Dell PowerMax vs NetApp ASA comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9, while NetApp is ranked #24 with an average rating of 9.0. Dell Technologies holds a 4.1% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 18, 2025

Dell PowerMax and NetApp ASA are competing storage solutions. NetApp ASA appears to have the upper hand due to its broader feature set and superior value for investment.

Features: Dell PowerMax offers robust data reduction, high performance for critical workloads, and NVMe-based storage support. NetApp ASA provides advanced data management, integration with cloud environments, and enhanced flexibility and scalability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetApp ASA offers a straightforward deployment process with comprehensive support. Dell PowerMax requires more customization and management.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerMax is recognized for competitive upfront costs, especially in large-scale deployments. NetApp ASA may have higher initial costs but delivers better ROI due to its rich feature set and flexibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA

May 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 860,168 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

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerMax is 4.1%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ASA is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Eugene Hemphill

Sales Manager at Multicomputos PR

Helps to save money and resources with the data compression feature

One point I'd like to improve is that the tool should start selling small boxes again. It discontinued some products and is focusing on bigger, more capable boxes, neglecting the SMB market. Even though it's not a big market, it shouldn't have removed them. One way to improve the product is to add an operational assistant that doesn't depend on VMware. It could also establish more alliances with other operational systems.

Read full review

MayankChauhan

Lead Consultant - Cloud & Infrastructure Services at Infosys

Delivers essential support and performance for intensive operations in real-time environments

Our infrastructure is spread across the private as well as a public cloud. Our requirement was that the IOPS latency should not be more than one millisecond. If anything goes beyond one millisecond, it's a problem for us. We wanted a system that could handle the transactions and meet our latency requirements. There are performance benefits for sure. The amount of deduplication and compression offered by Dell PowerMax is quite good, especially with databases. Dell PowerMax delivers optimum performance and reliable support, integral for handling failures and ensuring operational continuity. The performance capacity optimization and support we receive from Dell are also valuable.

Read full review

Punit Waghela

Technical Specialist at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees

Runs smoothly and provides excellent performance and throughput

I love the SnapMirror and autonomous ransomware protection features. SnapMirror is used for replication purposes in a DC/DR setup. If something goes wrong with the data center or production DR, the data automatically gets replicated to the DR site, and the DR site becomes operational, allowing continued access to data. Autonomous ransomware protection helps recover data in case of any threat or ransomware. Ransomware is increasing daily, and according to Gartner, most companies have to pay a ransom if a ransomware attack occurs in their environment. NetApp provides a ransomware guarantee program where they commit that if data cannot be recovered in case of ransomware, NetApp will provide compensation, which adds significant value.

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

"It has benefited my organization because it has reduced time to insights."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

"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."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ease of use."

"Everything, especially the VMs inside, is pretty fast."

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The latency is good."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"CloudIQ has become an optimal tool for us to get the full picture of all the different arrays, from mid-tier all the way up. It gives us that single view and the ability to launch the Unisphere. That is really is powerful in being able to manage the array."

"The upgradability and extendibility for the size of the storage unit are noteworthy."

"We were able to move away from a middleware solution for high availability, going right to snapshots and data replication on arrays."

"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."

"There is no management overhead involved in optimizing performance. It does it so well on its own. We don't have to manage much at all. It really is like a set it and forget it solution. My storage engineers love the system. It is a lot less work than our previous systems, which weren't bad by any means. There is not nearly as much management as before. So, we are saving dozens of hours per month for our storage team, and that is a real cost in our business."

"Dell PowerMax has certainly improved our organization by being much faster than what we've had in the past; it's a strong product, and most of the solutions we have or have made with Dell are very fast."

"The tool is a fast-performing asset. It can perform millions of transactions within a second. I like the tool's architecture as well."

"You can use PowerMax for all workloads and consolidation. We have used it to scale thousands of VMs."

More Dell PowerMax pros

"I love the SnapMirror and autonomous ransomware protection features."

"Their dedupe functionality is probably the best in the industry. We also find their support model to be good. When we purchase something, we have a very good understanding of how long that product will be supported by them. That helps."

"I love the SnapMirror and autonomous ransomware protection features."

Cons

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

"They could add more support for file storage and different types of storage."

"The software layer has to improve."

"We have run into a couple of instances recently where we are running out of space. So we have had to buy some more packs for it and they have deployed fine and it has increased smoothly."

"I'd like to see the product implement active replication for vehicles such as VMware."

"We need better data deduplication."

"In the future, I would like to see integration with enterprise backup systems."

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

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The solution should integrate better with OpenShift and Kubernetes architecture."

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

"The technical support is lacking. We are working with Dell EMC to get some better understanding of this."

"We've had issues with whole waves of memory DIMMs that had to be replaced in a machine, which is 32 sticks of memory in one director. It was a tedious day; we've had that on multiple arrays due to a bad batch of memory."

"Since the merging of EMC and Dell into Dell Technologies, there has been a hurdle that they've had to overcome, and they're not over it yet. It takes two to three times longer for things to get fixed than it did when they were separate companies. That is something that has to be fixed."

"There is room for improvement in terms of integration with various service providers for public clouds."

"I would like to see more development in the cloud environment. It would be good if it comes in the cloud kind of setup."

"The tool needs to improve its performance. Today's applications are demanding a response rate of one millisecond or below. The product should also look into AI integration."

More Dell PowerMax cons

"From a partner's point of view, the tools that I'm using to create the quote or do the sizing are very slow."

"I would like to see more in terms of replication between storage classes. They provide different lines of storage. They have a lower class. They have a capacity class. They have their enterprise class. Currently, we have interoperability at the same plane with ONTAP, but we would like to see some more mix-and-match features."

"I'm handling pre-sales and post-sales. From a partner's point of view, the tools that I'm using to create the quote or do the sizing are very slow. The tools, such as hardware universe, fusion.netapp.com, and partnerhub.netapp.com, operate very slowly. These tools should be more efficient as they enter a hung state repeatedly."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"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."

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

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

"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."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The pricing for this solution is good compared to other products in the market."

"Our costs for the product are three million."

"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."

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

"I rate Dell PowerMax NVMe a five out of ten for pricing."

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

"The cost is expensive. While VMAX now has good pricing, PowerMax is a little expensive."

"The price is starting from $500,000."

More Dell PowerMax pricing and cost advice

"It's more expensive than other storage vendors such as Dell, Pure Storage, HPE, Lenovo, etc. It provides the value, but some of the customers don't look at the value. They first look at the cost. It should be reduced by 20% to 30%."

"It is pretty good. It is definitely cheaper than Dell EMC. It is cheaper than Pure. It is cheaper than VAST. It is definitely cheaper than HPE. The only one that is on par with NetApp's pricing for enterprise customers is IBM."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

28%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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?

Adding some functions to the product would be beneficial. Storage replication should be essential, and the analytics ...

See all answers

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?

When comparing Dell PowerMax NVMe with other vendors, such as IBM enterprise solutions, the price is relatively higher.

See all answers

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

It's more expensive than other storage vendors such as Dell, Pure Storage, HPE, Lenovo, etc. It provides the value, b...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp ASA?

From a partner perspective, the presales tools could use improvement. I'm handling pre-sales and post-sales. From a p...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NetApp ASA?

The storage is being used for different workloads, including VMware, databases, and web servers. We are a NetApp part...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 29% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 19% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FlashSystem 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

Compared 27% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerMax

Compared 13% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerMax

Compared 10% of the time

Dell VMAX All Flash vs Dell PowerMax

Compared 9% of the time

HPE Nimble Storage vs Dell PowerMax

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell PowerMax Competitors

NetApp AFF vs NetApp ASA

Compared 46% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp ASA

Compared 11% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs NetApp ASA

Compared 7% of the time

NetApp NVMe AFF A800 vs NetApp ASA

Compared 6% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs NetApp ASA

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp ASA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

June 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax

June 2025

Download Dell PowerMax product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise SAN

June 2025

Download NetApp ASA product report

Also Known As

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

Dell PowerMax NVMe, Dell EMC PowerMax, PowerMax

No data available

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.

Pure Storage

Dell PowerMax offers robust performance, reliability, and efficient data handling. It is recognized for its compression, deduplication, and NVMe technology, significantly benefiting data centers with its advanced replication and uptime.

PowerMax is equipped to handle mission-critical applications, providing impressive performance metrics with low latency and high IOPS capacity. Its CloudIQ and Unisphere interfaces enhance manageability, while REST API support simplifies storage management. Users in sectors like healthcare, finance, and telecommunications leverage its capabilities for database management, high-transaction block storage, and disaster recovery. However, opportunities for improving deduplication efficiency, interface complexity, and automation remain.

What are the key features of Dell PowerMax?

Data Reduction: Combines compression and deduplication for efficient storage use.
NVMe Technology: Enables swift data handling with high throughput.
CloudIQ and Unisphere: Streamlines manageability and control.
REST API Support: Simplifies integration with management tools.
High Availability: Ensures consistent uptime across platforms.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Performance Metrics: Look for low latency and high IOPS as indicators.
Reliability: Consistent operations with minimal interruptions.
Manageability: Efficient control over storage environments.
Cost Efficiency: Note any potential savings in data processing and storage.

Industries utilize Dell PowerMax to support diverse environments like VMware, Oracle, and PostgreSQL. It serves multiple sectors such as healthcare, finance, and government, aiding in data storage consolidation, disaster recovery, and high-availability hosting for critical systems and applications.

Dell Technologies

The NetApp ASA is an all-flash SAN storage array that delivers industry-leading availability, superior performance, and simplified data management across your hybrid cloud. It is designed for a wide range of workloads, including mission-critical applications, databases, and virtualized environments. NetApp ASA features a scale-out architecture that can be scaled to meet the needs of your growing business. They also support a wide range of built-in data protection and data security features, including snapshots, replication, disaster recovery, and autonomous ransomware protection.

Benefits

Superior performance for your dedicated SAN environment.
Continuous data access to support your business-critical workloads.
Simple and efficient data management that reduces TCO.
Effortless cloud connectivity with leading integration to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and others.

Features

Ensure mission-critical data is secure and always available: NetApp ASA systems maintain data availability and keep critical applications running with symmetric active-active architecture—backed by NetApp’s Six Nines Data Availability Guarantee.
Safeguard data with built-in application-consistent data protection and achieve business continuity with synchronous disaster recovery.
Superior performance to power your most important applications: Achieve blazing-fast response times across business-critical applications with ASA systems. NetApp supports both NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP in the ASA A-Series, providing consistent low latency and millions of IOPS in a cluster.
Efficiency and simplicity that drive down TCO: With NetApp ONTAP data management software running on ASA systems, you can enjoy storage savings with 4:1 storage efficiency—guaranteed.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Rackspace, Open Line

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA

May 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell PowerMax vs. NetApp ASA report.

See our list of best All-Flash Storage vendors and best NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays vendors.

We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.