NetApp XCP vs Peer Global File Service
NetApp XCP
docs.netapp.com
Peer Global File Service
peersoftware.comSide by side
| Figure | NetApp XCP | Peer Global File Service |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Storage Migration Software | 7.6 (#13) | 7.7 (#10) |
| Founded | 1992 | 1993 |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, United States | Peer Software lists its corporate headquarters at 340 N. Westlake Blvd., #155, Westlake Village, California 91362. |
| Purpose | XCP is client-based software for high-performance data migration to NetApp systems and file analytics. | PeerGFS is software for real-time file replication, management, and synchronization across sites, servers, platforms, clouds, and storage systems. |
| Security | The XCP binary is code signed, and its Linux security feature allows migrations as a non-root user. | The product page states that traffic is SSL-encrypted up to AES-256 and describes Active Directory integration for delegated administration and policy-based access. |
| Support | NetApp directs technical questions and issues to NetApp Global Support and provides a separate XCP licensing contact. | Peer Software provides regional technical support phone numbers, an online knowledge base, a resource library, and a service desk portal. |
Plans
In their own words
NetApp XCP
NetApp XCP is client-based software for file migration to NetApp systems and file analytics. It supports NFS and SMB migration and analytics workflows; File Analytics scans shares and presents a dashboard for NFS and SMB file systems, including third-party systems. Migration operations include scan, copy, sync, verify, and resume. By default, verification compares target files and directories, including attributes, access-control lists, and data bytes. Parallel I/O can distribute supported copy operations across multiple Linux hosts. The software is intended for large datasets and high file counts. NFS add-ons include POSIX and HDFS connectors; HDFS connectors are qualified for MapR and Cloudera and support baseline copy only. XCP does not support IPv6 or NFS-to-S3 migration, and baseline copy requires a clean destination. Licenses are available online or offline; online licensing requires internet access. NetApp describes a free one-year license that can be renewed for another year, listed at free. XCP runs on Linux and Windows and is available as self-hosted software.
Peer Global File Service
Peer Global File Service (PeerGFS) replicates, manages, and synchronizes files across sites, platforms, clouds, and storage systems. It sends changes in real time for active-active file sharing, uses distributed file locking to help prevent conflicts, and transfers changed data rather than whole files through delta-level replication. The product supports SMB and NFS workloads and lists Windows and Linux file servers, NetApp, Nutanix Files, Dell systems, and cloud targets including S3 and Azure Blob. Microsoft DFS Namespaces can unify SMB access across sites and support failover and failback. Security descriptions include SSL-encrypted traffic up to AES-256, role-based controls through Active Directory, and monitoring for suspicious file activity. The product also lists local caching, edge synchronization, metadata and access preservation, cutover orchestration, and migration reporting. Capabilities depend on configuration: edge caching is limited to Windows file servers, and NFS supports only replication and synchronization jobs. Pricing is available on request. A trial request includes a guided proof of concept with the pre-sales team. Peer Software says it began in 1993.