NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Reviews

I use NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP mostly in customer companies.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is easy to use and gets the job done. Since it's in the cloud, it's expensive, but that's mostly because of the cloud rather than NetApp itself being expensive.

The granular ability to divide up the performance and the amount of storage you want is really fantastic.

It would be nice to see technology supporting the Elastic Fabric Adapter on Amazon AWS, therefore getting RDMA technology for more low-latency connections.

I've been working with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for about nine months.

The scalability of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is interesting. We have thought about it, but we haven't used it. I think the scalability is something you scale up rather than respond to peak demand. It wouldn't help with outages either; the scaling is manual, and there are no processes we've used to automate that for unexpected scenarios.

We like the scalability; it's enough for what we're planning to use, but we haven't used any advanced features.

The standard platform is NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which is their cloud service. In fact, that's probably the most experience I have with NetApp. I've experienced it on-premise, but kind of secondhand.

The customer service rating is three out of ten.

Positive

Before NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, I worked with a few other cloud systems including FSx for Lustre and Azure Files, but NetApp is the only one that really offers a proper NAS type experience.

I haven't worked with NVMe or private storage by NetApp, just the standard platform called NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP has data protection features, and snapshots are included.

However, we don't use those to maintain data consistency and security across different environments.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is integrated very well with cloud providers, and they've done a really good job with that integration.

Regarding tiered storage solutions, they definitely have different performance tiers that work well.

The advanced data services, such as storage efficiency, snapshots, and cloning, have probably not impacted my customers' disaster recovery or development and testing processes, as they aren't at the stage where they care about that.

The metrics I use to measure the success of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP in optimizing storage consumption and managing data lifecycle effectively are just the performance and the mixed sharing of SMB and NFS.

From what I've seen with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the delivered performance doesn't match the performance that I select; it's about half. NetApp has been very optimistic about their assumptions when they published the performance numbers that you expect to get. You can select the performance, so I would like them to be more honest there. I always need to select the tier above or two tiers above what I actually want, which drives up the cost. Overall, because it's a cloud system, it's kind of expensive, but if you're using cloud, you should expect costs. It's more the cloud vendor's problem than NetApp's, so it was just the published performance that was the issue.

I don't try to deploy NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP myself; I get other people to do it. My experience has been with their vendor and partner ecosystem. Deploying NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP in the cloud is trivial, but the on-premise physical solutions haven't been as smooth as they might be. They did fix the issues over a period of time and worked to get the system to a good deployment, but it was more work for myself and the customer than it should have been.

My overall review rating for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is nine out of ten.

Customers' main use cases for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP involve leveraging storage on hyperscalers, which means any cloud service such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, where each hyperscaler has its own storage solutions such as AWS's set of storage or Azure's blob storage and block storage. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides a virtual version of NetApp that allows us to use cloud storage while getting the same feeling as on-premises storage. It offers features such as deduplication, compression, compaction, snapshot, and ransomware protection which are not available with native storage solutions of these hyperscalers.

By using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, I can utilize backend storage from AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud and enjoy features such as deduplication and compression, making it a positive point for this solution. Customers already using on-premises NetApp storage such as FAS, AFF, or ASA can experience the same functionality on the cloud with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which adds significant value.

The best features of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP include deduplication, compaction, and autonomous ransomware technology that native cloud storage solutions in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud do not support. Moreover, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP allows the use of multiple protocols including NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI, whereas native options may only support NFS and iSCSI. Customers already using on-premises NetApp storage such as FAS, AFF, or ASA can experience the same functionality on the cloud with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which adds significant value.

For data protection, customers can take advantage of the Snapshot technology available with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. This technology facilitates data recovery by allowing snapshots to be stored either on the same storage or on a disaster recovery (DR) storage. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP helps us to take snapshots and store them on the same storage, with options for migration or replication of those snapshots to different storage, including on-premises DR storage or other cloud storage, providing excellent disaster recovery capabilities.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP does have a bit of initial complexity for users who are new to the system. Although it isn't overwhelmingly complex, first-time users may find it challenging until they become accustomed to the interface and functionality.

I have been in touch with NetApp support, and my opinion is that support is generally very good. There are instances where they take longer to respond or resolve issues, especially when customers have urgent needs, but ultimately, resolution is achieved.

I have been working with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for more than three years.

I have no complaints regarding the stability of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, as everything is functioning well and we have not received any customer complaints in this area. It is very stable and performs excellently.

The scalability of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP positively influences operational performance during peak demand or unexpected outages. It allows for custom performance tuning through the Quality of Service (QoS) feature, which enables the creation of volumes mapped to specific servers requiring high IOPS. For instance, I can set a value for minimum IOPS to ensure that demanding applications consistently receive the performance they need.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP does have a bit of initial complexity for users who are new to the system. Although it isn't overwhelmingly complex, first-time users may find it challenging until they become accustomed to the interface and functionality.

In the beginning, the setup of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP does present a little bit of complexity, but it isn't excessively complicated. With hands-on experience, users find it becomes much easier to manage.

The setup of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP deserves a rating of nine.

Customers do see a significant return on investment (ROI) with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

From what I hear, customers can save around 30 to 40% through the use of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, although I don't have specific numbers to share.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is actually quite reasonable in price compared to other native cloud storage options. For example, a customer using 100 TB of AWS storage would not benefit from deduplication, compression, or compaction. However, if they use NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, they can operate efficiently with only 70 TB of storage, saving both money and space, as deduplication and compression significantly reduce storage needs.

I cannot think of any significant challenges that NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP has from a storage perspective. It already provides comprehensive solutions, and there are automations and classifications available, so I believe it offers everything required from a storage perspective.

I highly recommend that customers using native cloud storage from hyperscalers transition to NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP. It offers numerous features and functionalities such as inline deduplication, compression, compaction, autonomous ransomware protection, snapshot technology, and flex cache that are unavailable with other hyperscalers. By moving to NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, customers gain significant value.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP a nine.

I work in healthcare, so we store a lot of data on-prem and in the cloud. We are using multiple vendors and platforms. ONTAP was an excellent choice because everything is integrated. We haven't gotten into the AI features, but the security is pretty good. 

NetApp's Integration with AWS has helped us because we had a tough time transferring data when we used an ONTAP competitor as our storage partner. They don't have integration with AWS tools, so we had to figure it out on our own. 

ONTAP has built-in integration and allows us to replicate a copy to our second data center. Everything is in one channel. It's possible without the technology, but it's more time-consuming. NetApp saves us a lot of time, and the administration is simpler.

NetApp's support could improve.

We had Dell EMC. Dell EMC was good initially, but their customer support isn't so great.

I rate NetApp 10 out of 10.

I work for the government, so all of our information is classified. We do a lot of on-prem with NetApp backup storage. I'm also interested in the recovery features. I'm going to take that back to the team and see what we can do with that. 

The upgrades, storage, and recovery features are some of the big aspects we discussed two weeks ago. We have an overflow in other locations that I can't talk about. We had a bunch of questions about what we would do in the event of a disaster to recover data that's been there for the past 15 to 20 years.

CVO gives us the ability to access data as quickly as possible, which is critical because of the mission set we handle. Some things cannot wait. For example, we tried having the data in the cloud itself, but it took too long for us to retrieve it from cold or deep storage. If we have it ONTAP or on-prem, it's so much easier to pull it within minutes. 

CVO has reduced the amount of storage significantly. The solution has saved costs. We've done a cost analysis of on-prem and then the cloud. On-prem is where it's at for our mission. Some organizations can store their data in the cloud and not access it for years. We need data constantly and require the ability to dig into data from five to 10 years ago. 

I have used NetApp CVO for around 10 years. 

The performance is top-notch. We've never had anything go down. If it does go down, it will be back up within minutes. 

I rate NetApp CVO 10 out of 10 for scalability. We can get more capacity on demand.

I rate NetApp support 10 out of 10. NetApp support is easy to access. Even a five-year-old can call and get the support they need because it's easy and accessible. 

It was up and running prior to me getting there.

We have seen an internal return on investment daily because we're saving time retrieving files.

The pricing of CVO is fair across the board. It's exactly where it should be for the data we're getting.  The price-performance ratio is right where we need it to be. I've seen solutions that cost more and some that cost less, but it's reasonable. 

I rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP 10 out of 10

We use the full suite of ONTAP use cases across both on-premises and cloud environments, covering various applications and scenarios.

The primary reason for our continued loyalty to NetApp is their Snap technology, which is widely recognized as the main factor. It offers ease of use and a comprehensive suite of applications, including features like SnapMirror, SnapVault, and unified snapshot management, all bundled into a single product. With just three individuals, we're able to efficiently manage petabytes of data, which significantly reduces our operational costs.

My main concern with ONTAP is the rapid pace of technological advancements. For instance, NetApp introduced features that I'm still trying to find a solution for, specifically in the realm of cloud file storage services and infrastructure. There is currently no direct cloud integration, and you need to establish connections through Active Directory or access data via SIPs or NFS mounts. It would be fantastic if NetApp could offer a solution that's as user-friendly as Google Drive for seamless cloud storage integration.

I have been using it for twenty two years.

Its ability to detect ransomware or external threats has been highly effective. While we haven't experienced any actual ransomware attacks, we have encountered threats. These threats are promptly addressed by our vigilant security team before they can infiltrate our environment. The stability has significantly improved over time. In the past, there were challenges, but now it's much more reliable. It simplifies our workflow, eliminating the need to navigate through various steps on our desktop.

Regarding scalability, it performs admirably. I haven't encountered any issues with its ability to scale. However, it's worth noting that NetApp faces stiff competition in the realm of private channel solutions.

The support services have undergone significant changes over time. While they were excellent during the initial phase, the experience has become challenging lately. The positive aspect is that I have a long history of working with NetApp, so I possess in-depth knowledge, but for new team members or peers, it's quite a struggle to work with support. When you call in, you often start at the first level, but most of our issues require third-level assistance, which means navigating through the first and second levels before reaching someone who can effectively address the problem. This process can be frustrating and time-consuming.

The complexity of the initial setup varies depending on the individual handling it. If I'm the one setting it up, it's relatively straightforward as I have extensive experience working with it.

The current process is quite straightforward. However, I believe there is room for improvement, particularly when it comes to migrating non-NetApp data to ONTAP or the cloud. While there are some existing tools, they don't offer the robustness required for seamless migration of third-party data to ONTAP.The integration with AWS native services, like DataSync and backup, is actually quite impressive. We've tested it, and while it's a good product, regrettably, we currently don't have a need for it.

The cost is quite high.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

The solution helps to keep production data.

The tool's most valuable features are the SnapLock and SnapMirror features. If something goes wrong with the data, we can restore it. This isn't a mirror; we store data in different locations. If there's an issue on the primary site, we can retrieve data from the secondary site.

Multiprotocol support in NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is beneficial because it allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution. This feature eliminates the need to purchase different types of storage.

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP should improve its support. 

I have been working with the product for five years. 

The solution's performance is good. It depends on your chosen model and configuration, but even the lower-end models perform well. I rate its stability a nine out of ten.

I rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's scalability as ten out of ten. 

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's deployment is easy, and I rate it a ten out of ten. It can be completed in half an hour and depends on customer configurations. 

The solution's pricing is reasonable. 

I've worked in the IT industry for over ten years, dealing with various storage solutions from vendors like HPE and OEMs. The tool stands out due to its unique features and functions that protect and manage customer data.

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten.

We use it mostly for distributed files. For example, one of our customers is in construction. So they have centralized NetApp storage and set up replication with the Cloud volume ONTAP. Several branch users access the Cloud instance. And whatever work that they do on the Civeo instant gets replicated to the client's data center on the on-premise NetApp storage. And they use GFC with Seavio for a seamless experience.

So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage. 

So one of the clients had an on-premise 100 terabytes. When that same data went to CVO, he was able to reduce it to somewhere around 20/25 dB. So he was able to reduce using DTO compression, the consumption of this underlying cloud storage. And, obviously, with the licenses, now you need only 25 terabytes instead of 100 terabytes.

There's not much scope for improvement. I think the solution is more restricted with the underlying cloud. The performance of the single instances depends on the performance of the underlying cloud resource. 

I have been using NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP for two years. 

NetApp is stable. 

NetApp is scalable. 

The technical support team is wonderful.

Positive

It is easy because Blue XP makes it very easy. Just a few clicks. It's a little bit tricky for customers who are very new to Cloud. While they are the traditional customers who use their data center, if they are not well versed with cloud, they might face challenges in setting it up because that's more dependent on public cloud vendor, not the NetApp.Sometimes the internal support renewal is an issue because the NetApp system sees it as an expired license. So when you try to renew it, it is not reflected in the NetApp portal. So the flow of the support could be improved.

For enterprise customers, it's a very cost effective. But in the SMB segment, yeah, pricing is a little bit challenge for your time.

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. 

We rely on NetApp Coud Volumes ONTAP for a wide range of purposes, including VMware, SQL, Oracle, and file storage. It serves as our go-to storage solution for almost every use case.

The transition to the AFF storage solution significantly improved our organization by reducing our physical footprint. We went from a FAS system with two controllers and twenty drive shelves to just four controllers and two drive shelves with the AFF. This led to substantial reductions in power consumption and space requirements in our data center.

The most valuable feature is its exceptional performance and storage efficiency. This efficiency translates to significant cost savings for us.

There is room for improvement in tier one support, especially with potential language barriers and communication challenges.

I have been using it for ten years.

We've experienced a few minor issues with stability, but we haven't encountered any significant outages.

Scalability has been a trouble-free experience. When we decided to increase our storage capacity by incorporating an additional drive shelf, the engineer collaborated with us, and the expansion process was executed smoothly, ensuring there was no downtime or interference with our production operations.

We rarely encounter performance issues, and we prefer to handle most of our troubleshooting internally. Our experience with tier-one support from NetApp has been somewhat lacking, and it varies depending on the support representative. We aim to resolve issues ourselves whenever possible, despite paying for support. On an overall scale of one to ten, I would rate the support as average.

Neutral

Over the years, we've tried various storage solutions like Nessus, Nimble, and IBM. However, about a year ago, we made the switch to NetApp, and we've been quite satisfied with their performance and have remained loyal to their products ever since.

The initial setup has been quite straightforward.

Cost reduction has been a significant benefit. We've been able to lower our expenses by minimizing the number of devices and drive shelves needed. Instead of having twenty drive shelves, we now only require two. This reduction in hardware has had a positive impact on power consumption, cooling, and maintenance costs, leading to overall cost savings.

We find the pricing to be favorable due to the educational sector we belong to.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We use CVO for NFS data storage, NFS sharing, and SMP sharing.

CVO helped us migrate to the cloud. We were already using the same software on-prem. We just migrated it to the cloud, so it helped us with that. 

The workload migration was outstanding. It was seamless. We have on-premise CVO within BlueXP. We just drag and drop the on-premise workload to the cloud workload. It just migrated and cut over. That was it. The time required depends on the volume size. Our largest volume took us three-and-a-half weeks. It takes some time to migrate the data from on-prem to the cloud. 

We have on-prem NetApp AFF, and we're looking into using NetApp Data Sense or Blue XP Data Sense for the backup servers as well. Everything integrates perfectly. We have some on-prem workloads that run on NetApp, and CVO on a cloud. We can migrate between the two if needed.

Snapshots are one valuable feature within ONTAP, but CVO's appeal is that it acts just like the on-prem solution. It's the same OS, but in the cloud. We can continue to use ONTAP as we did on-premise. 

I would want more visibility and data analytics where we can see anomalies within the shares within the GUI.

I have used CVO for four years.

CVO is highly stable, and the performance has met our expectations. It does exactly what it needs to do.

Scaling CVO is straightforward. It's super easy to grow the cloud environment compared to the on-prem solution. It's easier to scale.

I've had no issues with NetApp support so far. It's been excellent.

We had the on-premise version of ONTAP. We also have a Nutanix array for our hypervisor. 

I've set up four NetApp CVOs. They all took around five minutes to set up. It's super easy.

The licensing is good. They make it easy for you. You go to the sizing site. It's a bar that you drag and drop.

I rate NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP nine out of 10. If you're a fan of the on-prem version, you'll like CVO on the cloud. 

We use it to monitor our on-prem and our SnapMirror between one and the other.

It's a single pane of glass where we can see our applications running. 

The ability to see things going back and forth has been quite useful.

Its migration capabilities are very good. 

The solution could be better when we're connecting to our S3 side of the house. Right now, it doesn't see it, and I'm not sure why.

I've used the solution for a little over a year. Before, it was called Cloud Manager.

The stability is pretty good. There was an instance though where we were trying to delete a CVO instance off of it, and it took me a while to get it to release. It took a while to delete one of the instances since we already had taken it out, and it was asking to delete it. It couldn't connect to it to delete it. We ended up trading a new workspace and then deleting the old workspace.

We only have a few systems in it. We have two on-prem clusters, one CVO instance, and an S3 instance, which I don't have a connection to yet. There's something wrong with the configuration or firewall risk or going into S3. Then, we'll have our FSX one built into it when we get to that point.

Technical support is good. I get all the answers I need. I've never had any trouble with it. A lot of the time, we don't use it, though. Typically, we just Google something.

Of course, it would be ideal if they improved response time.

Positive

We did not use another solution previously. We always used the Cloud Manager, and then Cloud Manager became BlueXP. We've actually used the solution for about two years now, under two different names.

I was involved in the initial setup. When we deployed it, we had to add all the systems to it. It was really easy to set up. 

Once we had the workspaces in there, it was really easy just to add systems.

There's another admin that helped me with it who was the primary at the time.

I have not seen any ROI.

The pricing doesn't matter as it comes with the license that we have. It's free of charge with the bundle. 

We did not evaluate any other solution. 

We haven't done an actual migration from on-prem to the cloud. We're using it to drag and drop Volumes.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten since I had issues with deleting it, and I had to recreate a workspace.