What is our primary use case?
It is our primary storage.
How has it helped my organization?
It is easy for our organization to manage data using Panzura.
We take snapshots of everything every hour. It does incremental backups. We have several different types of backups, so we never have a problem with restoring if anything ever happens.
Panzura Detect & Rescue does a good job of detecting threats in real-time.
Panzura Edge helps give people access to the Panzura system on iPads or nontraditional devices, and it works great for that. It is very important for us to have secure data access for mobile devices.
Panzura has not helped to reduce data storage costs. We have all of our storage on Azure, but one thing they allowed us to do was to have a good way of archiving data. We do not have everything in hot storage anymore. We have some in cold storage. They had a way for us to move our data to a lower-cost tier.
We were able to realize its benefits pretty much immediately. We bought it originally for four offices and did a proof of concept for the first month. Within two weeks, we bought 23 additional units to put in all our offices.
What is most valuable?
It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file.
What needs improvement?
For me, it is the stability aspect. It is a lot more stable now than it ever has been, but just keeping that stability is important. Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server. We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had any issues like we had early on.
There could be a slightly better dashboard or a better pane of glass. When something goes wrong somewhere, there should be a little bit better alerting with issues before they become a big problem.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been their customer for 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had issues. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support has been good. We have had stretches in the past that were not as good, but over 12 years with someone, you are going to have some ups and downs. The support staff and the number of people they have on staff right now are truly good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a software program from Peer Software. It was a long time ago. It might work better now than when we used it, but it was not replicating data between our offices in real-time. We would have to wait a long time before it would replicate our files between offices.
How was the initial setup?
I am pretty sure it is easy. When we put new units in, it goes quickly. They have a cloud offering now that you can get up and running in less than an afternoon.
What about the implementation team?
It does not take a lot. One person can get it set up pretty easily.
When it comes to maintenance, we have a person who will apply updates to the system. One primary person at my work takes care of it.
What was our ROI?
It has helped increase our organization’s network resilience, but it is hard to quantify. Panzura is a hundred percent better than what we had before. Previously, we had latency issues with syncing up files between offices. Files were not locked, leading to overwrites which cost us literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost time and revenue. Since transitioning to Panzura, it has been like a night-and-day difference.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has.
What other advice do I have?
You could start with just a handful of offices and do a proof of concept to see how it goes for you before deploying it enterprise-wide. I would start with either a small group or maybe small offices, two or three offices, and see how it works.
Overall, I would rate the product a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
