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Dell ECS vs NetApp StorageGRID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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

Dell ECS
Ranking in File and Object Storage
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp StorageGRID
Ranking in File and Object Storage
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Dell ECS is 8.8%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp StorageGRID is 5.5%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File and Object Storage
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Alihyder Bhuiyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables multiple protocol support, but its IOPS functionality needs improvement in terms of performance
Dell ECS enables multiple protocol support, and we recommend it to other users. Anyone can purchase it depending on specific storage quantity requirements. There are certain IOPS limitations in terms of performance. A loss in IOPS can lead to decreased performance across various aspects, including general system performance, production, and overall functionality. In comparison, IBM has no IOPS limitations and relies on web controllers. I rate the product a seven out of ten. IBM and NetApp also provide good storage and a lot of features.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Object-based storage and offers intuitive management tools, making it easy to configure and maintain
The only thing missing is flexibility in configuration to cater to specific customer requirements. Another area of improvement is marketing. NetApp's marketing of StorageGRID isn't optimal. They should present it more effectively, especially in regions like Pakistan. Here, I haven't seen any marketing campaigns from NetApp for StorageGRID or the Solid State Platform (SSP). While StorageGRID is a globally recognized product, I haven't seen any marketing efforts from NetApp in Pakistan. Even competitors are promoting object storage solutions here, but NetApp seems less efficient in selling StorageGRID. There might be one or two customers, but even as a NetApp partner, I'm not aware of any major sales. I've been trained on StorageGRID, and it is a good product. I'm unsure why it hasn't gained traction in Pakistan compared to other countries. So, I just recommend improving the marketing campaigns in Pakistan. I'm pretty confident that if we have one example of successful StorageGRID implementation in Pakistan, other customers will follow suit.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's definitely good for unstructured data. In earlier days, we had Centera, so for the DR it's really good. It has load balancing facility, and we're using it with the Kemp Load Balancer."
"The performance is good."
"Dell ECS is a cost-effective solution that provides ease of use and availability."
"The performance and support from Dell EMC are very good."
"The most valuable feature for me is off-site storage."
"I would rate scalability ten out of ten since you buy what you want."
"I have found Dell ECS to be scalable."
"I have been satisfied with the stability."
"StorageGRID is designed for cloud-based, highly scalable storage. Think big names like service providers like Google who need massive storage volumes with scalability. It also offers cloud-enabled storage capabilities with cloud management functionality. So, if you prioritize scalability and cloud integration, StorageGRID is the way to go. Its object-based storage is built specifically for that purpose."
"The speed of the disks removed the bottleneck from our storage."
"It helps automate our storage infrastructure."
"It has awesome scalability. We consume it with storage appliance nodes, then we just plug and play as we need more."
"Cost-effective and easy to deploy."
"The backup features are valuable. I've heard from our backup and data protection people that our clients are very satisfied with the performance in junction with the backup, which they archive on this type of object storage."
"The feature of StorageGRID that I find most valuable for ensuring data durability and protection is its Information Lifecycle Management functionality."
"The most valuable feature is tiering."
 

Cons

"They do not have complete documentation, which is very weak and could be improved."
"You should be able to calculate so that when it's full it's 100% full, not just 90%."
"The disaster recovery could be improved because there should be something in-built within the ECS. Search and recovery should be in-built. Right now, we have to use some external tools for performing the recovery itself. For example, we're using Atempo or deploying Golden Superna, so it has dependency on the external third party vendors."
"There is room for improvement in the DPI reports, as they could be made more user-friendly."
"If Dell ECS would be available as standalone software, so you can use any hardware with it, would make the solution better. It would also be good if Dell ECS had more integrations with other products."
"Dell EMC ECS should support segregation of duty, particularly for role-based access controls. Having a single pane of glass for smarter observation and better control mechanism would also make this solution better."
"The graphical user interface should offer more options, and the documentation with respect to administration could be improved, as it is quite weak in this product."
"We have concerns about the write performance. We would also like it to be easier to scale out, to add more boxes to the system. And we want improved performance, to use a next-generation NFS service."
"The integration with more apps has room for improvement."
"The product's continual innovation and enhancement in integration capabilities with other NetApp solutions could be better."
"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."
"The redundancy and reliability are great, but I also see room for improvement there. I would like to see more efficiency in the storage and dedupe/compression solutions."
"Beyond the initial setup, this product is a little bit difficult to configure."
"It has its quirks here and there, but it is an older NetApp system."
"Improvements need to be made in the support area."
"There was a small amount of confusion when working with StorageGRID and Active Directory for access. We had to do things three to four times resulting in our engineer troubleshooting a couple of things. The location of the menu, along with what is inside the menu: configurations, settings, etc., is not straightforward to users. Most users are Windows-based. So, when make logical changes to the menu which are not similar to Windows, users and administrators get confused."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell EMC ECS is too expensive."
"The solution's cost is quite reasonable."
"Dell ECS is a cost-effective solution."
"The price of Dell ECS should be reduced."
"It is an expensive solution. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."
"We are not paying for the license at this stage."
"We initially purchased all of the licenses at the same time."
"The price of Dell ECS should be reduced."
"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."
"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 chose NetApp because of price and performance."
"The licensing that the S3 service provides them from a FabricPool standpoint is more attractive than the licensing from AWS or Azure."
"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."
"I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances."
"With respect to pricing, it is okay. This product is mid-range."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC ECS?
The pricing model is on the higher side compared to other vendors, indicating a need for more flexibility.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC ECS?
The graphical user interface should offer more options, and the documentation with respect to administration could be improved, as it is quite weak in this product. Additionally, the log viewer sho...
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 restore data compared to our previous methods.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp StorageGRID?
I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances.
What needs improvement with NetApp StorageGRID?
The product's continual innovation and enhancement in integration capabilities with other NetApp solutions could be better.
 

Also Known As

EMC ECS, Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage, EMC Elastic Cloud Storage
Storage GRID
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Atos
ASE, DARZ GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell ECS vs. NetApp StorageGRID and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.