We performed a comparison between NetApp AFF and Pure Storage FlashBlade 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."We find the ease of usability and setup valuable."
"I like the speed, and I like the API and how programmable it is."
"It's just very easy for general block storage."
"Pure Storage FlashArray's overall speed is its most valuable feature."
"Provides fast access and is user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature is replication."
"The most valuable feature of Pure Storage FlashArray is the all-flash storage performance, low latency, and efficiency of their de-duplication technology. Additionally, the ease of use is good compared to other storage systems. The features in data protection, snapshotting, and replication between data centers and sites are superior to other solutions."
"Access speed and power consumption are most valuable."
"It simplifies data management for NAS environments with its ease of management, ease of share creation, and Active IQ feature. These features are good overall. It helps us manage data quickly and sufficiently. Also, compression features, like dedupe, give us a good ratio."
"NetApp AFF's flash technology offers great performance. This feature has been my go-to for managing data and ensuring speed and reliability."
"It also helps to accelerate databases in our environment. First of all, there is the reliability of things staying online and the small response time as well, from the MetroCluster, for all of the data that we're serving; and the applications are talking to the MetroCluster. It provides a very fast response time."
"The most valuable feature of NetApp AFF for us is its ability to manage multiple IP spaces for our customers in a shared environment."
"The newest version of ONTAP has a bit of a learning curve because you need to learn where things are to find them. It is not impossible, but when you are accustomed to the older version of ONTAP, it just takes a bit getting used to it, but it is about the same as before."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is data protection and snapshot technology for backup."
"The NVMe flash cache is the most useful feature. It lowers transactional speed even more."
"The speed is great. That's probably number one in terms of features we appreciate."
"The tool's most valuable features are data warehousing, speedy recovery, and analytics. Its latest release is cost-effective."
"The product is scalable and easy to expand."
"The solution is able to handle workloads and is easy to use. It allows us to actually manage the boxes in less time."
"It is very easy to use, and it is very fast."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the rewrite speed and the nonstop services."
"The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great."
"The solution provides many controllers."
"Pure Storage FlashBlade is user-friendly. It's replication feature is great because it has active replication and active DR. That's the beauty of the product. It's a perfect solution for block storage."
"Pure Storage FlashArray could improve the recent file storage capabilities because it is lacking a lot of features."
"It is a bit expensive."
"It would be good to have metrics of the box's performance so we can see what it delivers, but currently, I can't see what it's actually doing."
"I want to learn more about command line usage which I have not explored much yet. However, there are many automated solutions for repetitive tasks. I would like to see additional features like performance monitoring, configuring of alerts, and the customization of alert thresholds in the next release."
"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."
"Pure Storage support could be a little better."
"We need to add more storage in Pure Storage FlashArray with the cluster mode activated for us to have better performance."
"There was some complexity in the initial setup."
"The initial setup has a lot more steps in it than are probably necessary for a base deployment, unlike other vendors where it's more straightforward. It could be a little bit more streamlined."
"In terms of improvement, the support could be a little better."
"Another issue is that for smaller customers, NetApp doesn't have enough disk sizes. You begin with a 980-gigabyte disk and the next size is 3.8 terabytes. There aren't any disk sizes in between. Competitors have more choices in disk sizes."
"One minor improvement could be making scale-up solutions with AFF more cost-effective compared to scale-out options."
"We would like to have a feature that automatically moves volumes between aggregates, based on the performance. We normally need to do this manually."
"You have a limit in terms of how much you can expand storage. It sounds like a lot. However, over the years, as you grow, it may be smaller than you think."
"This is an expensive solution that could be cheaper."
"In the past, NetApp designed it so that you have a 70% threshold. You would never fill up past 70% since you need to have that room available. Whereas with Pure, I can fill it up to 110% of what they listed and it's still going at full speed. NetApp can't do that."
"There is some room for new features related to authentication and integration with Kubernetes, and other solution using S3 Bucket."
"An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."
"It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release."
"I would also like to see better support for CIFS workloads."
"It usually comes down to just what you hit and the value you're getting when you spend the money and license the products. I would always go, "If you want to make things better, lower your price and make your licensing simpler." There's always an opportunity around that."
"I want efficiency. FlashBlade doesn't have efficiency now."
"File storage needs a lot of improvement. Mainframe connectivity also needs improvement because it requires additional components to be integrated with Pure Storage FlashBlade. If you want to keep your backup data, then this becomes an even more expensive solution because Pure Storage FlashBlade will not be able to meet your backup needs."
"Pure Storage FlashBlade should improve on more cloud integration."
NetApp AFF is ranked 2nd in All-Flash Storage with 48 reviews while Pure Storage FlashBlade is ranked 16th in All-Flash Storage with 9 reviews. NetApp AFF is rated 9.0, while Pure Storage FlashBlade is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of NetApp AFF writes "It has simplified our operational model by making routine processes easier and less prone to error". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Pure Storage FlashBlade writes "Immutable snapshots, great performance, and simple and easy replication". NetApp AFF is most compared with Dell Unity XT, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Dell PowerStore, VMware vSAN and HPE Nimble Storage, whereas Pure Storage FlashBlade is most compared with Dell PowerScale (Isilon), MinIO, VAST Data, Red Hat Ceph Storage and Super Micro SuperBlade. See our NetApp AFF vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade report.
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