EXAScaler vs Nasuni comparison

DataDirect Networks and Nasuni are both solutions in the File System Software category. DataDirect Networks is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Nasuni is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. DataDirect Networks holds a 1.7% mindshare in FSS, compared to Nasuni’s 18.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of DataDirect Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Nasuni users who would recommend it.

EXAScaler

Read 1 EXAScaler review

377 Views
75 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nasuni

Read 36 Nasuni reviews

5,185 Views
1,452 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

EXAScaler

Nasuni

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between EXAScaler and Nasuni based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Nasuni, CTERA, Panzura and others in File System Software.

To learn more, read our detailed File System Software Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

File System Software

January 2026

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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

EXAScaler

Ranking in File System Software

8th

Ranking in NAS

17th

Ranking in Cloud Storage

17th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Performance (2nd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (11th)

Nasuni

Ranking in File System Software

1st

Ranking in NAS

7th

Ranking in Cloud Storage

7th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (3rd), Cloud Backup (15th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (11th), Cloud Storage Gateways (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the File System Software category, the mindshare of EXAScaler is 1.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nasuni is 18.7%, down from 26.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File System Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nasuni	18.7%
EXAScaler	1.7%
Other	79.6%

File System Software

Featured Reviews

reviewer2544219

Chief Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Solution enables exceptional performance and immense scalability for AI cluster training

I am a system integrator, and my customers are using EXAScaler as the de facto parallel file system for Google Cloud. They primarily use it for large AI cluster training EXAScaler provides amazing performance in terms of sequential read and random access, and it has a significant scalability…

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SwapnilDaga

Infrastructure Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Cloud data management that achieves cost efficiency with advanced data protection features

I am currently using Nasuni for seismic data. We have a huge data size, and we want to reduce costs. Nasuni acts as a caching solution, so we put some data into the cache, and the rest goes to the blob, which helps us save on costs. We use it for applications like Petrol and Tech Log, where 3D…

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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

"EXAScaler provides amazing performance in terms of sequential read and random access, and it has a significant scalability advantage as it is scalable to petabytes."

"The customers who use DDN EXAScaler are happy, especially when using large AI clusters for training."

"We've used it to provide file source capacity for VDI environments. The security of it is important and the fact that it's object storage, it's immutable and that it can't be held for ransom. It's a lot smoother than our previous processes that weren't Nasuni-based. A lot of it is done automatically just by the system being in place."

"The snapshot functionality and the unified file system are definitely the most valuable features for us. The UFS allows everybody across the organization to see the exact same data at the same time, instead of having different file servers with different structures on them, and that's mission-critical. We have different branches throughout our organization that have to act on that data."

"With Nasuni Management Console (NMC), we get a single, centralized view of our entire internal structure and data center structure. This is very important because this caters to remote locations. One of the main care center teams is dependent on this solution. As it is directly connected to customers for the calls that they receive and troubleshoot, they can then help customers out in case they are not able to place an order."

"The most valuable feature is disaster recovery. We can fully recover a site in two hours."

"The most valuable feature is that we have redundancy in our data. It's nice to know that it is cached both locally on the filters, as well as stored on that cloud."

"The Nasuni management dashboard is helpful because, on the administration side, I'm able to view all of the different filers that we have in the UK, rather than check each one of them individually."

"The solution gives us a breakdown and summary of every resource and each volume within every resource. It tells us the code within a given volume, so I can go in there and look at the size of the files that are stored there. Nasuni gives me the big picture and allows me to connect things like Power BI to any endpoint. I can take that tabular information from Nasuni and look at it in a graph."

"Nasuni is tremendously easy to manage. It eliminates many of the administrative challenges associated with physical hardware storage, and you don't need to worry about any hardware failure or products reaching the end of their lives."

More Nasuni pros

Cons

"One challenge with EXAScaler is during upgrade time, as it can be problematic when upgrading node by node. Additionally, it is not multi-protocol by nature, requiring additional hardware to support various protocols like NFS or object storage."

"One challenge with EXAScaler is during upgrade time, as it can be problematic when upgrading node by node."

"Some of their cross-platform features are really good, but it could always use more."

"We've had some organizational changes that Nasuni has not been able to keep up with, mainly from a data or file system perspective. Moving a filer from one management console has been a challenge. It lacks the flexibility to move files in and out of the management console. We have six management consoles now, and we're constantly telling Nasuni, "Hey, please allow us to move a filer from management console A to B." They can't do that."

"Its interface design or the graphic user interface design can be slightly tweaked in some areas. Some built-in setup wizards would be very beneficial. Rather than having to go in and configure it by hand, there should be more setup wizards for onboarding new data shares and getting it set up the way you want. I don't know if these are on their roadmap, but I sat down and talked to them about some of the work concerns, some of the things that we liked, and some of the things that we didn't like. They are probably working on that."

"The Nasuni file storage platform doesn't work well when there are a high number of small files. This is the case when a directory structure contains more than 10,000 or 20,000 small files, e.g., 5 KB, 10 KB, or 15 KB. When the user is accessing these files from another geographical location, they might face a slow response or timeouts when connecting to the shares, and then to the files. This is because the file size is small. There is a scope of improvement with this solution when it comes to accessing a large number of small files."

"When we first set up our bandwidth limiting, we had a few problems when it came to managing it. This is something that could be made easier; however, we were able to make the changes that we needed to for our environment."

"I suggest Nasuni improve their syslog forwarders to support TCP protocol, as it's more secure than UDP, which is plain text and not protected at all."

"The speed at which new files are created is something that could be improved. For example, if you create a new file in another country, I won't see it for between 10 and 15 minutes."

"I would like to see Nasuni create a Dropbox or Box alternative. One of the things that people like about those tools is that they are very easy to implement. They look just like a file server. With Nasuni, you have to be online to get your file storage. With Dropbox, there is a thing running on your PC that downloads the files to it when you need them, i.e., an agent."

More Nasuni cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It's cheaper than a lot of alternatives but it's not cheap."

"The pricing is fair. It's an enterprise-level solution so it's not inexpensive... The cost is pretty stable year over year."

"With this solution, the license renewal is pretty swift. With the virtual appliance, you just need to take care of the OS versions and patches. In a way, we don't have to struggle much with renewals because the only thing that we need to take care of are the licenses. We renew it every three years. This aspect goes with infrastructural costs because it doesn't cost us too much to maintain the solution."

"Nasuni should provide small-scale licenses, like a 20 TB license. Currently, the smallest is a 30 TB license."

"The pricing is on par with everybody else, and fair."

"It is around $850 per terabyte per year. Any additional costs that you would incur are for the local caching devices that you'll need to access Nasuni. You kind of provide your own virtual machines or compute to access the data. You also pay for the object storage. So, there are three parts to it. There is the Nasuni license per terabyte. You would also pay for the actual object storage in the cloud, and then you would pay for virtual machines to access the storage."

"The cost of licensing is negotiated and billed annually per terabyte."

"They could lower the cost, but it saves so much money when you go into it (by losing all the backup)."

More Nasuni pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	24

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for EXAScaler?

EXAScaler is a bit expensive, particularly when comparing the total cost of ownership.

See all answers

What needs improvement with EXAScaler?

One challenge with EXAScaler is during upgrade time, as it can be problematic when upgrading node by node. Additionally, it is not multi-protocol by nature, requiring additional hardware to support...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for EXAScaler?

I am a system integrator, and my customers are using EXAScaler as the de facto parallel file system for Google Cloud. They primarily use it for large AI cluster training.

See all answers

Does Nasuni have a good pricing model?

Based on the experience of my organization, Nasuni is definitely worth the money, since it gives you an all-in-one solution where you'd usually need several programs. About the cost, there isn't a ...

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Is it easy to restore files with Nasuni?

As someone who has used this feature of Nasuni I can tell you - yes, it's good for file recovery and you'll definitely benefit from very quick times. I can't tell you if it's the best one because I...

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What features and services does Nasuni offer?

Hi, if you pick Nasuni, you'll be benefiting from many services for a good price. Well, it's a personalized price you get after an agreement with the company but in my organization's case, it is a ...

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Comparisons

No data available

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Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Egnyte vs Nasuni

Compared 8% of the time

Qumulo vs Nasuni

Compared 7% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Nasuni

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

File System Software

January 2026

Download EXAScaler product report

Buyer's Guide

Nasuni

January 2026

Download Nasuni product report

Overview

Applications are evolving to meet the needs of an automated and connected society. The onslaught of data and the need to move it, store it and process it is quickly overwhelming current infrastructure.

Regain control of your data, streamline workflows and deliver the ultimate performance to reduce time to discovery and unlock new ways to innovate.

DataDirect Networks

Nasuni is a file data services enterprise focused on assisting firms with their digital transformation, global expansion, and information awareness. The Nasuni File Data Platform is a suite of cloud-based services designed to enhance user productivity, ensure business continuity, provide data intelligence, offer cloud options, and simplify global infrastructure. This platform and its auxiliary services are projected to replace conventional file infrastructure such as network attached storage (NAS), backup, and Disaster Recovery (DR), with an expandable cloud-scale solution. By storing file data in scalable cloud object storage from multiple providers, Nasuni positions itself as a cloud-native alternative for traditional NAS and file server infrastructure. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Nasuni serves sectors like manufacturing, construction, technology, oil and gas, financial services, and public sector worldwide, offering its services in more than 70 countries.

Reviews from Real Users

James J., IT Manager at a marketing services firm, says Nasuni’s management dashboard is helpful because he's able to view all of the different filers at once rather than check each one of them individually. He values the software’s security, reliability, good performance, helpful alerting, and responsive support.

According to a Server Engineering Services Lead at a mining and metals company, Nasuni offers good OR and DR capabilities, performs well, offers data security, and continuous file versioning helps recover from hardware failures.

The Managing Director of IT at a construction company appreciates Nasuni because it eliminates a lot of work that was previously done when managing backing up and restoring data files.

Nasuni

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

American Standard, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, E*TRADE, Ithaca Energy, McLaren Construction, Morton Salt, Movado, Urban Outfitters, Western Digital

Find out what your peers are saying about Nasuni, CTERA, Panzura and others in File System Software. Updated: January 2026.

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