Dell PowerStore Reviews

We were end-of-life on our current Unity 480S all-flash arrays and needed to upgrade to a newer array, and we didn't want to have to pay the extortionate costs for renewing our support for Unity.

Dell PowerStore outperforms Unity by approximately ten to one. 

In terms of performance, it performs very well. Implementation went well. The console GUI is very similar to all the other Dell flagship products, such as Dell PowerProtect Data Manager or Dell Data Domain. All of the front-end console GUIs have been brought together to provide one seamless pane of glass ecosystem, which makes it really easy to move around in the environment. When I'm managing all these systems, that helps me quickly get familiar with where things are going to be placed, which then helps me speed up and do my job a little bit more efficiently.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is Metro Volumes. It allowed us to remove our current Recovery Point/Broadcom VMware SRM licenses, which cost a fortune, resulting in significant cost savings.

The product stands on its own merit. It does exactly what it's meant to do. It's very scalable, very efficient power-wise and performance-wise.

Cost is one aspect that needs improvement, as selling the drives after purchasing the solution makes them incredibly expensive. The reason we buy it as a whole complete system is because we get such a discount on the drives upfront. When we go to buy or populate more drives in the storage array, they're so expensive. If they could lower the cost for components, we would definitely expand them more and be more inclined to buy more storage units, but it's currently a price crunch for us. Price is a deterrent to scalability.

We have been using Dell PowerStore since implementing it two months ago.

We've actually crashed the system on purpose and watched Metro do what it was supposed to do. The product does exactly what it claims. We saw that on keynotes at Dell Technologies World 2024, and to see it actually work in our data center was impressive. When I removed all the cables, it failed over within five minutes. It's remarkable to see that actually happen in practice. You hear a lot of talk, but to see the talk go into action is another thing in itself.

We have 700 to 800 people. Dell PowerStore has models such as the 500T that we have in one of our smaller data centers. This solution is more suitable for mid to large-sized businesses. As a Dell company, it's definitely growing with our needs in every aspect, from data protection to storage capacity to the workstation level.

The deduplication feature set built into Dell PowerStore helps us with current scaling for storage because it provides significant data reduction. However, when we need to grow, the price point of buying external storage and filling up new LUNs and racks becomes expensive. We try to budget our storage for Dell PowerStore ahead of time to avoid populating it with more drives later, knowing that adding another rack will be costly. If they can help offset that cost, it would be beneficial.

They provide the same great support that I always receive with all Dell products. Their support is one of the best. That's why we're with Dell.

It was incredibly easy to deploy Dell PowerStore. The deployment time from start to end was a week, which included cabling, configuration, migration of data, and everything coming together.

We've received a return on investment in the coming renewal of our Broadcom VMware licensing. In terms of licensing, we're paying less due to the implementation of the new PowerStore system into our infrastructure.

After attending Dell Technologies World 2024 and seeing the new iterations and feature sets coming out in version five, we were further convinced to go with Dell PowerStore.

There are plans for an AI implementation, a kiosk-type system, that will utilize this storage, but it has been tabled for now. It will likely be picked up at the end of our quarter or beginning of next quarter.

I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight out of ten.

Our use case for Dell PowerStore is virtualization.

We find that Dell PowerStore scales efficiently, as we've had good success with performance, availability, and deduplication. The benefits we see when we put Dell PowerStore in include a smaller footprint; we consolidated 10 racks into two racks, going from all Cisco UCS, Pure, and Dell Compellent into one Dell PowerStore. It was a two Dell PowerStore cluster with about 26 Dell servers, so we went from 10 racks down to two, leading to major consolidation.

Dell PowerStore has provided us with great success; the overall management ease, throughput, and dedupe have been excellent, and since we've only had it for two years, I don't really have much negative feedback or things to improve upon. It's a newer technology for us, so we're still evaluating it thoroughly.

If I could add any feature to Dell PowerStore, I would say we're looking to test, but I'm not ready to answer that question because we are looking to move away from VMware and are testing out OpenStack and Zen, so we don't know how that integration would work.

The only room for improvement I would mention is that, comparing it against a legacy product we had, we were a Pure shop, and some of the data metrics we get out of Pure from a support perspective online are a little bit more robust than the Dell PowerStore metrics, but it's not a negative against Dell. I see them getting there. As they continue to upgrade Dell PowerStore, I would assume that having more analytics would be the most important piece on any platform, but Dell's done a great job with it, so that's why it wasn't a heavy concern for us.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for two years.

Overall, since we've had Dell PowerStore, we've had no issues; we've had easy code upgrades, and being a single active-passive cluster, we've had no problems. Since implementation two years ago, reliability has been good, and we have not had a need to call Dell for support. With my experience of using Dell technology products for the better part of my career, support is usually the reason you go with Dell.

Dell support on the storage side for Dell PowerStore is unmatched.

Positive

We were a Pure shop, and now we're a Dell shop on that front, and we are satisfied with it.

It was remarkably easy to deploy Dell PowerStore; it was plug and play, with no need for any kind of material, as they've done a really good job making the deployment model user-friendly.

We've seen ROI with Dell PowerStore at every level, including financial benefits and reduced power consumption, which makes it easier to manage on a single platform. The financial metrics around Dell PowerStore are significant, but I can't disclose those; however, we saw significant financial savings. Doing back-of-the-napkin math, I'd say we saw about 40% cost reduction in our overall footprints with Dell PowerStore.

The pricing for Dell PowerStore has been excellent; it's a great price per capacity.

As we move into more virtualization aspects with Dell PowerStore, I think we don't need more documentation than what they currently have available, as it's a straightforward platform that is not complex. 

Regarding success stories about Dell PowerStore, there's a lot of data out there, and the Dell teams have done a phenomenal job answering questions, so I feel they have a significant amount of resources available.

I rate Dell PowerStore a 10 out of 10.

We use Dell PowerStore for all of our file storage and our local storage in general. We have all of our VMs running on it, data backups, and file storage is a big thing for us, with everything else in the cloud.

The features of Dell PowerStore that I appreciate the most are that it just works; it's tried and true and amazing, and we never have to worry about it. 

A lot of the interface is very clean and easy to use, making it very easy to get done what we need to get done.

One of the benefits I have seen from using Dell PowerStore is ease of use. While it is one of the biggest things, another huge benefit is that we have implemented other solutions and had issues with them—hardware, software, whatever it may be—and we don't have those issues using Dell PowerStore; it just works and is very reliable.

How Dell PowerStore could be better or improved is still to be determined with AI. Currently, it suits many of our needs, and there isn't much to want out of it because they are very good and innovative with their solutions.The first thing that comes to mind for improvement would be education. While I know that some educational resources exist, knowing about them would be beneficial, and if I dealt more with our representative to get more education on some aspects, that would be helpful.

I have used Dell PowerStore off and on for 15 years, and recently, for the last two years, we have gone back with Dell PowerStore.

If I would give a rating to Dell support on a scale of one to 10, it would be close to a 10. Ten is hard because that's perfect and nobody's perfect, but I would say it's up there, around eight or nine for sure, as they are always very helpful and responsive.

What would make it a 10 is hard to say since that's a perfect score, but it ticks many of our boxes and we really enjoy working with Dell. I don't have anything negative to say.

Positive

Before we decided to go with Dell PowerStore, we did consider other solutions and used to have a different solution. Then it caused problems, so we ended up going back with Dell and implementing Dell PowerStore.

I have seen a return on my investment in Dell PowerStore. One of the biggest ways is through time savings; we don't have to mess with Dell PowerStore as it just works, and that in itself is a huge ROI.

Comparing Dell PowerStore to our previous solution, we have significantly decreased our time spent on management. 

Annually, we used to spend considerable time configuring, reconfiguring, troubleshooting, and contacting support because things weren't working. It's night and day using Dell PowerStore—we don't do any of that, which is great.

Whether Dell PowerStore supports our AI initiatives is to be determined, as we have been figuring out how we are going to implement these technologies. What we are planning to do with AI in the context of Dell PowerStore is still undecided since it's a new technology, but we are exploring options. Dell PowerStore does not have features that specifically cater to the needs of our company or industry that are outstanding among others, but reliability is crucial, and ease of management is also important. 

I see Dell products growing with our future needs. I feel very comfortable with the scalability of the Dell PowerStore solution for our long-term plans. I can expand and keep using, and scale what we need to do. We don't have any performance metrics or benchmarks in place to measure success with Dell PowerStore; uptime is significant, and it has been great.

For the size of our company, Dell PowerStore has supported our growth and operational success very well. Dell as a whole has been awesome, always there to support us. We are working on a PC refresh right now, and our representative has been very helpful, always a phone call away.

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

I use it in the financial sector for banking, specifically for core banking applications, to serve our applications. We served different types of customers, ranging from oil and gas to the financial sector, education, and healthcare. We deployed Dell PowerStore in different industry segments, such as manufacturing and retail, for example.

The most impactful benefit is the data reduction and the deduplication.

Replication is easy to implement, and you don't need higher bandwidth to do replication across sites. It's quite useful.

The most impactful feature is the data reduction. Data reduction significantly saves costs. If I purchase, for example, twenty terabytes of storage, the effective capacity gives me somewhere around eighty terabytes. I pay for ten terabytes but gain eighty terabytes or fifty terabytes, for example. It depends on the type of data I am storing on Dell PowerStore, but usually, the reduction ratio is very good. It's a fantastic feature.

I have read about the new ability to cluster multiple PowerStore appliances and it sounds like a very good feature.

Its management capabilities are very strong. It is easy to implement and very easy to manage. The interface is very user-friendly.

APEX AIOPS is quite useful. It sends helpful notifications. It tells you what bottleneck is in your storage environment. It gives you detailed orientation of  why you are you are getting a bottleneck and where the problem is. 

We have been able to consolidate data using PowerStore.

PowerStore's compression and duplication technologies are very important and useful. It's a good feature.

The data resiliency and cybersecurity are good. It covers all the aspects that modern storage should have. 

The PowerStore cybersecurity and resiliency features meet our organizational needs.

PowerStore's built-in integrations for VMware are beneficial. It has all the features that need to be integrated into the environment. It's well aligned and tightly integrated.

One challenge in clustering is that when I create a cluster, the overall pool doesn't increase. Separate pools must be created for each controller node in the cluster. For instance, if I am creating a four-node or four-controller node cluster, I will have four different pools. If I want to enhance a pool beyond the maximum capacity of one controller node, I cannot increase it and must create a separate pool. This is a drawback in Dell PowerStore clustering. 

Synchronous replication covers the entire replication process, but there are scenarios where implementing synchronous replication is necessary, and that feature is missing. Pricing must also be considered, as Dell PowerStore is quite expensive compared to competitors in the market like HPE Alletra, Huawei Dorado, or Hitachi storage, for example. It is quite expensive price-wise.

Feature-set wise, PowerStore is very rich. I think all of the necessary features are there. Price-wise, PowerStore is quite expensive compared to the competition in the market like HP Alletra, Huawei, or Hitachi storage. Dell is more expensive. 

Competitors come in with better pricing and a similar feature set. Customers who already have PowerStore are very satisfied but when it comes to new storage requirements or a tech refresh, customers consider other options as well because of the price.

I have used the solution for roughly five to seven years.

It's very stable.

Scaling up is quite easy, whereas scaling out my storage requires deployment in a clustered manner from day one. If it's not deployed in a clustered manner and I want to scale out, I cannot do so. Careful planning is required at the start of implementation to determine if scaling out will be needed in the future. If this is not addressed in time, I will have to start from scratch, which is a daunting task. There are challenges with scaling out if the environment is not prepared at the initial deployment. Otherwise, it is straightforward. It is very useful, as I can add drive storage incrementally instead of a large batch of disks each time. It is both very useful and cost-effective.

Dell technical support is very good. They reach out to me promptly, deliver replacement parts quickly, and have local depots in three different cities across the country. Overall support is good.

There are two major aspects when it comes to the setup. One is the migration from existing storage, and the other is how fast I can complete the initial setup of Dell PowerStore. From a migration perspective, Dell PowerStore has the capability to migrate data from existing storage, even from other brands. The second phase is the initial setup, which is very straightforward. In a few steps, I am ready to set it up. Then, in the third phase, configuring replication, it is very straightforward and can be done in a few clicks. In all three phases—from migration to initial setup and to replication of the DR side, or the secondary side, or a third site—Dell PowerStore is easy to install and implement.

When I plan a tech refresh, other competitors offer better pricing with similar feature sets. This is a challenge for customers who are already satisfied with Dell PowerStore. However, when it comes to new storage requirements or a tech refresh, I consider other options as well.

Normally, Dell PowerStore is an NVMe storage, but it does not offer all NVMe protocol support like NVMe over RoCE, NVMe over fiber channel, and NVMe over TCP while other competitors do offer various connectivity options that Dell PowerStore lacks. For example, it lacks F5 and NVMe over RoCE and NVMe over fiber channel. Although it's NVMe-ready storage, it is not end-to-end NVMe ready from a technical angle.

My advice to anybody considering PowerStore is that if you need a scale-out feature in the future, you should consider it from day one. If Dell PowerStore is set up as a single appliance, scaling out will not be possible. This is the main point that needs consideration. 

Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

We have a large Citrix environment and a large VMware environment, virtualized server infrastructure, and we use Dell PowerStore for our medical organization, so our imaging for x-rays and all those are stored on there, along with some backups. 

We're just exploring AI use cases for Dell PowerStore currently, as we're in the early stages of it. We definitely can see the potential of helping our medical staff come to conclusions quicker, also our financial team, which can get very complex with insurance and billing, and we're looking for opportunities there. We're also looking at opportunities in my field in IT to support staff more quickly, so there's a lot of potential across the board with supply chain issues and all that kind of infrastructure.

I don't have many features to highlight for Dell PowerStore. I do appreciate the warranty support side of it. When we've had issues, it's been easy to get them rectified. 

I have realized nothing exemplary from using Dell PowerStore, except hat the user interface is clunky, and we've had issues with that. 

The interface of Dell PowerStore reminds me of the Cisco mentality where it's just boxes moving around as you're clicking; it's not easy to understand what you're trying to do, and you have to have solid documentation to navigate the system and make changes to ensure you're not jeopardizing your system as you present and remove storage and expand LUNs. 

Some other vendors in that space are innovating in that area, making lives easier for engineers, however, it seems the Dell PowerStore solution doesn't cater to that need, and I'm seeing more and more that my colleagues in other organizations are experiencing the same problem and turning to other more user-friendly solutions.

The organization has been using Dell PowerStore for 15-plus years, maybe longer.

They're very stable; our infrastructure stays up, and we very rarely have any outage, occurring approximately once every three years.

Dell PowerStore grows with our needs and scales effectively. In the past, we've expanded our usage of Dell PowerStore substantially; in healthcare, we have to keep our data indefinitely, so we're always increasing our storage.

The support for Dell PowerStore is exceptional; I would rate it at probably an eight or nine out of ten.

Positive

Dell PowerStore is slightly more expensive than some other competitors when it comes to pricing, setup costs, and licensing.

In some cases, we haven't decided to purchase Dell PowerStore; we've been going with other competitors as in some cases it's easier and slightly cheaper. 

I'm not aware of other competitors at this level, so when asked about other competitors and their AI use cases, it's early in this world for many organizations, but Dell is leading it currently. If they're going to be using AI, this changes everything regarding Dell PowerStore. If it has built-in AI at the storage layer, at least the compute for it, that's only going to enhance that situation, and if your data's on-premises, that's a game changer.

We covered the cons of Dell PowerStore; as for the pros, we have a strong relationship with Dell and that partnership, and some of the innovations we're talking about today sound interesting to me. There's a good reputation there, and we've had great success with support.

I would rate Dell PowerStore as a solution overall at a seven out of ten.

My use case for Dell PowerStore is virtualization and primary data storage.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the ease of deployment and general use. The ease of use of Dell PowerStore means that we don't have to have as many storage admins, and general people can now use it as opposed to just having specialized teams for that. 

Dell PowerStore has freed up staff to do other things, and they don't have to focus as much on the care and feeding of things on a day-to-day basis. We save approximately 40 man-hours a month, which is significant.

Some of the issues I have with Dell PowerStore are more gripes than actual issues. I wish there were more options to fine-tune things. Some of the information requires deeper investigation to get data efficiency per data store. 

I would rather see this as one holistic view, instead of having to dive down to each one to find where a data store is not performing as well as desired.

I have been using Dell PowerStore since 2020.

Dell PowerStore has been very reliable.

I think Dell PowerStore can grow, especially because we've done in-place upgrades. We've gone from a 1000T to a 3200 live, so we were able to increase the generation from Generation 1 to Generation 2, and then also increase the performance envelope by changing out the controller.

I have used customer services for Dell PowerStore. It has been very favorable. Most of the customer service we've dealt with has been out of Oklahoma for the mid-range tier products, and I've had really good interactions with them over the years.

Positive

Before Dell PowerStore, we were still Dell customers, using Compellent and Unity. We migrated over to Dell PowerStore as an option.

Dell PowerStore is mature now, though we were very early adopters and dealt with different teething pains. It's a mature product now and the ease of use and incremental scalability makes it very attractive for mid-enterprise teams. It fits a wide envelope of use cases, from basic standpoint to high-performance workload that can run without any issues.

I am familiar with the pricing and licensing of Dell PowerStore. The pricing is currently difficult due to global circumstances. The initial attraction was ease of expansion, one thing at a time, but with tariffs there's a lot of fluctuation. The pricing itself is fine, and the fact that we can expand one drive at a time makes it easier to manage capital expenses versus investing in an entire big array.

My overall rating for Dell PowerStore is eight out of ten.

I'm currently working with a Dell partner in Saudi Arabia and collaborating on EMC solutions. I'm working with Dell PowerStore, PowerScale, and Unity, especially the SAN storage and NAS storage. Dell PowerStore is used for their server environment, for ESXi, environment, for VMware environment, for database, Oracle database. 

We have Dell PowerStore 3000T; we are currently using Dell PowerStore 3000T. For some customers, they have clustering of multiple Dell PowerStore appliances. I utilize the built-in integrations for VMware and Oracle ecosystems, but I found that most of the customers are not using them, even though they know that it works, especially with VMware vCenter. They prefer individual administration, meaning they go directly to Dell PowerStore rather than using vCenter to manage Dell PowerStore.

The best features in Dell PowerStore are that it's easy to manage. For the customer user interface, customers can start learning and provision everything, and manage the system easily. From the operational efficiency perspective, Dell PowerStore has helped improve operational efficiency for most customers here, as they will arrange their EMC residency to manage their product on-site. It's easy to expand Dell PowerStore in terms of scaling up.

There are things I would like to see improved or enhanced in Dell PowerStore, such as they should invest in technology using NVMe. I know that they have the TLC NVMe, so they should use a different type of NVMe, which is much faster, similar to pure storage.

Also, they don't have replication capability; we have to use another appliance to do the replication. I think they should implement replication capability on Dell PowerStore.

I have been working with Dell PowerStore since they started selling it. I worked for EMC from 2000 until 2022.

Clustering Dell PowerStore appliances is easy. You manage from one graphical user interface.

My experience with the technical support and customer support for Dell PowerStore is good. However, when it was during EMC, it was much better. Now, during Dell's time, it's not as good as it used to be. They're getting worse. I don't know whether Dell is really invested in customer support. 

Depending on the product, for Dell PowerScale or for Dell PowerStore, I would rate it eight. It depends on which support center you are engaged with, because I have experience with some support centers where their support made a wrong decision.

Positive

In terms of deployment and initial setup, the question is unfair because I've worked with a SAN environment for more than 22 years. It's easy for me to set up.

The benefits that Dell PowerStore brings to customers include trust in EMC storage, which is why they keep buying. It's easy for migration and future migration.

I can share advice and recommendations with users who are looking into implementing Dell PowerStore for their companies or organizations from an implementation perspective. I would assess Dell PowerStore's data resiliency and cybersecurity features as good because Dell is continuously updating about any issues with any loopholes in their products. They keep giving the advice, so we just follow, do upgrades on the firmware. Dell PowerStore's cybersecurity and resiliency features meet customers' needs in this aspect because so far they haven't complained about anything.

I utilize the add capacity abilities of Dell PowerStore, which is good because, compared to the previous Unity and the storage pool where you had to buy multiple drives to add, with Dell PowerStore, you can buy one drive and plug it in to increase capacity. I know about the compression and the deduplication technologies in Dell PowerStore. It's important. I believe other vendors also do deduplication, compression, and if they don't do it, then they might be left out by other competitors.

I find Dell PowerStore stable. Regarding the workload performance of Dell PowerStore, I don't do performance testing, but Dell PowerStore is good, so customers do not complain about any performance issues. They just do the clustering based on the application. Overall, I rate Dell PowerStore an 8 out of 10.

My overall use case for Dell PowerStore is amazing, and the most valuable feature is yet to be determined.

Having one go-to array is helpful. Management likes simplicity. Management likes knowing that we made a good valuable decision long term that we can grow with. For the accounting team or the purchasing team's perspective, seeing the exact same array name helps them. Knowing that through our providers, our e-resellers, we're using the same platform helps to expedite our process.

Dell PowerStore is amazing. That said, the most valuable feature is yet to be determined. 

Dell PowerStore has benefited my organization overall, and I would assess the timeframes to deploy it as efficient.

If I could improve the product in any way, I would add features that make it look nicer compared to the DisplayPort.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for an amazing amount of time.

I haven't experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues, which is amazing.

I find the solution to be scalable. It gives the impression that it can grow with my company. 

Working with Customer Success, or technical support, has been a positive experience for me, and I would evaluate them overall as amazing. On a scale of one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would rate this support as a ten.

Positive

I have evaluated other solutions both inside the Dell portfolio and outside.

The deployment is expedient. The time frame to deploy maybe takes weeks. 

In terms of AI, I have done some AI initiatives that I find amazing. My organization is large, and we have a significant number of employees. My impression of the stability and reliability has been positive. 

Overall, I rate Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten.