Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Storage Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Dell Technologies holds a 11.1% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 42.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerPath

Read 8 Dell PowerPath reviews

192 Views
55 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 78 NetApp ONTAP reviews

807 Views
232 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Dell PowerPath

NetApp ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerPath and NetApp ONTAP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Storage Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

March 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 842,296 peers since 2012

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 PowerPath

Ranking in Storage Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp ONTAP

Ranking in Storage Software

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 11.1%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 42.9%, up from 42.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Storage Software

Featured Reviews

Derrick Brockel

Senior Manager of Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

A resilient and reliable solution that has many load-balancing technologies and provides high availability

People who want to buy the solution must create a scorecard of Dell PowerPath against other products. They must run database tests. They must consider factors like pricing, performance, ease of use, visibility, and reliability. They must also run tests to understand which product recovers faster. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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Christopher Cagayan

IT Server and Storage Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

A solution that comes with several valuable features and excellent SAN storage

NetApp ONTAP is scalable. They have two types of scalability, "scale up" and "scale out." With "scale up," you can get up to petabytes of data if you have the money to buy those servers and add them to the system. And "scale out" also, you can buy additional controllers, up to 12 nodes, which is pretty good when you are a big company. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. NetApp is one of our organization's main storage systems. Every application is scattered on all of our NetApp devices. Applications won't run without it because they need to pull data from NetApp ONTAP.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy."

"We have found the solution to be quite flexible and very scalable."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is migration without disruptions."

"The user interface is good."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that disaster recovery scenarios are very good and easy to use in Dell PowerPath since it is available in a simplified form."

"OS-aware multipathing is a valuable feature of the product."

"It provides a high availability and will increase the performance of any server or operating system."

"The product is very reliable."

"Its typical use case is storing files and getting data, so it does its use case well."

"We over-allocate our aggregates and it still works, it's great, it's fun. We dedupe everywhere, we get huge savings. We went back and deduped the whole thing again, we could get more, so that's what we do. We go back and look to see if there's an option we can set and do it from the beginning, but still 13 terabytes, that's a lot of dedupe savings. Sometimes we get 50% or more in our savings, so we love dedupe."

"Today, because NetApp listened to their customers and improved their GUI, we can perform a firmware upgrade within minutes."

"We have been using it for our entire environment, so we use it in file shares and in our VDI environment, at least for user data. That has reduced our user login times by about 50 percent."

"If we want to change things in models, such as add, replace, and adjust to another client, it is very easy."

"The MFS report is the best feature for us."

"The technical support is great. It's the best I've ever encountered. I can email and have everything resolved at three in the morning within half an hour. I have had some late night calls to their guys techs, and it's been phenomenal."

"Scalability is perfectly fine. Right now I only have the two nodes and one shelf. I'll be able to easily upgrade additional shelves. They gave me plenty of cabling when I got the unit so all I have to do is disconnect and reconnect the cabling and that's it."

More NetApp ONTAP pros

Cons

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR."

"Although PowerPath is very mature and has been on the market for more than 15 years there are still a lot of bugs that have been profiled with PowerPath, specifically, during any OS upgrade."

"The technical support is good but they are not available all the time."

"While I utilize it for data migration, I would love to do that data migration in a GUI from an ease of use perspective."

"The solution should provide extensive reports on backups and backup failures."

"The solution is quite stable, although they have not quite worked out all of the kinks."

"Customers do not choose PowerPath unless they have Unix or Linux."

"The lack of an API is a big thing for us that needs to be improved. It needs proper API support."

"The config could be a little easier. It's not entirely difficult, but it could be a somewhat easier. I have seen other vendors make it easier."

"I would like to see Synchronize Snap mode in the next release."

"The price could be lower."

"Technical support has gone down in my perspective. When getting to the root cause of issues, they need to respond faster."

"I would like it to be more user-friendly. When you open the main dashboard, anyone should be able to know exactly what is going on, even without a tech background. Minimal training should be required."

"Sometimes, we have had some delays, on holidays and weekends, getting the right resource for a specific problem."

"They use a lot of PowerShell for managing things and there are still a few things that you can't do through PowerShell cmdlets that you can do in the native CLI. It would be nice if they got more of those added in."

More NetApp ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is good. I don't have any issues with the pricing of this solution."

"There are no additional costs associated with the product."

"The price of the solution is fair."

"The solution is expensive."

"I rate the product's price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is affordable, and ten is really expensive. Dell PowerPath is an expensive tool."

"The product is a little bit expensive."

"NetApp provided the features required within our cost limit."

"This solution helped our organization reduce our overall cost of storage. Because idle data which was residing on high cost tiers, once we sifted the ONTAP, we were able to scale and place it where it should be, then offload the data which was unnecessary to different locations."

"ONTAP is expensive, but most storage systems are now-a-days and everything is included with the license - there are no additional fees."

"The product is a bit expensive."

"I rate NetApp ONTAP's pricing a seven out of ten."

"We receive the best support for a lower price point."

"Because of its manageability, we have fewer people managing it."

"It's not an all inclusive model. You have the option to purchase modules to make the entire ecosystem coherent. I would like the option to pay one price and get everything all inclusive, like OnCommand."

More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

13%

Healthcare Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Retailer

11%

Manufacturing Company

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerPath?

The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerPath?

The product is a little bit expensive. It is a little pricey because it provides multipathing with other OSs. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerPath?

The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR. When we use 3PAR storage, we have to use another technology to load balance. The product must be integrated with other products l...

See all answers

How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?

Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp ONTAP?

We do not face any glitches or downtime.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?

NetApp ONTAP is moderately priced. The tag price is more competitive for the value we get.

See all answers

Comparisons

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell PowerPath

Compared 48% of the time

More Dell PowerPath Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 50% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 19% of the time

Cloudian HyperStore vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 11% of the time

More NetApp ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath

March 2025

Download Dell PowerPath product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

March 2025

Download NetApp ONTAP product report

Also Known As

PowerPath

No data available

Overview

EMC PowerPath: Host-based software for automated data path management, failover and recovery, and optimized load balancing. PowerPath automates, standardizes, and optimizes data paths in physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments to deliver high availability and performance.

AUTOMATE FAILOVER/RECOVERY

PowerPath automates data path failover and recovery to ensure applications are always available and remain operational.

OPTIMIZE LOAD BALANCING

Adjust I/O paths constantly to leverage all available data paths and to monitor and rebalance the dynamic environment for the best application performance.

STANDARDIZE PATH MANAGEMENT

Simplify and standardize data path management across heterogeneous physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments.

Dell Technologies

NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation and optimize their operations.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Healthcare Residential Service Company

1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

March 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

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