HPE Nimble Storage vs NetApp AFF A-Series comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.7, while NetApp is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.7. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 2.7% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 99% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HPE Nimble Storage 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 HPE Nimble Storage vs. NetApp AFF A-Series Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

HPE Nimble Storage vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

April 2026

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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

Everpure FlashArray

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray is 7.5%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Nimble Storage is 2.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp AFF A-Series is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Everpure FlashArray	7.5%
HPE Nimble Storage	2.7%
NetApp AFF A-Series	0.8%
Other	89.0%

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.

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reviewer752799

Technical Manager at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees

Cloud management improves problem identification and future performance forecasting

My official job title is Technical Manager. I never sell the T-Series PowerEdge for Tower servers; I just sell the rack. I am familiar with OpenManage and we have been implementing it for the customer, but I am not familiar with Dell CloudIQ for infrastructure monitoring or SharePlex. I know about OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter, but we don't have a customer that is using this. I don't know much about Flash Optimized Architecture, but my customer is using both hybrid and full flash, and the customer that uses hybrid has benefited in terms of performance. HPE Nimble Storage is fairly priced compared to Dell; they are directly compatible and can compete with each other. Based on my direct experience, HPE Nimble Storage is easier to use compared to Dell, although I don't have much experience with Dell Storage. The interface and the concept of the storage structure make it easier to use. My overall experience as a reseller with HPE Nimble Storage is very good, and I would rate it 10 out of 10.

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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.

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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

"This solution has improved our organization in the way that we used to see latency but now with this solution we don't. It also has good performance. Latencies have come down for our performance in the SQL databases. We can put a lot more in a lot less in terms of space savings. We also save data center space have good deduplication."

"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."

"Their support system has insight into errors on our SAN fabric that we can't see. They've brought attention to and raised awareness for us about things that we couldn't see, when we were experiencing problems."

"The top-tier support and reliable storage are the most valuable features of this solution."

"We are finding the TCO of flash to be lower than SSD implementations."

"We noticed a dramatic increase in application performance when moving it from NetApp to Pure Storage."

"Everpure FlashArray is very good with AI development and is very suitable for low downtime and critical mission storage, so customers who need critical mission storage and those chasing performance should consider this solution."

"Pure Storage FlashArray provides immediate benefits to our customers with its easy setup process, allowing for instant use and rapid realization of advantages."

More Everpure FlashArray pros

"Customer Service: They're great."

"Any updates are just part of your subscription, so you don't have to buy add-ons for new features. You're continually adding value to it."

"If you test it yourself, it is clear how it just beats every other product hands down."

"The quality of the service and management tools let us make contractual guarantees for storage performance for customers. That's something we couldn't do before."

"The replay and IOPS work well."

"We receive great support."

"It has vastly improved the responsiveness of our servers."

"Look at Nimble; it fits that median point of "I want something better than my own, home-grown solution" and "I don't want to buy a product that is too expensive," and it is squarely in the middle."

More HPE Nimble Storage pros

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

"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."

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

"NetApp helps us get the fastest output."

"NetApp support is fantastic."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More NetApp AFF A-Series pros

Cons

"In terms of the future, I have been excited by some of the copy data management stuff that they're talking about building into the environment. There are feature sets where I've done a lot of automation work. So, I am always looking forward to extensions of their API. They're also talking about a phone home centralized analytics database being used as a centralized management console with a list of new cloud features, but this doesn't seem finalized."

"I’d love to view the average, minimum and maximum performance in the reports (Analysis tab - Performance) but it is only graphics and you need to export data in CSV to find this information."

"FlashArray's capacity for forecasting should be improved because it needs to be a bit more current. I think it's bundled with the deduplication and other compression factors. We need more user interfaces for forecasting in this software and more interfaces need to be integrated with this array management tool."

"I would love for them to have a hyper-converged solution."

"The technical support is okay, but could be improved."

"In the configuration, which we brought in or tested it in, it has a very limited config as far as the array goes. That said, it still did more than our anticipation."

"One thing I'd like to see in a future release is integration between their main storage array and what they call their FlashBlade product; to be able to snapshot directly from the primary array into multiple different backup copies on FlashBlade."

"The best way to improve Pure Storage FlashArray is the active DR because that can get very confusing, especially when you're trying to test a failover and replicate back; better instructions on how to do that would help because we actually lost an entire volume when we were testing out some stuff as the fingerprint got reinitialized, and when you replicated back, it didn't know about that volume, causing a failure in that process."

More Everpure FlashArray cons

"The solution is quite expensive. We can't really afford to buy a second device."

"HPE Nimble Storage could be improved with some critical application or servers."

"I think the scalability of HPE Nimble Storage could be improved."

"I want it to be an active-active array. Nimble would be great as an active-active array because then everything checks out."

"The resellers did the implementation of the solution, we did not do it ourselves. We have ten people for the deployment of the solution."

"The only thing I'm really looking for in my next array is some hyperconverged, so if they had something in that space... But I know they have SimpliVity so that is probably not going to happen."

"The solution’s stability could be better. The tool’s pricing is high and depends on the partner."

"I wish they would put the InfoSight page back the way it was. I got in it for the first time about two years ago, and it looked the same for about a year and a half. Then, about six months ago, it changed. There are different options now. I can still get to where I need to go, but it feels like it takes longer, where before it didn't. Also, I felt like I had a lot more options before. I have to do a lot more to digging now to get to where I need to go. I just wish they had their old page back."

More HPE Nimble Storage cons

"Pricing could always be lower."

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

"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."

"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."

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)."

"No storage device is cheap, but Pure Storage is fairly priced and offers what you pay for. You get all the licenses in the future when you purchase a license."

"It could always be lower, but it's okay."

"The license for Pure Storage FlashArray includes the support and there are no additional payments that are needed. This is not an inexpensive solution, you need to understand the value of your data before you use a backup solution."

"We lost a lot of customers because we couldn't compete on price with other vendors."

"It is light years beyond anything else with the same price point."

"FlashArray is expensive, but the quality justifies the price."

"It is cost-effective because after buying a subscription, they provide a service to upgrade hardware for free. They are providing so many features. When you consider the features provided, it is cost-effective."

More Everpure FlashArray pricing and cost advice

"We are paying for the licensing yearly."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable for the features that it provides."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing ten out of ten."

"It is cost-effective, which is important for a service provider, because you're competing with hyper-scale providers who do things at extremely large scale, who tend to kill you on price if you're not careful."

"From a price/performance perspective, Nimble simply can’t be beat. From a TCO perspective, the stability alone pays for itself."

"I rate HPE Nimble Storage's pricing an eight out of ten. It can be expensive, especially when considering console ports and renewals."

"Nimble Storage is too expensive for our enterprise customers."

"We don't require a license. If we used HPE InfoSight, then we would require a license, but for our needs, we don't need one."

More HPE Nimble Storage pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	66
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	156

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	43
Large Enterprise	40

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...

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

The only issue is the pricing. Because we have competition, our customers always take another brand and say they can ...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?

Our customers using Dell storage also use competing solutions. Our customers who have Everpure FlashArray may also ha...

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How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, z...

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Which would you choose - HPE Nimble Storage or HPE Primera?

HPE Nimble is a versatile synced WAN San solution. It is easy to use and doesn’t require much training for admins. Th...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Nimble Storage?

Other storage companies are very expensive, similar to HPE Storage. We choose HPE based on the know-how we have, whic...

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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...

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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 12% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

NetApp ASA vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 2% of the time

More Everpure FlashArray Competitors

NetApp AFF vs HPE Nimble Storage

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs HPE Nimble Storage

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs HPE Nimble Storage

Compared 8% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs HPE Nimble Storage

Compared 6% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs HPE Nimble Storage

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Nimble Storage Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 29% of the time

NetApp AFF C-Series vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 20% of the time

Fujitsu Eternus AF Series vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 13% of the time

NetApp ASA vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs NetApp AFF A-Series

Compared 5% of the time

More NetApp AFF A-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Everpure FlashArray

May 2026

Download Everpure FlashArray product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Nimble Storage

May 2026

Download HPE Nimble Storage product report

Buyer's Guide

All-Flash Storage

April 2026

Download NetApp AFF A-Series product report

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray

Nimble Storage

No data available

Overview

Everpure Storage FlashArray delivers simplicity, speed, and performance with ease of management and data reduction capabilities. Its resilience and seamless upgrades complement its integration with VMware, while predictive analytics and proactive support enhance reliability.

Everpure Storage FlashArray leverages a flash-based architecture for improved storage efficiency, reduced footprint, and outstanding data management through deduplication and compression. Users appreciate its single pane of glass management and Evergreen model. It supports VMware environments effectively, offering predictive analytics for better operational insights. The system is noted for its user-friendly management and proactive support, ensuring minimal downtime while delivering resilient storage solutions.

What Key Features Does Everpure Storage 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, Everpure Storage 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)

HPE Nimble Storage provides efficient and high-performance storage solutions with seamless OS upgrades, excellent performance, and proactive support. It offers scalable storage management with advanced capabilities, enhancing usability through strong integration with VMware.

Designed for simplicity and performance, HPE Nimble Storage facilitates smooth firmware updates without downtime, featuring advanced data compression, deduplication, and replication. InfoSight analytics offer predictive capacity management, improving efficiency and optimizing storage. While excelling in VMware environments, its pricing and feature set require careful consideration. Users often seek enhanced snapshot management, integration improvements, and broader protocol support alongside active-active controller capabilities.

What are the key features of HPE Nimble Storage?

Ease of setup and management: Quick installation with streamlined administrative tasks.
Seamless OS upgrades: Implements updates without disrupting operations.
Data compression and deduplication: Optimizes storage efficiency by minimizing data footprint.
InfoSight analytics: Provides predictive analytics for efficient resource management.
Integration with VMware: Enhances functionality for virtual environments.

What benefits should users consider?

High performance: Delivers reliable and fast data access for critical applications.
Proactive support: Expert assistance simplifies administration tasks.
Cost-effectiveness: Provides cost-efficient storage solutions with advanced capabilities.
Scalability: Adapts to growing data requirements, supporting long-term growth.

HPE Nimble Storage is widely adopted in sectors like legal, healthcare, and finance, supporting virtual environments and business-critical applications like ERP and document management systems. Emphasizing high availability and fast access, it addresses storage needs across production and test data, particularly in VMware settings.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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

Ace Relocation, Atkins Nutritionals, Berkeley Research Group, Canadian International School, City of Hot Springs, Clackamas County, Corona-Norco Unified School District, Ideal Integrations, Linear Technology, P&O Maritime, Retail Apparel Group (RAG), Virtual Radiologic

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

HPE Nimble Storage vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

April 2026

Free Report: HPE Nimble Storage vs. NetApp AFF A-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Nimble Storage vs. NetApp AFF A-Series and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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