Pure Storage vs. NetApp

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Pure Storage and NetApp are leaders in the data storage market and offer similar products and services.

However, there are noticeable differences between the two data storage leaders, from their portfolios to their recognition in the space.

See below to learn how Pure Storage and NetApp compare against each other in the data storage sector and which vendor is a fit for your organization:

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: Portfolio

Pure Storage is a leading data storage provider that offers customers solutions to deal with storage and data performance-related issues. The company offers flexibility, allowing enterprises to deploy and manage vast volumes of data. Pure Storage’s portfolio features several all-flash hardware and software offerings. Pure also offers Purity, a software engine for teams to coordinate data. Purity relies on REST APIs, which facilitate integration with third-party applications. The application provides enhanced encryption while maintaining a 99.9% availability.

NetApp’s portfolio features all-flash and hybrid flash storage. NetApp partners with public cloud storage providers to offer customers multifaceted storage solutions. The company offers integrations with third-party applications that give customers added storage flexibility to connect. NetApp ONTAP software allows teams to manage their storage. The platform automatically takes care of other procedures, like backup and troubleshooting. ONTAP offers an intuitive and interactive dashboard and a comprehensive analytics tool that helps users learn about their stored data.

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: Partners

Pure Storage provides partner programs for customers to improve its solutions. Pure Storage offers four types of partner programs: Channel Partners; Global System Integrators; Managed Service Providers (MSPs); and Technology Alliance Partners.

NetApp offers useful integrations by partnering up with companies in the market. The partnerships help NetApp offer customers various options to manage their data storage requirements. NetApp provides five partner programs: Global System Integrators; Solution; Service; Cloud; and Alliance partners.

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: Use cases

Pure Storage

The metaverse-focused company Meta required a storage system that could handle petabytes of data to deliver a disruption-free performance to train their AI Research SuperCluster, one of the fastest supercomputers with artificial intelligence (AI). Meta selected Pure Storage FlashArray and FlashBlade. After adoption, Meta could design their AI research cluster within a limited time, without undergoing many maintenance difficulties and high power consumption.

The U.S. space agency NASA requires the help of reliable storage infrastructure. With NASA on a mission to train machine learning (ML) and AI technologies to create intelligent machines, it adopted a Pure Storage solution to accelerate the applications. With Pure Storage, NASA could expedite the development of novel ideas and provide their employees with a flexible, virtual environment to support remote work.

The gaming company Roblox offers game creators and gamers the environment to create and play games developed by others. A surge in the users prompted the company to adopt a reliable solution to store the data securely without needing manual intervention or maintenance. With Pure Storage, Roblox could set up a development cluster within hours and focus their attention on enhancing game performance.

NetApp

DreamWorks Animation was looking for an efficient storage solution to optimize their workflow and manage massive amounts of data. With NetApp ONTAP, DreamWorks was able to support a flexible and agile production environment, decrease power consumption, and witness performance enhancement.

City University of Hong Kong searched for a dependable data storage solution to handle their data storage and backup demands and enhance overall IT efficiency. The university adopted NetApp to consolidate all storage and backup operations, which can be managed efficiently on a single, unified dashboard. With NetApp and integrations with cloud storage providers, the university saved 75% of physical space and experienced zero data loss for mission-critical Oracle workloads.

SoftBank looked to adopt a user-friendly data storage platform to enhance productivity among their employees. With NetApp’s intuitive and interactive ONTAP, SoftBank could link their on-premises and cloud storage data, which can be viewed and monitored in an intuitive dashboard. With the NetApp adoption, employees could monitor and use their data for business purposes.

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: User reviews

User give both Pure Storage and NetApp positive reviews at review sites. However, Pure Storage has a slight edge in overall review ratings.

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: Recognition

Pure Storage and NetApp offer businesses tailored solutions that can handle the issues intelligently and avoid manual intervention. These leading platforms have received numerous accolades that speak to the efficiency and reliability of their services.

Pure Storage

• “Customers’ Choice,” Gartner Peer Insights, 2022
• Overall Data Tech Company of the Year, Data Breakthrough Awards, 2022
• Most Loved Awards, FlashArray, TrustRadius, 2022
• “Top 5 Enterprise Storage-as-a-Service Solutions,” DCIG, 2022

NetApp

• AI Breakthrough Awards, Best Overall Computer Vision Solution, 2022
• Best Support Website, Association of Support Professionals, 2022
• Stratus Award for AI, Business Intelligence Group, 2021
• Global Customer Experience Partner of the Year, Microsoft, 2021

Pure Storage vs. NetApp: Overall

Pure Storage and NetApp are both leaders in the data storage market. However, NetApp’s portfolio extends beyond storage, while Pure Storage is more focused on the storage sector. The niche focus on storage appears to give Pure an edge in most categories.