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Dell PowerVault vs NetApp AltaVault comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 PowerVault
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise SAN (2nd), Fibre Channel (1st)
NetApp AltaVault
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (56th), Deduplication Software (12th), Disk Based Backup Systems (7th), Cloud Backup (45th), Cloud Storage Gateways (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Dell PowerVault and NetApp AltaVault aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Dell PowerVault is designed for Enterprise SAN and holds a mindshare of 30.4%, up 4.5% compared to last year.
NetApp AltaVault, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Backup, holds 0.3% mindshare, up 0.3% since last year.
Enterprise SAN
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

SigfridCecillon - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good stability and simplicity
The room for improvement lies in the responsiveness and real-time feedback of the web server setup. We could set up the installation through a web server, but it's not very reactive on the web server. For example, when you launch a task, and you don't know exactly if the task has begun or if the task is in progress, or if it's finished. You have to wait for three to five to ten minutes to be sure that the task is running or in progress or finished. So at that point, it's not very good. For the rest, we have a good organization for the platform. And it's working everywhere. Another area of improvement is duplication.
Naveen Radhwani - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable, fulfils compliance requirements, and enables to manage data backups easily
I use the solution for backup and recovery Our systems have become more stable and scalable after using NetApp AltaVault. The dashboard is useful for managing data backups. The deduplication technology helps me take offline backups efficiently. The workload on the end team has been reduced. It…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Dell warranty is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its ability to provide small to medium-range storage. It doesn't have any specific standout features, but it's great for applications, such as surveillance where a large number of videos need to be recorded and performance isn't a priority."
"The storage has been good."
"The solution is reliable and stable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The initial setup was easy and simple."
"I like the tool's CloudIQ feature."
"I find this solution to be cost-effective in providing data storage for clients."
"Being able to move data seamlessly from one-premise to the cloud (Azure). It works great. The backup solution is perfect for us."
"Its initial setup is easy."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is easy to use and integrate with whichever operating systems you use, providing you with a complete view, especially when you plan to migrate to some other operating system."
"The deduplication engine. Right now, we're at about 10.5 to 11 times deduplication of our backup data."
"The solution can be used for all Office 365 applications."
"The dashboard is useful for managing data backups."
"You can store backups for a while."
"The flexibility. Being able to virtualize it, port it wherever I like, test my backups, test my DR capabilities whenever I like without impacting anybody."
 

Cons

"Dell PowerVault could improve by having a higher cache and file protocol support added."
"If the solution came with a synchronous application, it would be particularly advantageous for small businesses operating across multiple sites."
"The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level during these upgrade processes, as we sometimes need to shut down both controllers. This could be an area for improvement."
"There have been situations when our customers requested professional support and the price of that feature is quite high."
"PowerVault doesn't integrate with Active Directory. Other storage solutions offer SAN and NAS unified storage in a single appliance, but PowerVault is only SAN."
"I would like Dell to improve on the configuration of the disk groups. Only one group is expandable. Once you configure the other disk group types, you cannot expand them. It limits scalability. If you want maybe to grow a disk group, you lose information, and then you need to build it up again, which is not a good use case for customers."
"The high prices of the solution are an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Dell PowerVault is block-oriented storage only."
"More capacity with the basic model of the AltaVault would probably help out."
"The solution needs faster indexing."
"It would be nice if the solution was more complete. Many customers are looking for a single solution or silo that they can manage everything from. It would be nice, instead of having different products, if everything a client needed was in one solution."
"What could be helpful is different user base authentication so then maybe we could allow different customers to point to a single appliance and they only see the backups and things that they have."
"The initial setup phase of the tool was difficult."
"There are some bits it could do better. With tighter integration maybe with Veeam, or something like that, it'd be really good."
"NetApp's own competing products complicate things."
"The product must provide multi-gate connectivity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is inexpensive."
"The price is reasonable and we are satisfied with it."
"I rate the product price a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high."
"I would rate the pricing model a nine out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap."
"The solution is more cost-effective than the competitors. It’s an affordable option for small businesses."
"The price of Dell PowerVault could be reduced. It is more expensive than some IBM solutions."
"The cost, compared to other solutions, is on the higher end."
"Dell PowerVault's price is the tool's main attraction."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution, which comes to around 3,000 USD."
"The price is a bit high."
"The pricing is not too bad, but could be a little better."
"In one use case, and we have several, to run for a particular customer, the price is about $375,000 a year."
"You could compare it to a Dell EMC or ECS, and I think it's probably a little less costly than that. Within the marketplace, it's a medium cost."
"It's quite cost-effective."
"It is a rather expensive program."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Real Estate/Law Firm
10%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerVault?
Dell PowerVault offers valuable full flash storage.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerVault?
I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerVault?
The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level durin...
Is NetApp AltaVault compatible with AWS?
Hello. Yes, it is compatible with AWS but the great thing about it is that it's actually working with so many cloud providers, it may be just for everyone. Besides the Amazon cloud services, NetApp...
Can AltaVault be used for data reduction?
Hello, you can definitely use NetApp AltaVault for reducing your data and giving yourself some more storage. This product offers you deduplication and compression, helping you achieve that. I'm su...
What kind of security does NetApp AltaVault give you?
My organization is very happy with the security that NetApp AltaVault gives us for our data on the cloud. First, it gives us the option for data recovery, which is very good, especially if someone...
 

Also Known As

PowerVault
AltaVault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dayco, FAW Foundry, University of Cambridge, Finder, Stadtwerke Pforzheim GmbH & Co.
Blach Construction, NASA, Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes, Seminole County Public Schools and Spot Trading
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Enterprise SAN. Updated: May 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.