DDN IntelliFlash vs NetApp AFF C-Series comparison

DataDirect Networks and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. DataDirect Networks is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.0, while NetApp is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.0. DataDirect Networks holds a 0.9% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of DataDirect Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between DDN IntelliFlash and NetApp AFF C-Series based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two All-Flash Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp AFF C-Series Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp AFF C-Series

February 2026

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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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DDN IntelliFlash is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp AFF C-Series is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pure FlashArray X NVMe	1.5%
DDN IntelliFlash	0.9%
NetApp AFF C-Series	0.5%
Other	97.1%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

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Anil Rahulwar

Storage Engineer at Movate

Good customer service and support and suitable for large environments

It is very easy to install. Users don't need to remember anything while deploying IntelliFlash because everything will be taken care of by tech support. They can easily modify the installation or change the password with the help of the tech support. It is very easy to integrate IntelliFlash with other solutions. We have plugins that can be integrated with other solutions. It will require maintenance. It is the same as any other storage solution: updates and upgrades, firmware upgrades, and drive upgrades.

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Mishal Bhatt

Senior Storage Administrator at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Transition from costly infrastructure lowers expenses and improves hardware performance

NetApp offers a cost-effective solution with very robust hardware. Frequent improvements are shared through bulletins so we can enhance hardware performance by upgrading the ONTAP version. Firmware upgrades are also widely distributed. Weekly calls with NetApp ensure we're staying on top of any potential issues. The transition from SAN-based to NetApp storage eliminated SAN switch costs and reduced CommVault dependency, lowering license costs significantly.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I really like about this program, is that it is easy to use and easy to configurate."

"It is very easy to install and configure. It has got excellent diagnostics. If you really need to see how the box is performing, the console gives you a lot of information. You can set thresholds as well as alerts based on the thresholds, which is a very powerful functionality. They are very proactive. They know how to monitor and manage the systems. They see a problem, and they are all over it before us. They see the problem before we see it, which is very good."

"The solution is very straightforward to set up."

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"It's incredibly easy to use and greatly simplified our ability to both deploy and manage our storage subsystems."

"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"It provides a combination of all the protocols that you need, without losing deduplication and compression."

"It has reduced our electricity usage by reducing the amount of disks needed for the virtual environment."

"Data Compression: Up to 80% space reduction in the database"

"EasyTier/hotcaching: Valuable because it allows greater performance than standard SAS disks"

"It's very fast. We were seeing read latencies of less than one millisecond. It is robust."

"High performance and ease-of-management are the most valuable features."

"We use IntelliFlash products for larger environments, like Qatar Airways."

More DDN IntelliFlash pros

"NetApp offers a cost-effective solution with very robust hardware."

"NetApp AFF C-Series is a good product for entry-level flash storage, the system is competitive in terms of pricing, and the value proposition is strong."

Cons

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"I would like to see replication and DR features in the next release of this solution."

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

"The software layer has to improve."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

"We would like to see VNC integration or be able to use Pure Storage with VNC."

"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"In the proxy section you can’t choose a user account and password, so it is not allowed at the moment to go out, if customer has such constellation."

"It's somewhat scalable, but maybe not so much as some of the competition."

"We had just one small stability problem with power flapping and it did not start up again automatically. We had to access service ports and manually restart the storage processors."

"In future releases, I look forward to more AI features."

"Technical support is bad. It'd grade them at 30% or 40%. The response time is terrible."

"It only keeps one hour of real-time data without the ability to do deep analysis of each element."

"They need to offer better integration for a virtual platform to enable you to create hyper-converged solution."

"Snapshots are not as easy to access as on a NetApp device."

More DDN IntelliFlash cons

"We faced one bug that impacted our NetApp last month, and it took some time to identify the underlying issue."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"The tool is an investment that we've budgeted for. While the prices may be higher than those of other vendors, we see it as a market leader with benefits. We don't regret purchasing it."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"I think we pay around 100 grand per year for three arrays or four arrays."

"I recommend the full bundle software in order to have all the functionality. It is more expensive to purchase it one by one."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...

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What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IntelliFlash?

It is a bit cheaper than other products, 10% to 20% cheaper.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IntelliFlash?

DDN IntelliFlash should improve in terms of sales. In future releases, I look forward to more features about AI and M...

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What is your primary use case for IntelliFlash?

We use IntelliFlash products for larger environments, like Qatar Airways. They have large scalability and use more th...

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What needs improvement with NetApp AFF C-Series?

We faced one bug that impacted our NetApp last month, and it took some time to identify the underlying issue. Better ...

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What is your primary use case for NetApp AFF C-Series?

We are using NetApp C series for our VMware environments mainly.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering NetApp AFF C-Series?

Overall, from one to ten, I would rate NetApp as an eight. As for additional advice, I suggest that NetApp provide mo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 16% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 12% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

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VAST Data vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 25% of the time

NetApp AFF vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 9% of the time

Tintri VMstore T7000 vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 8% of the time

SanDisk InfiniFlash System vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 7% of the time

More DDN IntelliFlash Competitors

NetApp AFF A-Series vs NetApp AFF C-Series

Compared 26% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs NetApp AFF C-Series

Compared 18% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs NetApp AFF C-Series

Compared 14% of the time

NetApp AFF vs NetApp AFF C-Series

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp NVMe AFF A800 vs NetApp AFF C-Series

Compared 11% of the time

More NetApp AFF C-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

January 2026

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash

February 2026

Download DDN IntelliFlash product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

January 2026

Download NetApp AFF C-Series product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

Tegile, IntelliFlash N-Series, IntelliFlash T-Series, IntelliFlash HD-Series

No data available

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

Western Digital through its IntelliFlash arrays delivers high-performance storage with a complete range of features and connectivity options, including inline compression and deduplication, application and VM consistent snapshots, replication, RAID, data encryption, VMware vCenter integration, and multi-protocol support for SAN (FC, iSCSI) and NAS (NFS, SMBv3). IntelliFlash arrays deliver high availability through dualredundant and hot-swappable components, active/active or active/passive controllers, non-disruptive software upgrades, eMLC flash, and proactive cloud-based monitoring, analytics, and intelligence. A RESTful API provides scripted or programmatic control.

DataDirect Networks

NetApp AFF C-Series enhances data storage efficiency and performance, seamlessly handling high workloads and data management tasks. It is leveraged for high-speed data accessibility, optimization, supporting critical applications, and delivering reliable performance in dynamic environments.

NetApp AFF C-Series is appreciated for its high performance, flexibility, and efficient data management. It offers seamless integration with cloud services, snapshot technology, and scalability. Users value its ease of setup, strong support, robust automation capabilities, reliable data protection, and fast response times. However, areas for improvement include better initial setup documentation, system stability during high I/O operations, more seamless integration with third-party cloud services, improved customer support response times, enhanced data analytics capabilities, and a more intuitive management dashboard.

What are the most important features of NetApp AFF C-Series?

High performance: Ideal for handling high workloads and ensuring swift data accessibility.
Flexibility: Seamless integration with cloud services.
Efficient data management: Advanced snapshot technology and scalability.
Ease of setup: Straightforward installation process.
Strong support: Robust customer support when needed.
Automation: Efficient automation capabilities for streamlined processes.
Data protection: Reliable safeguards for critical data.
Fast response times: Quick reaction to data requests and operations.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Data storage efficiency: Reduction in storage costs due to high efficiency.
Performance: Improved productivity with high-speed data access.
Reliability: Consistent performance in dynamic environments.
Support for critical applications: Ensures critical business applications run smoothly.
Cloud integration: Enhanced flexibility with seamless cloud service integration.
Scalability: Future-proofing storage needs with scalable solutions.

NetApp AFF C-Series is implemented across industries where data storage efficiency and performance are critical. In finance, it supports high-speed transactions, while in healthcare, it ensures reliable management of sensitive medical records. In the technology sector, it offers robust support for dynamic, data-intensive applications, enhancing overall business performance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Bank of Stockton, Barnsley College, Boyes Turner, Brigham Young University

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp AFF C-Series

February 2026

Free Report: DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp AFF C-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp AFF C-Series and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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