We are using Dell PowerVault for backups.
Highly reliable, good performance, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its performance."
- "The price of the solution could be lower."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its performance.
What needs improvement?
The price of the solution could be lower.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerVault for approximately 10 years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Dell PowerVault has been great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have approximately 3,000 users using this solution and two administrators.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Dell is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Dell PowerStrore was simple and took approximately one day.
What about the implementation team?
We used the vendor for the implementation along with two of our employees.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Dell PowerVault could be reduced. It is more expensive than some IBM solutions.
What other advice do I have?
We are replacing this solution with Dell PowerStore.
I rate Dell PowerVault a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
General Manager at Move IT Smart
Good performance, stable, and well-priced
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are stability and response time."
- "I would like to see improvements made to the user interface."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and Dell EMC PowerVault is one of the products that we implement for our customers. The primary use is high available solutions, such as Hyper-V clusters or VMware clusters.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are stability and response time. Every time I need to use this product, I get a timely response.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvements made to the user interface.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Dell EMC PowerVault for approximately ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I like Dell as a brand because the products are stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't usually have the need to contact technical support. I do remember one incident between six and eight years ago where they and Symantec together provided support for a problem. It was a Dell PowerVault TL2000 and Backup Exec from Symantec (now known as Veritas Backup Exec).
When it comes to supporting our customers, they contact us. I like this because the customers are close to me and we can work on the problem ourselves.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We provide this to our customers as a complete solution. We implement the product and then we support them after the implementation is complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think that it's the right price for this type of equipment. It is important to remember that the retail price may seem high, but the final price is usually different.
What other advice do I have?
We are not using the most current version, so I am not fully aware of what the current features are. As such, at the moment, I cannot recommend it one way or another to people. That said, in my experience with the version that I am using, I definitely recommend it.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerVault
October 2025

Learn what your peers think about Dell PowerVault. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
869,832 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Coordinator at HMY
Easy to use and manage, good support, and reasonably-priced
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is easy to manage and easy to use."
- "In the next release, I would like the deduplication and compression included, as well as the flash technology. It doesn't currently use it."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is for local software, which we use for the production of local ERPs that we use on-premises.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is easy to manage and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
Deduplication and compression is an area that needs development. This is currently not on the device.
In the next release, I would like the deduplication and compression included, as well as the flash technology. It doesn't currently use it.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since February 2014. It's been more than six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had any issues, but I cannot say that it is very secure. We do not use any security protocols, but we have not had any issues with security.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is not flexible.
We have approximately 150 users, who are using this solution in our organization.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are satisfied with technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy and straightforward.
It's made by the technicians, which made it easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is reasonable and we are satisfied with it.
What other advice do I have?
I could not recommend this solution to others, because the technology is old. There are other Dell models that I would recommend, but not this one.
I would rate Dell EMC PowerVault an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
System Administrator at PORTGUARDIAN.COM SRL
An exceptionally stable and scalable tool with strong capabilities related to the system and data
Pros and Cons
- "Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
- "The high prices of the solution are an area of concern where improvements are required."
What is our primary use case?
Right now, Dell PowerVault is working okay, but it will become obsolete soon. I will have to look for a new solution in place of Dell PowerVault.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the strong and high capabilities related to the system and data.
What needs improvement?
The high prices of the solution are an area of concern where improvements are required.
In the future, I would like Dell PowerVault to provide me with replication features since, currently, it is a feature for which you need to make certain payments and is not included in the standard package provided by Dell.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell PowerVault for three years. I am a reseller of the solution. I use Dell PowerVault LTO7.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. In my company, we never had any stability issues with the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
In Italy, my company deals with medium-sized businesses that use the solution, and it is something that you can count on your hands. As per my knowledge, I can say that there are 500 users of the solution. I don't know about how small and medium-sized companies are described in the UK.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup was very easy. I rate the product's setup phase a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.
The solution is deployed on a hybrid cloud.
The product's deployment phase takes a few days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Dell PowerVault is a really expensive product. For many solutions similar to Dell PowerVault, you need to make payments for the amount of GB you want to use. If you want to use the solution in TB, you must pay much more to use it.
I rate the product price a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall product a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
IT Director at Essra hospital
A good storage option that's stable and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is reliable and stable."
- "We need higher performance and more reliable storage."
What is our primary use case?
We are a hospital in Jordan, I'm the IT director and we are end users of this solution.
What is most valuable?
We have this solution running almost all the time and it's very reliable and stable.
What needs improvement?
I'll need to replace Dell soon because it's almost obsolete and considered old technology. If I continued using it, I'd need to increase its capacity. We need higher performance and more reliable storage. It's considered an expensive solution in Jordan, it would be better if the price could be reduced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for nearly eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable and scalable but it's fallen behind our needs.
How are customer service and technical support?
We had some performance issues after our initial setup and they managed to resolve all the problems. I haven't needed to contact support since then.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not that straightforward. It involves SAN switches and some setup procedure that are a little complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing fees are expensive - whether that's specifically in Jordan, I'm not sure.
What other advice do I have?
If this solution is within your means as a storage option then I would recommend it.
I rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Entry level storage array. Has limited scalability - perhaps below 100 server environments.
What is most valuable?
Extending volume sizes.
How has it helped my organization?
It allows on demand without disruption to growing the size of a volume which then in turn allows a system to see more disk capacity previously this required downtime and had to be schedule out of hours.
What needs improvement?
Better monitoring / event logs and firmware upgrade process.
For how long have I used the solution?
2 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No the San was fairly easy to install and the documentation is good.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Only once when the storage array seem to be very slow and caused VMware Hosts to not see the volumes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Not yet, as this was for a small virtualisation environment of 20 servers and 100 desktops.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Very good general Dell Storage support is very responsive.
Technical Support:Technical knowledge was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
EMC AX3, due to high hardware and maintenance costs Dell was selected.
How was the initial setup?
Was easy to setup.
What about the implementation team?
Vendor team, Ultima Business Solutions.
What was our ROI?
1 year.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Setup cost was £30k hard to determine day to day costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Dell EqualLogic was reviewed but deemed too expensive for the use case.
What other advice do I have?
Understand that this is a entry level storage array and has limited scalability perhaps below 100 server environments.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We're a Dell partner
Founder / Lead Network Consultant with 51-200 employees
Needs to allow for larger drive sizes but gives us us the ability to have longer term storage for our customers.
Valuable Features
Expandability is the most important feature for us.
Improvements to My Organization
The MD3260 has given us the ability to have longer term storage for our customers and a reasonable price.
Room for Improvement
The MD3220i needs to allow for larger drive sizes.
Use of Solution
We have owned the MD3220i for about 2 years so far and we are new to the MD3260 only owning it for about 2 months.
Deployment Issues
The only issue during deployment is that Dell has different ways of installing different SANs. We would like to see more standardization when it comes to the full line of Dell storage products.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service:
I would rate their customer service as a 10 out of 10.
Technical Support:I would rate their technical support as a 10 out of 10.
Initial Setup
The initial setup of both devices we have was not complex but rather tricky considering they are installed and configured in different ways.
Implementation Team
We have implemented all of our SANs in house.
ROI
With the 3260i, we use it as disaster recovery storage for our customers. Previously with the powervault, we were paying approximately .81 cents per GB. With the 3260, we are down to .18 per GB in cost. This enables us to lower prices for our customers are still make more money.
Other Solutions Considered
Since we are Dell partners, we simply chose Dell as the vendor. The ease of working with them is what is most important and their technical support has been first class.
Other Advice
The PowerVault 3220i is a good unit, but my biggest concern with it is that the unit will only support up to 1TB sized hard drives. This makes the cost of unit higher when using it as added storage. The MD3260 is a great unit, inexpensive, hold tons of drives, its expandable, and the cost is low.
If I had advice to give, it would be based on all the Dell Storage devices. Make sure you evaluate each device thoroughly and understand exactly what you need it to do. Make sure you talk with a product specialist and let them understand your motives. Choosing the correct device for the job is most important.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
A highly reliable system with excellent IOPS performance, SD card booting options but lacking a LCD view on-board.
Valuable Features:
A highly reliable RAID system with durable high speed hard disk drives.
The OS can be flashed on to a SD card thereby giving you more space for storage.
I've found that the enterprise support from Dell Customer Care is excellent.
Room for Improvement:
No LCD panel for viewing status on-board.
Other Advice:
My Company has huge data requirements for which I bought this Dell Powervault NX 3200 with 10 TB storage.
It was selected due to very impressive IOPS performance and has proven itself.
In my company there are more than 100 users connecting to this server simultaneously and still the I/O operations are very smooth.
Dell-IDRAC provides a nice way to manage and monitor its performance.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Updated: October 2025
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Buyer's Guide
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We have used this backup system for more than five years now to complement our cloud backup system. The only reason we still use PowerVault RAID system for backing up our company data is the fact that it has an excellent disk performance; it has never let us down apart from a few challenges we were able to overcome easily.