Dell XtremIO vs NetApp AFF A-Series comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.2, while NetApp is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 1.7% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell XtremIO and NetApp AFF A-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 Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

August 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 909,725 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

Everpure FlashArray

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray is 6.9%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XtremIO is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp AFF A-Series is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Everpure FlashArray	6.9%
Dell XtremIO	1.7%
NetApp AFF A-Series	0.9%
Other	90.5%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV

Technical Lead at Wipro Limited

Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades

The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.

Read full review

Avi Shpaner

System Engineer at Exaware

Has improved data reduction and snapshot efficiency while supporting critical workloads

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see performance very clearly could be enhanced, similar to how NetApp works with Grafana and NetApp monitor, which shows you a comprehensive view of the whole picture. The snapshot functionality could work more similarly to Snap Center. If I want to see all the VCenter with the VM, I think it needs the API for this. I do see big differences between Dell and other products. NetApp works very closely with VCenter, and Hitachi also integrates well, but Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell. It needs the API, and I need to see all the snapshots. If I want to restore a VM from only a few directories or a few files that I need to restore, it is very difficult. I do see some differences in licensing. For the last few years, the Dell EMC price is acceptable. A few years ago, Dell EMC was expensive, approximately 20 percent more than NetApp. Right now the budget between EMC and NetApp is very closely aligned. Regarding the installation process and deployment of Dell XtremIO, I notice that in Israel, a lot of professional services and engineers who work with Dell EMC have moved to another storage company. I do not know why. Dell EMC does not have enough engineers, system engineers, or professional services engineers to provide service to the old clients, similar to how NetApp or Hitachi do. I think Dell XtremIO is between easy and complicated to deploy; it gives you the whole picture, but I need to go closely to VCenter to connect to VCenter to see the snapshot and to see performance with more dashboards of performance. I also need to connect the switch fiber channel to see all zoning to give me more flexibility to install or configure fiber channel or to see the performance of the fiber channels. I think there should be some fiber channel disconnect adapter or better troubleshooting from hardware for errors.

Read full review

Raymond Ciscon

Senior Systems Engineer at MacLean-Fogg Company

Gives us the foundation to grow efficiently

We're a manufacturer. All of our ERP software is dependent upon fast performance and connection to this hardware. So when there was an issue years ago when something was wrong or slow, that prompted us to say, "Can we check storage? Can we check the network?" Ever since we've gone up to all-flash FAS systems, there's never any questions about performance when it comes to storage. There's been a huge leap from spinning disks to SSDs. I'm hoping with the next update, we'll go to NVMe and we'll have similar experiences. Last year, we refreshed the SAN at our headquarters. We signed a Keystone agreement with the ability to pay for storage as a service at an excellent price point yet still have the hardware on-prem. I manage the hardware, and, for me, it's the best of both worlds. We've just come up with a situation where, finally, after some time, we're going to need to buy some additional storage. In previous situations like this, it usually meant the purchase of an additional shelf at a large price. Now we have Keystone, and we're locked in at that price per tebibyte. We just have to say that we want to add 25 tebibytes and they take care of it. It's worked out really well. We work ISO 27001 certified. Since I manage the enterprise storage, we use SnapMirror, and we're currently using Veeam for backups. Thanks to what this tool provides, we are able to get through that portion of our certification without a problem. No changes, no rectifying. It's very slick. Our company's goals include maintaining a level of consistency. We're never going to be on the bleeding edge. We're never going to have the super fastest abilities. We want something that works, is easier for us to manage, and has a better growth path. For us, in the past, in the need for additional disk space, if we didn't do the sizing right in the first place, buying additional disks was incredibly expensive. Now, with Keystone, that's no longer an issue, and that's what we like.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support has been amazing."

"Pure Storage FlashArray is a good product with minimal management requirements once set up correctly and helped reduce our storage footprint from EMC."

"This solution has improved our organization. In the past, we had reports that were taking up to two hours and after switching to SSD storage the overall processing power dropped to half an hour. The end users saw an immediate performance gain."

"The all-flash disc is the most valuable feature of this solution."

"We chose Pure Storage primarily because of its combination of performance and ease of use."

"The most valuable features are extremely low latency, high IOPS with VMware, inline deduplication and compression."

"It makes things ten times easier."

"This solution has improved my organization because it has good performance."

More Everpure FlashArray pros

"Moved and zoned our Prod Client facing Applications, providing quicker response to the business and more efficiency, and it also assisted with large datasets, thus dramatically reducing our batch runs."

"Overall space usage has decreased, plus input/output operations per second (IOPS). Performance has increased exponentially."

"Very good IOPS performance"

"The most valuable feature of Dell EMC XtremIO is the data protection (DP) group, it is one of the most advanced features in these types of arrays, and the dedupe and compression that this array provides both do a superb job."

"The most valuable features are: complete performance and ease of use."

"The speed and scalability of Dell XtremIO are significant features that improve data storage management."

"Utilizing the snapshot technology (recovery point) has been great for development."

"We have saved costs on storage and our users are getting quick response times for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)."

More Dell XtremIO pros

"The deduplication and compression options from NetApp AFF A-Series are good to use for efficient storage capacity."

"NetApp's hot and cold storage are its most valuable features. We currently use the A series. Immutable snapshots are another advanced security feature that is positive."

"We've reduced downtime. Without all of NetApp's benefits, we would have had to reconfigure parts of storage that would have required downtime. We have dramatically reduced our downtime through successive generations of NetApp, allowing us to get Five 9s availability."

"The amazing thing is that whenever we have come up with an issue where we need to get something done, and it wasn't necessarily available, they could do things for us, usually within the next revision of the software."

"NetApp helps us get the fastest output."

"MetroCluster is the best product on the market. It synchronizes the storage. NetApp's update packages are a huge advantage because the firmware and server updates are in one package."

"NetApp's inline deduplication and compression are unmatched compared to other vendors."

"NetApp AFF A-Series is faster and more robust compared to the all-flash storage of NetApp."

More NetApp AFF A-Series pros

Cons

"Everything has been good, but we faced one issue last year while migrating volumes from one Pure Storage to another. The snapshots were not visible in the Veeam backup portal."

"I would like to see support for NVMe, end-to-end."

"I would like to get a weekly report of how our storage has been used, and if there is any storage sitting there not being used."

"I can't see where they can make anything better, unless, of course, they lower their prices even more."

"In the next release I would like to see integration into other third-party player providers like Google."

"It's expensive, but you get what you pay for."

"What it needs to do is work a little closer with solutions, like VMware, so it understands the particular workloads that are on it. Today, it does not understand the applications which are running against it."

"The primary drawback is the cost, which can be prohibitive for small configurations."

More Everpure FlashArray cons

"They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application."

"I would like hardware capacity additions to be a little more flexible. The upgrade path for the existing XTremIO units requires you to purchase 2 XBricks at a time and they need to be the same capacity as the existing XBricks."

"Scalability is something that can be improved because there is an issue when it comes to mixing versions."

"It is very expensive to scale. You have to buy an additional system to extend from one disc, for instance. It is scalable, but extremely expensive to do so."

"UPDATE: 10:1 is too good to be true, EMC experts tell me 1.x-2:1 is more realistic for business critical databases."

"This solution is good for VDI environments, but not recommended for database workloads."

"This solution is geared toward enterprise-level companies. Small and medium-sized businesses would find it extremely expensive."

"The past upgrades were highly impactful to active workloads."

More Dell XtremIO cons

"Pricing could always be lower."

"NetApp AFF A-Series should work on cost. The solutions, especially enterprise-level storage, should be more affordable to improve their appeal to businesses."

"I really don't have a lot of complaints. In the past, there were issues, however, they've really done a great job of reaching out."

"NetApp is shifting to the cloud and adopting AI, but it is not improving its core technology to deliver faster storage. We're still waiting to see if it improves speed with solutions like the 90 series."

"The solution's ransomware protection could be improved."

"It would be helpful if our partner organized a yearly session with my team to discuss the new feature sets on our current solutions and other ways NetApp can help us. Perhaps we are missing some information to help us make the right decision."

"We have several problems with the limitations of NetApp systems in terms of volume shares. We have a brick in a 700 or a controller, and we sometimes make small volumes, but Kubernetes container volumes don't allow us."

"Regarding tech support for NetApp, once the engineer understands our problem, they provide solutions that suit our environment; however, it is essential for the engineer to understand that our environment may differ from standard setups, which can sometimes cause discrepancies in recommendations."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is too high."

"Pure Storage is expensive. It comes with features, so you get what you pay for. It is expensive compared to our old storage systems, but from the amount of human effort that you have to pay to babysit a storage system, it reduces that. I don't know if the TCO is reduced, but it's not a concern for us."

"Pure came in at a better price point than EMC and performed better than Compellent."

"The pricing is an issue. However, being all-flash, it will always be sort of expensive."

"There is an annual or perpetual license required for this solution."

"The cost was initially high, but once more people were using it, the costs came down. This was because the University was reselling it to other departments."

"The Evergreen Storage subscription is great, because then I get new controllers every three years."

"Pure is typically more expensive than everyone else. You get what you pay for, but I have lost deals to similar solutions because of pricing. They include everything, and that's another positive about Pure Storage. They aren't trying to nickel and dime their customers for different features. It is all included in one price. The license is by capacity, and the price depends on the capacity and the discount we're getting from the vendor. You get the SKU of the physical appliance, support, and maintenance, and that's it. You're licensed for whatever feature they offer. It is all rolled up into the price of the appliance."

More Everpure FlashArray pricing and cost advice

"Dell XtremIO's price is affordable and I would rate it a five out of ten."

"There are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"It is expensive if you need to increase scalability."

"The license for XtremIO is in the box, so you don't have to buy anything."

"You can get a two-year or three-year license for the tool. You can also opt for a perpetual-based licensing model, which can be renewed on a yearly or two-year basis."

"XtremIO is pretty straightforward about pricing. However, you need to look at your data so you can estimate, with the advice of DEL EMC, what data reduction ratio you will reach. In our case, a 3:1 reduction ration gave us a positive case compared to other storage arrays."

"This solution is a little bit pricey."

"Licensing is approximately $200,000 per year."

More Dell XtremIO pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	71
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	159

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	29

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?

Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...

See all answers

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

I find the pricing of Everpure FlashArray to be quite high compared to other storage solutions; however, the reliabil...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?

I believe we have covered the most important features; the architecture of Pure Storage is essential, and features su...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell XtremIO?

Pricing is hard to determine as it depends on the given configuration. XtremIO offers features that justify a potenti...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell XtremIO?

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see perform...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell XtremIO?

I was using Dell XtremIO as a storage admin and system storage admin internally within my company. My major use case ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp AFF A-Series?

NetApp is doing great with cloud integration; however, there may be room for improvement in integrating with existing...

See all answers

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

It would be great to see some automation from NetApp. I rate NetApp AFF A-Series a nine out of ten.

See all answers

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

With respect to pricing, NetApp can be competitive but hasn't been explored to a large extent.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 10% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 10% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

VAST Data vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 6% of the time

More Everpure FlashArray Competitors

Dell Unity XT vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

INFINIDAT InfiniBox vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 6% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 6% of the time

More Dell XtremIO Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 25% of the time

NetApp AFF C-Series vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 19% of the time

NetApp ASA vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 14% of the time

Fujitsu Eternus AF Series vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 13% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp AFF A-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Everpure FlashArray

August 2026

Download Everpure FlashArray product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO

August 2026

Download Dell XtremIO product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

August 2026

Download NetApp AFF A-Series product report

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray

Dell EMC XtremIO Flash, Dell EMC XtremIO X2, XtremIO, XtremIO X2

No data available

Overview

The FlashArray family delivers consistent, high-performance data services across block, file, and object workloads. As part of the Everpure Platform, it provides the foundation for a unified data plane, enabling applications to reliably access, protect, and manage data across environments with simplicity and predictability. With built-in capabilities such as inline data reduction, snapshots, replication, and ransomware resilience, FlashArray ensures efficient operations, protected data, and consistent application uptime.

As the foundation of the (unified) data plane, FlashArray enables policy-driven automation, monitoring, and centralized management while integrating across cloud and on-premises environments. Built on an Evergreen architecture, it supports non-disruptive upgrades and continuous performance improvements over time while simplifying operations at scale.

What Key Features Does FlashArray Offer?

Simplicity and Speed: Easy management and rapid performance enhancements.
Data Reduction: Effective deduplication and compression.
Flash Architecture: Seamless upgrades and outstanding resilience.
VMware Integration: Excellent compatibility with virtualization platforms.
Predictive Analytics: Strong insights for proactive management.

What Benefits Should Users Consider?

Reliability: Proactive support with minimal downtime.
Efficiency: Reduced storage footprint and enhanced data management.
Performance: Faster processing speeds and low latency.
User Experience: Simplified management with Evergreen model.

In industries like finance, banking, and healthcare, FlashArray supports high-performance storage needs focusing on virtualization and database environments. Employed for VMware workloads, disaster recovery, and storage provisioning, it ensures application performance in private or hybrid cloud setups while enhancing management of virtualized environments.

Everpure (formerly Pure Storage)

Dell XtremIO offers high performance, low latency, and excellent data services like inline deduplication and compression. Known for ease of use and scalability, it supports intense workloads while ensuring sub-millisecond response times, tailored for demanding environments.

Dell XtremIO is recognized for its ability to handle massive workloads, support high-performance applications, and provide seamless data access. It excels in delivering efficient data management with thin provisioning, impressive snapshot capabilities, and storage optimization. Users find it reliable and manageable, commonly utilized in sectors like banking and finance for its speed and consistency. However, limitations include volume restrictions, GUI issues, lack of native replication, and integration challenges with systems like VCenter. Enhancements in database workload performance and deduplication are desired, alongside improvements in support and training.

What are the key features of Dell XtremIO?

Inline Deduplication and Compression: Provides efficient data reduction, saving storage space.
Scalability: Handles growing data needs without compromising performance.
Snapshot Capabilities: Allows for quick and easy recovery of data.
Thin Provisioning: Optimizes storage usage efficiently.
High Performance: Ensures sub-millisecond response times across workloads.

What benefits and ROI do users seek in reviews?

Reliability: Consistently delivers high-speed data access and performance.
Manageability: Simple operations with efficient data management features.
Cost Efficiency: Provides value through storage optimization and data reduction.
Versatility: Supports diverse application needs across industries like finance and telecom.

In industries such as banking and finance, Dell XtremIO is implemented to manage virtual desktops, facilitate custom development, provide backup solutions, and support business applications. It's also popular among telecom companies for quick IOPS handling in on-premises cloud models and assists in complex storage operations with efficiency.

Dell Technologies

NetApp AFF A-Series is ideal for high-performance storage in enterprise environments. It efficiently handles large-scale data and provides reliable storage for virtual machines, databases, and critical applications.

NetApp AFF A-Series stands out for its speed, reliability, and robust data protection features. Users find its management easy and appreciate the efficiency in handling large workloads. Its seamless integration with cloud services and high data transfer speeds with reduced latency enhance its appeal. Scalability and support for various applications make it a top choice for enterprises. However, there is room for improvement in documentation, technical support response time, and third-party application integration.

What are the standout features of NetApp AFF A-Series?

High Performance: Delivers fast data transfer speeds and reduces latency.
Data Protection: Robust features ensure data integrity and security.
Ease of Management: Simplified administration enhances efficiency.
Cloud Integration: Seamless integration with cloud services.
Scalability: Easily handles growing data and application demands.

What benefits should users look for?

Enhanced Efficiency: Streamlined management processes save time.
Increased Reliability: High reliability ensures continuous operation.
Improved Data Security: Advanced data protection features safeguard information.
Cost-Effective Scaling: Efficiently scales to meet growing storage needs.
Better Cloud Utilization: Leverages cloud capabilities for more flexibility.

NetApp AFF A-Series is implemented across industries to support virtual machines, large databases, and critical applications. It's particularly valuable in financial services for fast transaction processing, in healthcare for managing extensive patient records and imaging data, and in tech companies for supporting development environments and big data analytics.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas

Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

August 2026

Free Report: Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp AFF A-Series report.

See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors.

We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.