IBM SoftLayer vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

IBM and NetApp are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. IBM is ranked #21, while NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0. IBM holds a 0.3% mindshare in PCSS, compared to NetApp’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

IBM SoftLayer

Read 2 IBM SoftLayer reviews

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43 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 62 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

2,577 Views
1,489 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM SoftLayer

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

IBM SoftLayer and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP are prominent cloud storage solutions with distinct strengths. While users report better pricing and support satisfaction for IBM SoftLayer, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP’s advanced features make it a preferred choice for those focused on comprehensive functionality.

Features: IBM SoftLayer is valued for its robust security, global data center presence, and straightforward deployment process. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is praised for its efficient data management, backup, restoration features, and sophisticated data services, making it more favorable for users needing advanced data management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Users of IBM SoftLayer seek improved integration options, enhanced analytics, and more extensive connectivity with third-party tools. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP users desire simpler usability, more intuitive configuration, and streamlined setup processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM SoftLayer users note its straightforward deployment process and responsive customer support. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides a relatively smooth deployment experience, with some users mentioning a learning curve. However, NetApp’s technical support receives high praise for its expertise, often offsetting initial setup challenges.

Pricing and ROI: IBM SoftLayer is generally perceived as cost-effective with quick ROI, emphasizing its affordability. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, while perceived as more expensive, is noted for delivering higher long-term value due to its advanced features, making it worth the investment for those seeking comprehensive data solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

April 2025

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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

IBM SoftLayer

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

21st

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

5th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Storage (1st), Cloud Backup (9th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of IBM SoftLayer is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is 7.2%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

reviewer1032702

Global Principal Cloud Architect at NTT DATA

Stable with excellent speed and agility

The most valuable aspect of the solution is simply to have the ability to host in a cloud form and out of the data center - the IBM big iron solution. It's the speed and the agility that really sell SoftLayer. The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer. The ability to extract act from your current location, load into your future location, with limited change, and then be able to take the transfer actions slowly and methodically after you're in your new location is the part that really makes this awesome. The stability and scalability are quite good.

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Madhusudan Srinivasmurthy

System Engineer at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Saves us a lot of time, and the administration is simpler

NetApp's Integration with AWS has helped us because we had a tough time transferring data when we used an ONTAP competitor as our storage partner. They don't have integration with AWS tools, so we had to figure it out on our own. ONTAP has built-in integration and allows us to replicate a copy to our second data center. Everything is in one channel. It's possible without the technology, but it's more time-consuming. NetApp saves us a lot of time, and the administration is simpler.

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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

"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."

"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."

"It gives a solution for storage one place to go across everything. So, the customer is very familiar with NetApp on-prem. It allows them to gain access to the file piece. It helps them with the training aspect of it, so they don't have to relearn something new. They already know this product. They just have to learn some widgets or what it's like in the cloud to operate and deploy it in different ways."

"The ability to see things going back and forth has been quite useful."

"The solution’s Snapshot copies and thin clones in terms of operational recovery are the best thing since sliced bread. Rollback is super easy. It's just simple, and it works. It's very efficient."

"Its features help us to have a backup of our volumes using the native technology of NetApp ONTAP. That way, we don't have to invest in other solutions for our backup requirement. Also, it helps us to replicate the data to another geographic location so that helps us to save on the costs of backup products."

"The most valuable features of this solution are SnapShot, FlexClone, and deduplication."

"We're able to use the SnapMirror function and SnapMirror data from our on-prem environment into Azure. That is super-helpful. SnapMirror allows you to take data that exists on one NetApp, on a physical NetApp storage platform, and copy it over to another NetApp storage platform. It's a solid, proven technology, so we don't worry about whether data is getting lost or corrupted during the SnapMirror."

"They have very good support team who is very helpful. They will help you with every aspect of getting the deployment done."

"NetApp's Cloud Manager automation capabilities are very good because it's REST-API-driven, so we can completely automate everything. It has a good overview if you want to just have a look into your environment as well."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."

"For us, the versioning was an issue."

"One difficulty is that it has no SAP HANA certification. The asset performance restrictions create challenges with the infrastructure underneath: The disks and stuff like that often have lower latencies than SAP HANA itself has to have."

"I would like to see better integration with Active IQ."

"I would like some more performance matrices to know what it is doing. It has some matrices inherent to the Cloud Volumes ONTAP. But inside Cloud Manager, it would also be nice to see. You can have a little Snapshot, then drill down if you go a little deeper."

"The only issue we had lately was that outside our VPC we could not reach the virtual IP, the floating IP. I heard that they have fixed that..."

"I'm very happy with the solution, the only thing that needs improvement is the web services API. It could be a little bit more straightforward. That's my only issue with it. It can get pretty complex."

"The data tiering needs improvement. E.g., moving hard data to faster disks."

"I would like to see more information about Cloud Volumes ONTAP using Google Cloud Platform on NetApp's website."

"We have used technical support. As long as they don't call me at four o'clock in the morning to tell me that a drive failed and they are sending me another one, I like it. They have a tendency to do that."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Once we deploy the pay as you go model, we cannot convert this product as a BYOL model. This is a concern that we have."

"They allow a special price if you are working closely with them. Since we have a lot of NetApp systems, we got some kind of discount. That's something they do for other customers, not just for us. The price was fair. In addition to the licensing fees, you're paying Amazon for your usage..."

"If we wanted to use the AWS solution, we would have to manage two or three different platforms and pay more money than what we should have to pay, as some of the features don't even exist. If we wanted to, we could use AWS cloning, but it is useless because it uses more space, is more expensive, and takes more time."

"For enterprise customers, it's a very cost effective. But in the SMB segment, yeah, pricing is a little bit challenge for your time."

"Our licensing is based on a yearly subscription. That is an additional cost, but because of the storage efficiencies that the NetApp gives, even with the additional cost of the NetApp license, you still end up saving money versus straight Azure native for storage. It's definitely worth it."

"It is expensive. There are no costs in addition to their standard licensing fees."

"Cost is a big factor, because a lot of companies can't afford enterprise grade equipment all the time. They skimp where they can. I would recommend that they improve the cost."

"Compared to other storage vendors, NetApp, is not always able to compete with their pricing. Yet, we acknowledge the ease of use ONTAP brings with the AWS integration."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

48%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

The solution's pricing is reasonable.

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What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

NetApp's support could improve.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon AWS vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 100% of the time

More IBM SoftLayer Competitors

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 17% of the time

Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 10% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 7% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Public Cloud Storage Services

March 2025

Download IBM SoftLayer product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

April 2025

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

CloudLayer

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

SoftLayer provides cloud infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.

Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.

IBM

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an efficient storage management solution for managing and storing data in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with cloud providers, advanced data replication capabilities, and high data protection. With reliable performance, it is ideal for industries like healthcare and finance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Whogohost Ltd., Skypicker, Infinity Computers and Communications Company, Grace Co. Ltd., Keyword, Uvionics Tech, Tennis Australia, immixGroup, Salesbox, Cxense ASA, Avnet Inc., Komsomolskaya Pravda, Seekr

1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard

Buyer's Guide

IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

April 2025

Free Report: IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SoftLayer vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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