NetApp AFF - All Flash Reviews

Name: NetApp AFF
Brand: NetApp
Rating: 4.5 (311 reviews)

Vendor: NetApp

4.5 out of 5

311 reviews
98% willing to recommend

4,764 followers

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What is NetApp AFF?

The NetApp A-Series and C-Series are AFF storage arrays that deliver high performance, scalability, and simplified data management for a wide range of workloads. They are designed for organizations that need to improve the performance and agility of their applications, while also reducing costs and complexity.

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NetApp AFF is the #2 ranked solution in best All-Flash Storage Arrays and best NVMe All-Flash Arrays. PeerSpot users give NetApp AFF an average rating of 9.0 out of 10. NetApp AFF is most commonly compared to Dell PowerStore: NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore. NetApp AFF is popular among the midsize enterprise segment, accounting for 73% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 69% of all views.

Helped 849,963 peers since 2012

Featured NetApp AFF reviews

Anna Sofo

Commercial adviser at Personal Data S.r.l. Gruppo Project

I like NetApp AFF's deduplication. The solution's AutoSupport feature is efficient and effective because customers are notified of potential issues before they experience problems with NetApp. The support is sold based on metro clusters, so they guarantee the client's business continuity. NetApp has an Active IQ app that allows you to get information on your smartphone.

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Ian Rousom

Owner at RTX

Keystone offers flexible consumption models that go beyond just how much capacity at such and such a speed, et cetera. We don't always know what the profile of that data will be. However, if we can quickly agree on terms that meet our needs and make NetApp still reasonably profitable, we can confidently deploy, see how things go and adjust. That kind of service delivery model, that customer service model has sped things up and made contract negotiations much easier. It frankly made the owners of the system more confident. We've experienced faster time to market. It's hard for us to find and retain infrastructure staff. We're in a business where the firm fixed price contract reigns supreme, and so we can't always just offer someone more money. However, if they can dedicate their time to learning one company's portfolio and learning it really well, but be useful in a bunch of different places, they will do well. We've seen that in a lot of different places. We've been able to hire younger people and retain them, moving them from program to program based on their understanding of the solution its skill set, and its portability. It's been useful for high-speed multi-protocol storage in places with ever-increasing density. We have limits on how much power and cooling and rack space we have, and yet they've delivered every time. We needed a storage company that had mastery of multi-protocol, and this solution stands out. They especially stand out as a secure provider. We require solutions that we can run ourselves, that we can air gap since so much of what we do is either classified or very sensitive or cannot live in a public ecosystem. For us, the issue consuming AI has been the trust of the models given to us by third parties. We can't necessarily trust their provenance, what fed them, what originally trained them, or what gave them their worldview, for lack of a better term. We can't simply just trust that at face value since we know nothing about where it came from or what inferences it might make. We must assume that some AI inferences were made deliberately to damage or hurt national security systems. So the models that we start with tend to be very, very primitive, crude, and not well trained, so we have to train them much longer and not always with the availability of cloud that has inexhaustible capacity. A partner who understands this and provides consistency at all scales is very important.

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Jesse Lyon

Sr. storage Administrator at Nationwide Children's Hospital

The NetApp technology that has delivered the most value to our organization is FabricPool. FabricPool was a game-changer for us because we previously had a large investment in Nearline SaaS drives on the PaaS 8200 platform. This platform was good at scaling horizontally and working as a hybrid storage model with flash fronting and flash pools for reads and writes, tearing down to disk afterward as needed. FabricPool on the A-series platform allowed us to consolidate six cabinets of gear into two. With the NAS itself, we have our block array that cascades everything down to the FabricPool, which we've distributed throughout the data center. This means it doesn't have to live in the same dedicated cabinets or even the same row. Our data center operations team is happy because I told them they can put it anywhere as long as it has the necessary connectivity and power. This flexibility allows us to distribute storage more equitably and evenly. Everything gets prioritized on our flash tier. After 30 days of being cold which is common in a hospital setting, data gets deprioritized down to cheaper storage, going from dollars per gig to pennies per gig. The initial investment in power was significant, but where previously it was a premium for us to offer flash to our end-users, now I can offer it to everyone. FabricPool tears off data after users are done editing in their scratch space, and after 30 days, it moves to the cold tier, saving the organization money. We've gone from maybe 60 terabytes of flash to over 400, and half of it sits available for scalable storage. Previously, storage allocation was rigid, but now everyone gets flash unless their workload has absolutely no need for it. This has made everyone happier because they no longer have to complain about slow home directories or other performance issues.

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NetApp AFF mindshare

Product category:

As of May 2025, the mindshare of NetApp AFF in the All-Flash Storage category stands at 9.3%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

PeerResearch reports based on NetApp AFF reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	All-Flash Storage	May 1, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	NetApp AFF vs Pure Storage FlashArray	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	NetApp AFF vs HPE Alletra Storage	May 1, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Dell PowerStore	4.3	17.3%	96%	84 interviews Add to research
Pure Storage FlashArray	4.6	6.3%	99%	199 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

NetApp AFF's most valuable features include exceptional IO performance, speed, low latency, and the ability to manage multiple access protocols. Users appreciate the ease of management, scalability, and SnapMirror/SnapVault for data protection. The integration with existing systems, data compression, deduplication, and high performance are crucial. NetApp AFF enhances usability, cost-effectiveness, and provides robust storage efficiency through inline processes, making it ideal for high-demand applications in various environments. The unified management simplifies operations and administration.

"I would rate NetApp AFF a ten out of ten."
"From my standpoint, NetApp AFF is the most powerful enterprise solution. I find it to be highly flexible, allowing me to do whatever I want."
"The NetApp technology that has delivered the most value to our organization is FabricPool."

Room for Improvement

NetApp AFF could benefit from enhancements including better streamlined setup processes, improved price competitiveness, and expanded SSD affordability. Users suggest simplifying the graphical interface and enhancing performance monitoring tools. Additional support for global management, improved migration processes, and better training resources are recommended. Greater integration with external software and enhanced deduplication features would be advantageous. Some users identify a need for better technical support, more scalable solutions, and improved latency and transmission capabilities.

"I do not like the NetApp GUI. For example, the GUI of ONTAP Command Manager could be better, but the CLI is perfect. With every new version and upgrade, they change things, which makes it messy, and I am not good at working with that."
"I do not like the NetApp GUI. For example, the GUI of ONTAP Command Manager could be better, but the CLI is perfect."
"One of the challenges we face with NetApp is identifying bottlenecks in the systems they integrate with."

ROI

Organizations utilizing NetApp AFF have experienced improved performance and reduced costs. Storage and application response times have significantly increased, leading to cost savings in power and rack space. For some, return on investment is achieved in months due to efficiency gains and reduced maintenance fees. Many see substantial savings from reduced data center footprints and fewer resources needed for management, while others mention reliable performance and enhanced data handling capabilities contributing to ROI.

Pricing

NetApp AFF pricing appears to vary significantly based on configurations and specific needs. While some users find it competitive and worth the investment due to performance benefits, others consider it expensive, especially when expanding capacity. Compared to Oracle and EMC, NetApp is generally seen as more cost-effective, offering comprehensive licensing options that include essential features like SnapMirror and SnapRestore. Pricing is influenced by storage efficiency, deduplication, and compression, ensuring better ROI against many competitors.

"I do not deal with pricing, but the pricing of NetApp and Dell seems pretty close.NetApp support is cheaper than Dell support."
"NetApp AFF is an expensive solution."
"Its price is quite competitive, but there is still scope for better pricing."

Popular Use Cases

NetApp AFF is primarily used for high-performance storage needs across various sectors. It supports NAS, SAN, block storage, and virtualization workloads, catering to complex environments like healthcare, finance, and telecom. Organizations utilize it for efficient data management, backup, disaster recovery, and optimizing virtualization and database operations. It enhances performance, reduces latency, and provides robust enterprise storage capabilities. Users across industries appreciate its scalability, robust data protection, and seamless integration with cloud environments.

Service and Support

NetApp AFF customer service is highly rated, often seen as responsive and knowledgeable. Users highlight quick assistance and proactive resolutions, appreciating dedicated support teams. While most experiences are positive, some note delays in reaching specialized support or navigating initial support levels. Technical support often receives praise for its thoroughness and helpfulness, though there are occasional challenges in escalation processes. Despite some mixed experiences, many feel well-supported with effective solutions to their issues.

Deployment

The initial setup of NetApp AFF ranged from straightforward to moderately complex. Experienced users found it intuitive and quick, while newcomers faced a learning curve. Several users highlighted excellent documentation and support, easing the process. Professional services were beneficial for complex configurations. Some faced challenges with clustered environments or transitioning from 7-mode to cDOT. Installation times varied, often completed in days with minimal downtime. Overall, knowledge and experience significantly impacted setup ease.

Scalability

NetApp AFF demonstrates impressive scalability. Users find it adaptable, easily expanding with added shelves or nodes. While some encounter capacity challenges, most appreciate its capacity for growth, fitting varying organizational needs. Users acknowledge AFF's efficiency in both horizontal and vertical scaling, including cluster expansions. However, some note costs as a factor when increasing scale. Users highlight benefits in clustering, thin provisioning, and data management, confirming its ability to meet diverse enterprise demands.

Stability

NetApp AFF exhibits remarkable stability with a high level of reliability, offering substantial uptime often exceeding 99.99%. Users report minimal downtime or issues, praising its consistent performance. Instances of bugs are rare and typically addressed swiftly with updates or patches. Its cluster mode and redundancy features contribute to its dependability. Many users highlight the system's ease of maintenance and low management demands, ensuring smooth operations for extended periods without significant concerns.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our NetApp AFF Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

69%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

University

Retailer

Healthcare Company

Insurance Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Construction Company

Media Company

Non Profit

Hospitality Company

Legal Firm

Compare NetApp AFF with alternative products

Learn more about NetApp AFF

NetApp A-Series and C-Series feature a scale-out architecture that can be scaled to meet the needs of your growing business. They also support a wide range of built-in data protection and data security features, including snapshots, replication, disaster recovery, and autonomous ransomware protection.

AFF A-Series all-flash systems deliver industry-leading performance, density, scalability, security, and network connectivity.

AFF C-Series systems are suited for large-capacity deployment as an affordable way to modernize your data center to all flash and also connect to the cloud.

NetApp AFF Benefits

Speed up your critical applications with lightning-fast end-to-end NVMe enterprise all-flash arrays.
Increase Performance: AFF A-Series systems deliver industry-leading performance proven by SPC-1 and SPEC SFS industry benchmarks, making them ideal for demanding, highly transactional applications such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB databases, VDI, and server virtualization.
Save up to 95% of rack space and up to 85% of power and cooling cost over hybrid flash storage.
Reduce cost with guaranteed storage efficiency.
Realize even greater savings by tiering cold data to the cloud easily.
Simplify Operations on premises or in the cloud: Eliminate fragmented and redundant toolsets and combine visibility and manageability of storage instances with data services in a unified control plane across the hybrid cloud.

NetApp AFF Features

Expand capacity with nondisruptive scaling in a cluster without silos or data migration.
Manage data with the ultimate flexibility of unified support across different storage media and protocols, on premises or in the cloud.
Scale performance with technology innovations of NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP connectivity.
Safeguard your data with best-in-class data security, ransomware protection, multifactor admin access, secure multitenant shared storage, and in-flight and at-rest encryption.
Simplify backup and recovery with built-in application-consistent data protection.
Achieve business continuity and fast disaster recovery with zero data loss and zero downtime.
Scale out to 24 nodes, 367PB of effective capacity, and 4 million IOPS non-disruptively.

Reviews from Real Users

NetApp AFF stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its high performance and simplicity. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

PeerSpot user and Storage Administrator, Daniel Rúnar Friðþjófsson, comments “AFF has helped to simplify our infrastructure, while still getting very high performance for our business-critical applications. Having all these things working well on one solution is really good. We run this as the backbone for both Hyper-V and VMware as well as an archive location for Rubrik. So, it is great having one solution that can do it all.

Because of the ease of it all, you have a highly tunable, high-performance storage system that alleviates a lot of problems. With its ease of management, you can quickly get your work done and go onto the next thing on your list.”

Additionally, Mohan Reddy, Sr. Technology Architect at a Pharma/Biotech company comments on how “NetApp's ONTAP data management software has also made tasks simpler for us. There's no question about that. It has helped us run operations very quickly, saving us a lot of time. Before ONTAP, we used to spend a long time doing regular operations, but with the latest version of the tool, our day-to-day operations are much quicker and easier.”

NetApp AFF was previously known as NetApp All Flash FAS, NetApp AFF, NetApp Flash FAS.