We performed a comparison between NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Cloud Software Defined Storage solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"Lastly, the API and web services are fairly good. That is an important feature too. We write some code to do different things. We have code that runs to make sure that everything is being backed up as we say it is and we try to also detect places where we may have missed a backup."
"The storage tiering is definitely the most valuable feature... With respect to tiering, the inactive data is pushed to a lower tier where the storage cost is cheap, but the access cost is high."
"It makes sure we have control of the data and that we know what it's being used for. The main thing for us is that we need to know what applications are consuming it and responsible for it. The solution helps us do that."
"The most valuable features are that it's reliable, simple, and performs well."
"Its scalability is very good."
"It is much easier to control data since we can run queries across all our platforms with just one solution. Not only that, we can also monitor all the platforms with Active IQ, where we can see all the alerts, messages, and space consumption through a single application. This is regardless if the data is on-prem or AWS. It is much more efficient."
"In terms of administration, the portal which provides the dashboard view is an excellent tool for operations. It gives you volume divisions, usage rates, which division is using how much data, and more. The operations portal is fantastic for the support team."
"I like how you can easily pair on-prem with the cloud and the cloud backup feature. I like the whole integration with on-prem and the cloud for SnapMirror relationships."
"The product runs wonderfully and has already gone through several failure tests."
"We were able to set it up via the documentation and only needed their support a handful of times."
"Their service is top-notch and if a node goes down they immediately are following up with us to make sure that everything is working smoothly."
"The StarWind array has greatly improved our workflow internally as it is quite easy to use and provides robust features that allow us to provide anything our clients need quickly and efficiently."
"The most valuable aspect of StarWind is the all-in-one solution that they provide."
"We also opted for 24-hour support monitoring for any issues. They are extremely quick to respond on issues we even cause ourselves such as bumping a network cable."
"The setup was easy to deploy, and management is simplified compared with traditional SAN solutions."
"Repair efforts have been reduced to nearly nothing."
"It definitely needs improvement with respect to clustering and with respect to more collaborative integrations with Azure. Right now, we have very limited functionalities with Azure, except for storage. If CVO could be integrated with Azure that would help. When there is any sort of maintenance happening in the cloud, it disrupts the service in Cloud Volumes ONTAP."
"The encryption and deduplication features still have a lot of room for improvement."
"Something we would like to see is the ability to better manage the setup and tie it to our configuration management database. We manage our whole IT infrastructure out of that database."
"They definitely need to stay more on top of security vulnerabilities. Our security team is constantly finding Java vulnerabilities and SQL vulnerabilities. Our security team always wants the latest security update, and it takes a while for NetApp to stay up to speed with that. That would be my biggest complaint."
"The support is good in general but the initial, front-line support could be improved. Because I have already been using the product for so long, when I call support I would rather talk to somebody who is a little bit more advanced or senior, rather than talking to the first-level support. Usually, it takes some time to reach out to their senior support."
"The only area for improvement would be some guidance in terms of the future products that NetApp is planning on releasing. I would like to see communication around that or advice such as, "Hey, the world is moving towards this particular trend, and NetApp can help you do that." I do get promotional emails from NetApp, but customer-specific advice would be helpful, based on our use cases."
"I would like to see more information about Cloud Volumes ONTAP using Google Cloud Platform on NetApp's website."
"The solution is not stable when using single nodes. This is a problem. NetApp should work on this solution to make it more stable with HA nodes and resolve this issue."
"Shipping options should be explained in detail and offer more white glove delivery options even if it comes at an additional cost for some SMBs without docks."
"At times there has been a language barrier when communicating issues."
"Perhaps the initial configuration and documentation could be a little clearer and simpler to follow."
"If I had to pick something to add to the product, it would be nice if you could have more than one user account on their command center VM."
"The monitoring and report software is a bit hit and miss."
"We'd like an easier setup for Windows updates on the Hyper-V servers so you don't have to use a script to ensure auto-updating is done."
"Not much can be improved, to be honest."
"CSVs require the storage to be configured through iSCSI, even though the storage is local."
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NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is ranked 1st in Cloud Software Defined Storage with 13 reviews while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 3rd in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 42 reviews. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is rated 9.0, while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.8. The top reviewer of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP writes "Its data tiering helps keep storage costs under control". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Flexible and easy to set up with excellent support". NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is most compared with Azure NetApp Files, Amazon S3, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud, Portworx Enterprise and VMware vSAN, whereas StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with VxRail, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, NetApp HCI and StorMagic SvSAN. See our NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report.
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