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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs NetApp FAS Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.4
CTERA boosts efficiency with automation, cuts storage costs by 80%, improves recovery time, and provides ROI within two years.
Sentiment score
5.5
NetApp FAS Series users report positive ROI, cost savings, and satisfaction, especially in VMware settings, despite disk addition expenses.
Adding SSD storage to Windows file servers is expensive, and we no longer need to back up those devices.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I am positive that CTERA has helped reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for manual storage management and reducing storage service processes.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
CTERA has been a major improvement with a reduction in our storage and infrastructure cost, achieving up to eighty percent reduction in storage costs overall, which is significant.
S IT Era Administration And Implementation at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If you have the configuration well maintained and configured, you should have good efficiency and compression for the clients and for yourself.
System Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform provides 24/7 responsive support, with knowledgeable staff and high customer satisfaction ratings.
Sentiment score
7.3
NetApp FAS Series is praised for reliable, responsive support, though some seek faster resolutions and enhanced first-tier expertise.
They swiftly address concerns and take ownership of the call, providing a very satisfactory support experience.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
The quality and speed of support for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is some of the best in the industry.
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
For critical issues, we receive a call within 10 to 15 minutes of creating a request.
Senior Associate at Iron Mountain Incorporated
Sometimes, the support was inadequate because the initial architecture was poorly defined.
Pre-Sales Director France, Belgium and Luxembourg at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
We are also using it ourselves for the SAN and CIFS protocol.
System Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They often provide basic solutions, such as suggesting a failover or a power cycle, which are not the sophisticated solutions we expect from a vendor.
Senior Cloud System Engineer at Atos Poland
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
CTERA's platform offers scalable, flexible file services for global organizations, though some experience challenges with increased workloads.
Sentiment score
7.3
NetApp FAS Series offers high scalability with Clustered Data ONTAP, supporting growth despite cost and complexity challenges.
If we need to upgrade CPU and memory, we should be able to do that without a license upgrade.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The licensing supports various data sizes, such as EV16 supporting up to 16 terabytes, and if you exceed that, you move to EV32.
Senior Associate at Iron Mountain Incorporated
CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow.
Senior Manager of Global Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We normally avoid current versions and use versions that have been running for at least two months in client usage before updating drivers.
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
NetApp FAS Series is scalable, and it is possible, but you need to pay.
System Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The NetApp FAS Series is scalable and offers numerous solutions, but only if customers are willing to invest in the shelves.
Senior Cloud System Engineer at Atos Poland
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is stable, with improvements over time, minor issues, and generally positive feedback.
Sentiment score
7.9
NetApp FAS Series is reliable and stable, with minor issues swiftly resolved, earning high stability ratings despite occasional challenges.
It has been pretty stable since then.
System Administrator at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
We had things deployed for years, and we were suddenly getting cloud sync issues that were crashing our sites.
Senior Manager of Global Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is very stable and reliable.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
When panic occurs on the node, it reboots itself, and we have experienced numerous hardware-related issues.
Senior Cloud System Engineer at Atos Poland
Most things are tailor-made, and we avoid downtimes even with primitive CLI commands.
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
 

Room For Improvement

Users desire improved CTERA platform interface, performance, documentation, real-time updates, access control, monitoring, automation, and troubleshooting tools.
NetApp FAS users desire better performance, documentation, UI, cost efficiency, cloud integration, automation, support, and competitive pricing.
AI and automation features could enhance the platform, such as AI-powered search, predictive storage analytics, and intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
The main problem is that if two people are working on the same file, for example, one in the U.S. and one in Israel, they can overwrite each other’s work without any notification.
CEO at rtt.co
It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Storage companies should create encrypted storage solutions between the OS and storage to protect against ransomware attacks.
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
Nutanix leads the business in this approach, and I feel that NetApp is missing some aspects, such as CPU, GPU, and RAM, in its AI portfolio.
Pre-Sales Director France, Belgium and Luxembourg at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
There is an opportunity there for NetApp with Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
Technological Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

CTERA offers competitive, cost-effective pricing with flexible licensing, though some find consumption-based models confusing due to inclusions.
NetApp FAS Series is costly but offers value with features like deduplication; planning and negotiation optimize ROI and pricing.
Unlike other solutions that require hardware purchases, CTERA offers software licensing with flexibility across multiple infrastructure providers.
Business Development Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
CTERA’s pricing should be more proportional and accessible so that cost is not the factor preventing customers from purchasing.
CEO at rtt.co
From what I heard from my seniors, a 50 TB capacity license would be around 55 to 60 lakhs in Indian rupees.
Graduate Engineering Trainee at HCLSoftware
The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is not cheap, but in comparison to other vendors, NetApp FAS Series is affordable.
System Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

CTERA's platform offers scalable file services with strong security, easy access, centralized control, and efficient data management features.
NetApp FAS Series offers performance, flexibility, and reliability with robust deduplication, seamless integration, and efficient data management for diverse environments.
As soon as something is written to the device, CTERA copies it to the cloud, where it's versioned with snapshots so we can recover it.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
A vital advantage of this platform is its instantaneous recovery capability, allowing seamless access to a secondary gateway if the primary one fails.
Business Development Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
When it comes to data protection in CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, we have encryption methodologies and we also have ransomware protection, which is a wide variety of features offered along with the CTERA appliance and application.
Senior Associate at Iron Mountain Incorporated
While NVMe disks are expensive and require three disks for parity calculations, hard drives in NetApp FAS Series are inexpensive, making it more cost-efficient per GB, even with RAID tech implementation.
Senior Cloud System Engineer at Atos Poland
Our IOPS are very high, reaching somewhere about 50k to 150k or 1.150k.
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
One important feature for customers is its ease of use and continuity, enabling seamless usage across on-premise and cloud environments.
Pre-Sales Director France, Belgium and Luxembourg at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

CTERA Enterprise File Servi...
Ranking in NAS
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (1st), Cloud Migration (4th), Cloud Storage (3rd), Cloud Backup (8th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (6th), Cloud Storage Gateways (1st), Content Collaboration Platforms (6th), AI Legal & Compliance (3rd)
NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in NAS
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (4th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is 5.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 10.6%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetApp FAS Series10.6%
CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform5.0%
Other84.4%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

Tim M. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Supports global file recovery and rapid data versioning across 80 nodes
When we implemented CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform early on, and we've been on the platform for three years, we have three different cloud portals. We have an EU portal, we have an Americas portal, and we have an APAC portal. It would be nice if we could combine that into one portal just for that global single pane of glass look. We've talked with them about that and they say it's challenging just because of some of the structure, but that would be something nice if we could get that. I integrated with Varonis, and because CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform didn't have initially a working relationship with that vendor, it would have been nice had that pre-existed us saying we need this. But that wasn't totally CTERA's fault. There was a lot of challenge working with the vendor to build out that interface. A single pane of glass for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform would be beneficial. Everything else works fairly well. We've never had a point where we couldn't get to something that caused us to have a serious outage, and that to me is the mark of a good software package. It's never really caused us serious issues. We have our issues, that's true, and every software package does. However, we've always been able to meet the needs of the business, and we drive hard on security, stability, and scalability. From the scalability standpoint, that's one of the most important things to us. We're on their capacity-based licensing, so if I need to ramp up another CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform NAS, if we have an M&A, I can easily and quickly spin up another NAS and start doing that data transition fairly quickly. The biggest maintenance issue with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is firmware upgrades. We've done a lot of transition from hardware solution to virtualized infrastructure in order to minimize that hardware lifecycle portion of it. We have to upgrade the firmware and sometimes that can be challenging in the nature of business of our size with 80 CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform nodes around the globe. The issue we've had with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform happened recently in a firmware upgrade where there was a major database back-end upgrade and that took some time. For our smaller sites, it would be an hour or two, and I can build that into a fairly easy change window. But in our larger sites where we may have hundreds of terabytes of data, that database update process took maybe a day or a day and a half. That becomes more challenging, especially in a manufacturing environment where people are wanting to access configuration files. We had to pin the data locally because the data would be available on the local edge filer, but the cloud sync, while it was updating the database, the cloud files weren't available. That would be the other thing I'd like to see an improvement on: some way to do those database upgrades either in a more segmented fashion or in some type of offline environment. I understand the logistics behind that sounds easy, but I'm sure it's not.
Srikanth Purushothaman - PeerSpot reviewer
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
Has supported long-term data protection and backup while requiring better part availability and pricing options
For monitoring purposes, we normally use flash access storage exclusively. We utilize a hybrid system because we need performance, combining NL-SAS for the volume and SAS flash to use as a fast cache system that provides more IOPS. We normally implement RAID 10, which we prefer over RAID 6's n plus 2 combinations. We utilize it for data redundancy, even with write intensity on. Regarding the unified storage architecture for NetApp FAS Series, we normally opt for exclusivity unless budget constraints exist. Our IOPS are very high, reaching somewhere about 50k to 150k or 1.150k. The high performance ensures minimal latency. An advantage we've seen with NetApp FAS Series is that snapshots provide very rapid backup and fast recovery. We basically use snapshots for data protection as first-level protection, with deduplication between the two storages serving as second-level protection.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
45%
Outsourcing Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Educational Organization
4%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
Our experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform was good; it was very manageable for getting started with the product.
What needs improvement with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
Regarding automation and ease of use in CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform, while we currently have all the automations we need, I believe there is room for more improvements. CTERA Enterprise...
What is your primary use case for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
The main use case for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is to ensure that employees working for the client I have been contracting with have access to all saved files. In my day-to-day work, ...
Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
I do not handle the pricing part of NetApp FAS Series since it is managed by the sales team.
What needs improvement with NetApp FAS Series?
There is room for improvement when it comes to response time and first-level support quality. If a new feature needs to be added, it takes some time because it is altogether a new development; othe...
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McDonald's, WPP, US Navy, Gore, Festo, Stryker, Bezeq, PERI
Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.