NetApp StorageGRID vs Qumulo comparison

NetApp and Qumulo are both solutions in the File and Object Storage category. NetApp is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.7, while Qumulo is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3. NetApp holds a 5.5% mindshare in FaOS, compared to Qumulo’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qumulo users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Qumulo and NetApp StorageGRID compete in the data storage market. Qumulo appears to have the upper hand in ease of use and customer support, while NetApp StorageGRID offers advanced features justifying its pricing model.

Features: Qumulo offers scalable file storage, real-time analytics, and seamless cloud integration. Their analytics provide insights into processes, users, and file interactions, enhancing overall management. NetApp StorageGRID provides robust object storage capabilities, flexibility, and reliable data management functions. It integrates well with backup platforms like Veeam and Veritas and supports data deduplication and compression, saving significant storage space.

Room for Improvement: Qumulo could enhance its data protection features and provide more detailed reporting capabilities. Their recovery options in disaster scenarios also need improvement and additional failover strategies should be integrated by default. NetApp StorageGRID could refine its interface to improve user experience further and simplify policy management for Information Lifecycle Management. Enhancing its integration with third-party tools could also benefit users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qumulo offers straightforward deployment with excellent customer support, efficiently guiding clients through setup processes. This focus on simplicity is contrasted with NetApp StorageGRID's more complex deployment, which is offset by strong technical support aiding in customization. The choice here often depends on whether clients prioritize ease or flexibility in deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Qumulo presents a competitive pricing model with quick ROI, thanks to lower initial setup costs. This makes it appealing for businesses seeking affordability and rapid returns. NetApp StorageGRID, while demanding a higher upfront investment, promises an impressive ROI over the long term through its rich set of features and scalable solutions. Businesses valuing durability and extended value tend to favor this option.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

March 2025

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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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp StorageGRID is 5.5%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qumulo is 3.8%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Object-based storage and offers intuitive management tools, making it easy to configure and maintain

The only thing missing is flexibility in configuration to cater to specific customer requirements. Another area of improvement is marketing. NetApp's marketing of StorageGRID isn't optimal. They should present it more effectively, especially in regions like Pakistan. Here, I haven't seen any marketing campaigns from NetApp for StorageGRID or the Solid State Platform (SSP). While StorageGRID is a globally recognized product, I haven't seen any marketing efforts from NetApp in Pakistan. Even competitors are promoting object storage solutions here, but NetApp seems less efficient in selling StorageGRID. There might be one or two customers, but even as a NetApp partner, I'm not aware of any major sales. I've been trained on StorageGRID, and it is a good product. I'm unsure why it hasn't gained traction in Pakistan compared to other countries. So, I just recommend improving the marketing campaigns in Pakistan. I'm pretty confident that if we have one example of successful StorageGRID implementation in Pakistan, other customers will follow suit.

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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.

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

"We have integrated it with VMware. The integration process is pretty good. Especially with VMware, it helps with the capacity of it."

"The product is scalable and easy to expand."

"We can capacity plan at a greater level than we used to."

"The onboarding and integrated monitoring tools are pretty good."

"The solution provides many controllers."

"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."

"The most valuable feature is Safe Mode."

"The most valuable features include the ease of implementation, ease of use and the speed that you can do backup and recovery on."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The technical support team is reliable and responsive."

"Duplication, interface and the manageability is good and simple."

"The management portals have most significantly improved our data retrieval times. They've made it much easier to restore data compared to our previous methods."

"It has awesome scalability. We consume it with storage appliance nodes, then we just plug and play as we need more."

"StorageGRID is designed for cloud-based, highly scalable storage. Think big names like service providers like Google who need massive storage volumes with scalability. It also offers cloud-enabled storage capabilities with cloud management functionality. So, if you prioritize scalability and cloud integration, StorageGRID is the way to go. Its object-based storage is built specifically for that purpose."

"Cost-effective and easy to deploy."

"It helps automate our storage infrastructure."

"The implementation with NetApp went smoothly. It is a 'setup and forget' type of appliance."

More NetApp StorageGRID pros

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

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

"The most valuable feature of Qumulo is the ability to share files and reliability."

"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."

"It is a very stable product. I never faced any issues."

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

Cons

"The speed could be improved."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade should improve on more cloud integration."

"It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release."

"I would like to see more VM-Aware features in the next release of this solution."

"In the realm of micro-services, I think that Pure Storage can do well if they start getting in there and making their arrays more micro-services ready."

"I have not seen ROI."

"I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"Data retrieval speed could be better."

"The integration with more apps has room for improvement."

"The processes around installation and upgrade need improvement."

"The price is something that NetApp could improve, as with most companies. NetApp is known for not being the cheapest storage option, which is also valid for StorageGRID. There are other storage options on the market which we are aware of and have done proofs of concept for, but you cannot really compare the list prices because, as a big user of NetApp storages, we have totally different prices than some list prices. Still, the price information we got for other options are almost always less expensive than StorageGRID."

"It has its quirks here and there, but it is an older NetApp system."

"I just recommend improving the marketing campaigns in Pakistan."

"I would like to see them integrate more with the monitoring platforms. It is a bit difficult to get automated monitoring of the system."

"The only real issue that we have run into is, when we are cloning, we cannot do a thin provision clone, it has to be a full clone."

More NetApp StorageGRID cons

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

"The solution could improve availability and improve data protection or data services such as compression of deduplication. In a future release, we'd like to have more cloud API integrations."

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"It is within reason for what you get. From what we have found comparing it to other vendors, it is in the same range as others. Given the choice, we would definitely redeploy it based on the cost."

"The price could be cheaper."

"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances."

"While we have been able to save money on storage costs, it could be better."

"Creating your own data stores, backups, or storage grids, helps eliminate all these costs of downloading all the data back after you downloaded to the cloud."

"The price is attractive."

"We pay for a license annually."

"The pricing of StorageGRID falls within the typical range for enterprise-grade solutions and is comparable to other vendors such as Dell, NetApp, and Pure Storage."

"The pricing is quite flexible and depends on the specific customer requirements. The initial cost is primarily based on the desired capacity, so it's not a fixed price."

"We chose NetApp because of price and performance."

More NetApp StorageGRID 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

Educational Organization

37%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and per...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp StorageGRID?

The management portals have most significantly improved our data retrieval times. They've made it much easier to rest...

See all answers

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

I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp StorageGRID?

The product's continual innovation and enhancement in integration capabilities with other NetApp solutions could be b...

See all answers

What do you like most about Qumulo?

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qumulo?

Initially, the failover was supposed to be implemented in Qumulo itself. This failed to happen mid-case, so we had to...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Qumulo?

We use Qumulo for end-user storage and some application storage as well.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 21% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 12% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 2% of the time

More Pure Storage FlashBlade Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 26% of the time

MinIO vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 26% of the time

Dell ECS vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 23% of the time

Scality RING vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 7% of the time

More NetApp StorageGRID Competitors

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Qumulo

Compared 26% of the time

VAST Data vs Qumulo

Compared 15% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs Qumulo

Compared 10% of the time

Scality RING vs Qumulo

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudian HyperStore vs Qumulo

Compared 4% of the time

More Qumulo Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

March 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID

March 2025

Download NetApp StorageGRID product report

Buyer's Guide

NAS

March 2025

Download Qumulo product report

Also Known As

No data available

Storage GRID

No data available

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Store and manage unstructured data at scale using NetApp StorageGRID for secure, durable object storage. Place content in the right location, at the right time, and on the right storage tier, optimizing workflows and reducing overall costs for globally distributed rich media.

NetApp

Qumulo is a data storage and management platform that promotes object-based storage for users, backup archives, and surveillance. Its primary use case is to provide a cost-effective and feature-rich solution for managing large data.

Qumulo's data protection algorithm ensures the safety of node data, while its integration with backup platforms like Veeam and Veritas makes it easy to manage backups. The platform offers a good balance between operational cost and complexity versus feature set, making it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

Qumulo

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

ASE, DARZ GmbH

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 StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

March 2025

Free Report: NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp StorageGRID vs. Qumulo and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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