. 

The licensing for this solution is good and is in the mid-range tier. It matches the old UDXT platform.

PowerScale does everything you need it to do. That said, the advice I have is to determine what you need it for upfront because there are some decisions you have to make upfront and if you don't make them then, you'll have to restart later on.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We were in need of a new enterprise storage solution for our virtual machines. We use it for primary systems and processes, so for us it's very important.

The built-in intelligence adapts quickly to changing workload requirements. It works as we expected it to work. It doesn't give you a view into how it's doing it because it's doing it in the backend, but up until now, every process has been working perfectly fine.

The biggest benefit is that we have an enterprise storage solution we can rely on. It does simplify storage operations. It's easy to manage.

In the few months that we have used it, the performance has been great.

The way you're able to manage all your PowerStores as one solution is very good for us. PowerStore enables you to federate or cluster multiple appliances with automated load balancing. In terms of management, it's helpful that we can do it from a single interface where we're able to manage multiple PowerStores. When you have multiple PowerStores, it works intelligently by running the workloads based on the needs of the infrastructure.

The solution's machine learning and automation work well when it comes to optimizing resources. It does inline deduplication which means that the net the amount of storage you have available is bigger. It can do all kinds of optimization in the system itself and that works very well.

We have been using Dell EMC PowerStore for about three months.

The most valuable features of PowerStore are its scale up and scale out. We are able to scale up if we need more space or more power in the current PowerStore setup, but we can also scale out if we want to put in an extra one beside it or in another data center.

Technical support for Compellent was a lot better because for Dell EMC the PowerStore is a new solution and they don't have a lot of people here in the Netherlands with the right knowledge to work on it.

Having said that, I don't have many concerns that it's a new solution. Other people do have concerns about that, but I believe in the knowledge of Dell EMC. Also, it's not 100 percent new. It's based on another hardware system, so I have no concerns.

Before, we were on Dell EMC Compellent hardware, and that was based on a tiering principle whereby we used quick and slower storage. We had more and more issues with that because it was a little bit outdated, around five years old. We were looking for a new solution to house our infrastructure.

The setup process could be improved. We had some issues regarding configuration and the time it took to do things. It wasn't specifically the people we worked with, but more the process and how it's done. They can work on that.

I'm not satisfied with the process they used to do the setup and the timeframe within which everything was done. For example, there were things which we needed to do together with Dell EMC. There were three meetings for doing three specific things, but we could have done them in one meeting. That's why the duration, from the moment we bought the hardware until we were able to use it, was two or three months. We had expected that we would be able to use the hardware quicker. But because of the implementation process, it took us longer than we wanted.

Three months is too soon for us to see ROI.

When we compared it with the other solutions, the pricing of PowerStore was equal. The pricing is good.

I don't know what the names were because I was not 100 percent involved in the selection process, but there were two other vendors we looked at.

One of the main differences was the way they do inline deduplication. In the backend, PowerStore does all kinds of smart things. The result is that with less physical storage being used, we are able to host more data. Also the fact that PowerStore is completely NVMe-based means performance is great, thanks to the technical architecture.

The solution enables you to add compute and capacity independently, although in our environment we cannot add compute. We are able to add storage and that works, although we have not done so because we have only been working with PowerStore for three months and haven't needed any extra capacity yet.

Only three people work with PowerStore in our company, and they are all system administrators.

I'm happy with the choice we made. I can recommend PowerStore because the technical architecture is based on NVMe. They have a good USP. There are other vendors who also have NVME-only systems, but I still recommend PowerStore.

We are partners with Dell. 

Data compression is a great feature.

The user interface could be improved.

I've been using this solution for one year. 

The solution is stable. 

We use a third party for our technical support. 

The initial setup is straightforward and doesn't take long.  

Licensing is a little expensive and there's an extra fee for support. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

We are using Dell PowerStore for block storage. We store all the virtualized environments, such as ERP, virtual machines, Oracle, and SAP-based Virtual Machines. We use storage for all our blocks.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the all-NVMe flash storage. This is the most powerful feature of this series. It supports compression and duplication leads.

We are looking for the Dell PowerStore to become more mature to maximize our use cases.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for approximately two years.

Dell PowerStore is stable. All solutions have some issues, but overall it works well.

Dell PowerStore is scalable.

We have 15 to 20 people using the solution in my company. The amount of use of the solution depends on the project we are in.

Once you deploy this solution in an environment from scratch it can be challenging. However, if the sizing and the planning are good, then the challenges can be covered upfront.

I rate the initial setup of Dell PowerStore a four out of five.

The price of Dell PowerStore could improve. The price should be managed more compared to Huawei Dorado or IBM All-Flash series.

I rate Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten.

I'm a systems engineer and we have a partnership with Dell. 

This is an interesting solution and I find the mapping to be a great feature. 

I would like to see more automation and more analytics in this product.

We have deployed this solution to our customers over the past six months. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. Each of our customers has around 30-40 users. 

Dell provides great customer service. 

The initial setup is very easy. 

I love this product and hope to work more on it. I rate it 10 out of 10.