Dell PowerStore Reviews

The use case for companies to buy Dell PowerStore is that it's an all-flash storage, which is needed to save their data or applications that demand faster responses. They brought it because the read and write operations of Dell PowerStore are extremely high, and the IOPS are very good compared to the other Hitachi level storage.

Dell PowerStore helps the organizations that I sell to by allowing them to buy less storage and store more capacity, which helps them save costs. Additionally, it's very durable and priced appropriately, which helps the organization to save money.

The most valuable feature of Dell PowerStore is the data compression, which is extremely good, having a data compression ratio of 5:1 that rarely other storages have in the market. This feature is very good compared to others.

What makes the data compression feature of Dell PowerStore so good is that if you need to store, for example, 100 TB of storage, you just have to buy 1/5 of it, the capacity, and then you can store that data. The compression features in the storage make it very special compared to others, apart from the day-to-day, normal data retrieving capabilities such as data deduplication, which this has something more that no other storages offer.

I would suggest that Dell PowerStore could come with various other features, such as a hybrid model apart from only all-flash, which would really help the customers.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for the past four years.

Dell PowerStore has rarely had any downtime; I have never come across it having any downtime, and the technical support is extremely good, which makes it a good product.

Dell PowerStore does not meet the needs of a small organization; Dell has Unity which meets the entry-level or SMB segment. Dell PowerStore is for mid and high enterprise segments, catering to bigger customers. Dell PowerStore can grow with a small company or if the company has less than 2,000 employees; it can grow to meet their needs.

Customer service and support for Dell PowerStore are very good, so once customers buy Dell PowerStore, they always choose to buy it again since the performance is extremely nice.

Positive

Besides Dell PowerStore, we offer other solutions such as HP solutions, Lenovo solutions, and NetApp solutions. Someone might pick Dell PowerStore versus HP or NetApp because PowerStore has the unique compression feature that other products lack, allowing them to buy less storage and save more capacity.

All Dell products are quite easy to deploy and maintain.

The success metrics that companies use to determine their ROI for Dell PowerStore are based on the kind of performance they get or the returns they see once Dell PowerStore is deployed, which are quite substantial since they always look at expanding it in the near future. They don't only buy it for a specific application; once they see the performance, they try to utilize it for all other applications as well.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is a bit high, as it is not an entry-level storage, so it is priced higher than it should be.

The companies I sell Dell PowerStore to are extremely happy, as they keep expanding it and keep buying more shelves to expand the storage. 

A con for Dell PowerStore would be if somebody has standardized on certain products, such as only buying Dell or HP products, which might lead them to choose HP instead. HP is losing a lot of market share because of Dell PowerStore, as they do not have a product that can match it. 

I rate Dell PowerStore nine out of ten.

It's connected to our VMware environment. We have two appliances. We are using 1200T. We are clustering between two sides in the same building.

Dell PowerStore is very stable. After we completed the installation, we haven't made many changes except for a few updates. The Dell support is very good to work with. 

Dell PowerStore has a nice user interface and works as it should. It's fast and stable to work with, and it seems to be good for our purpose. 

The cybersecurity and data resiliency features are also good. Management capabilities are also good.

They could improve the upgrade process. Currently, there are many manual steps required before upgrading the firmware. Making that process more automatic would be beneficial.

We have been using the solution for about two years.

The workload performance is very good, but we have a rather small installation of Dell PowerStore. It's connected to our vCenter and VMware. We just use it as block storage for VMs.

In our case, we haven't needed to scale yet, as we have half the capacity not being used. If we want to expand the volume of disk storage, we only need to install more disks, making it easy to scale.

I would rate their support a ten out of ten.

Positive

I have only worked with EMC and Dell.

The initial setup was very easy. I have also updated it a few times. The system requires updates approximately once every year, and Dell support is very good.

We worked with a Dell consultant. Our experience was excellent.

The solution helps us save money and provides good returns.

It might not be the cheapest product on the market. The purchase was made two years ago, and I'm not certain if the price has increased or decreased since then.

I would rate Dell PowerStore a ten out of ten. 

Some of the main use cases for Dell PowerStore include storing typical user data and virtual machines.

The best features of Dell PowerStore fall in line with most other SANs. The best features include reliability, redundancy, and snapshotting, which are typical capabilities when it comes to a SAN. Dell PowerStore has impacted my organization positively because we have reduced outages. The performance is great and the reliability is excellent. We have had nothing but a positive experience with it.

As far as how Dell PowerStore could be improved, anything can be improved. I would say it needs easier or increased compatibility with other storage solutions for easier application, such as Dell's own PowerVault. They don't communicate or talk to each other, and they don't replicate to each other, which makes it harder to mix and match.

I have used Dell PowerStore for one year.

The scalability of Dell PowerStore is fine and we're happy with that. It is easy to expand Dell PowerStore; you can just buy another one and constantly grow it.

Their support is something I would rate a 10 because I don't have problems with support. This is one of the reasons why we continue using them. They're responsive, knowledgeable, and have a quick turnaround.

Positive

I did use a different solution prior to this year of using Dell PowerStore; we used Compellent. The biggest difference between Compellent and Dell PowerStore is that Compellent was end-of-lifed, so we had no option to continue using it. We had to roll over to something else.

The initial setup of Dell PowerStore is straightforward and not complex. On a scale of one to 10, I would place the setup ease of Dell PowerStore at around an eight.

Dell PowerStore does help reduce my organization's capital expenditures.

We were evaluating other options before choosing Dell PowerStore. We compared Dell PowerStore to other options such as Pure Storage and Unity, as well as NetApp. For us, Dell PowerStore has a lower entry level, where the others started out at a much bigger scale compared to NetApp.

It's a well-known product that seems to be at a cost advantage compared to others. I have been able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore. Dell PowerStore offers dedupe, which is a standard in this area. For the few, we have close to a petabyte of data, and you save quite a good amount of storage there, about 20 to 30% of your storage comes back because of dedupe. Compression and deduplication technologies are very important for my organization because most of our data resides on virtual machines, and the more virtual machines you have, the better dedupe ratios we get. Overall, I would rate Dell PowerStore an eight.

Our use case specifically for Dell PowerStore is for our e-commerce and data saving purposes. For our partners, we are helping to build Dell PowerStore solutions because it's very easy to reduce the size of the data. It's possible to reduce the size of data five to one compared to other competitors, which is a huge advantage. It saves space in the rack and provides other benefits.

Dell PowerStore caters to the needs of small and medium organizations. From the technical perspective, it's a perfect product for SMB and enterprise customers because of its simplicity to deploy and run. It is easily manageable.

The five to one data compression with Dell PowerStore is valuable. This compression ratio is a huge advantage in the market. We are positioning this as the first valuable feature advancing beyond our other competitors, such as HPE and Lenovo.

From our region perspective, it would be beneficial to have support with local languages for Dell PowerStore. However, English is acceptable for us as it serves our needs.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for two years, and we are satisfied with the storage because it's possible to manage all parts of the storage and align it to our needs fully.

Dell PowerStore supports growth and operational success at our company and our clients' companies. We can operate fully and be ready at any time because of Dell services and support. The RMA rate is perfect for this product.

The benefit of using Dell PowerStore is that we have comprehensive and excellent support from Dell. While we haven't experienced any issues with Dell PowerStore, when we have technical questions, we receive prompt and efficient support from Dell services. This is the main advantage for us in choosing Dell PowerStore. We could have solved our internal problems with cheaper versions from other vendors, but we chose Dell PowerStore because of the additional services we receive.

Positive

Before Dell PowerStore, we used PowerVault ME5, but we only used it for half a year because we realized we needed a more advanced solution.

Dell PowerStore is a price performance product positioned as mid-range, making it the best fit for our needs.

We have not calculated the return on investment from implementing Dell PowerStore because we only have two Dell PowerStore units, making it difficult to count with such a small amount. However, since we can run our business fully online, I believe we have seen a return on investment, though I don't have specific numbers.

We are not currently considering any other solution besides Dell PowerStore. In the near future, we might implement an SCI solution, but what we have now is sufficient. For our partners, we sell and resell all Dell technology solutions, including VxRail, Dell PowerStore, PowerFlex, and PowerScale. We have competence in all these products.

Customer service for Dell PowerStore deserves a rating of nine out of ten, leaving room for improvement. Before Dell PowerStore, we used PowerVault from Dell, but we needed more efficient and advanced storage. Dell PowerStore as a mid-range solution, fits our needs very well. As a distributor, Dell PowerStore is the main storage and driver for our partners. Internally, we are building AI cases on PowerEdge servers currently. While we are not including Dell PowerStore today, we plan to do so in the future. Our partners are already using Dell PowerStore for AI purposes, with one recent case involving hospital image storage. 

I would rate Dell PowerStore 10 out of 10.

I use the solution for storage, databases, and visualization. It serves as a storage option for our server.

It's easy, and the GUI is user-friendly. The recommendation was proper, so we adopted the solution. 

The performance is very good, which is important for storage. Performance is important for storage, with features like compression and deduplication. Performance is crucial, and the price compared to the risk isn't the worst. High availability is achieved, and the load is divided between two nodes.

Compression of data is good. It offers good resilience against ransomware. Our data is safe from attacks. I achieve a higher ability with this solution. There are features for resilience against ransomware and cyber attacks, including security. 

It's easy to manage. I use a lot of Dell solutions and find the GUI very user-friendly. 

The APEX IOPS are good. It gives a lot of good information.

We can consolidate data using PowerStore. We have a guaranteed compression of four to one. We also received extra space from the vendor.

We've been able to consolidate data by about 100% to 240%.

We've been able to increase operational efficiency. 

The data encryption is good and available in a standard license. There are snapshot and backup capabilities. 

PowerStore has helped us reduce our Capex by 20% to 40%. 

I don't see anything I need to change. I am happy with the years of use I've gotten. Nothing more is needed to meet our requirements. We have received the necessary functions, like consistent snapshots for the application. Currently, no function is missing for our needs. As long as they keep up with the quality, I would be happy.

I have used the solution for over five years.

I performed scalability adjustments this year. It was easy and simple.

Users can add capacity in single drive increments.

I'd rate scalability ten out of ten.

I am happy with customer service. I have not faced any problems.

Positive

I am still using familiar Dell products, such as PowerStore and Unity, as they are part of the same family. I'm also using PowerVault. 

We did not use a different solution previously. We've always used Dell.

The setup is easy. I implemented an instance. It is not hard. 

I need one person with some experience in storage to help with the setup. I may then possibly need more.

We currently have three devices. We are not clustering them.

There is some maintenance needed for fixes, et cetera.

We implemented the first time via a vendor. After that, it was easy to do by ourselves. 

Cost savings are evident, and we receive storage and resilience against cyber attacks. We see it as a good investment.

The cost is average.

Users can be enrolled in lifecycle extension with pro support. The pricing for that is too high for PowerStore.

The overall product rating is ten out of ten.

Our company's use case for these products includes SAN storage, virtual machines, and VM storage, particularly with Dell PowerStore, which we have been using for approximately four years now. 

The best feature of Dell PowerStore is its flexibility for expanding data storage. Dell PowerStore has helped our organization as it is a proven SAN solution that is expandable if we need it to be, and it is web-driven for manageability.

If I could improve anything about Dell PowerStore, there are a couple of in-the-weeds features that I would want to see, such as the size of snapshots to know when we can expire some of them.

We have been using Dell PowerStore for approximately four years. 

From what I have seen, it is absolutely scalable.

Our organization has about 700 to 750 employees.

I would evaluate the customer service and technical support as good. We normally go through our reseller, and then they contact Dell, and we collaborate together.

Positive

The change to Dell PowerStore occurred when Compellent, our previous solution, reached end of life. We transitioned from Compellent to Dell PowerStore.

I have seen a return on investment with Dell PowerStore as it does what we wanted it to do. It gives me peace of mind.

I have experience with the pricing and licensing. I was involved in the purchasing process, though I was not the final decision-maker.

If someone asked me about Dell PowerStore, I would say that it is priced appropriately.

We did not evaluate anyone else when we made the transition. Our reseller, with whom we have had a relationship for 20 years, looked out for our best interest.

We use PowerScale for our AI requirements, particularly with end-user cameras and similar applications. 

I rate Dell PowerStore eight out of ten.

Some of the primary use cases that we deploy Dell PowerStore for is for fairly normal infrastructure things. We have one offer at the moment where we have a customer considering a replacement of Oracle database appliances with Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell PowerStore. 

It's for a utility company which requires strict governance standards. Furthermore, they are implementing Cyber Vault, which complements their end-to-end Dell infrastructure.

It is hard for me to quantify how Dell PowerStore has supported growth or operational successes for those companies because I'm not directly involved with the clients. 

We have had some successful projects in the last year from small to medium-sized projects. The notable aspect is not just from the customer's point of view. Internally, our project teams have confidence when they're working with that technology.

The biggest trust element is people are very happy to depend on a Dell infrastructure. When we talk to them about infrastructure, we will say, 'We need an infrastructure for a certain project.' 

We work with our Dell partner team to see which experts we need to get involved. When that brings Dell PowerStore into it, the features users appreciate include ease of use, security, dependability, and scalability. 

The natural progression of the Dell PowerStore family into bigger offerings and the integration between them is something that clients appreciate.

The initial setup was a bit cumbersome. 

We have been using the solution since shortly after product launch, with a range of clients having different levels of demand, and we tend to move with the technology as it advances.

Based on our experience with different customers, there has been uniform success rather than any issues. We are prepared to address any issues that might arise.

While I cannot comment extensively on the technical aspects, what's appealing to customers about Dell PowerStore is the scalability. They can start small, invest for what they need now, and have the confidence that when it grows, they will be able to scale with what they need.

I own the partnership and interface into the company, focusing more on that aspect than the specific technical details.

When we took over the clients, they had a real mismatch of solutions. They had a lot of HPE, some Oracle, and some generic equipment that they had acquired.

The initial setup was a little bit cumbersome. We had a bit of an adoption process internally. It wasn't immediately straightforward on day one.

We frequently engage the Dell account team or our own alliance team in the deal to ensure we get an SE who understands the specific business area and can adjust the offer accordingly.

I am not sufficiently involved with the projects to provide information about the ROI they actually see from implementing Dell PowerStore.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is quite on point and very competitive overall. We are very in sync and in step, with our own account team and also with the account teams of our customers, which works out favorably commercially.

We have a focus on HPE or NetApp storage because that's their corporate requirement. We don't lead with these in discussions but have them available due to some client demands.

Make sure that you validate that Dell PowerStore is the right part of the Dell family. If it is, don't hesitate. 

Validate that with your Dell representatives. An SE can assess the exact requirements, or there might be a subject matter expert if it's a particular vertical implementation. Ensure you're on the right path before you proceed. 

Overall, I rate Dell PowerStore eight out of ten.

I am always hesitant to say something is a ten out of ten. There is always room for improvement. We see how they continue to evolve the product sets to match the evolving demands. In certain use cases, it's a ten out of ten, however, with the use cases changing every day, it presents different challenges.

I am primarily using the solution in mostly virtualized environments. This includes databases and a diverse mix of virtualization.

The use of NVMe is notable, and the speed and performance it provides are commendable. Fast storage is critical to many applications. The faster the back-end storage, the quicker the entire application performs. NVMe, in particular, makes a significant difference.

I am not a fan of the user interface. My background includes working with EMC Clarion and then Dell Compellent. The Compellent user interface is better than any of their other products. PowerStore originated from EMC, while Compellent was a separate company acquisition. Unfortunately, the tools were not merged. The bottom line is the user interface is functional, but not aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes, I find it difficult to get the required information. The performance is good, but the management experience and user interface are lacking. Years ago, I would have rated it extremely high. Now, I would say it deserves a seven. I occasionally encounter individuals who cannot assist me well or quickly and provide some pushback on issues. Generally, it's acceptable, so a seven is fair. I think they could improve integration into virtualization. They have an integration feature with VMware, but it's basic and clunky. They could improve that. Also, I don't think they support other hypervisors. The product is expensive. Initially, you might get a deal, but if you need to add anything later, that's where costs increase. It's possible to buy a PowerStore array at a certain price and then pay as much for additional disks just to expand it.

I have used the solution for about three or four years.

The scalability seems straightforward. We have only added disks but have not added appliances. We have single appliance clusters. We could add appliances, but clusters with multiple appliances tend to have more upgrade issues. That's not my direct experience, just what I've heard.

Years ago, I would have rated customer service extremely high. Now, I have to say, maybe a seven. I occasionally run across a person who cannot help me well or quickly and provide some pushback on issues.

Neutral

We moved from Dell Unity. We still have Dell Unity, but we needed the next better thing without going into PowerMax.

The product is expensive. Initially, you might get a deal, but if you need to add anything later, that's where costs increase. It's possible to buy a PowerStore array at a certain price and then pay as much for additional disks just to expand it.

Overall, I would give it an eight out of ten. The user interface and the pricing model should be improved. Subsequent disk purchases should be more reasonable, in my opinion. I haven't met a Dell array yet that has achieved the promised data reduction. We don't use containers. We don't use the vCenter integration because it doesn't do much for us. It's very basic.