DDN IntelliFlash vs NetApp E-Series comparison

DataDirect Networks and NetApp are both solutions in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category. DataDirect Networks is ranked #14 with an average rating of 9.0, while NetApp is ranked #10 with an average rating of 10.0. DataDirect Networks holds a 1.1% mindshare in N, compared to NetApp’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of DataDirect Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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DDN IntelliFlash and NetApp E-Series compete in data storage solutions. DDN IntelliFlash outshines with its diverse performance capabilities, while NetApp E-Series is favored for its reliability.

Features: DDN IntelliFlash includes high scalability, mixed workload support, and efficient data reduction, offering versatility for different load demands. NetApp E-Series stands out with high-speed block-level storage, minimal latency, and suitability for bandwidth-intensive applications. This highlights DDN's flexibility against NetApp's speed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DDN IntelliFlash is noted for simplified management and intuitive deployment, ensuring a streamlined setup. NetApp E-Series provides straightforward deployment backed by prompt and knowledgeable customer support. Although both firms deliver effective customer service, DDN often has a faster deployment process, whereas NetApp prioritizes reliability.

Pricing and ROI: DDN IntelliFlash offers competitive setup costs and significant long-term ROI due to data optimization. NetApp E-Series may have higher initial costs but promises a strong ROI through sustained performance and lower maintenance over time, distinguishing DDN's cost-efficiency from NetApp's investment value.

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To learn more, read our detailed DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp E-Series Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp E-Series

July 2025

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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 August 2025, in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 2.9%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DDN IntelliFlash is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp E-Series is 2.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

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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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

A very cost-effective and reliable product for Big Data Analytics, Technical Computing, Video Surveillance, and Backup and Recovery

The E-2800 and E5700 have built-in storage to storage replication for full capacity! By that it meant; customers do not need to worry about DRS. All of the E-Series models offer all RIAD types, 1, 10, 5, 6, etc; so you will get more flexibility to create RAID groups based on your application requirements. The other thing is that it is almost plug-and-play; it is a good friend for storage support engineers. Secondly, at the same time, it is very simple to create RGs, Volumes, and host mappings; so for customers, it is also simple and easy to perform storage admin-related tasks.

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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

"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."

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

"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Pure FlashArray as ten."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"I appreciate the performance."

"Everything, especially the VMs inside, is pretty fast."

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"The latency is good."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

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

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

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

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

"It performed great originally, and when it performed great, it was awesome."

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

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

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

More DDN IntelliFlash pros

"The overall experience has been positive."

"Customers go for the E Series if they need backup storage because it is cheap."

"My customers are satisfied with the performance."

"The product is easy to use."

Cons

"Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive."

"It is on the expensive side."

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

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

"Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics should not incur extra charges."

"I'd like to see the product implement active replication for vehicles such as VMware."

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

"Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

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

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

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

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

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

"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 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."

"Performance is horrible now. Our original intent was to buy new storage in about two years. But since it became a critical urgency for us, we decided to purchase a new one in two or three months."

More DDN IntelliFlash cons

"With NetApp E-Series, when we are running active-active NAS4, sometimes due to either an issue or a bug, we experience failures. At least twice yearly, we have seen this issue. When it occurs, we lose critical systems such as MQ."

"Though the performance is there, if NetApp wants to be competitive with the others, it must improve their business continuity."

"The solution must provide more training courses."

"NetApp should add more production lines to the E series so we can make flexible solutions more easily."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We sell the hardware, and customers keep using it. They only renew the service part annually. The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"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."

"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."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

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."

"The price is reasonable for NetApp E-Series."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

35%

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IntelliFlash?

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

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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 do you like most about NetApp E-Series?

The product is easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp E-Series?

The price is reasonable for NetApp E-Series.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp E-Series?

The solution must provide more training courses. I have a team of nine people. Three or four of them are administrato...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 25% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 17% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

VAST Data vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 36% of the time

NetApp AFF vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 18% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 17% of the time

Tintri VMstore T7000 vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 10% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 10% of the time

More DDN IntelliFlash Competitors

Seagate Exos X Series vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 26% of the time

NetApp ASA vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 24% of the time

NetApp AFF vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 16% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 13% of the time

VAST Data vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

More NetApp E-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

August 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash

August 2025

Download DDN IntelliFlash product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

July 2025

Download NetApp E-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 E-Series offers a flexible, high-performance storage solution ideal for handling intensive data requirements. Designed to optimize capacity and improve data availability, it supports diverse sector needs.

NetApp E-Series is a purpose-built system engineered to deliver fast, consistent performance. It is best utilized in environments requiring high-performance workloads where speed and efficiency are crucial. Users appreciate its reliability and scalability, which contribute to effective data management. The system is known for its efficient storage capabilities, providing robust data protection and seamless integration with existing infrastructure.

What are the key features of NetApp E-Series?

Scalability: Supports expansion to accommodate growing data needs seamlessly.
Performance: Delivers high-speed processing for demanding applications.
Integrations: Easily integrates with existing IT environments, enhancing operational efficiency.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Cost Efficiency: Offers competitive pricing with long-term savings through energy-efficient designs.
Reliability: Provides consistent uptime, minimizing disruptions and improving productivity.
Flexibility: Versatile deployment options cater to specific performance and capacity requirements.

NetApp E-Series is widely implemented across industries ranging from healthcare to finance, where it supports critical data-intensive applications. Its deployment in environments such as scientific research and media production highlights its capacity for handling high-speed data access and reliable 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 E-Series

July 2025

Free Report: DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp E-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about DDN IntelliFlash vs. NetApp E-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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