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Dell PowerScale vs. IBM Elastic Storage Server

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Dell PowerScale

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ADell Technologies presents Dell PowerScale (replacing EMC Isilon) as a scale-out NAS solution and server technology that provides the flexibility of a software-defined architecture with accelerated hardware innovations to harness the value of data. Isilon Systems was acquired by EMC in 2010; some EMC Isilon NAS appliances are still available and supported under the PowerScale brand.N/A

    IBM Elastic Storage Server

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AIBM Elastic Storage Server (IBM ESS) is a software-defined storage option.N/A
    Pricing
    Dell PowerScaleIBM Elastic Storage Server
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Dell PowerScaleIBM Elastic Storage Server
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Dell PowerScaleIBM Elastic Storage Server
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    StarWind Virtual SAN
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    StarWind Virtual SAN
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Storage Scale
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Dell PowerScaleIBM Elastic Storage Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.3
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Dell PowerScaleIBM Elastic Storage Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Dell Technologies
    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
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    IBM
    Reliable data storage and access is a big challenge in AI applications and IBM ESS is a service you need to solve the problem. If you are building an AI service and you already use the IBM ecosystem for AI compute requirements, ESS can serve as an excellent software based storage solution. Integration with other platforms such as EMR/Databricks is still a challenge and should be improved.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Dell Technologies
    • NAS Storage
    • Capacity and Performance details of the array
    • Alert and Operations details
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • Powerful processing power, literally support unlimited scale out storage capabilities
    • well integrated and supported with multi flavor environment and file systems.
    • Huge capacity with in a very reduced form factor of disks/enclosures
    Read full review
    Cons
    Dell Technologies
    • 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
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    IBM
    • Integration and configuration need a bit more technical expertise which is I guess expected.
    • There can be some improvement in integration with Legacy applications.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Dell Technologies
    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
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    IBM
    IBM ESS is optimized for AI and Big Data usecases while S3 is a general purpose storage solutions. EMR and Databricks have lakehouse/data warehousing solutions for distributed computing but are more optimized for just the big data pipelining solutions and not essentially for AI usecases, especially for inference, when you need to load model artifacts really quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Dell Technologies
    • 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
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    IBM
    • When the cost and price dynamics comes into account, we have replaced age old traditional arrays with almost negligible cost with ESS
    • able to extend the capabilities of global teams to work and share their experiences and knowledge with other teams.
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