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Dell PowerVault vs NetApp ASA comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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
6.7
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
Fibre Channel (1st)
NetApp ASA
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
6th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (20th), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (7th)
 

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 ASA is 7.0%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerVault11.8%
NetApp ASA7.0%
Other81.2%
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.
KS
Team Lead at kiran@ncrust.com
Virtualization platform has delivered consistent low-latency SAN storage and 24-7 data access
The stand-out feature for me is the SAN storage because of its ability to deliver consistent sub-millisecond latency, 100% availability, active-active paths, and no performance tuning headache. When maximum users connect at the same time, there is no latency experienced. The main impact of NetApp ASA on my organization is that my data is available 24/7. Whenever I have a requirement over the VPN or inside the LAN, I can access my data anytime and anywhere as per my need.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features in Dell PowerVault are a hybrid of SSD and HDD, the FC connection to the servers, the ease of updating firmware, and its overall stability and resilience."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerVault is its performance."
"The most valuable features are stability and response time."
"Dell PowerVault is user-friendly and easy to deploy."
"Dell PowerVault is cheap."
"We've even used PowerVault series that we intended to use for five years for almost eight years, and it was still working fine, providing good ROI compared to any other brand, which are the overall advantages of Dell PowerVault."
"The MD3260 is a great unit, inexpensive, hold tons of drives, its expandable, and the cost is low."
"Dell is a good company to work with."
"I love the SnapMirror and autonomous ransomware protection features."
"The main impact of NetApp ASA on my organization is that my data is available 24/7."
"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."
 

Cons

"Areas where I feel Dell PowerVault could be improved include especially the enterprise area and multiple interfaces in other areas, for example, backup software solutions and their integration."
"Inter-site replication needs enhancement, particularly in Fibre Channel."
"For Dell PowerVault, the deduplication and compression features need improvement."
"There is another solution called Veeam Backup that I believe is better than Dell PowerVault."
"The MD3220i needs to allow for larger drive sizes."
"In the next release, I would like the deduplication and compression included, as well as the flash technology. It doesn't currently use it."
"If we speak about the negative side of Dell PowerVault, I do see some areas for improvement."
"The product is generally stable, but there have been instances, to my knowledge, where we faced issues in the controller during software upgrades. The availability is not at the desired level during these upgrade processes, as we sometimes need to shut down both controllers. This could be an area for improvement."
"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."
"The areas of NetApp ASA that could be improved include features such as the active sync feature that allows a customer to write on either data center A or data center B."
"From a partner's point of view, the tools that I'm using to create the quote or do the sizing are very slow."
"NetApp ASA is somewhat expensive, and I believe they should work on the pricing aspect."
"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

"The price of Dell PowerVault could be reduced. It is more expensive than some IBM solutions."
"Dell PowerVault's price is the tool's main attraction."
"I rate the price of Dell PowerVault a nine out of ten."
"It is important to remember that the retail price may seem high, but the final price is usually different."
"I would rate the pricing model a nine out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap."
"The cost, compared to other solutions, is on the higher end."
"The price is reasonable and we are satisfied with it."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise23
No data available
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ASA?
I am not much aware of the pricing of NetApp ASA, but I estimate a NetApp ASA system could cost several hundreds of thousand euros or pounds or dollars.
What needs improvement with NetApp ASA?
NetApp ASA is somewhat expensive, and I believe they should work on the pricing aspect. I understand that pricing can be negotiated by reaching out to the pricing department.
What is your primary use case for NetApp ASA?
NetApp ASA has three or four main use cases including mission-critical applications, SAN environments, block storage, and always-on infrastructure. I utilize NetApp ASA in a virtualization environm...
 

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 ASA and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.