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 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 10.2% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 43.3% 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

170 Views
51 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 76 NetApp ONTAP reviews

798 Views
230 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: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

January 2025

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Helped 838,713 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 February 2025, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 10.2%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 43.3%, 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.

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

"The product is very reliable."

"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."

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

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

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

"It is able to store a lot of data, and we can manage it with fewer people."

"We do not face any glitches or downtime."

"The ability to spin up copies of data in other data centers, on other storage appliances, is the most valuable for us."

"Overall, for us, it's the stability, it has a solid infrastructure. It's easy to use, easy to rack and configure and start utilizing really quickly. It's been very stable, it works great, and it does everything we would want it to do."

"We can do upgrades without taking it down. We have had nodes fail and people just kept working."

"Vauable features include the ability to manage our data anywhere, multiple consumption modes, and rapid deployment."

"It has been very stable. We haven't had a significant outage."

"They have very good tech support who always answers our questions and troubleshoots our issues. They're great."

More NetApp ONTAP pros

Cons

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

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

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

"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."

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

"The only thing that they have to improve in NetApp is that they're still relying on padding each node in active/active in CDOT. That has to go away. They should look at the scalability on a platform level. The computer will have that one file system with multiple nodes on it. If even one node fails, any node in that cluster could take over the functionalities. But today, it absolutely relies on that active-active uncoupling it. That needs to be improved in such a way that it would be one namespace. If this node goes down, any node in the cluster should take over and run that environment."

"Especially with the all-flash arrays, we would like to see better storage efficiency and deduplication. In terms of manageability, it would be great if NetApp would add more native reporting tools into the dashboard so that we don't need to use the third-party tool for analyzing our environments or to generate any reports. This would be especially helpful for companies that need to generate some chargeback for the customers."

"With our current use case, we will need something faster. E.g., if you have a huge scale, having SSD-based backup is better."

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

"The initial installation could've been quite easy, but there was a lot of miscommunications with professional services and there are a lot of details that they didn't quite provide which caused a very complicated installation."

"Technical support is good but they can take some time on critical problems."

"There is room for improvement in areas related to hardware constraints—for example, more storage efficiency, especially in terms of deduplication."

"I'm waiting for the NVMe, end-to-end."

More NetApp ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"The product is a little bit expensive."

"The price of the solution is fair."

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

"NetApp is streamlined, reducing costs."

"When you purchase NetApp for the first time they will provide you with the standard license, or a premium license, and even a standard bundle solution license."

"There are two consumption methods: pay as you go and subscription. Pay as you go... is a little expensive but worth it."

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

"In the past, you didn't have to buy separate products. They were mostly included with the purchase. In the end, it's more expensive to buy it separate than together. If you are going to need it, one package at the beginning is cheaper."

"The licensing prices are really high."

"It's very expensive."

"Our pricing with discounts is reasonable, but it may vary for others."

More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Healthcare Company

13%

Government

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 49% of the time

More Dell PowerPath Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 51% 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

February 2025

Download Dell PowerPath product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

February 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

January 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

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