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Dell PowerVault vs NetApp AFF A-Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 PowerVault
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Fibre Channel (1st)
NetApp AFF A-Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Dell PowerVault is 11.8%, down from 28.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp AFF A-Series is 4.2%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerVault11.8%
NetApp AFF A-Series4.2%
Other84.0%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

Storage has supported long-term CCTV archiving and improves on-premises application performance
I think it would be good regarding how Dell PowerVault could improve to have, in addition to the excellent support service that exists, some training courses, forums, and a training school for using these tools. Many people specialize only in this kind of equipment, and others have no idea how to configure them or how they work and always end up depending on people who have spent a long time working with these systems and know how to handle them more because of experience than because of information that can be easily obtained about using this equipment. Everything regarding additional aspects that could be improved in Dell PowerVault has already been mentioned.
MS
Senior Storage Engineer at Orange Business
Efficient data management leads to significant cost savings through advanced inline deduplication
NetApp's inline deduplication and compression are unmatched compared to other vendors. With both deduplication and compression inline, we experience no cost in terms of performance on the systems, however, we have huge savings on the storage side. We can turn it on for everyone and save storage space, allowing us to sell more to customers. NetApp also provides us with an interface for VLAN separation that no other vendor can provide, allowing our customers distinct, separated network layers in between.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Dell also has an active SupportAssist option where Dell will proactively monitor the device remotely and they'll contact you if there's any problem with the device that they can see remotely, which has been hugely beneficial in the past."
"For the video use case where expansion is sometimes required quickly, Dell PowerVault proves to be an excellent solution due to its significant capacity and scalability over time."
"The biggest advantages of Dell PowerVault are that it has block protocol and competitive pricing."
"Dell PowerVault is user-friendly and easy to deploy."
"Dell PowerVault is a more scalable and secure solution compared to other backup solutions."
"The solution is easy to configure and reliable; the performance is very good, and storage consolidation is quite easy to configure on it."
"I find this solution to be cost-effective in providing data storage for clients."
"I believe Dell PowerVault is the best option on the market at the moment, especially for entry-level and budget solutions."
"MetroCluster is the best product on the market. It synchronizes the storage. NetApp's update packages are a huge advantage because the firmware and server updates are in one package."
"NetApp AFF A-Series is faster and more robust compared to the all-flash storage of NetApp."
"The deduplication and compression options from NetApp AFF A-Series are good to use for efficient storage capacity."
"The amazing thing is that whenever we have come up with an issue where we need to get something done, and it wasn't necessarily available, they could do things for us, usually within the next revision of the software."
"NetApp's inline deduplication and compression are unmatched compared to other vendors."
"We've reduced downtime. Without all of NetApp's benefits, we would have had to reconfigure parts of storage that would have required downtime. We have dramatically reduced our downtime through successive generations of NetApp, allowing us to get Five 9s availability."
"NetApp helps us get the fastest output."
"NetApp support is fantastic."
 

Cons

"I would rate Dell PowerVault as eight out of ten; it does not receive a ten because it comes as volume storage and not as unified storage."
"I would like Dell to improve on the configuration of the disk groups. Only one group is expandable. Once you configure the other disk group types, you cannot expand them. It limits scalability. If you want maybe to grow a disk group, you lose information, and then you need to build it up again, which is not a good use case for customers."
"The tool needs to improve its UI."
"Dell PowerVault is capturing an area that is needed for our customers, and it can be improved if this part could include a NAS option as well since the entry-level NAS part is currently missing in the portfolio, which would be a very good offering for customers, especially for their small and medium businesses."
"Dell PowerVault needs to include additional features. Ransomware protection features need to be included, as all other features are good for Dell PowerVault."
"I would like to see improvements made to the user interface."
"I have experienced issues with the stability and reliability as more known features concerning controller management and controller management ports mostly stuck, and I have to reboot the management controller."
"The implementation process takes a while."
"NetApp AFF A-Series should work on cost. The solutions, especially enterprise-level storage, should be more affordable to improve their appeal to businesses."
"We have several problems with the limitations of NetApp systems in terms of volume shares. We have a brick in a 700 or a controller, and we sometimes make small volumes, but Kubernetes container volumes don't allow us."
"Pricing could always be lower."
"Regarding tech support for NetApp, once the engineer understands our problem, they provide solutions that suit our environment; however, it is essential for the engineer to understand that our environment may differ from standard setups, which can sometimes cause discrepancies in recommendations."
"The solution's ransomware protection could be improved."
"NetApp is shifting to the cloud and adopting AI, but it is not improving its core technology to deliver faster storage. We're still waiting to see if it improves speed with solutions like the 90 series."
"It would be helpful if our partner organized a yearly session with my team to discuss the new feature sets on our current solutions and other ways NetApp can help us. Perhaps we are missing some information to help us make the right decision."
"I really don't have a lot of complaints. In the past, there were issues, however, they've really done a great job of reaching out."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is reasonable and we are satisfied with it."
"I rate the price of Dell PowerVault a nine out of ten."
"I rate the product price a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high."
"They are offering a wide range of support models for the customers such as basic support that is budget-friendly, but they also provide a professional support solution that is a bit costly"
"I rate Dell PowerVault a six or seven out of ten for pricing."
"The product is inexpensive."
"The cost, compared to other solutions, is on the higher end."
"The price of Dell PowerVault could be reduced. It is more expensive than some IBM solutions."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerVault?
I do not have detailed information about the cost of Dell PowerVault. However, I believe that Dell PowerVault is much more expensive than other solutions, such as Veeam Backup, which offers better ...
What needs improvement with Dell PowerVault?
There is another solution called Veeam Backup that I believe is better than Dell PowerVault. It is an international solution that many large companies use, and it offers many more capabilities. For...
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerVault?
I was using Dell PowerVault as a backup solution. I use Backup Exec, which is an application to manage Dell PowerVault, rather than the HTML5 PowerVault Manager for ME5. Currently, I am using Dell ...
What needs improvement with NetApp AFF A-Series?
NetApp is doing great with cloud integration; however, there may be room for improvement in integrating with existing VMware devices for better support, especially since many companies are looking ...
What advice do you have for others considering NetApp AFF A-Series?
It would be great to see some automation from NetApp. I rate NetApp AFF A-Series a nine out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp AFF A-Series?
With respect to pricing, NetApp can be competitive but hasn't been explored to a large extent.
 

Also Known As

PowerVault
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dayco, FAW Foundry, University of Cambridge, Finder, Stadtwerke Pforzheim GmbH & Co.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerVault vs. NetApp AFF A-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
919,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.