Dell EMC PowerScale (EMC Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Likelihood to Recommend

EMC Isilon Scale-Out NAS is well suited for larger files (greater the 128 Kb) and where you need to have everything in one common name space. Where it is less appropriate is for many small files (millions of files less than 128 Kb in size) - this causes the protection level to becoming mirroring, which will cost more space.

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 5 answers on this topic

If data storage, access, and security [are] of the highest priority to your business then Pure Storage FlashBlade is an excellent tool that must be considered. Analytics or sharing that requires the fastest speeds available will benefit from the NVMe solid-state drives they use which are far superior to spinning rust. It is less ideal for those who do not require such time-critical work.

Read full review

Alexander Cooper

RPA Developer

Randstad UKComputer Software, 10,001+ employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Pros

NAS Storage
Capacity and Performance details of the array
Alert and Operations details

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Research & Development

Computer Software Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 5 answers on this topic

Flexible on the pricing models.
Comes with a large number of features out-of-the-box.
It is all included in one price.
Satisfied the needs of low latency and high throughput.
Beautiful REST API, well-documented, and easy to use.
Provides the twice of the performance.
Easy to manage.
Immutable snapshots, to avoid possibly ransomware.
Very helpful Mobile app.
Support is extremely quick and responsive.

Read full review

Stefano Monti

programmatore e sistemista

tecnicaCivic & Social Organization, 1-10 employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Cons

Some upgrades require the entire cluster to be rebooted simultaneously. In this day and age, that should not be necessary. This is my biggest disappointment with Isilon to date.
When using multiple storage pools you have to be very careful with your capacity management. Filling up one pool can cause an overflow of data to a pool that is less performance driven. Do not underestimate your capacities or you will find yourself in a tight spot.
Block size is almost always an issue with Isilon. It does not handle all types of data well. In many cases PACS and VNA data is best to be stored on a different storage platform that will utilize the capacity more efficiently that Isilon is capable of.
Deduplication seems to be less efficient on Isilon than on other platforms for similar types of data.

Read full review

Kevin Blackburn

Storage Engineer

Northeast Georgia Health SystemHospital & Health Care, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 5 answers on this topic

When reporting out a user has exceeded there quote, it only references the UID. It would certainly be nice it calls out the UID name that is clearly present in the Dashboard.
The ability to determine a snapshot total size would be helpful.
Proactive reachout to discuss new versions and assist in planning the upgrade would be a key win.

Read full review

Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology

Computer Hardware Company, 51-200 employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Pure Storage FlashBlade 8.2

Based on 1 answer

Good API, multi-protocol support is great.

Read full review

Edward Hammond

Principal Solutions Architect

CogoLabsInternet, 51-200 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Pure Storage FlashBlade 8.3

Based on 19 answers

Without exception, the contacts with support have been quick and extremely knowledgeable. I do not fear getting an underqualified engineer to assess or work on my arrays. In addition to this support structure, the sales engineers are top notch as well.

Read full review

Verified User

Retiree in Product Management

Railroad Manufacture Company, 201-500 employees

View all 19 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Raw disk space vs. logical disk space ratio was significantly better on the Isilon. Fast cache using SSD drives for faster searching is available on the Isilon but not available on the Overland solution. Isilon solution included faster backend switching between nodes.

Read full review

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees

View all 5 answers on this topic

The primary difference was speed. Pure Storage Flash Blade worked up as a wonder while migrating, storing, recovering, and backing up data. Hitachi Content Platform was much more scalable but was occasionally flared up with some optimized performance and speed issues while handling large amounts of data across various platforms in the organization.

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Research & Development

Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Isilon provides very high value for money
Matches the performance and storage requirements of the arrays
EMC provides very skillful and high response team in case of any issues in isilon

Read full review

Vishal Ranjan Srivastav

Senior Storage Administrator

Larson and Tourbo InfotechMedia Production, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 5 answers on this topic

Pure has greatly narrowed the performance gap between file storage and fiber channel block storage with FlashBlade. Exotic file systems and costly FC fabrics are no longer needed to run performant storage.
Training is not required for a storage admin who has never touched a Pure array. Everything is where you would expect to find it.

Read full review

Verified User

Administrator in Research & Development

Computer Software Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Dell EMC PowerScale (EMC Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade