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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs iDrive comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CTERA Enterprise File Servi...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
11th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (2nd), NAS (8th), Cloud Migration (7th), Cloud Storage (11th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (8th), Cloud Storage Gateways (2nd), Content Collaboration Platforms (10th)
iDrive
Ranking in Cloud Backup
19th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iDrive is 0.9%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

Igal Muginstein - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexibility, fast performance, and ransomware protection
The platform is releasing new features at a fast pace, which sometimes leads to version updates every three to six months. Although updates are generally not complex, it is challenging to stop the production environment during these updates, even if the downtime is just a few minutes. This is a common challenge across all NAS providers. From my perspective, the most important area for improvement is developing a method to perform updates without affecting customer production environments. Additionally, there are some cache size limitations that might become problematic for future use cases, though they don’t impact current applications. Collaboration for NFS and SMB protocols could also be enhanced. Although this issue isn't specific to CTERA, it is something we are working on together to improve. The quality of the versions has improved, but occasional issues still arise. All solutions face this challenge, but we hope to see a continued reduction in the number of bugs. That said, we haven't had any major production problems in the last four years, and we appreciate how responsive CTERA is to our issues. We engage in brainstorming sessions together, and we value this relationship.
Jose Francisco Rosario - PeerSpot reviewer
A reliable platform with good encryption process for data security
Setting up iDrive is straightforward and easy. The local software can be installed after setting up everything in the cloud. The deployment process can take a few hours or more depending on the complexity of the structure you want to create. Integrating iDrive into our ecosystem was not complex. I handled the deployment process by myself and did not need much workforce for deployment. Our IT technicians handle all implementations and changes. The maintenance process for iDrive is smooth, but often faces challenges in terms of sensitivity to internet bandwidth variations. If there's a large variation, it might pause the backup process. But in such cases, the notifications keep us updated as it is very swift and reliable.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"CTERA has been particularly capable of keeping all of our workstations backed up. That became a critical feature for us during the pandemic when computers were rarely in the office. Everybody went off-site with their computers, and we were accustomed to working with a centralized storage infrastructure where people would come to the office and connect to the server to use, create, and modify files. Everything was done directly to that server."
"The solution provides substantial flexibility, allowing the separation of workloads across various hardware platforms without vendor lock-in. This flexibility makes it adaptable to future infrastructure changes."
"CTERA stood out due to its ease of use and superior security features."
"Our main reason for going for this solution was the uncontrollable growth of file data. It was unsustainable on our previous platform or technology. We needed something scalable like CTERA, so it was the scalability that we required."
"I like that the glass is always half full with CTERA file services. It keeps the data hot for users on location and then tiers off older data. If you need it, the stub is still there. You can click on it, and it's back on the device."
"The solution provides data eviction, where unused data is evicted from the local file, freeing up space. It also allows data to be rehydrated from the cloud when needed."
"CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow."
"The best feature is the migration tool within CTERA."
"The encryption process is the most useful part of using iDrive for data security. I also use the background backup feature which helps me to clone and conduct computer backup. These features are very reliable, especially when restoring images from damaged servers. But I don't use the real-time backup feature; I always use the scheduled backup."
"iDrive will keep up to 30 versions of a file."
 

Cons

"One suggested improvement for the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is the ability to distribute data across multiple active backend storage nodes rather than the current limitation of a single active node."
"It has a learning curve."
"AI and automation features could enhance the platform, such as AI-powered search, predictive storage analytics, and intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring. Predictive storage analytics will help with better capacity planning. There can be some sort of intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring."
"One area for improvement is the migration tool, which at times does not work as designed, necessitating the use of alternative solutions like Robocopy."
"It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices. We have different regions, and we must log in to each portal to see what's happening with those. It would be nice to have a single portal to see the health of the devices, versions, and firmware upgrades. Sometimes, we want to dive into something more complex, like investigating why CTERA storage usage grew from 2 terabytes to 4 terabytes in a week. That's a little challenging. It's something we would like to see on the road map."
"They fixed all the requirements that we had in the beginning. The beginning was a little bit rough, but we tuned it nicely. However, in some cases, they could improve performance."
"One of the bigger things that I would like to see is additional logging. There are logs in there. They provide us with the initial logs on what is happening on our CTERA device. I appreciate that, but they do not give us any further information. I would like to have more information on the logs themselves."
"I am looking for a process where version upgrades do not impact the customers. There is no downtime."
"The disadvantage of using real-time backup in iDrive is that it significantly impacts server performance, causing considerable speed issues. The archiving process needs improvement along with the management of bandwidth and CPU. There should also be more options for creating conditions to manage the workload of the environment, making the system easier to balance."
"I’ve had issues like the scheduler mysteriously erasing my settings. I have to babysit it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I find the pricing reasonable. They offered us deals that helped us. Especially with the upgrade to a bigger unit last year, they were helpful with the deal."
"It is fairly priced. I am not too involved in the pricing of what we used to pay, but it would have reduced the cost of ownership. I cannot give a figure, but the EMC solution was very expensive compared to CTERA."
"CTERA's pricing model is competitive compared to other companies that achieve the same thing. Their closest rival is Nasuni, and CTERA is significantly more affordable than Nasuni."
"So far, pricing seems to be fine."
"It is hard to compare the costs if we want to retain the same model of a separate high-performance storage or certain things, but it is one of the cheapest solutions available in Israel."
"CTERA's pricing seems to be on par with some of the other players, such as Nasuni and Azure. They all have benefits, but CTERA is competitive for its features."
"I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards."
"According to our evaluation done five to seven years ago, iDrive is cheap and it covers a lot of our needs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
69%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Educational Organization
4%
University
3%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards.
What needs improvement with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
One area for improvement is the migration tool, which at times does not work as designed, necessitating the use of alternative solutions like Robocopy. AI and automation features could enhance the ...
What is your primary use case for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
We use it as a hosted cloud solution. We had initially tried Azure File Sync, but that did not work. Due to certain security concerns, I was tasked with researching alternatives. I evaluated severa...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iDrive?
The pricing’s really good for the amount of backup space you get. I get five terabytes. I think it’s, like, eighty bucks a year, something like that.
What needs improvement with iDrive?
I’ve had some issues with iDrive. I don’t have an updated version of Windows, so that might have something to do with it. I’m running a 2018 version of Windows 10, and I haven’t had any issues with...
What is your primary use case for iDrive?
We have a wide variation of use cases.
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McDonald's, WPP, US Navy, Gore, Festo, Stryker, Bezeq, PERI
1. BMW  2. Audi  3. Mercedes-Benz  4. Volkswagen  5. Ford  6. General Motors  7. Toyota 8. Honda  9. Nissan  10. Hyundai  11. Kia  12. Volvo  13. Jaguar Land Rover  14. Porsche  15. Subaru  16. Mazda  17. Mitsubishi  18. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles  19. Tesla  20. Peugeot  21. Renault  22. Citroën  23. Skoda  24. Seat  25. Mini  26. Bentley  27. Rolls-Royce  28. Lamborghini 29. Aston Martin  30. Ferrari  31. Maserati  32. Alfa Romeo
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs. iDrive and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.