FlexPod XCS Reviews

• Ease of configuration 
• Ease of training for whoever is going to be using it

Deployment time is probably one of the biggest ones. You can get it set up and start using it in a quick manner.

I think it could be a little bit more flexible and if they found a way to implement more of a supported cloud solution to it, I think that could help a lot. 

Then there's things like AltaVault which, if there was a way to have that as a shipped feature with it, could be useful as well.

Six or seven years.

Solid. Very good.

Pretty good. I think there is some room for improvement. It depends on how big of a company you're at, but we outgrew some of the solutions that we had installed and then we ended up having to custom-build a different solution.

• Ease of use
• Easy expandability
• They're quick to respond.

We haven't had a single problem with it yet.

It has improved the way our organization functions tenfold. We can deploy servers, storage, and everything else quickly. When we need to expand, we can do that quickly as well. It's just easier all around.

It has helped us grow. As our casinos grow, it has helped us expand and add the storage and everything which we need. It has given us the performance and stability that we need for applications, and it has allowed us to expand our Disaster Recovery (DR) and backup strategies.

I would like to see a little bit more monitoring. OnCommand Unified Manager is great. It just kind of gives you a really good high-level overview. So, I would like to see a little more detail.

We have had it for six years.

Extremely stable. We haven't had a single problem. It has never gone down. Our upgrades are within an hour, so our uptime is incredible.

Scalability is also extremely easy. In fact, right now, we're looking at HCI for its scalability as well. I don't see another product out there that's as scalable as NetApp.

We've just started adding additional heads for clusters. We went to cluster mode last year. So, we've added in some cluster switches, and we've started scaling out.

We have used them, but very rarely. When we do use them, they have always been really quick to respond. Getting knowledgeable people on the phone pretty quickly. It doesn't seem like you ever have to go through so many hoops just to trying to diagnose a problem. It's been extremely valuable.

We didn't have any centralized storage at all. When we purchased it originally, it was all to expand and growth, and everything else. NetApp was our vendor of choice.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was pretty straightforward. Since then, we've swapped our controllers, and all that has been pretty straightforward. We have not had any problems with it being too complex.

The price point is pretty competitive. I'm pretty happy with where the price is right now, but it can always be cheaper!

It is versatile, and the profiles and things that you can create with it are good to work with and make it easy to replace the hardware.

It has made it easier to deploy new virtual machines. We use it for our virtual machine environment. Before, it was a lot just having to get the hardware ready. Now that the FlexPod solutions are built up, they make it a lot easier as far as networking.

Easier integration from the beginning, which they have put improvements in as far as setting it up. It was just a large learning curve for us at first.

Probably two to three years.

Once we got implemented, it was very stable.

It should scale out based on what I've seen.

We haven't had to scale out yet. We have fairly small environments, but many of them and they are all separated. But based on the solution, I think we could scale it more if we needed to easily.

I have used it from the storage site, from the NetApp side, and also from the Cisco side. I contacted either vendor.

At times it's difficult to get to the right person, but eventually, depending on how far you push, you can get to the right person. Once I reach the right person, they are knowledgeable. Generally, my experience working with tech support is fine.

We were on a platform, which we thought didn't have a long life from another vendor.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was pretty complex.

There is a steep learning curve on the Cisco side to set up profiles.

I had pricing from separate vendors. I got storage from NetApp and Cisco Blade Servers, so I don't know. I didn't buy it as a package, so it's hard to say.

We bought the Cisco and the NetApp separately and integrated them ourselves, so that probably made it a little more difficult. But we followed all the guidelines that were published from both Cisco and NetApp regarding how to put them together. Now, it is sold as an already built together package, which probably would make it easier.

• The central point of management
• The centralized management of the storage and the compute

• Improved functionality
• Speeds up deployment time.

The product is uniquely valuable because we were able to get everything up and running very quickly without having to consult with multiple teams across the IT infrastructure.

When we initially installed it, the automation piece really wasn't available. Maybe in a future release, if automation was built into the product that would be good.

Three years.

The stability is very good.

The scalability is very good.

We used technical support for the initial install. They were good, knowledgeable, and helped us get answers quickly. We were able to reach the right person quickly.

The original project was no longer needed, so we took it apart, and repurposed the components.

I was involved in the initial setup. I found it to be very easy.

Fully-supported end-to-end architecture using the compatibility matrices around it.

It makes our configurations more consistent and easier to troubleshoot.

The product is uniquely valuable for the industry because we've had some experience with a competing solution from another storage vending solution, and it was not nearly as stable.

Better integration with other vendors that are involved in the FlexPod solution, like Cisco.

About five years now.

It is very stable.

Five years ago, it was very scalable. Now, the technology has changed so much in the last five years, it's not the most scalable solution out there.

I have used technical support. It's very good. They were knowledgeable.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was straightforward.

We invested in this solution because we were trying to lower our costs and improve the time to implement and upgrade.

Simplicity.

It has allowed us to scale out a bit more.

It is a uniquely valuable product to our company, because it allows us to easily put a product in there as a whole solution without going out and purchasing different pieces.

We really haven't had any issues or problems out of it. We do feel with the whole FlexPod solution that we were actually sold more than we needed as far as extra parts. We just did a lift in shift of one of our FlexPods to a new datacenter, and instead of using the 5000 series switch, we went straight for the 7000. We didn't really need the 5000 series switches in the first place. 

Two years.

It's fairly stable. We have not had downtime because of the solution, but because of the software, VDI.

It seems very scalable. We have had to scale out. We have actually doubled in size.

I was involved in the initial setup. At the time, it seemed complex, because we had never done it before, but as I look back on it, it was pretty straightforward.

For installation, we used CDW's professional services. It was a learning experience for all of us. We actually helped them install it, so it was actually our first iteration FlexPod and it helped us actually get up to speed on it.

I wasn't involved in this.

We invested in FlexPod because we were setting up a VDI environment. 

The automatic revisioning via the ability to provision through a single interface and touch all the components along with it. That really helps us to spin up things like test apps, DevOps, and all that stuff in one interface.

It cuts down on the time needed to provision anything. So if a business unit says, "Hey, I need this, because I need to do analysis on this portfolio that I'm going to buy", or "Are these customers going to pay?" We can provision things very quickly and they can get to work on making money.

It's uniquely valuable because the hyper-converge (buzzword) has taken over right now, but our converged infrastructure, even though it's three or four years old, is still doing everything we need it to do.

Maybe some of the graphical interfaces could be a little more user-friendly from the Cisco side of things.

I'm interested to see how the Converged System Manager comes out. It allows you to see all the components in a single graphical interface. Right now, we have to go to a couple different ones to see everything. We can execute scripts in the background against everything, but it would be nice to see a picture. That way we can give that to the executives, and say "Here, check out this cool thing we have." They probably don't understand it all.

The company was using it before I got there. I have been there for about four years, so at least four years.

I started working on NetApp products in 2008.

We haven't had any downtime in four years. I don't have any problems at all with the stability.

There are some upper limits that we're never gonna reach. I don't have any concerns about scalability or increasing it.

We have used it that much. Of course we have used some of it, but most of it is for a failed hardware or something like. We haven't had any major bugs.

We've never had any issues with tech support. So I would say we're very well-supported and satisfied with the way they do things.

The previous solution was physical servers with a storage so everything was separate, administered separately, and they decided "Hey, let's go with this FlexPod to size everything together with unified support and unified products." So that's why they chose it, to slim things down, but at the same time, to gain some functionality that maybe they didn't have before.

The initial setup predates me.

It's an all-in-one validated design. We don't have to worry about making sure that thing A supports thing B. It's all top-down, integrated, and validated, which means for us, it's going to just work.

It let us not worry about the minutiae of the configuration, and instead worry about how we put systems and applications online and the maintenance to build a new environment.

It uniquely valuable because it's leveraging first-party products and services. Systems, which we already would use, now they are all integrated with each other, so we don't have to worry about going out into the market and finding those components separately, then making sure that they work together the way we need.

Surprise me with something I haven't thought of.

Maybe it's out-of-the-box and can configure itself. Something that's beyond the simplicity that I already think is there. Abstract away some of the technical details of setting it up, so you don't need the experience of an engineer to come in and do the work.

About four months.

The stability is fine so far. It's solid. It's a rock.

The scalability is fine.

Technical support is a non-issue. That's another advantage with FlexPod, in particular, is it's one single endpoint for support. We don't have to call around and there's no finger-pointing between organizations.

Our old solution was outdated, old, and out of support. We were at our hardware refresh point of three to five years.

I was involved in the initial setup and it was straightforward.