We performed a comparison between HPE Nimble Storage and HPE 3RAP StoreServ based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, HPE Nimble Storage came out ahead of HPE 3RAP StoreServ. Even though both products are easy to deploy, have many valuable features, and are in the same price range, HPE 3RAP StoreServ requires improvements in its technical support availability which caused inconveniences for numerous customers.
"Technical support has been okay."
"One of the main features that we love about the system is the ability to create snapshots. NetApp makes a lot of snapshots in a short space of time. Also, the speed of data recovery with NetApp, at the time we need it, is an important feature that we love."
"We are a large-scale company, and our growth has been pretty significant over the last five or six years. We like the scale, and the way NetApp grows, so that's why we use it. It's mostly for block storage."
"This solution helps accelerate demanding enterprise applications. VMware workloads, the database, and Oracle Solaris are hosted on AFF, which means that our primary priority workloads are on AFF and that the secondary ones are on FAS. That includes the SAN national cloud."
"I like some basic features like Snapshot, FlexClone, and advanced features such as SnapMirror, and SnapVault. They also recently enhanced the market with Cloud Volumes ONTAP. I think that NetApp is a very good product."
"The speed of data retrieval is the most valuable feature. We mostly use it for our SAP database and we are getting good IO from the hard drive."
"It simplifies data management for NAS environments with its ease of management, ease of share creation, and Active IQ feature. These features are good overall. It helps us manage data quickly and sufficiently. Also, compression features, like dedupe, give us a good ratio."
"We have had issues before on our infrastructure where 20 to 30 percent of the people would come to us pointing the finger at the storage technology or storage back-end. That is now virtually zero."
"The technical support is very good."
"The solution fetches quick responses in milliseconds which can be within 40-50 milliseconds."
"We choose 3PAR for its speed. It's so fast and reliable."
"It is reliable, and it seems like a solid product. It has been working well so far."
"It's a very popular product for enterprise storage."
"We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that."
"The most valuable feature of HPE 3PAR StoreServ is its storage capabilities."
"This is a stable solution."
"The deployment is fast."
"InfoSight is helpful because it is proactive support."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It is easy to use. Not too complicated."
"HPE Nimble Storage is quick to release updates that fix bugs or problems and the failover has been good."
"The capacity for data storage and compression is good."
"The fact that you can manage the requirements is one the most valuable features of HPE Nimble Storage. The other is the rapid deployment time."
"The management software that runs in the cloud is called InfoSight and it is very good. It is similar to machine learning software that monitors your hardware."
"Another issue is that for smaller customers, NetApp doesn't have enough disk sizes. You begin with a 980-gigabyte disk and the next size is 3.8 terabytes. There aren't any disk sizes in between. Competitors have more choices in disk sizes."
"We have been seeing some challenges around the application layer implementation. We are having some teething problems now with the cooperation between the application layer and backups to things, like SnapCenter. This may be a question of product maturity."
"When it comes to the cloud, they might need to improve in terms of making it clear why someone would use a NetApp solution over cloud-made storage."
"The initial setup has a lot more steps in it than are probably necessary for a base deployment, unlike other vendors where it's more straightforward. It could be a little bit more streamlined."
"From my perspective, everything works well. They've already announced that they have some features in their next release that make the existing investment more usable, by adding software features to your existing legacy hardware investment."
"For ONTAP, in general, the deduplication ratio and Snapshot limitation are areas that need improvement. There is a global limitation on the number of Snapshots or clones that can be spun off of a particular Snapshot. If those limitations are increased, it might be helpful."
"It used to give us the volume where LANs should be placed when we created a LAN in the older version. However, in the newer version of ONTAP, it does not give where to place the LAN in the volume. So, that liberty has been taken away. If that was there again, it would be very good."
"When it comes to the connectivity on the back end, where the hardware is concerned—the cabling and the like—it could also be simplified to ease the communication between the nodes and between the other components of the infrastructure. I still find that a little bit complicated."
"The solution lacks reliability."
"If HPE 3PAR could handle NAS and all things related to NAS, you would not need to have a mixture of different storages, storage boxes, one solution could fit all."
"HPE 3PAR StoreServ has limited flexibility in building replication solutions. There are limitations to the number of IOPS the system can do. It's not bad as it is doing its job. However, for the application, if you need a toolbox, you can build everything concerning periodic replication modes of synchronous or asynchronous three-site, four-site, with supported cascading which requires you to buy an IBM product. It also takes a few hours to one day to upgrade the system and sometimes; it takes more time because, in some HPE 3PAR StoreServ 20000 Storage, you have an eight-node system. If you do an upgrade, you do it node by node and every node might take more than an hour."
"While the stability is pretty good, it could always be improved upon."
"The solution could improve by being more secure."
"The performance of the solution is not good anymore and the software is different from all the other types and is not compatible. There are more negative things at this moment than positive. This is why we are removing them all from our organization this year."
"With 3PAR, there is remote copy software which isn't very good."
"The interface could be improved to match the system."
"If they could reduce the cost, that would be ideal."
"There should be faster interfaces."
"The resellers did the implementation of the solution, we did not do it ourselves. We have ten people for the deployment of the solution."
"Pure Storages have some option, which allows us the ability to directly download that host inventory and volume report. We can receive everything directly generated from the storage itself. We do not need to use some other web browser or something. If HPE Nimble Storage could do the same it would be a benefit."
"The scalability could be better."
"The solution should allow for easier configurations."
"In the future, I would like to see a lower-end model that has Peer Persistence functionality."
"We are doing a hybrid and are moving some machines to Microsoft Azure to run in hybrid mode. We are checking the availability of extra software-defined storage so that we can configure it."
HPE 3PAR StoreServ is ranked 8th in All-Flash Storage with 28 reviews while HPE Nimble Storage is ranked 7th in All-Flash Storage with 25 reviews. HPE 3PAR StoreServ is rated 8.4, while HPE Nimble Storage is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of HPE 3PAR StoreServ writes "User-friendly graphical user interface and simplifies reporting for easy management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE Nimble Storage writes "Proactive end-to-end management". HPE 3PAR StoreServ is most compared with HPE Primera, Dell Unity XT, Pure Storage FlashArray, HPE StorageWorks MSA and Dell PowerStore, whereas HPE Nimble Storage is most compared with HPE Primera, Dell PowerStore, Dell Unity XT, Pure Storage FlashArray and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series. See our HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs. HPE Nimble Storage report.
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We monitor all All-Flash Storage reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
