We performed a comparison between NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays and NetApp AFF (All Flash FAS) based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, NetApp AFF (All Flash FAS) came out ahead of NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays. The two solutions have similar deployment difficulty, price range, and support quality, but NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays has fewer valuable features, according to its users.
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the support."
"The stability is very good. I've done destructive testing on it and never had any type of storage outages from it."
"We have seen savings in our storage. The speed of deployment has gone from several days to a few minutes. This product has reduced that time into minutes, simplifying storage for us."
"It allows engineers to focus on other things rather than doing the more manual tasks. It automates tasks, so the ease of use is extreme. It simplifies the storage."
"The performance of the storage is just unbelievable."
"It worked flawlessly."
"It's simple, powerful, and ready to use."
"Their REST API is wonderful, well-documented, and easy to use."
"We reduced our floor space by reducing 44 racks units to four rack units. It has helped us with our data center economies of scale. It reduces our support costs too, which is great."
"All of the features are good. With Flash, we have high-performing databases. Having that kind of performance has been valuable."
"Replication would be one of the most valuable features."
"NetApp is like a one-point central management. For example, one can put everything on the right version and control the whole environment from one software solution."
"It is easy to manage data through the GUI by using Active IQ and the unified manager."
"The benefits of being on AFF are the phenomenal speed at which we're able to ingest data and index it, and the IOPS."
"We are spending less time putting out fires, so there's a tangible benefit right there."
"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."
"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"I like the performance aspect of EF Series. It basically provides everything that we are looking for as a solution, very low latency and very high performance."
"The NetApp EF-Series gave our organization easy access to our data bases."
"The speed is the most valuable feature."
"Considering the cost, I find NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays to be the best storage available in the market."
"We use it for our VDI environment, and have not had any complaints with it."
"This storage solution is both stable and scalable, and it works for our needs."
"The management software is very good."
"Self-backup is the only feature lacking in this solution."
"They should work on their upgrades, they're not smooth."
"We do have an issue with the vCenter integration. Pure Storage says it has a lot of free space, but vCenter says its completely full. This is because their dedupes are saved as space, but Vcenter still detects the disk as completely full. So, we do have an issue with that."
"I would love for them to have a hyper-converged solution."
"I can't see where they can make anything better, unless, of course, they lower their prices even more."
"We have not seen a reduction in our TCO nor have we seen ROI."
"Pricing could be better in comparison to other solutions."
"Its price needs improvement. Its price is almost double than any other flash storage solution."
"The only downside to NetApp AFF is its price."
"It used to give us the volume where LANs should be placed when we created a LAN in the older version. However, in the newer version of ONTAP, it does not give where to place the LAN in the volume. So, that liberty has been taken away. If that was there again, it would be very good."
"There is no direct storage attachment available. Most configurations require additional switches for data access."
"It would be better if they just improved the performance of the system."
"When it comes to the connectivity on the back end, where the hardware is concerned—the cabling and the like—it could also be simplified to ease the communication between the nodes and between the other components of the infrastructure. I still find that a little bit complicated."
"In terms of improvement, IO performance could use some enhancement."
"In future releases, I would like to see the ability to automatically mount SMB shares and file systems."
"A graphical user interface displaying efficiency metrics, such as compression and deduplication rates, would be a great addition."
"There could be an improvement when it comes to SLA support, it could be faster."
"Their problems are on the software and the controlling of the storage where they lack segmentation and federation."
"This solution has limited storage."
"The pricing could be cheaper and it should have documentation in more languages, specifically, Russian."
"This solution does not have any compression or deduplication."
"The solution's technical support is not as good as it is supposed to be since you have to push them to get support."
"NetApp could improve the speed of the rebuilding rate."
"I’d like to see bigger, faster, better hardware, of course. I think that is the way the hardware is trending anyway; bigger, faster CPU, better software, fewer bugs, all that stuff. T"
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NetApp AFF is ranked 2nd in All-Flash Storage with 280 reviews while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is ranked 23rd in All-Flash Storage with 38 reviews. NetApp AFF is rated 9.0, while NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of NetApp AFF writes "Since switching, our clients have reported improved performance and reduced latency". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays writes "A storage solution that offers great stability, resilience, and support". NetApp AFF is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Dell Unity XT, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, VMware vSAN and NetApp FAS Series, whereas NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is most compared with Dell PowerStore, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Huawei OceanStor Dorado, HPE Primera and IBM FlashSystem. See our NetApp AFF vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays report.
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