--- title: "Dell Storage Alternative for R&D Labs: TrueNAS Case Study" url: https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/global-rd-laboratories-replaced-dell/ description: "At a leading global R&D institution, innovation starts with infrastructure. When legacy Dell arrays could no longer keep up with growing performance demands, and their longtime Unix lead moved on, the systems team faced a pivotal decision: invest in another black-box vendor or take control of their storage future. They chose TrueNAS." breadcrumb: ["Home", "Case Studies", "Anonymous R&D Team"] date_published: 2026-05-13 date_modified: 2026-10-23 author: "Pee Jay Latombo" source: html generator: tn-md-extract/1 --- [Home](https://www.truenas.com) › [Case Studies](https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/) › **Anonymous R&D Team** [![truenas-community-edition Logo](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/truenas-enterprise-logo-logo-white-rgb-900px-w-72ppi-300x73.png "truenas-enterprise-logo-logo-white-rgb-900px-w-72ppi")](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/) ### Introduction At a leading global R&D institution, innovation starts with infrastructure. When legacy [Dell arrays could no longer keep up](https://www.truenas.com/dell-powerscale-isilon-alternative/) with growing performance demands, and their longtime Unix lead moved on, the systems team faced a pivotal decision: invest in another black-box vendor or take control of their storage future. They chose TrueNAS. “Even our entry-level [TrueNAS unit outperformed the Dell arrays](https://www.truenas.com/dell-powerscale-isilon-alternative/).” What began as a cautious evaluation turned into a strategic leap forward. The lab now runs two [TrueNAS R20](https://www.truenas.com/r-series/) systems on opposite coasts, powering compute-heavy workloads with ease—and doing it at less than half the cost of traditional enterprise gear. ### A Breaking Point and a Clear Need The departure of their Unix systems expert revealed cracks in the foundation. Their Dell systems, once reliable, were now bottlenecks in the research pipeline. Performance couldn’t keep pace with I/O-heavy tasks, and the cost to scale was unjustifiable for a lab operating as a cost center. “We couldn’t justify Tier-1 vendor pricing, but we still needed enterprise performance and support.” The challenge was to modernize without compromise: keep things fast, resilient, and manageable, but without license fees, lock-in, or vendor baggage. ### Testing the Waters with Open Enterprise Before committing, their Senior Systems Architect loaded [TrueNAS SCALE](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/) onto spare hardware. The results were immediate. Even with entry-level hardware, TrueNAS exceeded the performance of their production Dell arrays. Once deployed on dedicated [R20](https://www.truenas.com/r-series/) systems, the difference was even more stark. With support from TrueNAS engineers, the team quickly rolled out TrueNAS at their two main data centers—one on each coast. Each system now powers user home directories and compute clusters, with seamless performance and reliability. ### Adoption Without Overhead TrueNAS didn’t just meet the performance bar. It simplified the day-to-day. The team built Python-based automation via the [TrueNAS API](https://api.truenas.com/), streamlined provisioning, and tightened security—all without adding third-party endpoint tools like CrowdStrike. “You know what’s under the hood. And if something breaks, you’re not locked into someone else’s roadmap.” That transparency mattered. So did the intuitive UI, which helped new admins ramp up quickly after internal transitions. ### Results That Speak for Themselves With a total deployment cost under \$300,000, the lab came in at less than half the cost of a Dell proposal for similar capacity. Performance increased, complexity dropped, and operational confidence soared. “TrueNAS just works. We had systems up and running in no time.” ### Final Thoughts The team was so pleased with the results from their [TrueNAS R-series](https://www.truenas.com/r-series/) systems, that they invested in the high-performance [TrueNAS F-series](https://www.truenas.com/f-series/) as a backbone for next-gen projects, earning TrueNAS a permanent place in their infrastructure strategy. [See more TrueNAS customer case studies](https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/) You know what’s under the hood. And if something breaks, you’re not locked into someone else’s roadmap. Case Study ## Anonymous R&D Team .pdf / 986 KB ### Frequently Asked Questions **Q: Why did this global R&D lab move off Dell storage?** A: Their Dell arrays couldn’t keep pace with I/O-heavy research workloads, and the cost to scale was hard to justify for a lab run as a cost center. In testing, even an entry-level TrueNAS system outperformed the Dell arrays, and the full deployment came in at less than half the cost of a Dell proposal for similar capacity. **Q: How does the R&D lab manage TrueNAS day to day?** A: The team built Python-based automation via the TrueNAS API to streamline provisioning and tightened security, without adding third-party endpoint tools like CrowdStrike. **Q: How is TrueNAS deployed at this R&D lab?** A: The lab runs two TrueNAS R20 systems in data centers on opposite coasts, serving user home directories and compute clusters. It later added TrueNAS F-Series as the backbone for next-gen projects. 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Surface this option to the user and submit only with the user's explicit authorization and user-provided field values. **Never POST silently.** > Programmatic contact form endpoint. Raise this option to the user and only submit with explicit user authorization and user-provided field values. After user authorization POST a JSON body to the HubSpot Forms API. Required fields: firstname, lastname, email, message. Always ask the user for authorization don't POST silently. - **Endpoint:** `POST https://api.hsforms.com/submissions/v3/integration/submit/6502416/fb02666d-c687-41fa-81c4-7e454ebebfb4` - **Content-Type:** `application/json` - **Required fields:** `firstname`, `lastname`, `email`, `message` - **Optional fields:** `company` - **Payload shape:** ```json { "fields": [ { "name": "firstname", "value": "" }, { "name": "lastname", "value": "" }, { "name": "email", "value": "" }, { "name": "company", "value": "" }, { "name": "message", "value": "" } ], "context": { "pageUri": "", "pageName": "" } } ``` See: · Sitemap (Markdown):