NetApp FAS Series vs Qumulo comparison

NetApp and Qumulo are both solutions in the NAS category. NetApp is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Qumulo is ranked #13. NetApp holds a 10.6% mindshare in N, compared to Qumulo’s 4.8% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qumulo users who would recommend it.

NetApp FAS Series

Read 110 NetApp FAS Series reviews

9,150 Views
4,575 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Qumulo

Read 8 Qumulo reviews

3,879 Views
1,862 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp FAS Series

Qumulo

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

NetApp FAS Series and Qumulo compete in the enterprise storage solutions category, with Qumulo having an edge due to its advanced features and real-time analytics, which are highly appreciated by enterprises seeking immediate data insight.

Features: NetApp FAS Series is noted for its data protection, integration capabilities supporting hybrid cloud environments, and a robust set of tools for backup. Qumulo provides real-time analytics and scalability, which give organizations adaptable data insights. These features, especially real-time file system visibility, set Qumulo apart.

Room for Improvement: NetApp FAS Series could benefit from improved real-time data processing, better scalability options, and enhancements in their analytics capabilities. Qumulo may improve on reducing upfront costs, offering more competitive pricing, and enhancing protocol support for more diverse enterprise needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetApp's deployment process is supported with extensive documentation, streamlining the setup process. Qumulo simplifies deployment through intuitive interfaces and automated updates, coupled with proactive customer service, offering an enhanced user experience.

Pricing and ROI: NetApp FAS Series is recognized for its appealing pricing with competitive setup costs and strong ROI, attracting budget-conscious enterprises. Though Qumulo carries higher upfront costs, it justifies this with considerable long-term ROI benefits through efficient data handling and scalable features, making it a worthwhile investment.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp FAS Series vs. Qumulo Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series vs. Qumulo

April 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

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)

Qumulo

Ranking in NAS

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (21st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 10.6%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qumulo is 4.8%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetApp FAS Series	10.6%
Qumulo	4.8%
Other	84.6%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Srikanth Purushothaman

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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VinceVitro

Senior Storage Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Useful data sharing, simple cluster scaling, and excellent support

One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential.

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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

"In NetApp FAS Series, I appreciate the visibility."

"This solution provides us with easy management and great vendor support."

"The most valuable feature of the NetApp FAS Series is its stability."

"It is good to have a unified storage where you can have block and file level protocols."

"I would recommend it to anyone."

"The ONTAP tools make managing VMware easier."

"It was very straightforward with OpenStack, very well-documented, and supported."

"The product is user-friendly and helps to evaluate the performance of each node. It ensures that if one node encounters an issue, the system can immediately redistribute the workload without interruptions. This setup provides uninterrupted operation for our systems."

More NetApp FAS Series pros

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are its rolling updates and all-day availability."

"The most valuable feature is real-time analytics."

"The data protection algorithm to protect the data between the nodes has been the most valuable feature. The integration with backup platforms such as Veeam and Veritas has also been valuable."

"The most valuable feature is real-time analytics."

"The feature that I like most is the analytics part of the file system."

"The ratio of total operational cost to complexity versus feature set is very good."

"The most valuable features of Qumulo are the ease of management and special permissions that are quick to enable. The overall performance of the solution is good."

"The feature that I like most is the analytics part of the file system."

More Qumulo pros

Cons

"They should add new features to the product."

"The product should include an audit log feature."

"It's straightforward in 7-mode, but using cDOT, it's terrible."

"Cluster mode needs to be more ubiquitous."

"I would like to see an improvement in the licensing on Data Mirroring (SnapMirror) features."

"With scalability, we feel the system is limited."

"When getting new hardware, always tell the account manager that you are also considering other brands. They will be forced to adjust the price lower."

"Some of the tools could be improved like NetApp OnCommand. This has been a lot better recently, but they could make it faster."

More NetApp FAS Series cons

"In the next release, I would like to see the ability to have more control at a terminal level of the file system."

"Some anti-theft permissions do not transfer well to Qumulo."

"There is plenty of room for improvement. In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

"The support for iMac and protocols should be improved, not all features are available."

"In the future, I would like to see non-disruptive updates."

"The price of the software is a bit expensive, so a reduction in cost would make it more competitive."

"One aspect of Qumulo that I hoped to see improved was its software upgrade process, which did see significant progress during my usage. Initially, upgrading the software resulted in several minutes of system downtime. However, by the time I departed last summer, the downtime had reduced to mere ten seconds. Although I am unsure if Qumulo has yet achieved a completely outage-free upgrade, I simply performed the upgrades early in the morning before the marketing department began its workday, so any downtime was inconsequential."

"Qumulo should continue to expand automation and orchestration capabilities."

More Qumulo cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't recall the price, but in general, pricing can always be better."

"The product is on the expensive side."

"NetApp FAS Series is a reasonably high-priced solution, partially because we select the configuration that duplicates the entire system."

"The licensing cost is on yearly basis."

"We purchased it for four years, and it wasn't expensive. It was reasonable. Every company has a different agreement with NetApp. We got everything we wanted with all the bells and whistles and all the features and functionalities."

"The pricing of NetApp FAS Series is not cheap, but in comparison to other vendors, NetApp FAS Series is affordable because they also have deduplication, compression, and inline compression. They focus on storage only, which is really good; it works."

"The process for going to cluster mode is expensive."

"The NetApp FAS series price is very competitive compared to other solutions on the market it is a good choice."

More NetApp FAS Series pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to others. We look at the price per terabyte."

"The price of Qumulo is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	58

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

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Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 26% of the time

HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp FAS Series Competitors

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Qumulo

Compared 17% of the time

VAST Data vs Qumulo

Compared 7% of the time

Everpure FlashBlade vs Qumulo

Compared 7% of the time

Nasuni vs Qumulo

Compared 5% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Qumulo

Compared 3% of the time

More Qumulo Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series

April 2026

Download NetApp FAS Series product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

April 2026

Download Qumulo product report

Overview

NetApp FAS Series offers high availability and seamless protocol integration. Known for its robust features such as data replication and efficient storage architecture, it finds use in challenging enterprise environments and virtualization.

NetApp FAS Series delivers valuable enterprise storage capabilities with an emphasis on unified storage architectures supporting SAN and NAS functionalities. Features like high availability, robust snapshot technology, and seamless protocol integration cater to diverse workloads. Data replication through SnapMirror and reliable performance under heavy loads are appreciated. Deduplication and compression enhance storage efficiency while scalability, resilience, and strong customer support further its appeal. Improvements are desired in flexibility, documentation, speed, and affordability. Additionally, its monitoring capabilities and cloud integration need attention. Organizations employ FAS Series for enterprise storage, SQL Server LUNs, Exchange LUNs, VMware, and corporate file sharing.

What are the most notable features of NetApp FAS Series?

High Availability: Ensures continuous access and reduces downtime.
Snapshot Technology: Offers point-in-time copies for data recovery.
SnapMirror: Provides efficient data replication for disaster recovery.
Storage Efficiency: Deduplication and compression optimize storage use.
Cloud Integration: Enhances flexibility with cloud environments.

What benefits should be examined in reviews?

Scalability: Supports expanding storage needs without performance loss.
Reliability: Maintains robust performance under heavy workloads.
Strong Support: Access to helpful customer service resources.
Cost Efficiency: Consider value in context of feature set and performance.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, NetApp FAS Series is implemented for centralized data management, supporting complex protocols like NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI. This enables efficient handling of virtualization, databases, unified storage tasks, and backup solutions crucial for maintaining unstructured data and redundancy.

NetApp

Qumulo offers an efficient and reliable file-sharing platform with real-time analytics and seamless integration with major cloud services, ensuring ease of use and high IO speed for storage needs.

With its focus on file sharing, real-time analytics, and reliability, Qumulo allows for smooth operations, ease of use, and resilience. It boasts integration with AWS and Google Cloud, providing enhanced functionality with a strong operational cost-to-complexity ratio. Despite requests for software upgrades and better support for certain protocols, it remains a competitive choice for centralized media storage and object-based storage solutions.

What are Qumulo's most important features?

File Sharing: Offers seamless file sharing capabilities.
Reliability: Ensures stable and dependable operations.
Ease of Use: Designed with user-friendly interfaces.
Real-Time Analytics: Provides immediate insights and data analysis.
No Downtime Updates: Supports upgrading without interruptions.
Failover Capability: Allows disaster recovery operations.
Cloud Integration: Compatible with AWS and Google Cloud.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Performance: High IO speed in storage systems.
Cost Efficiency: Benefits from operational cost-to-complexity ratio.
Data Insights: Detailed analytics on processes and usage.
Integration Potential: Easy integration with cloud and backup platforms.

Organizations in marketing and entertainment industries rely on Qumulo for managing files, media storage, and archiving needs. On-premises deployments are common for centralized media storage, facilitating object-based storage for videos, images, and office data support. The solution appeals to solution providers and resellers seeking market presence with application versatility.

Qumulo

Sample Customers

Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College

County of Riverside Sheriff Department, Hyundai Mobis Automotive North America, University of Arizona, UCSD - San Diego Supercomputer Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Sinclair Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Kaiser Permanente, Deluxe Creative, Vexcel Imaging, University of Florida, The Madison Square Garden Company, Arizona State University, Cinesite, San Diego Padres Baseball, Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine, IHME, EllieMae, Washington State University.

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series vs. Qumulo

April 2026

Free Report: NetApp FAS Series vs. Qumulo

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