Dell PowerMax NVMe vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800 comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5, while NetApp is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.6. Dell Technologies holds a 9.6% mindshare in N, compared to NetApp’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell PowerMax NVMe and NetApp NVMe AFF A800 are leading storage solutions. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is preferred for its advanced features, despite its higher cost, while Dell PowerMax NVMe is noted for its competitive pricing and customer support.

Features: Dell PowerMax NVMe is recognized for its robust performance, scalability, and automation capabilities. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 stands out with its data management features, high throughput, and operational efficiency.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerMax NVMe users face challenges with complexity and monitoring tools. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 users report issues with operating system updates and initial setup difficulties.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerMax NVMe deployment requires intensive planning, with responsive customer support. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 has a simpler deployment process with slower customer service response times.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerMax NVMe offers a cost-effective solution with good ROI. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is more expensive but yields high ROI due to superior storage efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

November 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 2.4%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerMax NVMe is 9.6%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

Featured Reviews

Paul Pearson

Storage and Backup Architect at Concentrix

Works well, is easy to implement, and has upgrade analysis capabilities

We love the product. Pure Storage works really well. The CAT tool and also the ability to upgrade the unit's place grades are great. It allows for in-place control or upgrades. It's a very simple implementation. They have a good tool to analyze upgrades. The stability is good. Technical support has been excellent.

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Haseeb Khalid Sheikh

Senior Manager Enterprise Solutions at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

End-to-end NVMe capabilities helps improve availability, performance, and capacity

The solution's most valuable feature is the data reduction ratio. You can store a 5:1 ratio of your data in Dell PowerMax NVMe. For example, if you have 200 terabytes of usable capacity, you can save up to five times of data on that capacity. That means you can save one petabyte of data on just 200 terabytes of usable capacity. The solution's end-to-end NVMe capabilities have improved our operations. Everything is fast, and you don't have to map your storage to old hybrid storage technologies. Our organization has experienced positive change, and the solution has improved our uptime, availability, performance, and capacity.

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Tanveer Rahman

Chief Technical Office at Novotel Ltd.

A scalable solution that serves as a storage for the cloud services opted by organizations

My company uses NetApp NVMe AFF A800 as storage for our cloud The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O. The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better. I don't expect to see additional…

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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

"The duplication algorithm allows us to get a lot more use out of less storage. We're running a five terabyte array right now and we're running probably about 30 terabytes on it. So the duplication rate is pretty phenomenal, without a cost to performance. It still runs pretty smoothly."

"We are satisfied with the performance as it is significantly faster compared to traditional storage options."

"I appreciate the performance."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

"It offers competitive performance, and the Evergreen storage model of Pure fits well with my organization."

"Offers excellent features like efficient data reduction, a reliable SafeMode, and a great support model for continuous assistance and updates."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe has low latency and high Ops. It is an evergreen model."

"The solution is very straightforward to set up."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The solution is easy to use with applications that are user-friendly."

"It is a very stable solution. I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"The compression and deduplication are the most valuable features because of the cost savings."

"We're consolidating two to three arrays down to one which means that our data center footprint has decreased by like 90%. So we're saving 90% of our space, and it also is much better on power and everything else in our data center. And on top of that, the performance is much, much better than our older arrays."

"The performance is very good on our servers. It's superior. And the QoS capabilities for providing work congestion protection are also important because about 99 percent of our servers are production servers."

"PowerMax, with version 9.02, which we installed recently, has some very good features, such as CloudIQ."

"I am impressed with the tool's reliability since we see a few hardware failures with it. Also, the solution's replication configuration is good."

"It's faster and more resilient."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pros

"Low latency is the most valuable feature."

"You can easily scale up, and scale-out."

"We find the product to be very flexible."

"NetApp NVMe AFF A800 is easier to use than some other solutions and the UI is very good to use for day-to-day activities. Overall, the solution has good technology."

"Over the eight years, we've been using NetApp with ONTAP, we've never lost a bit of data, and we've only experienced a few minutes of downtime in that entire time."

"The storage features are valuable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O."

"The product can be scaled vertically as well as horizontally."

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 pros

Cons

"If the customer only needs 500 terabytes and doesn't care how much data they'll put in the server, IBM is cheaper than Pure."

"It is on the expensive side."

"Many options to check performance, like read, writes, random writes, and random reads, are missing in Pure FlashArray X NVMe."

"In terms of what needs improvement, the dashboard and management could be simplified."

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

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

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

"There is room for improvement in catering to midrange storage needs, especially for customers seeking Enterprise-class features."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"Firmware updates are a bit painful because you have to involve their support, as opposed to having the ability to do it yourself."

"Dell needs to offer more midrange storage options with enterprise-class features similar to the PowerMAX."

"PowerMax's software is highly stable, but we faced two hardware issues in one year. We had a failure of the storage director module, and the physical disk failed on another occasion. Dell EMC should improve its hardware quality."

"The solution does not use new versions of OS and patches. Its installation is also difficult. The solution is not as fast as other storage in the market."

"Dell PowerMax NVMe is costly compared to other solutions."

"We've had a couple of little things come up, but for the most part, they've been pretty stable."

"I would like NVMe to be end-to-end in the next release. Right now, it is not end-to-end."

"Dell PowerMax needs more connectivity options for projects that require separate web access."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe cons

"The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better."

"The initial setup is complex."

"The initial setup should be easier, and more like a plug-and-play approach."

"Stability is an area with a certain shortcoming where the solution needs to improve"

"The product’s UI could be better."

"Increasing the RAM, and including physical cords would be beneficial."

"Sometimes, it takes a while to get somebody competent on the other end of the line. They do have engineers in multiple time zones around the world. However, their level-one support is not always the best."

"The cost of the solution is quite high. It would be ideal if they could adjust it so that it's a but less."

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

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

"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."

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

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"The tool's pricing is cheap; I rate it a six to seven out of ten. Most of our sales are not subscription-based. We sell the hardware, and customers keep using it. They only renew the service part annually. The support can be a bit pricey, but the solution is more cost-effective than anything else out there."

"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."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"It is high-end storage and it is a bit expensive, but it is doing what it is meant for: running business-critical applications or latency-sensitive applications..."

"It scales enormously, but it's expensive to do so."

"The PowerMax appliance pricing was reasonable. Dell EMC quoted us a substantial discount."

"Dell is expensive compared to other products and I would rate its pricing a four out of ten."

"The labor savings and support have been significant. If we're talking 100 hours of labor every three months, that is 100 hours of a database engineer costs. There are performance latency numbers as well as costs associated with recovering data that gets lost, and this system doesn't lose data. You can look at numbers that go around the cost of downtime, if data is not available. This system doesn't go down. Everyone's ROI is going to be unique, but the dependability and performance of the system combined with its ease of operation will definitely save businesses of all sizes money."

"The price is really high."

"From reclaiming data center space which is so tightly constrained these days, it will pay for itself in a short amount of time, which is fantastic. Anything we can do to get more out of our current physical data center space helps us a ton, and PowerMax has helped enable that."

"Since Dell PowerMax NVMe is an enterprise storage, its price is premium."

More Dell PowerMax NVMe pricing and cost advice

"Considering the requirements and the situation, I don't feel that this is an expensive product."

"Though NetApp NVMe AFF A800 may seem like a highly-priced product, it is not extremely expensive."

"The solution is expensive."

"There are licenses for the use of this solution, such as commercial licenses."

"I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

21%

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

After implementation, there are limitations, such as the number of paths, file systems, and replication options. It f...

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What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell of...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

First, it's an enterprise storage solution. This is very important for us. Another important feature is replication.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerMax NVMe?

The pricing was quite competitive and the lowest among the competition.

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a product that is fast and provides a fast I/O.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

Though NetApp NVMe AFF A800 may seem like a highly-priced product, it is not extremely expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp NVMe AFF A800?

The product's performance has some shortcomings, making it an area that could be a little better. I don't expect to s...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 36% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 16% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 15% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Nimble Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 5% of the time

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe Competitors

Dell PowerStore vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 26% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerMax NVMe

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell PowerMax NVMe Competitors

NetApp ASA vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 27% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 21% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 16% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Compared 7% of the time

More NetApp NVMe AFF A800 Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

November 2024

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe

December 2024

Download Dell PowerMax NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

December 2024

Download NetApp NVMe AFF A800 product report

Also Known As

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

Dell EMC PowerMax, PowerMax

No data available

Learn More

Pure Storage

Dell Technologies

NetApp

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.

Dell PowerMax is the industry’s most secure mission-critical storage platform. With NVMe Dynamic Fabric technology, PowerMax breaks from traditional storage limitations, enabling seamless integration with cloud-native and legacy applications. Designed with a powerful scale-up and scale-out architecture, PowerMax supports mission-critical applications at scale with zero downtime and ultra-low latency. The latest PowerMaxOS 10 release harnesses AI-driven efficiencies for trusted performance, capacity, and security. By choosing PowerMax, you can trust in a secure, intelligent, and always modern storage solution that unlocks the full potential of your data to drive business success.

Your data is a gold mine. Get the most out of it - faster - with AFF A800. Designed for NVMe media, further accelerated with NVMe/FC connectivity to the host, AFF A800 all-flash systems deliver an incredible sub-200 microsecond latency. Providing more than 11.4M IOPS and 300GB/s throughput in a single cluster, AFF A800 redefines the limit of what’s possible with artificial intelligence and deep learning.

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Rackspace, Open Line

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

November 2024

Free Report: Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.

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See our Dell PowerMax NVMe vs. NetApp NVMe AFF A800 report.

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