We performed a comparison between Dell Unity XT and NetApp FAS 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."One of the features that my customers are really interested in is immutable snapshots. There are immutable snapshots to which your applications can be reverted back if you are hit by some kind of ransomware threat or malicious attack. That's kind of a key deal, and it is one of the selling points I use to point out to my customers the value and the features that Pure Storage brings to the table."
"Access speed and power consumption are most valuable."
"Pure gives us better compression, it's easier to manage, a lot less hands-on."
"The management is simple in Pure Storage FlashArray."
"The most valuable feature is replication."
"The reliability is very good."
"The compression and deduplication features help to make the best use of the capacity."
"Data deduplication is one feature I found to be the most valuable in the tool...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"I like the idea that it can compress and dedupe inline. That is quite a stunning feature for mid-range customers."
"Purchasing; We worked with a sales rep to purchase our Unity."
"It's an all-flash Unity, With that compression feature, it's comparable to a hybrid. That is one thing that we definitely like."
"The most valuable feature of Dell Unity XT is data duplication. Additionally, the management interface is simple, and is not a hassle using it. You don't need too much to learn or to be familiarized with it."
"Quick Snapshots and cloning are key features."
"The inline deduplication and data reduction capabilities have been the most valuable."
"We use it to implement all our VDI solutions."
"It is easy to set up the solution."
"It has integrated snapshot and backup capability."
"The input and output per second performance are satisfactory."
"The solution is stable."
"I like the unified management feature because sometimes you end up running a single protocol on the entire system."
"The support is very good."
"The most valuable features are compression and dedupe."
"Other products lose performance over time, but NetApp OS is speed-optimized."
"The solution has tiers inside which means we do not only need to use SSDs."
"We would like more extended historical data to help with some of the capacity planning. This is something that we are asking for all the time. E.g., what was the historical performance of this particular volume? So, we would like more historicals."
"There was some complexity in the initial setup."
"Pure Storage FlashArray could improve the recent file storage capabilities because it is lacking a lot of features."
"If we suddenly dump large amounts of data onto the storage system, it takes a while to process it."
"The time-to-market could be better at times, but I think that's true for all vendors of hardware."
"Pure Storage support could be a little better."
"Pure Storage will have issues with positioning in the near future since its a relatively new company. For now, customers need a PoC to trust using the solution, as it can't stand on its brand name alone. They need to improve Pure Storage's marketing."
"We would like to be able to connect to data tape for backup, specifically to the LTO backups."
"Things that could be improved include one-to-many replication, data deduplication, and asynchronous Fibre Channel replication. It is asynchronous on iSCSI and I would like to have that on the Fibre Channel. Unisphere-wise, I have to log in to each Unity as a unique environment. In VNX, I logged in to the domain and I was logged in to every VNX. So that's missing."
"We noticed in the last release of code that there were some inefficiencies around getting our data efficiency up in terms of dedupe and compression."
"I have a problem because between the Unity XT and the PowerMax, sometimes we need another product between these two products. There could be better integrated and the capacity of the size could be larger."
"I think there are a couple of things on the file side that we're lacking from the VNX world. It would be nice if we got some of those back. I think there are limitations on how many file systems you can back up at a time. Whereas you can do, I believe, eight continuous per data mover on the file side on the VNX, you can only do something like two or four on Unity. If they could step up to that, that would be good."
"We went to the PowerMax because of the needs that we have for the business. We're doing true enterprise-level storage. So we went from Unity to PowerMax to give us that tier that we were looking for."
"The initial setup is not so straightforward if you don't have experience with storage arrays."
"It needs deduplication. We'd like to have the dedupe capabilities in the Unity."
"Dell EMC Unity is not sexy. It doesn't have all the flash and pizzazz of some of the other storage vendors."
"Interfacing with the cloud environment could be better. I want to be able to move some cloud volume and integrate it seamlessly with my home on-premise storage. Sometimes I have issues with port permissions. NetApp probably needs to improve more on the integration side from on-premise to the cloud."
"There is no NetApp infrastructure set up here in Greece."
"Installation of the additional switches and ETP could be improved."
"NetApp FAS Series should improve its price, which is expensive."
"The one aspect of the solution that's negative for us is also more unique to us due to the fact that we did a MetroCluster. The tiebreaker piece that does the monitoring of the two different locations, and determines if one is not talking to the network normally (or if it's truly down) is a little difficult. It feels like it was not designed from the beginning to fit well into the other pieces. It feels like it was thrown in at the last minute and it is not smooth."
"As I see it, there could be more interfaces, more cache, etc."
"It may need more flexibility to fight with other competing arrays."
"We have some experience with older equipment end-of-life. For example, when warranty support stops or updates stop – it can be frustrating. Not all clients can buy a new filer every year or two, and NetApp ending support a bit quickly can be a concern."
Dell Unity XT is ranked 4th in All-Flash Storage with 186 reviews while NetApp FAS Series is ranked 5th in Deduplication Software with 98 reviews. Dell Unity XT is rated 8.4, while NetApp FAS Series is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Dell Unity XT writes "Easy to set up with good data compression technology and useful deduplication". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NetApp FAS Series writes "Offers good performance and ". Dell Unity XT is most compared with Dell PowerStore, NetApp AFF, HPE Nimble Storage, IBM FlashSystem and HPE 3PAR StoreServ, whereas NetApp FAS Series is most compared with Dell PowerScale (Isilon), NetApp AFF, HPE StorageWorks MSA, Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) and IBM FlashSystem. See our Dell Unity XT vs. NetApp FAS Series report.
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