Dell PowerStore Reviews

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.

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.

This is a medium-scale solution, and in our country, we use Dell PowerStore for medium-scale data center solutions. 

We have done two replication solutions where we use the Dell PowerStore capability to replicate between them. These are the case scenarios we do for basic consolidation VMware. 

In Telco companies where we use Dell PowerStore, the IOPS we obtain in certain consolidations is very high. We used to use Unity and could get approximately 100k thousand IOPS in a typical consolidation with four hosts and one data in one storage. With Dell PowerStore, we're getting close to 200,000 IOPS, which has doubled our performance.

Compression, deduplication, and speed are excellent features that we get with Dell PowerStore. The real good IOPS are particularly notable features.

With the compression deduplication of Dell PowerStore, it becomes a real business advantage as people don't need to invest so much in hardware. The initial investment might sound high, but when you get five times the deduplication compression, the numbers show customers are getting a good deal for their money. At the same time, they get 4X, 4 6, 4 9s on the quality of service, making it a reliable solution for clients.

The migration from Unity to Dell PowerStore is seamless without requiring high-level technical migrations. We can replace a 10U solution with a 2U solution in Dell PowerStore. Initially, I was surprised because I wasn't really calculating the benefits of compression and deduplication, and it seemed expensive. However, once you see the 2X, 3X, 4X compression capacity, it makes sense and proves to be a good deal. 

Customers react positively to the Dell PowerStore solution, and the energy consumption and space consolidation are beneficial features.

The solution is good and we feel comfortable with it. It's a process of continuous improvement, similar to our experience with Unity. As we complete more installations, our efficiency improves.

The compression is nice, and we discovered the opportunity to make backups directly to data domain, which is good and something we expected. However, improvements could be made in the replication solutions of Dell PowerStore. Even though replication between Dell PowerStores is possible, high latency connectivity is problematic.

The interconnection between units presents challenges when dealing with latency and doing replication. The algorithm might be stronger in Unity. The delay time allowed between data connection should possibly be higher or not as sensitive as it is currently. In our country, where communications aren't the best, we have two clients with replication sites who experience these problems approximately once a month.

We've been in a partnership with Dell for 24 years.

In terms of support, regarding our partnership experience, the first 15 years were extremely good, however, the recent three years have seen some challenges due to personnel reduction and strategic changes, leaving room for improvement. Five years ago, we would have rated it a a ten out of ten. Now, it's probably a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

The migration from Unity to Dell PowerStore is smooth without requiring high-level technical migrations. We replaced a 10U solution with a 2U solution in Dell PowerStore. In Telco companies, the IOPS obtained with Dell PowerStore in certain consolidations is significantly higher. With Unity, we could get 100k thousand IOPS in a typical consolidation, while Dell PowerStore achieves close to 200,000 IOPS.

The installations have been successful, and we are now doing second generation installations where initial Dell PowerStore customers are looking for new models.

With the compression deduplication of Dell PowerStore, it becomes advantageous for businesses to reduce hardware investment. 

Though the initial investment might seem high, achieving five times deduplication compression provides good value for money. 

Our main competitors are Hewlett Packard and Huawei. Pricing is a significant issue, especially with Hewlett Packard at present. They and Huawei's OceanStor compete aggressively against Dell PowerStore in the market. Our key advantage is that we integrate the complete package - switches, servers, storage, and backups - while they only provide one section of the solution.

We are slightly concerned about AI and are investigating the logical equipment needed to promote AI solutions. While we've been working with servers, we recognize the need for good storage for AI solutions.

I'd rate Dell PowerStore nine out of ten. Potential users should try it and get references from existing customers.

Dell PowerStore is sold in government and education, oil and gas, and manufacturing, making this product a versatile technology that applies across all industries.

In government, I sold one Dell PowerStore with 300 TB effective capacity in one appliance, and since Ecuador is a small territory, this technology is substantial for this region.

For the government use case, they are using an on-premises only deployment model.

The best features of Dell PowerStore include the effective capacity, which I believe is its strongest feature, and the dynamic RAID of disks.

The benefits of Dell PowerStore are that its effective capacity is the best benefit, providing six nines of availability, and it offers unified storage, which has the best features for client technologies.

Clients are able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore for some virtual machines and databases, although unstructured data is not a good fit for PowerStore.

Compression and deduplication technologies are important for my specific clients, as the effective data technology in Dell PowerStore is a strong proposal for them.

I would rate Dell's customer service as good; however, the call centers and escalation teams are problematic and slow, with the process being very bureaucratic, which frustrates clients. Despite these problems, the technology is solid and balances these issues.

I have worked with Dell products for approximately 10 years and have previously worked at Ingram Micro.

Dell PowerStore is stable, and I have approximately 10 clients with Dell PowerStore, so we do not experience problems with technology performance.

Dell PowerStore expands and scales up easily.

I would rate Dell's customer service as good; however, the call centers and escalation teams are problematic and slow, with the process being very bureaucratic, which frustrates clients.

Neutral

When comparing Dell PowerStore to other data warehouses I use for different clients, the best technology advantage is that unified storage is a significant benefit over IBM, which does not have unified storage, while IBM offers the best cost per TB. I would rate this review 9 out of 10.

Dell PowerStore is used for backing up some of the infrastructure. It is not used entirely across the whole infrastructure, only for some parts. One isolated system uses Dell PowerStore for backing it up.

The number of users utilizing Dell PowerStore is small because it is used mainly for systems, not users. If considering how many systems have access to it, the estimate is a maximum of twenty.

Dell PowerStore's capabilities with compression or deduplication technologies have not been explored for the business. Since it is not being used as primary storage, only for on-site backups, this focus has not been prioritized.

Built-in integrations with VMware, Kubernetes, or containers in Dell PowerStore have not been utilized.

Dell PowerStore is used on both Linux and Windows. There are no complaints about having to work with both Linux and Windows when using Dell PowerStore.

The structuring of the feature and the management console of Dell PowerStore are particularly valued. This management console is very easy to navigate through, and there have been no problems accessing it in any of the common browsers used, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. The interface and management console are a bit easier to navigate through. Being the foundation of where work is actually done and configurations are put in makes other features and factors a bit easier to deal with because everything is visible in plain sight through a graphical interface.

The management capabilities of Dell PowerStore have been improved with the introduction of the new GUI, which is easy to use. Across all Dell products, including PowerVault, improvements with management are appreciated, especially regarding the elimination of older LAN technologies, which simplifies the configuration and setup of alerts.

Return on investment with Dell PowerStore has not been quantified yet. Previously, an external drive was used for backups, but now Dell PowerStore is relied upon to ensure automated processes are working properly. The health of what has been captured can be confirmed. Previously, the process was manual, and errors were common, but now visibility and automation are available, which have significantly improved the processes, even if the improvements have not been quantified in percentages.

The areas for improvement in Dell PowerStore would be to provide trainings and seminars. The philosophy here is to teach how to fish rather than giving a man a fish. Trainings and seminars are of most interest because after trainings, people here would improve their skills. If webinars or trainings are offered in the future, participation would be valued, or if training opportunities are recommended, attendance would be considered. Understanding some technologies better would make it easier to suggest areas of improvement. Currently, information available online from forums is being used, which is straightforward.

Dell PowerStore has not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches. Although some systems depend on Dell PowerStore and some challenges are faced there, these issues are not due to Dell PowerStore itself. It can be given a rating of more than eight, somewhere around eight, nine, or even ten.

Dell PowerStore fits the requirements regarding scalability. Based on theory, hot swapping can be done and it is easy to change disks. Disks can be merged and data can be migrated across the disks, so it is considered scalable.

The technical support of Dell PowerStore would be rated somewhere from eight and going up, although support has not been used that much on Dell PowerStore itself.

Positive

Dell PowerStore is being explored to understand its full capabilities. Currently, it is only being used for backing up some of the systems, whereas there is a sort of production storage that is used. Testing has been done, and from the tests that have been run, it is doing quite well. A situation where data would have to be restored from Dell PowerStore after a disaster has not been encountered, but it gives hope that in case of a disaster, data can somehow be recovered.

The deployment of Dell PowerStore would not be described as easy, and it would not be described as challenging. More features are still being explored since the infrastructure is relatively new. It would be described as easy, but there is more to come, and some challenges might be found as the infrastructure grows. So far, it is easy to deal with.

Dell PowerStore was purchased through suppliers that are resellers, not directly through the vendor.

Return on investment with Dell PowerStore has not been quantified yet. Previously, an external drive was used for backups, but Dell PowerStore is now relied upon to ensure automated processes are working properly. The health of what has been captured can be confirmed. Previously, the process was manual, and errors were common, but now visibility and automation are available, which have significantly improved the processes, even if the improvements have not been quantified in percentages.

The pricing of Dell PowerStore is considered fair. It was cheaper, and the features that came with the solution were quite justifiable. It would not be described as cheap, but rather the price and the features matched well.

Comparing Dell PowerStore with other vendors or products is difficult. However, based on the ones that have been used, it is quite positive. Many features come positively with the solution. Two similar solutions are being run, but Dell PowerStore would not be preferred over the other. They are just on the same level, as there are features in Dell PowerStore that would not be found in the other solution being used.

Consolidation with Dell PowerStore was not needed because all that was needed was a central place to store the data. What was managed to be achieved was one point where the data being sent through to Dell PowerStore can actually be managed. It was not about consolidating it, but rather having a centralized point to manage the infrastructure regarding data.

Dell PowerStore's APEX AI Ops or CloudIQ have not been explored that far.

There is no knowledge about enrollment in the lifecycle extension for Dell PowerStore. It is doubted that enrollment for that has occurred.

Dell PowerStore would be recommended because of how easy it is to navigate the management interface, which is crucial for utilizing the resources and functionality of the solution. It has simplified the processes, making them more robust and helping to meet business needs. The overall review rating given to Dell PowerStore is seven.

My main use case for Dell PowerStore is storage for the SAN.

I probably appreciate the AIOps integration aspect of Dell PowerStore the most.

Some examples of the features that benefited my organization include cluster observability and CPU fluctuations, along with the dashboard itself, which is excellent.

We do use Dell AIOps.

The insights offered by Dell AIOps are very robust when it comes to mitigating traffic flow and data resiliency. Dell PowerStore has impacted my organization positively in terms of performance and operational efficiency, but I haven't seen any measurable benefits or ROI that I can share examples with.

Dell PowerStore can be improved with integration with Dell's Agentic AI platform, which is a feature I want to see in the next release.

I have been using Dell PowerStore for about a year now.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate customer service and support a five out of five.

Prior to adopting Dell PowerStore, we were not using another solution; we were using a legacy device that reached its end of life.

I haven't seen ROI with Dell PowerStore, but as the admin, it does make my life easier.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is above my pay grade.

In my role as a network administrator, I manage the storage array of Dell PowerStore, formerly Unity, and I work with our technical account manager to mitigate system downtime and memory fluctuations.

The Dell PowerStore models we are using are clustered, and I don't remember the model number off the top of my head, unfortunately, but it's the latest PowerStore.

I would describe my experience with Dell PowerStore's data resiliency, availability, and cybersecurity features as having met all of our needs currently.

The difference was made by the support.

I believe that we are enrolled in the Lifecycle Extension, formerly Anytime Upgrade program.

From the program, my organization has realized benefits, and we upgraded from our old platform to the newest Dell PowerStore.

We have been able to consolidate data using Dell PowerStore. We have consolidated approximately 20% of our data.

Our data reduction rate is three to one.

Before using Dell PowerStore, we have been a Dell customer for longer than I have been with the company, and that is what stood out most for me during the evaluation process.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell PowerStore overall an eight, as I am still learning, and I would recommend working with the technical account manager to forecast data utilization within a clustered deployment.

The main use cases of Dell PowerStore for me or my clients are mostly virtualization for virtual machines, where we put some servers into a cluster, add Dell PowerStore under it, and use it as their production environment.

My favorite feature of Dell PowerStore is the Metro Volume replication, which allows for two sites to have an active-active configuration and ensures synchronization between two cities, for example.

We also use Dell AIOps and we are always recommending it to our customers to use, especially if they have more Dell products. The reason for this is that they have everything in one place to check for potential issues with their system, and if they use Dell AIOps, they do not need to check each management interface. I find it pretty useful to have information in general about what is wrong with the system or what could be done better, to always give information to the customer regarding what they can do to improve their current system and make it work even better.

The impact of Dell PowerStore on our clients' organizations or my organization in terms of performance and operational efficiency is positive, as Dell PowerStore itself is super easy to manage for the customer, which is great for our customers, and we manage to educate a lot of customers with Dell PowerStore, so they can install those themselves. We do a lot of workshops for Dell PowerStore.

If I could improve Dell PowerStore in any way, the straightforward answer is to add more performance to it by software or try to improve some algorithms to get more deduplication, but that is easier said than done, so I would suggest just continuing to improve the performance.

Regarding pricing and licensing, if it is possible to decrease the prices, that would be great for the customer, but considering the current situation with chip shortages and RAM, it is kind of hard and is going more in the other direction.

I have been working with Dell PowerStore directly for around two years.

Dell PowerStore systems are mostly configured as standalone, and almost all are standalone. They do not need the cluster functionality for more IOPS or more storage because a cluster most of the time is just not needed for the customers we are supplying. They just need one Dell PowerStore to manage their whole infrastructure.

I have worked with customer support, including technical support.

My experience with the support is that I mainly used the online support chat, which was really helpful, especially for licensing subjects. If Dell PowerStore was not getting the license, the support could always help by retrieving the license and activating it.

As for rating the support from one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would say the support is an eight. It is hard to tell because I have not had that much interaction with Dell PowerStore support, but from what I needed, it was always very good.

Deploying Dell PowerStore is pretty easy if the networking itself is configured properly and if the firewall is allowing through all the traffic. It is a pretty straightforward deployment process.

My clients do consider other solutions, such as Everpure, which is a competitor of Dell PowerStore, and both are systems with a similar feature set, but it really depends on pricing. Some features might be on Dell PowerStore that Everpure does not have, or vice versa, and most of the time it is also based on whether the customer is already using Dell products and wants to continue with them.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerStore involves doing pre-sales and installation for customers, and also troubleshooting when customers have issues with the system and they just need assistance on it.

I have hands-on experience.

I think most customers are very happy with Dell PowerStore and their features, such as the deduplication and replication, and now also the replication over Fibre Channel. These are all features that our customers really look forward to and really appreciate.

I have been able to consolidate data with Dell PowerStore, where most of the deduplication is about 2:1 to 3:1, which means compared to other systems that may not have deduplication, you can save a lot of data and also raw storage, making the system cheaper.

I would rate this review a 9 out of 10.

Our primary use case for Dell PowerStore is in a production facility as we are a beef manufacturer, predominantly beef, and we also have lamb facilities in Ireland and affiliates in Poland. Essentially, it's for storage and factory systems, so we're storing and collecting data points, along with office functions like file and print. We have on-prem systems on site, including SCADA-like systems for collecting data points throughout the manufacturing facilities. Our core Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge use case includes a data center footprint for central managed services, finance, and our ERP system, collecting data from our factory sites and storing it centrally so that we can pull it back for reporting. Additionally, our Dell PowerStore and PowerEdge serve our disaster recovery needs, allowing us to run a site remotely from our data center.

The features of Dell PowerStore that I appreciate the most include how very easy it is to expand. In terms of scale, I also appreciate the reaction and support; if a hard drive fails, we're informed that there's a hard drive or part failing, and we get alerts on it. There's a part shipped out and a replacement part shipped out to replace it, which gives me a sense of reassurance.

Since using Dell PowerStore, I think what we realized was that at the beginning, we sat down with Dell and explained our use case, and we got the build of Dell PowerStore that we required for our business, allowing us to grow as needed. It is fit for purpose, which is a major improvement; what we had before wasn't fit for purpose and was more about money. The previous setup got us into a lot of holes, whereas the Dell solution has been absolutely fantastic for us regarding support and expansion.

We use Dell PowerProtect solutions with our Dell PowerStore, specifically the Avamar backup solution, which is a Dell product. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Dell support as a ten, focusing on that aspect alone, because it's what allows me to sleep at night. I don't have to worry about the servers or storage going offline since I know it's being monitored, and we get replacement parts if needed, which is not that common, but it allows me to relax more.

Positive

I used a different vendor which was a mix of two vendors but the storage side wasn't up to scratch, probably because we went in low-end. It's an issue that I inherited in my current role, and we had to address it.

My experience with deploying Dell PowerStore is relatively straightforward, and we have had Dell's support whenever we've rolled out a new upgrade.

We've worked with Dell each time we do a refresh; we discuss the current state and our future goals, and they've delivered a model that fits, ensuring we don't overscale while getting the right fit, which has been really positive.

I have seen a return on investment in Dell PowerStore, particularly regarding the throughput improvements.

Before selecting Dell PowerStore, I primarily considered pricing around different vendors in the market.

What stood out to me in the evaluation process, both positively and negatively, was the long-standing relationship I've had with Dell over the past 20 years. The personal relationship has been massive, backed by positive customer care stories from other customers in the food manufacturing sector recommending this choice as the right thing to do.

My role in using and managing Dell PowerStore involves approving purchases in ABP, so for any refreshes or site refreshes we do for our production sites or data center, I will approve the purchase.

Dell PowerStore may play a role in our company's AI initiatives as we are on a journey to analyze all the data we're pulling back from our factory systems. We're working on getting that data into one place, and now we're looking at doing something meaningful with that data to make better-informed decisions. I'm currently having conversations with Dell to explore potential use cases for this.

The performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerStore include the ease of getting through data, the storage capabilities, the processing of storage, response time, and the speed of our backups restore. Restoring a VM from Dell PowerStore is relatively quick when compared to what we've had in the past.

Dell PowerStore makes a noticeable improvement on a site level within our production facilities; for example, we collect data through a simple process of weighing and labeling products across a network. We weigh a box or a tray of meat and send a file to a server that prints a label. The difference between what we had previously and what we have now is a matter of milliseconds. The improvement is massive; even a couple of milliseconds makes a significant difference to our production throughput. It is a huge benefit for us, even if it may seem insignificant. Reducing that time is crucial because the impact means getting our throughput quicker, allowing products to leave the door more efficiently, which also cuts back on overtime and ensures we can complete our daily tasks in the required hours. Quicker throughput also enables us to implement online retail labeling, printing labels every half second, which requires quick networking, storage, and CPU capabilities.

My main use cases for Dell PowerStore on a day-to-day basis are mainly for a compute-heavy, high-performance, converged platform. Dell PowerStore does play a role in my company's AI initiatives, as we are looking at a couple of partnerships with Dell, along with Discover, to explore the AI aspects of it.

I see it in the future as contributing to data efficiency and the quality of the data, which is important when working together with AI.

The features of Dell PowerStore I like the most include the simplicity, unified storage, and high availability.

The high availability feature of Dell PowerStore is the key aspect of a storage need because I want to make sure data is available and I don't want any glitch in it, so HA is our key.

Dell PowerStore has features that specifically cater to the needs of companies such as mine.

The features I am mainly looking at are the performance benefits because of the NVMe disks.

Dell PowerStore is pretty good and can still be improved.

Speed is something I would like to maximize in its features, as there is a need for speed.

I have been using Dell PowerStore since this year.

I have not experienced any downtime or crashes, so the solution is stable and reliable.

Dell PowerStore scales well with the growing needs of my company, as those were pretty quick. It scales up and scales out both ways, and as our data keeps growing, it is very easy to just keep attaching and keep growing. It just fits into the model.

The customer service I experience is excellent.

Positive

I was not using another solution prior to Dell PowerStore to address my needs; we were on Dell EMC.

I would describe my experience with deploying Dell PowerStore as very smooth and flawless, and I have not seen any challenges, as right out of the box, you power on and you're good to go.

The biggest return on investment when using Dell PowerStore is that we are getting more value out of it in a longer span, just the way we do it for the server side, so that is very good.

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Dell PowerStore are pretty good; it is very good actually from the price point of view.

I considered switching to other solutions, and we are looking at other pure block-level storage, as there is always room for growth to understand what the technology is.

My role in using or managing Dell PowerStore is that we use it for storage needs. I specifically use it as just the user.

The big selling point for choosing Dell PowerStore is the relationship and partnership with Dell and the type of support they provide.

I would rate Dell PowerStore a 10 out of 10.

My advice to other companies considering it is to go Dell all the way.

The primary use case for Dell PowerStore was for our disaster recovery site at our secondary data center. 

The equipment there was already eight years old and we really needed to replace it. We couldn't get finance to back us with a big deployment and substantial funding. So we determined that we needed something that could run our critical tasks if our main data center goes offline. 

While it's running particular tasks of secondary importance at that data center, it can also take the load of the critical systems that we're doing on daily backups and weekends' full backups.

The most valuable features of Dell PowerStore include the completion through or the integration with OpenManage, where it can communicate and send back critical alerts or issues from a storage standpoint, heating, cooling, and all the typical management aspects. That's a time saving. It's all under one window. I can look at the servers, I can look at the storage, and I can see if there are any alerts on anything if it's all green, versus having different management windows to go back and forth between.

I've realized cost savings from switching to Dell PowerStore from Nimble. There definitely has been cost savings since the integration and everything we're doing is easier on our internal time to manage. 

I'm saving approximately 20% of time managing and running it, which is easier having it all under one access panel.

Going to all NVMe storage, the abilities for the access time and the latency with Dell PowerStore's all flash storage is fantastic. Before, we had spinning disk with front-ended SSD cache. Now we're all SSD, making it very fast.

We have some legacy apps, including our biggest ERP system that we're migrating from, which isn't even SQL server-based; it's a ProvideX database. We're considering a data warehouse and examining ETL options to get that data into a format that AI can analyze. Dell PowerStore and those PowerEdge servers have substantial capacity for that.

Dell PowerStore has features that specifically cater to the needs of our medium company. We're standardized with our network core at 10 gigs, however, they can go to 25 gigs. If we need changes, we're not ripping and replacing; we're simply changing some GBICs and fiber interfaces. Dell PowerStore itself can accommodate faster connections. I appreciate that we won't be forced into obsolescence within the first year.

One of the big performance metrics I use to measure success with Dell PowerStore is latency. The read and write latencies dropped significantly over our old system. With our Nimble storage, we had between 14 and 40 millisecond access times on some of our busier runs. Dell PowerStore rarely goes above five milliseconds. It's significantly faster, with most operations being sub-millisecond.

I understand the software-defined storage and other capabilities. That said, I still am a traditional person who considers block and file storage, and I need to double or triple it. What are my pathways for scaling or do I need to rip and replace with another product? So maybe some of the scalability issues are present with Dell PowerStore.

To make it a perfect 10, I would have wished the deployment staff had indicated this is the regular support line, yet offered to connect directly with support personnel to walk through the process. It would have been beneficial to have someone from the support team do a warm handoff to clarify who to contact for future assistance.

It's still early to tell how Dell PowerStore has supported growth or operational success for our company since we've only had it in place for five months, having been implemented at the end of last year. 

Going forward, as we replace additional equipment, we'll probably select Dell PowerStore again. We've been really happy with it and expect it to continue to provide good service for us in the future. Its manageability and feature set fit our company size really effectively.

In the five months we've been running Dell PowerStore, it's been 100% uptime with no issues at all, so it's been excellent.

Scalability isn't necessarily our issue currently with Dell PowerStore, however, when adding substantial storage, it seems to require transitioning to other Dell products. Perhaps that's by design, moving into PowerFlex or other systems PowerScale. 

Our initial deployment is 35 terabytes, and the dedupe, deduplication, and compression are all excellent. However, if we needed more capacity, it quickly moves out of Dell PowerStore into something else. If I needed something more, I would prefer to stay in the Dell PowerStore ecosystem.

Based on our experience, I rate Dell's support overall as a nine out of ten.

Positive

The primary reasons we switched to Dell PowerStore were that the reasons we originally selected Nimble seemed to be replaced or equivalent with Dell for cost per storage, features, functionality, and ease of use. With Dell PowerStore, we wanted to keep everything under one roof with Dell and not have vendors point fingers at each other. 

When we have a support question with Nimble, they sometimes say it's the Dell server that's the problem. When we call Dell, they say it's the storage that's a problem. We wanted to eliminate that situation, so we brought in Dell PowerStore with the refresh of the PowerEdge servers.

My experience with deploying Dell PowerStore has been really good. It's been great with no problems at all.

We also used the white glove install services where Dell would come in and we wrote out the worksheets of all the IP addresses, all the names, and everything, and Dell came on-site and configured everything for us. That was a great time saver; getting that up and running and fully deployed was a big help.

The return on investment since switching to Dell PowerStore has been really good. 

The finance department didn't understand that our project was about $180,000 worth of equipment. I explained we're getting that on the leasing schedule or the Flex on Demand, bringing that in at $1,800 a month. They keep asking about the purchase price, however, I clarified that's what our monthly cost will be if our planned usage remains constant. If our usage increases, our monthly bill will increase. However, if our usage is what we expect, then we already know our costs for the next five years. In five years time, we can extend or replace it and get something different. The whole package turned out to be really good for us.

Before selecting Dell PowerStore, we considered staying with Nimble and just replacing it with the current solution. We also considered direct attached storage by putting more storage in and doing the vSAN type approach. 

However, I always worry that with hyper-converged infrastructure, it's too many eggs in one basket. Despite having redundancy, I really prefer being able to have the storage in one basket, and the compute and the bare metal, the OS and guests in separate ones, so I can do maintenance on either of them separately. I still prefer that standalone separation between storage and compute.

As the IT director, I helped select the process for managing and using Dell PowerStore. We replaced a Nimble iSCSI SAN with Dell PowerStore, and we're using Flex on Demand to minimize our costs. We also used a VAR to help us understand our costs and the equipment to basically avoid CapEx and turn it into just a monthly expense.

Everything worked effectively with Dell PowerStore. I have no reason not to rate it a ten out of ten.

Dell PowerStore is being used in the Europe region, where approximately 1,000 users are utilizing this storage.

Deduplication is a very good feature in Dell PowerStore. The administration console is also good.

From the cluster point of view, Dell PowerStore is good. Within a cluster for Dell PowerStore, because the backend uses VMware, clusters can be easily moved from one node to another node, or one appliance to another appliance with the help of the VMware console.

The data resiliency and cybersecurity features of Dell PowerStore are good.

Scalability for Dell PowerStore is also good.

Regarding improvements for Dell PowerStore, there is room for enhancement. While many aspects are good, the dashboard could be improved. This means administration improvements could be made, including monitoring and other points such as hardware monitoring.

Lifecycle management may be modified because Dell PowerStore does not currently have an option on how to modify the lifecycle. This represents an improvement area.

Cloud IQ, also known as AIOps, is not being used because it appears to require a license. Although it is supported, this feature is not currently in use.

Dell PowerStore has been in use for around three or four years.

Dell PowerStore performs well. There are no stability issues or lagging concerns with Dell PowerStore.

Scalability for Dell PowerStore is also good.

Technical support and customer support from Dell have been contacted, and they provide good support.

Overall, the support from Dell is good regarding both the speed and quality of service.

Positive

The initial deployment of Dell PowerStore was very easy.

It took a maximum of one and a half hours to deploy Dell PowerStore.

One person is sufficient for the deployment of Dell PowerStore.

A different storage solution from IBM is being used as an alternative to Dell PowerStore.

IBM is preferred compared to Dell PowerStore.

IBM hardware is very good and performs better than Dell hardware. However, both IBM and Dell provide good administration consoles, so this is not an issue.

During feedback regarding PeerSpot, there were many issues with CTERA, but currently all issues have been fixed with good support. Dell PowerStore has been used for around three or four years, and the experience with Dell PowerStore has been positive. It has been a good investment of time to work with Dell PowerStore.

Deduplication is a favorite feature of Dell PowerStore, and the administration console is also good.

Pricing for Dell PowerStore is good. IBM is too costly, while Dell PowerStore is cheap and the best option. Dell PowerStore receives a score of eight out of ten.