Dell Data Protection Advisor vs NetApp SnapCenter comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.5, while NetApp is ranked #48 with an average rating of 7.5. Dell Technologies holds a 0.4% mindshare in BRS, compared to NetApp’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell Data Protection Advisor

Read 13 Dell Data Protection Advisor reviews

1,597 Views
1,549 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

NetApp SnapCenter

Read 27 NetApp SnapCenter reviews

1,188 Views
1,105 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell Data Protection Advisor

NetApp SnapCenter

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Dell Data Protection Advisor and NetApp SnapCenter are two notable data protection solutions competing in the enterprise software market. Dell Data Protection Advisor seems to have the upper hand in deployment and customer service, while NetApp SnapCenter takes the lead in features and ROI.

Features: Dell Data Protection Advisor has comprehensive monitoring, robust alerting capabilities, and advanced data analysis. NetApp SnapCenter offers integration with diverse environments, efficient backup options, and seamless snapshot management.

Room for Improvement: Dell Data Protection Advisor could improve scalability, reporting flexibility, and customization options. NetApp SnapCenter users suggest improvements in the learning curve, support documentation, and making management more intuitive.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Data Protection Advisor is praised for straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. NetApp SnapCenter reports a steeper learning curve but benefits from robust functionality.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Data Protection Advisor offers competitive setup costs with mixed reviews on ROI. NetApp SnapCenter, though higher in upfront cost, is considered worth the investment due to its extensive features and positive ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. NetApp SnapCenter Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. NetApp SnapCenter

July 2025

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

Dell Data Protection Advisor

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

34th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp SnapCenter

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

48th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Data Protection Advisor is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp SnapCenter is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

AnkurGupta1

Lead Consultan at HCL Technologies

Offers seamless integration with robust data privacy features

I am currently working with other companies on data center solutions. In our data center, we work with HP, Dell, and Nutanix on data center build-up and migrations. I work with Dell Data Protection Advisor for cloud, though not extensively, and we provided that solution to one customer and are awaiting their approval. I am a reseller and service provider. We implemented Dell Data Protection Advisor for data privacy, and another team handles data protection and related issues. I did not work extensively on specific features, so nothing particularly stands out. From my reseller and end customer perspective, I would rate Dell Data Protection Advisor an eight out of ten as it is a good solution.

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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Integrates well with various applications , provides a cloning feature for creating snapshots or clones of volume and a centralized command

It is basically centralized command control software. When the users visualize the workflow of the backup, the management and the customer storage administrator know the ins and outs of the backup and recovery. They can make the strategy for their backup and recovery and the certainty of their backups and restore. Strategic planning: Also, it is easy to make a strategy when you have visualized the inflow and outflow of the backup and recovery. With the CLI or native way, without any UI or management tool, you might not be able to create any strategy at all. This is especially important when you have multiple storage systems inside your data center or organization. You need a tool that connects and visualizes the workflow of the backup and recovery from all the storage systems and NetApp storage systems installed within the organization. It is very important when you have multiple storage systems, and you need to manage your backup and recovery workflow. Ease of Management: Unlike other storage vendors, NetApp has its own product called SnapCenter. Other vendors need to acquire third-party software or integrate with other software to manage storage systems. NetApp has its own solution, which is SnapCenter. NetApp's SnapCenter gels well with their storage systems and products. Ease of management is already there. It's a fine software with easy installation, management, and understanding. It's not a complicated software to understand.

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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

"It generates very detailed reports, which makes things easier when it comes to IT auditing."

"The most valuable aspects of the solution are the compression and the duplication."

"The solution is easy to use, flexible and has a lot of out-of-the-box functionality. You can configure the dashboards or you can use a script. However, to fully utilize its capabilities you will want to use a lot of scripts which you will need advanced training. The reports can be customized for many things, such as chargeback billing."

"The product's ability to give predictions and advice on how to protect data is incredible."

"It has a lot of stock reports. I believe over 300 canned reports, which for the most part meet a lot of generic needs."

"The reporting feature and the Dell's continuous improvement of the solution are the most valuable features. The solution not only supports Dell Power Products but also other products."

"The initial setup is very straightforward. Deployment typically takes about one hour. You just need one person to handle the deployment process."

"The platform's most valuable features are data protection and retention."

More Dell Data Protection Advisor pros

"A feature that stands out is cloning databases. If you have a SQL database and it's huge, like one terabyte, the classical SQL way would be to do a backup-restore to create a clone of your database for test purposes. With SnapCenter now, we can clone a database but through the Snapshot technology, which means if you right-click and you click Clone, the one terabyte database is there instantly."

"What is very handy for our clients is the consolidated view. They have a dashboard with everything, through a single pane of glass. This is what they really need because, within seconds, they can have a good overview and see if there are any errors or any issues."

"The support from NetApp is very good, and I would rate it as ten points."

"The backup process finishes very quickly."

"The simplicity of backup and restore directly with VMware is an advantage and the time to backup and restore is reduced."

"The main advantage is its fast backup and restore."

"It has very fast backup and can handle a huge amount of data. It also enables really fast recovery."

"It's very helpful because SnapCenter is already integrated with VMware Snapshot, so it's very easy to use."

More NetApp SnapCenter pros

Cons

"They should empower their customers with the ability to upgrade this solution as long as it's in the same major release."

"It is difficult to manage the solution with the available tools. You need to know exactly what are you are doing."

"We have encountered issues where we were unable to pull data from the database server. It should also improve the backward compatibility."

"Customization of reports or creating new reports can be difficult. Users need to have a deep knowledge of SQL. 70-80% of customers can't seem to understand how to do it. They don't know how to address reporting. If Dell EMC could simplify it, it would benefit the end-user."

"The product could be improved by addressing intermittent collector failures affecting status reports' accuracy."

"It's a bit difficult for first-time users."

"The solution requires more integration with our other solutions. I know that they have full integration with VMware because it is also from EMC. However, we have to have better integration with Microsoft and Nutanix as well."

"There is a steep learning curve to use the interface and to create new reports, this could be made easier. If the solution could provide more drag and drop functionality to build more advanced reports that would be very helpful."

More Dell Data Protection Advisor cons

"The interface usability needs improvement. It should be more user-friendly and easier for customers to use."

"My major issue is when I upgrade. I have to touch every last client that I have in SnapCenter, and right now I have 60... They said that in another release that will get better, but right now it's not better and I've had to do this three times."

"When you have role-based access, for example, it's a bit of a problem that the person who creates the backup job is the owner of it. We are struggling a bit with this, that everyone has the same view and the same permissions in there."

"It needs to support vSphere 6.7."

"The tool could be faster."

"I have an issue with SnapCenter because sometimes a VM cannot be backed up... The way SnapCenter works is that it makes a backup of all the VMs and then it removes all the old backups. If one VM cannot be backed up for some reason, it has already created a new backup for all the VMs but it cannot remove the old backups. It ends up creating so many backups in VMware and it will cause a performance problem if the condition is not fixed."

"The Dashboard view needs to be more compressed with better ease of access and drill-down features. They should also reinstate Linux filesystem backups of storage volumes (which existed in the prior version)."

"The UI, the User Interface, needs to be improved. It's not as clean or modern as it could be."

More NetApp SnapCenter cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not very expensive — I think the price is fair."

"If the customer has huge lineup of Dell Products then they receive discount on the pricing."

"The product pricing has been satisfactory, particularly with the economy of scale in our agreement."

"You need to make an upfront payment for three, five, or seven years and renew the licenses for support. We can do an annual maintenance contract with Dell. I would rate the product's pricing a six out of ten."

"You have to procure the license when you are ordering or quoting for Dell Data Protection Suite (DPS). DPS is bundled with the suite and comes with a license. However, if you purchase NetWorker separately then you will have to procure the license for DPS separately."

"The product is affordable."

"For pricing, I would rate Dell 2 out of 5. It's affordable."

"It comes free with the amount of equipment we purchase from NetApp. In terms of pricing, zero is my favorite number."

"The product is inexpensive."

"The licensing is well-designed because it's already included in some packages with NetApp storage. Therefore, for most customers, it's okay as the SnapCenter license is already included in some NetApp bundles."

"The license for SnapCenter was included with the storage array."

"We see a financial value with SnapCenter because we don't have to license Commvault, which is pretty expensive."

"Pricing is very good because if you already have NepApp controllers, then it's included."

"It's free. The license is included with other NetApp products."

"We have a site license, so it comes with the product."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

11%

Performing Arts

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

19%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell Data Protection Advisor?

The platform's most valuable features are data protection and retention.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell Data Protection Advisor?

The product is satisfactory regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell Data Protection Advisor?

From a service perspective, improvements are needed at Dell because when customers call, it takes a long time to get a response for calls or emails. Response time is the main problem that needs add...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp SnapCenter?

Most banks and financial institutions use the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp SnapCenter?

The product should be free because it is just software to administrate systems purchased from NetApp, which are already expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp SnapCenter?

The interface usability needs improvement. It should be more user-friendly and easier for customers to use.

See all answers

Comparisons

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 27% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 17% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 17% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 15% of the time

HPE Zerto Software vs Dell Data Protection Advisor

Compared 13% of the time

More Dell Data Protection Advisor Competitors

Synology DSM vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 24% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 17% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 12% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 10% of the time

Rubrik vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 10% of the time

More NetApp SnapCenter Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor

August 2025

Download Dell Data Protection Advisor product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp SnapCenter

August 2025

Download NetApp SnapCenter product report

Also Known As

DPA

SnapCenter

Overview

Effectively managing your data protection environment can be labor intensive and complex. It requires knowledge of backup applications, replication technologies, and the entire supporting infrastructure, yet it is critical in keeping your data secure.

With Dell Data Protection Advisor, you can automate and centralize the collection, monitoring and reporting of this data and get a single, comprehensive view of your environment, no matter where your data resides. This includes monitoring data on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

With clear visibility, you can gain actionable insight and effectively manage service levels while reducing costs and complexity. You can also collect and report on that data to help other stakeholders make the best decisions for your organization.

Data Protection Advisor is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite.

Dell Technologies

Unified, scalable platform for application-consistent data protection and clone management. This software simplifies backup, restore, and clone lifecycle management with application-integrated workflows.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Trek Bicycle, Cal-Israel Credit Cards

All for One Steeb AG, Accenture

Buyer's Guide

Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. NetApp SnapCenter

July 2025

Free Report: Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. NetApp SnapCenter

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Data Protection Advisor vs. NetApp SnapCenter and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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