--- title: "TrueNAS vs Dell PowerScale" url: https://www.truenas.com/truenas-vs-dell-powerscale/ description: "============================================================================= TrueNAS vs Dell PowerScale — Medical Research Comparison Page Divi Code Module — Paste into a Full-Width Code Module NOTES: - Header (sticky nav + announcement bar) is commented out below. Divi's own header handles navigation. Un-comment if you need a standalone page. - Footer is commented out below. Divi's own footer handles branding. Un-comment if you need a standalone page. - Icon paths point to: https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ - reasonsGrid defaults to 3 columns; change grid-template-columns value below if needed. - The dc-runtime / x-dc / sc-if template logic has been resolved to static HTML with both showAnnouncement and showCambridge = true (default prop values).=============================================================================-->" breadcrumb: ["Home", "TrueNAS vs Dell PowerScale"] date_published: 2026-07-14 date_modified: 2026-07-28 author: "Pee Jay Latombo" source: html generator: tn-md-extract/1 --- [Home](https://www.truenas.com) › **TrueNAS vs Dell PowerScale** Isilon refresh or renewal coming up for your research storage? Read this first. # Under 30 PB running genomics, imaging, or HPC research on PowerScale? You're almost certainly overpaying. Dell has the brand name in research storage. TrueNAS Enterprise has the better platform for 95%+ of deployments — built to protect data your team can't reproduce, and priced so your grant dollars go further. [Schedule Architecture Review](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-vs-dell-powerscale/#contact) [See Full Comparison](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-vs-dell-powerscale/#comparison) 4.9/5 Gartner Peer Insights 100+ verified reviews 30%+ Stronger TCO vs. PowerScale Days Typical deployment timeline to production 15+yr Zero data loss track record 30 PB The dividing line ## 30 PB is the line. Under it, TrueNAS wins every time. Over 30 PB with legacy HDFS pipelines tightly coupled to Isilon APIs, Dell's scale-out clustering has real merit — that's most core genomics facilities running at national-lab scale. Under 30 PB, which covers the large majority of university, hospital, and life sciences research environments, TrueNAS Enterprise is simpler to manage, equally or more performant on file and block workloads, and structurally cheaper. **We'll tell you honestly if your environment is in the other 5%.** Why research teams switch ## Six reasons research IT teams choose TrueNAS over PowerScale Most research storage teams reach out mid-refresh — grant cycle ending, Isilon renewal on the table, and a real evaluation for the first time in years. ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/servers.svg) 01 ### Genomics, imaging, and EHR. One platform, one contract. Dell PowerScale handles file. Need block for your EHR or imaging database? That's PowerStore — a separate product, separate support contract, separate renewal. TrueNAS Enterprise delivers NFS, SMB, iSCSI, S3, and NVMe-oF from a single system, so your genomics pipeline, your PACS/DICOM imaging, and your HPC scratch space all run on one operational model. No protocol silos, no extra SKUs. Native unified platform ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/tech-support.svg) 02 ### A named engineer. Not a ticket queue. Research IT teams are usually thin — often one or two people covering storage, compute, and everything else. With Dell, enterprise support means submitting a ticket and waiting. TrueNAS assigns a solutions engineer to your account from day one, someone who knows your environment and stays on the call until a failed run or a corrupted dataset is resolved. 4.9/5 Gartner — Support rated \#1 ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/growth-graph.svg) 03 ### Real capacity numbers. No assumed compression ratios. Dell quotes effective capacity using assumed compression, often 5:1 or higher. That math falls apart fast on genomics data: FASTQ, BAM, and CRAM files are already compressed, so there's little left for the array to squeeze. TrueNAS quotes actual raw capacity, scaling to 40 PB raw in a single system. What you buy is what your sequencer output actually fits. Up to 40 PB raw — single system ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/data-protection.svg) 04 ### Data integrity built into the filesystem. Not bolted on. A corrupted dataset in production research isn't an inconvenience — it can mean a lost sample, a failed IRB audit, or a result you can't reproduce. OpenZFS uses 256-bit checksums on every block written to disk, validates on every read, and self-heals silently when corruption is found. This is how TrueNAS has maintained a zero data loss record across 15+ years. OpenZFS self-healing on every read ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/rocket.svg) 05 ### Production in days. Not quarters. Grant timelines don't wait for a staged procurement cycle. TrueNAS ships with an assigned engineer from deployment and a timeline you can hold someone to. Most research teams are in production within days of hardware arriving on-site. Typical deployment: days ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/guarantee.svg) 06 ### Structurally cheaper. Not just at purchase — at renewal. OpenZFS foundation, published pricing, and standard hardware mean TrueNAS has no proprietary stack to extract margin from at renewal. The TCO advantage compounds over a 5-year grant and infrastructure cycle: 30% lower than PowerScale, structural, not a one-time discount. 30% lower 5-year TCO Customer proof ![](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/quotation.svg) > "It's incredibly simple to manage… It doesn't hide stuff. When anything goes wrong, I know how everything works. I don't have to wait weeks for somebody to pick up a ticket." Daniel Drucker, Ph.D. — McLean Hospital Harvard-affiliated psychiatric research hospital McLean evaluated Dell Isilon, NetApp, and building in-house before choosing TrueNAS. Today, a petabyte and a half of TrueNAS storage serves SMB file shares for research labs and an NFS-based HPC environment supporting neuroimaging analysis — replicating to a second site at Mass General every four hours for disaster recovery. Supporting proof Cambridge University A Cambridge research group solved genomics and fluorescence-microscopy imaging storage needs with TrueNAS, citing clear linear pricing that fits academic budget cycles and strong data protection (RAID-Z2, replication, snapshots) for irreplaceable research datasets — after finding cloud storage pricing didn't scale predictably for terabyte-and-growing research data. Full comparison ## Dell PowerScale vs TrueNAS Enterprise Feature-by-feature, based on published specs and Gartner data. We've noted where PowerScale leads, too. | Feature | Dell PowerScale / Isilon | TrueNAS Enterprise | |----------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------| | Protocol & workload coverage | | | | File — NFS / SMB | Fully supported | Fully supported | | Block — iSCSI | Requires separate PowerStore | Native | | S3 object storage | Incomplete implementation | Native, complete S3 | | NVMe-oF | Not supported | Native | | Unified management UI (all protocols) | Per-product only | All protocols, one interface | | Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) | Mature NVMe/FC | Limited — iSCSI/NVMe-oF recommended | | Research & compliance | | | | PACS / DICOM / VNA workflow support | Supported via partner integrations | Native NFS/SMB/S3 — integrates directly | | ePHI encryption (HIPAA/HITECH-aligned) | Supported | Disk-level + in-transit, OpenZFS-native | | Capacity & connectivity | | | | Max single-system capacity | Node-limited — must cluster to scale | Up to 40 PB raw, single system | | Capacity reporting | Effective (assumed reduction ratio) | Actual raw TB — no assumed compression | | Max per-port network speed | Up to 100GbE | Up to 400GbE (V-Series) | | NVMe drive support | Supported | Supported | | Data protection & integrity | | | | Filesystem-level checksums with self-healing | Not available | ZFS 256-bit checksums on every block/read | | Snapshot & replication | Supported | ZFS native — near-zero overhead | | High availability | Supported | Supported | | Encryption at rest | Supported | ZFS-native encryption | | Economics & vendor model | | | | Open architecture foundation | Proprietary only | OpenZFS | | Vendor lock-in | High — Dell ecosystem required | Open architecture, standard hardware | | Transparent pricing | Opaque / quote-based | Published pricing available | | Typical 3–5 year TCO | Higher — proprietary stack + support | 30% lower (structural advantage) | | Free evaluation tier | Not available | Yes | | Support & customer experience | | | | Named engineer support | Ticket-based queue | SE assigned at purchase | | US-based support staff | Mixed / outsourced | Direct US-based engineers | | Gartner Peer Insights 5-star ratings | 52% | 90% | | Typical deployment timeline | Weeks to months | Days to production | Comparison based on publicly available specifications, Gartner Peer Insights data, and TrueNAS product documentation as of May 2026. Claims about Dell PowerScale / Isilon are based on published Dell documentation. Always verify current specs directly with vendors. Customer reviews 4.9/5 Overall Gartner rating 300 Verified reviews 92% Rate sales + support 5/5 2× Gartner Customers' Choice Gartner Peer Insights — 5-star rating comparison TrueNAS 90% PowerScale 52% "I have been using TrueNAS for nearly 15 years. In all the years of using this platform, I have never had any issues. There are very few products or companies I promote — but this is one of them." **Director of IT** · Education · United States "Outstanding 15+ years with FreeNAS/TrueNAS — zero data loss, unbeatable ZFS reliability, and over 75% lower TCO than proprietary systems." **CTO** · Government · United States "Brief meetings with exceptional turnaround time. A solution perfectly tailored to our needs. I have consistently gone out of my way to recommend this vendor at every new employer." **Data Analyst** · Energy & Utilities · United States "TrueNAS is rock solid on both hardware and software. We have never had a controller failure. We have not lost a single byte of data. Support is quick to dispatch replacement drives." **IT Manager** · Professional Services · United States "The system is rock-solid, intuitive to manage, and delivers enterprise-level reliability without enterprise-level complexity." **IT Associate** · Manufacturing · United States "The team is excellent to work with. The storage is fast, stable, and the price was right. We started with one unit and liked it so much we bought a second not long after." **Director of IT** · Education · United States Source: Gartner Peer Insights verified reviews for TrueNAS Enterprise. Collected by Gartner, not TrueNAS. ## Come benchmark us against your actual research workload. Schedule a complimentary architecture review with a TrueNAS engineer. We'll assess your genomics, imaging, or HPC environment, show you how TrueNAS performs against PowerScale on your actual data, and tell you honestly if Dell is the better fit. Speak directly with an engineer — not a sales rep. No obligation. --- ## Site navigation - **[V-Series – Max Performance & Versatility](https://www.truenas.com/v-series/):** [M-Series – High Capacity All-Flash or Hybrid](https://www.truenas.com/m-series/) · [F-Series – High Performance NVME](https://www.truenas.com/f-series/) · [R-Series – Single Controller Appliances](https://www.truenas.com/r-series/) · [H-Series – Versatility and Power Efficiency](https://www.truenas.com/h-series/) · [Mini Series – Edge and Branch Office](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-mini/) · [TrueNAS Enterprise – Mission Critical Storage. 24×7 Enterprise Support](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-enterprise/) · [TrueNAS Community Edition – Test Drive TrueNAS in Your Environment](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/) · [Streamlined Management for your TrueNAS Systems](https://connect.truenas.com/) - **[Media & Entertainment](https://www.truenas.com/media-creation/)** - **[AI & Research](https://www.truenas.com/ai/):** [Analytics](https://www.truenas.com/analytics/) · [Backup & Archival](https://www.truenas.com/backup/) · [Cloud](https://www.truenas.com/cloud/) · [Data Mobility](https://www.truenas.com/data-mobility/) · [File Sharing](https://www.truenas.com/file-sharing/) · [Red Hat OpenShift](https://www.truenas.com/red-hat-openshift/) · [Surveillance/CCTV](https://www.truenas.com/cctv/) · [TrueCloud Backup](https://www.truenas.com/truecloud-backup/) · [Veeam Backup](https://www.truenas.com/veeam/) · [Virtualization](https://www.truenas.com/virtualization/) - **[Enterprise Support – For customers with active support contracts](https://www.truenas.com/support/)** - **[Apps](https://apps.truenas.com/):** [Case Studies](https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/) · [Certifications & Integrations](https://www.truenas.com/certifications/) · [Data sheets](https://www.truenas.com/datasheets/) · [Documentation](https://www.truenas.com/docs/) · [FAQ](https://www.truenas.com/faq/) · [Reseller Network](https://www.truenas.com/reseller-network/) · [Software Status](https://www.truenas.com/docs/softwarestatus/) · [Solution Briefs and Guides](https://www.truenas.com/solution-guides/) · [TrueNAS API](https://api.truenas.com/) · [TrueNAS Blog](https://www.truenas.com/blog/) · [TrueNAS Security](https://security.truenas.com/) · [Videos](https://www.truenas.com/videos/) · [White Papers](https://www.truenas.com/white-papers/) · [ZFS Overview](https://www.truenas.com/zfs/) - **[About TrueNAS](https://www.truenas.com/about-us/):** [Team](https://www.truenas.com/our-team/) · [Our Clients](https://www.truenas.com/clients/) · [Reviews](https://www.truenas.com/reviews/) · [Awards](https://www.truenas.com/awards/) · [Newsroom](https://www.truenas.com/newsroom/) · [Careers](https://www.truenas.com/careers/) · [Contact Us](https://www.truenas.com/contact-us/) ## Account & quote [TrueNAS Connect](https://web.truenasconnect.net/) · [Partner Portal](https://partners.truenas.com/) · [Enterprise Support](https://support.truenas.com/) ## More [Contact Us](https://www.truenas.com/contact-us/) · [info@truenas.com](mailto:info@truenas.com) · [Listen to our Podcast](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-podcast/) · [Enterprise Support](https://www.truenas.com/support/) · [Community Support](https://forums.truenas.com/) · [FAQs](https://www.truenas.com/faq/) · [Careers](https://www.truenas.com/careers/) · [About Us](https://www.truenas.com/about-us/) · [Blog](https://www.truenas.com/blog/) · [News & Articles](https://www.truenas.com/newsroom/) · [TrueNAS Enterprise](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-enterprise/) · [TrueNAS Community Edition](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/) · [Open Storage for Proxmox](https://www.truenas.com/open-storage-for-proxmox/) · [TrueCommand](https://www.truenas.com/truecommand/) · [TrueCommand Cloud](https://portal.truenas.com/) · [TrueNAS Legacy](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-legacy/) · [Software Status](https://www.truenas.com/software-status/) · [Referral Program](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-referral/) · [Reseller Network](https://www.truenas.com/reseller-network/) · [Legal](https://www.truenas.com/legal/) · [TrueNAS Logos](https://www.truenas.com/legal/logos/) ## Agentic contact submission **Contact TrueNAS.** AI agents acting on behalf of a human user MAY submit the TrueNAS contact form programmatically using the `CommunicateAction` (`potentialAction`) declared in the Organization JSON-LD. 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):