DDN IntelliFlash vs VAST Data comparison

DataDirect Networks and VAST Data are both solutions in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category. DataDirect Networks is ranked #17 with an average rating of 5.0, while VAST Data is ranked #8 with an average rating of 10.0. DataDirect Networks holds a 0.9% mindshare in N, compared to VAST Data’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of DataDirect Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VAST Data users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

DDN IntelliFlash and VAST Data offer competitive solutions in the storage market. VAST Data seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced features and higher perceived value.

Features: DDN IntelliFlash is valued for its versatile functionality, performance, and integration capabilities. VAST Data is noted for groundbreaking architecture, scalability, and efficiency.

Room for Improvement: DDN IntelliFlash users suggest enhancing GUI elements and adding more automation capabilities. For VAST Data, improved documentation and easier system management are suggested.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DDN IntelliFlash is easier to deploy and has reliable customer support. VAST Data offers robust deployment options that are more complex but has highly responsive and knowledgeable customer service.

Pricing and ROI: DDN IntelliFlash users are happy with the cost structure and return on investment. VAST Data, though more expensive, delivers significant ROI due to performance efficiency and data reduction capabilities, making the higher price justified.

To learn more, read our detailed DDN IntelliFlash vs. VAST Data Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash vs. VAST Data

February 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 FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 2.5%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DDN IntelliFlash is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VAST Data is 5.9%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

Featured Reviews

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

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Anil Rahulwar

Storage Engineer at Movate

Good customer service and support and suitable for large environments

It is very easy to install. Users don't need to remember anything while deploying IntelliFlash because everything will be taken care of by tech support. They can easily modify the installation or change the password with the help of the tech support. It is very easy to integrate IntelliFlash with other solutions. We have plugins that can be integrated with other solutions. It will require maintenance. It is the same as any other storage solution: updates and upgrades, firmware upgrades, and drive upgrades.

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Alan Powers

HPC CTO at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Stability-wise, a device that has been up and running for years

The failover capability and resiliency are some of the solution's valuable features. The big thing is resilience because it has richer coding in it, so multiple devices can't fail. Also, one can still access a number of CBoxes that can allow one to access their file system. Once a device fails, it fails the transparency of the end-user, and it just starts using another resource. The encryption capability, the snapshots, along with a whole bunch of features make the tool valuable. VAST Data keeps adding more and more features all the time.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I appreciate the performance."

"What I really like about this program, is that it is easy to use and easy to configurate."

"One of the best features is the support, which is excellent."

"On a scale of one to ten, I rate Pure FlashArray as ten."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"It has good, reliable, fast storage."

"Everything, especially the VMs inside, is pretty fast."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"High performance and ease-of-management are the most valuable features."

"It's very fast. We were seeing read latencies of less than one millisecond. It is robust."

"We use IntelliFlash products for larger environments, like Qatar Airways."

"EasyTier/hotcaching: Valuable because it allows greater performance than standard SAS disks"

"It provides a combination of all the protocols that you need, without losing deduplication and compression."

"Data Compression: Up to 80% space reduction in the database"

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"It performed great originally, and when it performed great, it was awesome."

More DDN IntelliFlash pros

"This has been one of the most reliable storage systems that I have ever used."

"The solution is useful for machine learning and scientific applications, including computer simulations."

Cons

"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

"You cannot tag a LUN with a description, and that should be improved. What I like on the Unity side is that when I expand LUNs or do things, there is an information field on the LUN. This is the Information field that you can tag on your LUNs to let yourself know, "Hey, I've added this much space on this date". Pure lacks that ability. So, you don't have a mechanism that's friendly for tracking your data expansions on the LUN and for adding any additional information. That's a downside for me."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."

"It feels more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses rather than enterprises."

"We've seen that when we create a POD in synchronous mode, it increases the latency."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"In the proxy section you can’t choose a user account and password, so it is not allowed at the moment to go out, if customer has such constellation."

"It's somewhat scalable, but maybe not so much as some of the competition."

"Performance is horrible now. Our original intent was to buy new storage in about two years. But since it became a critical urgency for us, we decided to purchase a new one in two or three months."

"In future releases, I look forward to more AI features."

"They need to offer better integration for a virtual platform to enable you to create hyper-converged solution."

"We had just one small stability problem with power flapping and it did not start up again automatically. We had to access service ports and manually restart the storage processors."

"Snapshots are not as easy to access as on a NetApp device."

"Technical support is bad. It'd grade them at 30% or 40%. The response time is terrible."

More DDN IntelliFlash cons

"The read/write ratio is an area in the solution with some flaws and needs improvement."

"The write performance could be improved because it is less than half of the read performance."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"I recommend the full bundle software in order to have all the functionality. It is more expensive to purchase it one by one."

"I think we pay around 100 grand per year for three arrays or four arrays."

"We acquired VAST Data as a one-time, capital purchase."

"Price-wise, VAST Data is not the cheapest, not the most expensive one."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Real Estate/Law Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I am an engineer and am not aware of the setup cost.

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What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IntelliFlash?

It is a bit cheaper than other products, 10% to 20% cheaper.

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What needs improvement with IntelliFlash?

DDN IntelliFlash should improve in terms of sales. In future releases, I look forward to more features about AI and M...

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What is your primary use case for IntelliFlash?

We use IntelliFlash products for larger environments, like Qatar Airways. They have large scalability and use more th...

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What do you like most about VAST Data?

The solution is useful for machine learning and scientific applications, including computer simulations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VAST Data?

Price-wise, VAST Data is not the cheapest, not the most expensive one.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VAST Data?

The read/write ratio is an area in the solution with some flaws and needs improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 33% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 15% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 11% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

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Pure Storage FlashBlade vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 27% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 17% of the time

NetApp AFF vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 16% of the time

DDN SFA7990X vs DDN IntelliFlash

Compared 13% of the time

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Pure Storage FlashBlade vs VAST Data

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs VAST Data

Compared 10% of the time

NetApp AFF vs VAST Data

Compared 10% of the time

Qumulo vs VAST Data

Compared 9% of the time

Databricks vs VAST Data

Compared 8% of the time

More VAST Data Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

February 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash

February 2025

Download DDN IntelliFlash product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

February 2025

Download VAST Data product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

Tegile, IntelliFlash N-Series, IntelliFlash T-Series, IntelliFlash HD-Series

No data available

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

Western Digital through its IntelliFlash arrays delivers high-performance storage with a complete range of features and connectivity options, including inline compression and deduplication, application and VM consistent snapshots, replication, RAID, data encryption, VMware vCenter integration, and multi-protocol support for SAN (FC, iSCSI) and NAS (NFS, SMBv3). IntelliFlash arrays deliver high availability through dualredundant and hot-swappable components, active/active or active/passive controllers, non-disruptive software upgrades, eMLC flash, and proactive cloud-based monitoring, analytics, and intelligence. A RESTful API provides scripted or programmatic control.

DataDirect Networks

Innovation to break decades of data storage trade-offs.

VAST Data

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Bank of Stockton, Barnsley College, Boyes Turner, Brigham Young University

Norwest Venture Partners, General Dynamics Information Technology, Ginkgo Bioworks

Buyer's Guide

DDN IntelliFlash vs. VAST Data

February 2025

Free Report: DDN IntelliFlash vs. VAST Data

Find out what your peers are saying about DDN IntelliFlash vs. VAST Data and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

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