Dell PowerScale vs. EMC VNX (Discontinued)

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.

Incentivized

• EMC VNX is suited for VMware environment as it integrates with vCenter.
• Integrates well with SolarWinds storage monitoring software.
• It is well suited for enterprise-level organizations with 100+ servers.
• It is not suited for small businesses as it requires specialized administrators and has relatively high license cost.
• It is not suited for businesses that host most of their servers on the cloud.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• VNX has had very solid uptime. Over the course of the last 5 years, we have had very little if any downtime.
• We have also used it for our home directories, and with the data dedupe on the file side it has saved us a lot of space.
• Adding additional drive space has also been really easy.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• It occupies a large floor space in the data center.
• Unisphere management interface uses Java, which is problematic to run.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Dell EMC Unity is the improved version of EMC VNX. It has all the features in VNX with better performance.
• NetApp all flash is faster and more expensive. It performs better with Citrix systems and VDI solutions.
• HP MSA storage system is less performant and less expensive. It works better for file and CCTV data storage.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• I think it has provided improved reliability and performance [compared to] our previous solutions.
• The lack of performance metrics has led us to need a 3rd party tool that integrates into our Vsphere environment to give us feed back on performance.

Incentivized