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DDN EXA5 vs Panzura CloudFS comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

DDN EXA5
Ranking in File System Software
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Panzura CloudFS
Ranking in File System Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
NAS (5th), Cloud Storage (6th), Cloud Storage Gateways (2nd), Cyberstorage (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the File System Software category, the mindshare of DDN EXA5 is 3.8%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panzura CloudFS is 11.1%, down from 16.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File System Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Panzura CloudFS11.1%
DDN EXA53.8%
Other85.1%
File System Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2544219 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhancing AI cluster training with reliable performance and good customer service
This is for AI training cluster. The customer is using DDN as a default de facto standard for their AI cluster DDN is one of the storages actually supporting by NVIDIA Superport. The customer is using NVIDIA Superport, which helps in terms of scalability. The DDN Exascaler uses a parallel file…
Anil Rahulwar - PeerSpot reviewer
L3 Storage Engineer at Capgemini
Global collaboration on large design files has become faster, more secure, and reliably governed
Improvements for Panzura CloudFS can be challenging, as the product is very powerful, but performance at scale sometimes requires tuning. Some organizations report latency spikes when handling extremely large datasets with high concurrency. Improvements in real-time sync speed are required. Stronger support for multi-cloud or hybrid deployments would reduce vendor lock-in, and enhanced security could include expanded zero-trust access controls. Enhancing real-time sync speeds across continents and built-in metadata tagging for smarter queries would also be beneficial. Additionally, while Panzura CloudFS is optimized for office and edge clients, more native mobile apps or lightweight remote access options would facilitate secure collaboration for field teams. Automatic file tagging or classification would expedite searching across millions of files.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The performance is outstanding, and customers are very happy with it."
"The DDN Exascaler uses a parallel file system, Lustre, which is proven for HPC and AI workloads."
"Panzura CloudFS is an excellent enterprise file system solution that simplifies collaboration, enhances data accessibility, and delivers reliable cloud-backed storage management across multiple locations."
"We have definitely seen a positive return on investment with Panzura CloudFS."
"The assistance of support has been excellent."
"What I appreciate most about Panzura CloudFS is that it really solves the problem we had when we moved all our server workloads to Azure, reducing our on-prem data center footprint sizably. We don't have to maintain a huge on-prem storage array, which is nice. It just works, and we haven't had any issues this whole time."
"Panzura CloudFS has helped to increase the network resilience by 100%."
"The staff went above and beyond to make sure our experience was perfect, even surprising us with a special dessert for our anniversary."
"It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file."
"Our cost savings are around sixty to eighty percent due to deduplication and compression that reduce unstructured data footprints, directly lowering cloud storage costs."
 

Cons

"There are challenges with the operation cost and upgrading process, which is disruptive, especially with the node."
"The only other thing beyond that is that their first-level support hasn't always been perfect."
"It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license."
"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS. Specifically, the GIS data formats, such as a geo database, have been found better kept outside of Panzura CloudFS."
"It has not reduced the data storage cost."
"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS."
"I would say that improving user interface and accessibility is really key."
"Improvements for Panzura CloudFS can be challenging, as the product is very powerful, but performance at scale sometimes requires tuning."
"Panzura CloudFS can be improved with more detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, which may enhance the visibility into storage optimization metrics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing seems high on certain products and features, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. They should consider more attractive pricing for companies of our size. The renewals are yearly, but the pricing is a little high for us."
"The solution's pricing is on the expensive side."
"It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has."
"Overall, it is quite costly compared to NetApp and similar solutions."
"It's competitive. I don't know what competitors are charging, but they have been very transparent, which is nice, and we've negotiated to avoid percentage increases."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DDN EXA5?
The cost is higher compared to other offerings, but the performance is good. The challenge in comparison to other offerings is that DDN is a little bit expensive.
What needs improvement with DDN EXA5?
There are challenges with the operation cost and upgrading process, which is disruptive, especially with the node. Some customers have moved away due to these operational issues.
What is your primary use case for DDN EXA5?
This is for AI training cluster. The customer is using DDN as a default de facto standard for their AI cluster.
What are the products that Panzura provides?
Panzura offers four main products: CloudFS, data services, smart apps, and global services. They call this "all-in-one solution" and it's for end-to-end cloud data management. Why is it called that...
What kind of industries does Panzura serve?
Hello, I think businesses from all industries that have their data on a cloud can benefit from Panzura. Especially if you have offices in various locations or your employees are working from home a...
Why was Panzura acquired? Is the acquisition going to cause a change?
I think Panzura may change in a positive direction now that it's been bought by Profile Capital. That's a very big investment company for technology businesses and I think it's an opportunity for ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

EXA5
Panzura Freedom
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ICR, Recursion, Toyota Technical Development Corporation (TTDC), Deluxe, Buff Dubs
Petrofac, Komatsu, HCA Healthcare, Vanguard, Disney, Pokemon, US Department of Justice, Gensler, Fluor, AFRY, Milwaukee Tool, Navy Federal Credit Union, TechTarget
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA, Panzura, Nasuni and others in File System Software. Updated: October 2026.
919,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.