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Dell SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility ) [EOL] vs NetApp SnapMirror 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 SRDF (Symmetrix Remote...
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp SnapMirror
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Data Replication (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user1564485 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Stable with great features and excellent support
I cannot recall us requesting any changes or new features. It does what we need it to do for the most part. If you are new to the product, the initial setup might be a bit difficult. There could be some new management or monitoring tools added to the solution. Those need a separate license. It would be nice if they were on the basic configuration.
LeeLee2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage Infrastructure Engineer at Gigabit Technologies Pvt Ltd
Reliable replication has transformed disaster recovery and supports realistic dev-test environments
The best feature NetApp SnapMirror offers is block-level incremental replication, which is the foundation of everything. After the initial baseline transfer, only the changed blocks move across the wire, not entire files or volumes. In a busy storage environment, that is the difference between replication that fits in your backup window and replication that hammers your network all day. NetApp SnapMirror has positively impacted our organization by taking us from a theoretical DR capability, meaning we had a secondary site but had never fully tested a failover, to a validated, tested, documented DR process that we run quarterly, which is a fundamental change in our risk posture. Management can now say with confidence that if the primary site goes down, we recover within two hours with zero data loss on critical systems.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Customer service for this product was top notch."
"The feature of taking snapshots from the replicated volumes has allowed us to use them for DR testing to validate the application consistent point of recovery."
"In all the companies in which I have used the product the ease of Disaster Recovery was implemented in such a manner that the risk of a site disaster was mitigated in an efficient way, and it made the migrations of complete data centers to other new data centers at other locations a piece of cake."
"The SRDF solution has improved our disaster recovery RPO to near zero or less than 15 minutes with RTO getting drastically reduced."
"Customer Service: Very good. Technical Support: Very good."
"We've found the support to be very good overall."
"Customer Service: Top notch. Technical Support: Excellent."
"They have a very effective dashboard and good reports."
"Data protection is a valuable feature."
"The user interface is very easy to manage. The replication is also very easy to set up."
"Previously, we were using a Windows-based file server and didn't have the high availability, replication to a secondary site, or snapshot capability, which is what we were looking for."
"A NetApp storage solution allows a company to architect a disaster recovery plan that protects all company data."
"Management can now say with confidence that if the primary site goes down, we recover within two hours with zero data loss on critical systems."
"What I like most about this solution is its simplicity."
"The most valuable feature is the snap shot."
 

Cons

"As of late I have seen the replication drop but this was not due to the SRDF, it was due to the high rate of IO changes on the OS side."
"SRDF compared with EMC Recover Point has less capabilities, for ex. CDP (local or remote) is missing, only EMC assets compatibility, as a TCO is more expensive than implementing IBM SVC or EMC VPLEX virtualization and replication (more supported assets)."
"The main pain point that we experienced is during device creation."
"Our ROI was minimal, because we use it for a cold, disaster recovery method."
"The main pain point that we experienced is during device creation. For every newly provisioned volume, creating replication relationships between production and DR site, creating snapshots for third copy at DR site, and configuring them in appropriate replication groups and device groups means that there are lot of steps involved and a lot of room for error. There has to be a lot of checks and balances which need to be incorporated to make sure that the solution is set up correctly."
"In general, it’s very stable although some time SRDF don’t behave as expected specially if the link is not stable or saturated."
"If you are new to the product, the initial setup might be a bit difficult."
"The user interface could be simplified. They might want to have fewer options on it, to make it less complicated. There are a lot of options we never use ourselves. They're often very specialized and don't apply to us."
"The solution's dashboard and reporting could be improved."
"The price could be cheaper."
"We have different families of storage, such as the E-Series and Flash systems, but NetApp cannot be set up between them."
"I think that NetApp needs to improve the performance of SnapMirror with controller volume access."
"The new coursework models need to be improved. The bandwidth monitoring could also be better."
"It's necessary to install NetApp simulator to avoid complications."
"This process can get out of control sometimes and cause excessive disk utilization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It's a highly cost-effective solution"
"The product price is reasonable."
"The cost is low compared to different vendors."
"The solution has monthly and yearly licensing options."
"The pricing could be improved."
"SnapMirror is extremely expensive. We had a hard time adjusting to our budget. If rated on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most expensive, I would definitely rate it ten out of ten."
"The pricing can be improved."
"It's part of the NetApp Firewall, so it's free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp SnapMirror?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that NetApp SnapMirror is licensed as part of the ONTAP Data Protection bundle, which covers both NetApp SnapMirror and SnapVault. For or...
What needs improvement with NetApp SnapMirror?
NetApp SnapMirror can be improved as the initial configuration is not simple; if you are new to NetApp and ONTAP, NetApp SnapMirror concepts take time to get right. Peering clusters, peering SVMs, ...
What is your primary use case for NetApp SnapMirror?
My main use case for NetApp SnapMirror is disaster recovery replication, primarily, as we have two data centers and NetApp SnapMirror keeps our critical data synchronized between them continuously....
 

Also Known As

No data available
SnapMirror
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Global Security Provider, SSM Health Care, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Shriners, BZWBK, Qatar Islamic Bank, Sudwestrundfunk (SWR)
University at Albany, City of Houston, Yahoo Japan, Washington Employment Security Department, DG Khan Cement Co. Ltd., AmTrust Financial Services, Sheridan College
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Fivetran, Dell Technologies and others in Data Replication. Updated: July 2026.
909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.