NetApp StorageGRID vs Qumulo comparison

NetApp and Qumulo are both solutions in the File and Object Storage category. NetApp is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Qumulo is ranked #21. NetApp holds a 5.8% mindshare in FaOS, compared to Qumulo’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qumulo users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Qumulo and NetApp StorageGRID compete in the data storage market. Qumulo appears to have the upper hand in ease of use and customer support, while NetApp StorageGRID offers advanced features justifying its pricing model.

Features: Qumulo offers scalable file storage, real-time analytics, and seamless cloud integration. Their analytics provide insights into processes, users, and file interactions, enhancing overall management. NetApp StorageGRID provides robust object storage capabilities, flexibility, and reliable data management functions. It integrates well with backup platforms like Veeam and Veritas and supports data deduplication and compression, saving significant storage space.

Room for Improvement: Qumulo could enhance its data protection features and provide more detailed reporting capabilities. Their recovery options in disaster scenarios also need improvement and additional failover strategies should be integrated by default. NetApp StorageGRID could refine its interface to improve user experience further and simplify policy management for Information Lifecycle Management. Enhancing its integration with third-party tools could also benefit users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qumulo offers straightforward deployment with excellent customer support, efficiently guiding clients through setup processes. This focus on simplicity is contrasted with NetApp StorageGRID's more complex deployment, which is offset by strong technical support aiding in customization. The choice here often depends on whether clients prioritize ease or flexibility in deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Qumulo presents a competitive pricing model with quick ROI, thanks to lower initial setup costs. This makes it appealing for businesses seeking affordability and rapid returns. NetApp StorageGRID, while demanding a higher upfront investment, promises an impressive ROI over the long term through its rich set of features and scalable solutions. Businesses valuing durability and extended value tend to favor this option.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

June 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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp StorageGRID is 5.8%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qumulo is 4.0%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

Read full review

Werner Broekhuizen

Presales Consultant at KPN IT Solutions - Trusted Services

Provides seamless data integration and has a reliable technical support team

The platform is highly scalable, allowing easy addition of enclosures and drives, making it non-disruptive and straightforward to expand as needed. It was originally hardware-agnostic, and its integration into NetApp has maintained this scalable nature, allowing for growth without compromising existing infrastructure. Its scalability is around an eight out of ten. It can handle large-scale and unstructured data needs. Its ability to manage significant volumes of data effectively makes it suitable for enterprises requiring robust storage solutions.

Read full review

VinceVitro

Senior Storage Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Useful data sharing, simple cluster scaling, and excellent support

One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential.

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

"We can capacity plan at a greater level than we used to."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the rewrite speed and the nonstop services."

"I would rate this solution an eight plus. It has has good flexibility and stability, it's easy to manage and the response time is good."

"Among its most appealing features are its ease of handling and minimal maintenance requirements."

"What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware. Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power outages when we need to quickly move data between different data centers. It ensures efficient replication and helps maintain our data centers' uptime."

"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"The initial setup is pretty easy and simple."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The most valuable feature is tiering."

"The feature of StorageGRID that I find most valuable for ensuring data durability and protection is its Information Lifecycle Management functionality."

"It has improved our operational efficiency through time consumption and logistics by 40 to 50 percent. Everything that had to do with our legacy tape solution has been improved and is now more efficient."

"The technical support is good."

"NetApp StorageGRID is a great alternative to AWS S3 buckets."

"The speed of the disks removed the bottleneck from our storage."

"Duplication, interface and the manageability is good and simple."

"The scalability is very effective for our customers."

More NetApp StorageGRID pros

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are the ease of management and special permissions that are quick to enable. The overall performance of the solution is good."

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are its rolling updates and all-day availability."

"The data protection algorithm to protect the data between the nodes has been the most valuable feature. The integration with backup platforms such as Veeam and Veritas has also been valuable."

"It is a very stable product. I never faced any issues."

"The most valuable feature is real-time analytics."

"The feature that I like most is the analytics part of the file system."

"The most valuable feature of Qumulo is the ability to share files and reliability."

"The ratio of total operational cost to complexity versus feature set is very good."

Cons

"There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

"We initially encountered challenges with the assembly process due to issues with the documentation required during setup, an area where Pure Storage needs improvement."

"Commvault has mainly driven the Analytics, providing data and reports. However, the product has room for improvement, especially regarding storage analytics. Upgrading firmware has caused issues, requiring feature disabling to revert to traditional backups. The firmware upgrades sometimes affect Commvault backups."

"Recently, while upgrading the version code, one of the controllers failed. Replacing the controller took between 14 to 20 days."

"There is some room for new features related to authentication and integration with Kubernetes, and other solution using S3 Bucket."

"I would like to have Snapshots and Snapmail in the next release. People who came from a NetApp background, especially expect these features."

"Compared to, for example, Hitachi NAS, the solution is not mature at all. It's just in its infancy as far as technology goes."

"The solution is expensive."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"Improvements need to be made in the support area."

"The price is something that NetApp could improve, as with most companies. NetApp is known for not being the cheapest storage option, which is also valid for StorageGRID. There are other storage options on the market which we are aware of and have done proofs of concept for, but you cannot really compare the list prices because, as a big user of NetApp storages, we have totally different prices than some list prices. Still, the price information we got for other options are almost always less expensive than StorageGRID."

"One key improvement I'd like to see in StorageGRID is enhanced visibility for management purposes."

"I would like to see them integrate more with the monitoring platforms. It is a bit difficult to get automated monitoring of the system."

"They can enhance the deduplication and compression features, which are crucial for saving more disk space."

"They can enhance the deduplication and compression features, which are crucial for saving more disk space. It's not at the same level as the NetApp filer or the real NetApp cluster that runs itself on its architecture, as StorageGRID is a software solution that emulates a RAID level."

"It has its quirks here and there, but it is an older NetApp system."

"The processes around installation and upgrade need improvement."

More NetApp StorageGRID cons

"In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

"One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential."

"In the next release, I would like to see the ability to have more control at a terminal level of the file system."

"The price of the software is a bit expensive, so a reduction in cost would make it more competitive."

"Qumulo should continue to expand automation and orchestration capabilities."

"The support for iMac and protocols should be improved, not all features are available."

"Some anti-theft permissions do not transfer well to Qumulo."

"The solution could improve availability and improve data protection or data services such as compression of deduplication. In a future release, we'd like to have more cloud API integrations."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I feel that the price could always be lowered."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade."

"Our customers have seen a reduction in TCO."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

"Support is a separate line item. Support is a different cost, but whatever your support is now, that's what you're going to pay forever. If your support's $100 today, six years from now it's $100. It doesn't fluctuate unless you upgrade it, or change it, etc."

"The price is a little high."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances."

"Creating your own data stores, backups, or storage grids, helps eliminate all these costs of downloading all the data back after you downloaded to the cloud."

"Our licensing is in INR it was around 25 lakhs, which is roughly two million."

"The pricing of StorageGRID falls within the typical range for enterprise-grade solutions and is comparable to other vendors such as Dell, NetApp, and Pure Storage."

"The licensing that the S3 service provides them from a FabricPool standpoint is more attractive than the licensing from AWS or Azure."

"NetApp is not known for being the cheapest storage option on the market. Almost all of the other storage options we looked at were less expensive than StorageGRID. The price is one thing to criticize, which is what we hear internally and from customers as well. They find the cost of the terabytes in this class of storage a little bit higher than expected."

"We pay for a license annually."

"With respect to pricing, it is okay. This product is mid-range."

More NetApp StorageGRID pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to others. We look at the price per terabyte."

"The price of Qumulo is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

19%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

See all answers

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

The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and per...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp StorageGRID?

The management portals have most significantly improved our data retrieval times. They've made it much easier to rest...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp StorageGRID?

It would definitely be more on the expensive side, especially if you compare it with open source solutions like Ceph.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp StorageGRID?

If I could change anything in NetApp StorageGRID, that would be pricing. In terms of functionality, reliability, and ...

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Comparisons

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Compared 23% of the time

Scality RING vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 7% of the time

DataCore Swarm vs NetApp StorageGRID

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Compared 25% of the time

VAST Data vs Qumulo

Compared 14% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Qumulo

Compared 10% of the time

Scality RING vs Qumulo

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Qumulo

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

May 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID

May 2025

Download NetApp StorageGRID product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

June 2025

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Also Known As

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Storage GRID

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Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Store and manage unstructured data at scale using NetApp StorageGRID for secure, durable object storage. Place content in the right location, at the right time, and on the right storage tier, optimizing workflows and reducing overall costs for globally distributed rich media.

NetApp

Qumulo is a data storage and management platform that promotes object-based storage for users, backup archives, and surveillance. Its primary use case is to provide a cost-effective and feature-rich solution for managing large data.

Qumulo's data protection algorithm ensures the safety of node data, while its integration with backup platforms like Veeam and Veritas makes it easy to manage backups. The platform offers a good balance between operational cost and complexity versus feature set, making it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

Qumulo

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

ASE, DARZ GmbH

County of Riverside Sheriff Department, Hyundai Mobis Automotive North America, University of Arizona, UCSD - San Diego Supercomputer Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Sinclair Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Kaiser Permanente, Deluxe Creative, Vexcel Imaging, University of Florida, The Madison Square Garden Company, Arizona State University, Cinesite, San Diego Padres Baseball, Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine, IHME, EllieMae, Washington State University.

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

June 2025

Free Report: NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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