Share your experience using NetApp Cloud Volumes Edge Cache

It is our primary storage.

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.

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. 

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.

We have been their customer for 12 years.

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.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

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.

Positive

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My use case for the Panzura CloudFS solution is especially for cloud storage.

We can add S3 storage as well as any cloud storage without any limitation. We get file collaboration since we have different locations with people in the same team who need to upload their logs or program files into a single shared folder. This is a very good product. The file locking mechanism and collaboration features are so good. Especially for snapshots and backups, they do not consume a lot of memory, and with this file collaboration, we can access any location in any folder using different filer names or access points. For example, I have devices in India, APAC, Australia, Russia, and the USA. When I move to Russia, I can change access from India to the Russian access point. If I go to the EMEA location, I can change it. If I'm going to Spain, I can change to the Spain access point while still accessing my shared folder sitting in India. They also avoid network hops. For instance, if I'm in India but need to access data in China or Spain, it simplifies the process and enhances collaboration.

It provides a single storage solution. It is easy to manage storage. We can connect to a Panzura filer in a collaborative way using the ring method. The consolidation capabilities are excellent, especially in terms of connectivity topology.

For collaboration, Panzura CloudFS is the best, though it is a little costly. If you prefer lower prices, there are alternatives such as NetApp or EMC, but for collaboration, Panzura CloudFS excels. Furthermore, the quick restore feature is also commendable in case files are corrupted or deleted. Vendor support can assist in restoring files efficiently even when large amounts of data, such as 100 GB, are involved.

The impact of Panzura CloudFS on our security posture is good. The vulnerability and security teams prepare reports, and we collaborate on fixes for reported vulnerabilities, with Panzura providing patch releases. 

The best features of the Panzura CloudFS solution include collaboration, which is my top priority and top feature. No one else provides this as effectively. Even though NetApp is a big player in file storage, they do not offer this level of collaboration. Additionally, you can change any access point. Everything is simplified, meaning any user with basic storage knowledge can work on Panzura CloudFS due to its user-friendly menu.

We have seen improvements such as data compression, which is really good. It effectively manages hot data. Files accessed frequently are stored and synchronized across different locations. For instance, if an application server is hosted in the USA, users in Canada can access files swiftly without latency because hot data is synchronized to their local systems.

It also offers good auditing capabilities. In case of file deletions or permission changes, they can monitor everything, such as who did what, from which IP address, which system they connected to, and at what time. They can grab all the data. 

It is a little costly. 

The NFS service needs development. While Windows and SMB are effective, the NFS service shows some lag, making it a pain point for our many clients who use Linux devices.

I have been using the Panzura CloudFS solution for the last five years, and I have been supporting it for the last three years; I am a manager of those products. Their service is so good. We have not had any bad experiences with them.

I would rate the stability of Panzura CloudFS an eight out of ten.

For scalability, I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

I cannot provide the exact number of users accessing the solution. However, I have noted that Panzura's metadata cache works efficiently from the backend EC server. Thus, unlimited users can access the system without issues. Even 1,000 users can connect simultaneously unless there is a problem with the internal network.

Their technical support is excellent.

Positive

The deployment of Panzura CloudFS is not complex. It uses an OVA file format, and although it requires careful configuration following vendor instructions, anyone with basic storage knowledge can manage administrative tasks easily after a few days of familiarization.

Implementation of Panzura CloudFS is quick; it sets up very easily and does not take long.

The implementation does not take more than half an hour with the setup of computer resources and installation of the OS; adding new devices to a ring does take more time, as metadata synchronization occurs based on the network speed.

Panzura CloudFS can be deployed in both cloud and on-premises environments without limitations. Two to three years ago, there was a discussion about compatibility with seven different S3 storage providers. I know AWS and Google are compatible, though I'm unsure about how Azure works.

It can be deployed hybrid, which I heard is possible, and we are certain that cloud deployment works fine; so far, we have not faced any latency issues, and on-premises deployment also operates smoothly.

Panzura CloudFS saves us a significant amount of time frequently. We utilize huge storage capacity here.

I cannot detail how much Panzura CloudFS has reduced our data storage costs since it varies per customer and environment. Overall, it is quite costly compared to NetApp and similar solutions.

I cannot compare Panzura CloudFS directly with other vendors accurately; while NetApp has more features for NFS service, especially in security, Panzura excels in collaboration and its cloud file service; however, its NFS service lags in various aspects, with room for improvement.

I would recommend Panzura CloudFS to other users for its collaboration features and access points, but I advise caution regarding NFS service issues that require improvement, especially for Unix-based critical applications. However, for teams using Windows machines, my experience has been greatly positive.

Overall, I would rate Panzura CloudFS an eight out of ten.