NetApp AFF A1K vs Pure Storage FlashArray //XL
Side-by-side specifications from the vendors' own documents. The NetApp AFF A1K is a high-end enterprise all-flash storage system powered by ONTAP. The Pure Storage FlashArray //XL is an enterprise modular all-NVMe storage system built for massive scale, extreme IOPS, and deterministic sub-millisecond response times.
| NetApp AFF A1K | Pure Storage FlashArray //XL | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | NetApp | Pure Storage |
| Status | current | current |
| Released | May 2024 | Dec 2021 |
| Form factor | 4U modular rack | 5U rack |
| Controller configuration | Dual active-active controllers in high-availability pair | Dual active-active modular controllers in 5U enclosure |
| Processor | Dual Intel Xeon Scalable processors per controller (multi-socket enterprise architecture) | Dual Intel Xeon Scalable processors per controller (multi-socket modular architecture) |
| Memory | 1024GB system memory per HA pair with non-volatile NVRAM cache | — |
| Drive bays | Connects to NS224 NVMe drive shelves supporting 24x 2.5-inch NVMe SSDs per 2U shelf | — |
| Supported drives | NVMe TLC SSDs (1.9TB, 3.8TB, 7.6TB, 15.3TB, 30.7TB) | — |
| Maximum raw capacity | Up to 367PB in a 24-node cluster | — |
| Host connectivity | PCIe Gen 5 slots supporting 100GbE, 25GbE, 10GbE, and 64Gb/32Gb Fibre Channel | — |
| Storage protocols | NVMe/FC, NVMe/TCP, FC, iSCSI, NFS, pNFS, SMB, S3 | — |
| Clustering | Up to 24 nodes (12 HA pairs) for unified SAN/NAS | — |
| Management | NetApp ONTAP 9, System Manager, Active IQ Unified Manager | Pure1 and Purity REST API |
| Operating system | — | Pure Storage Purity//FA |
| Raw capacity | — | Up to 5.5PB raw |
| Effective capacity | — | Up to 16.5PB effective with data reduction |
| Drive media | — | NVMe DirectFlash Modules (DFMs: 9.1TB, 18.2TB, 36.4TB, 75TB) |
| Connectivity | — | 64Gb/32Gb FC, 100GbE/25GbE iSCSI, and NVMe-oF (TCP/RoCE) |
| Data reduction | — | Inline deduplication and compression |
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