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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Nutanix Move comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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 Migration
7th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (3rd), NAS (9th), Cloud Storage (11th), Cloud Backup (11th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (8th), Cloud Storage Gateways (2nd), Content Collaboration Platforms (11th)
Nutanix Move
Ranking in Cloud Migration
6th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Migration category, the mindshare of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is 5.5%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Move is 3.7%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Migration
 

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.
Joel Amate - PeerSpot reviewer
Can migrate workloads in just a click
The automated migration feature is the most effective. It automates the whole process, like installation from VMware to Nutanix AHV cluster. It retains the IP and MAC addresses of VMs and cleans up migrated VMs by removing VMware tools from the source. The automated migration is seamless - when we do the cutover, Nutanix Move powers off the source VM and automatically powers on the virtual machine on the Nutanix cluster. There's also a manual method for workloads that can't be migrated automatically, like Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, which might not have the required PowerShell version. In these cases, we can still migrate using data migration only, but the engineer has to do more work, like reassigning IP and MAC addresses.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CTERA stood out due to its ease of use and superior security features."
"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 CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is a hybrid solution that supports both on-premises and cloud environments."
"CTERA's instantaneous and redundant file replication, available across multiple geographical locations, ensures easy and user-friendly recovery."
"CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow."
"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."
"It is a three-in-one solution for us. It is a file-sharing platform, an archiving solution, and also a backup solution."
"CTERA has out-of-the-box data protection capabilities."
"It is easy to set up the solution."
"The solution is stable."
"We can change the hypervisor without any downtime."
"The easy migration is the most valuable feature."
"The automated migration feature is the most effective. It automates the whole process, like installation from VMware to Nutanix AHV cluster. It retains the IP and MAC addresses of VMs and cleans up migrated VMs by removing VMware tools from the source. The automated migration is seamless - when we do the cutover, Nutanix Move powers off the source VM and automatically powers on the virtual machine on the Nutanix cluster."
"The most valuable feature of Nutanix Move is its simplicity."
"The most valuable feature of Nutanix Move is how simple it is and the benefit of what it does."
"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."
 

Cons

"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."
"One area for improvement is the migration tool, which at times does not work as designed, necessitating the use of alternative solutions like Robocopy."
"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 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."
"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."
"The web portal that our users access to view data and backups could be optimized. CTERA could apply some of the improvements made to their administrative interface on the user side. The administrators are a much smaller group of people than the users, so it would be helpful if they targeted user experience resources to them."
"I am looking for a process where version upgrades do not impact the customers. There is no downtime."
"The new Edge filer that they have comes with a lot more features than what we purchased. It would be better if we are able to add those extra features without having to swap out the hardware. A clear upgrade path for legacy customers would be beneficial."
"They should have some tools to migrate the workload from another Nutanix platform."
"We can migrate from Hyper-V to Acropolis, but we can't move from Acropolis back to Hyper-V. However, we do not have customers who want to, but if we could reassure them that it was possible it would be better. Having our Hyper-V customers have a two-way option that may help. A customer would like to hear that if they do switch they can switch back. I know it's a limitation on Hyper-V but not a limitation on VMware."
"The most valuable feature is the automation. The solution will clone the data that you want to migrate, shut down the virtual machine, disconnect it from the network and start the clone virtual machine inside the solution's platform."
"We cannot use the solution to move a machine from Nutanix to other hypervisors."
"When you have regular questions, like how do I do something in the tool or when you want to know when can I do anything in the product, the solution's support team can take around three to four days to give you an answer, or they may even sometimes take more time."
"We'd like Nutanix to be more flexible in the future."
"Nutanix Move could be made more scalable, so you could do more instead of taking five or ten VMs at a time."
"I think Nutanix Move could be improved by adding a way to retry failed migrations. Sometimes when seeding fails, there's no way to redo it without recreating the whole migration plan. I'd like a button to restart the process without creating a migration plan."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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."
"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 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."
"So far, pricing seems to be fine."
"I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards."
"The product is available for free."
"The solution is open-source."
"It is a free tool."
"The tool is bundled as part of the Nutanix license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
67%
Educational Organization
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Retailer
3%
Computer Software Company
21%
Healthcare Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about Nutanix Move?
The easy migration is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement with Nutanix Move?
I think Nutanix Move could be improved by adding a way to retry failed migrations. Sometimes when seeding fails, there's no way to redo it without recreating the whole migration plan. I'd like a bu...
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McDonald's, WPP, US Navy, Gore, Festo, Stryker, Bezeq, PERI
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, The Home Depot, JetBlue, Cape Coral, City of Westfield, Cloud Comrade
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs. Nutanix Move and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.