We're using a FlexPod cluster with Cisco UCS and NetApp AFF. It's a four-node cluster. We use FlexPod for everything in our company. We're a financial company.
Team Lead at Grenke Digital gmbh
Simplifies infrastructure from edge to core and has high performance that saves us time
Pros and Cons
- "Our previous solution used to take 24 hours and now we're down to seven hours. It has really good performance."
- "FlexPod has not decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our company. There was a problem with the back-end configuration and we had a downtime of three hours."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Our previous solution used to take 24 hours and now we're down to seven hours. It has really good performance.
It simplifies infrastructure from edge to core but not to the cloud. We have five people running operations and they are quite busy. But for the scale of VMs for the customers, we need to have at least two more men to deal with infrastructure.
We just got AFF so we've got all flash on the environment now. This really speeds things up from something like eight milliseconds for I/O latency to under one millisecond which is great.
FlexPod has definitely made our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks. We're going more into automation now and we don't have to build all the VMs by hand. We automate this.
It has also improved application performance by around 50%. We're getting back more scale. I'm very happy with the performance of the database now. It has also decreased our data center's costs. We don't use so many racks anymore. We compressed all the stuff and we have a higher compute and more IOPs in the smaller racks.
What is most valuable?
Support of the firmware is the most valuable feature. The solutions' validated designs for major enterprise apps in our organization is very important. It ensures our ERP system runs smoothly on those machines.
We don't use the storage tiering to the public cloud.
What needs improvement?
FlexPod has not decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our company. There was a problem with the back-end configuration and we had a downtime of three hours. We encounter more downtime on procedural tasks we have to do than on technical tasks.
In the next release, I would like to have a better monitoring option in which I can see the full stack and can then decide which steps to take.
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
July 2025

Learn what your peers think about FlexPod XCS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of the stability, once it's up and running, it runs really smoothly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is excellent.
How are customer service and support?
Their technical support is good. It would be better if some P2 cases would be looked at from P1 guys as well, to give more experience to these orders. Last time we had four weeks on a P2 case, which wasn't very good. We have a task force and within three days, we managed to get through the problem. So this could have been resolved actually two weeks before.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We chose NetApp because we've used them before and we trust them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. We are implementing ACI as well, application centric infrastructure and this is complex to the network. We are pushing a virtualization layer on to the network which is really complex.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator who was great.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Dell EMC and NetApp but Dell EMC was expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it an eight out of ten. An eight because it's very reliable but there are some flaws which you need time to tackle them. There are some things that can be better. Better integration would make it a ten.
I would recommend this solution to someone considering it because of the support it comes with and the high-performance. We can scale it up to a level which we will never reach.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Solution Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Easily upgradable, scales well, and saves us money in operating expenses
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature for me is that you can swap out pieces when you have to lifecycle your equipment."
- "In the SolidFire interface, if you use the GUI, you have to create one run at a time, or one device at a time, which is something that needs to be fixed."
What is our primary use case?
We use FlexPod for all of our tier two and tier three storage, in all of our business units.
The ability to scale on demand allows us to get the capacity for the customer in a much more efficient manner in a better timeframe.
How has it helped my organization?
From an infrastructure standpoint, we have more cohesiveness between the teams. This was a concern to us and we're working to solve it so that we can operate in a more efficient manner.
From an ESX node standpoint, using this solution has reduced our footprint tremendously. I would say that it has decreased by approximately thirty-five percent.
We have done a lot of consolidation on the storage side. We have been able to put into one cluster what would have taken three or four in the older environment. It benefits us because there is less administration.
Some of our applications were on solid-state flash disks and some were on a hybrid platform. This new configuration is all-flash, solid-state, so nobody should have complaints about the performance.
The storage performance has most likely increased anywhere from ten percent to probably twenty percent, attributed to the all-flash, solid-state hardware.
We have seen a more efficient use of compute resources because we have fewer nodes committed. I would say that we are probably thirty to thirty-five percent more efficient.
Our maintenance costs have absolutely been reduced. We were going to have to pay between one and two million dollars, and by putting this in, we're avoiding those costs.
Our TCO has been reduced because one big piece of our former infrastructure was made up of Cisco SAN switches, and they are pretty pricey per port when you're using fiber channel. Now, we're using iSCSI, so we're saving a lot of money.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature for me is that you can swap out pieces when you have to lifecycle your equipment. You never have to go through a big freeze, but instead, do small pieces at a time. It reduces the migration hassle.
The tools bring the compute and storage together so that we can see it in a single pane of glass.
What needs improvement?
I would like to be able to pull in a file to specify a configuration upfront, rather than go through a lot of screens. There is a lot of manual effort there, and that is one place that mistakes can happen.
In the SolidFire interface, if you use the GUI, you have to create one run at a time, or one device at a time, which is something that needs to be fixed. Having to do that is ludicrous.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been good so far. We have had some drive-type issues where we had to apply a new code level, but in my opinion, it is just part of the normal business transactions. The storage nodes cause certain drives to act as though they've failed, but they really haven't. You just have to remove them, re-insert them, and they work again. It is a bug.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've grown and grown, and we've done it all online, so there are no concerns around scaling from a storage standpoint.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have been in contact with technical support a few times. Not a whole lot. I don't have any concerns with them.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of this solution is lengthy and complex, but we have been speaking with people about how to make it more efficient.
The complexity has a lot to do with when you're initially setting the equipment up. There's a lot of values that you have to plug into their various screens, and then you also have to do a reboot to pick up whether it's going to be a storage node or a compute node. Then, they're looking to fix status too, and you have to do a reboot after that, so you lose forty-five minutes and if you have a large install, that's a long time to build the environment.
What about the implementation team?
We used some of the professional services that were tied to the bundled packages. We also obtain our hardware and resources through a third-party called WWT, and everything is great with them.
What was our ROI?
ROI is difficult to figure out but I can say that we have had two to three million dollars in OE savings by deploying this and getting rid of older equipment.
What other advice do I have?
Even though this is a fairly new product, it is very appropriate for business solutions, and not just your mom-and-pop shops. It scales rather well, and to me, the big thing is the rolling upgrade scenario as far as when it comes time to lifecycle your equipment.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
July 2025

Learn what your peers think about FlexPod XCS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.
860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Support cases are focused and solved faster because of the unified support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the one support. Anytime that a customer buys a solution for a server, storage, or network, once they have trouble in their environment, everyone wants to find out who was wrong. With FlexPod, everyone is wrong and there is unified support. The best way to solve the problem is have it be everyone's problem, not just one person's problem. For FlexPod, you can call NetApp or Cisco, and I think it's the best way to solve the problem that the customer has."
- "The networking configurations with UCS need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We have a bank customer in Brazil who sells a lot of credit cards.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution simplifies infrastructure from edge to core to cloud.
The solution has made our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks that drives our business forward.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the one support. Anytime that a customer buys a solution for a server, storage, or network, once they have trouble in their environment, everyone wants to find out who was wrong. With FlexPod, everyone is wrong and there is unified support. The best way to solve the problem is have it be everyone's problem, not just one person's problem. For FlexPod, you can call NetApp or Cisco, and I think it's the best way to solve the problem that the customer has.
The best improvement is the validated designs. Everything has compliance. Sometimes when you have a trouble with a machine, or in your switch or storage, you can just call one place to solve the problem.
The all-flash with the fabric interconnect, along with the connections between the solution, that is the most important aspect.
What needs improvement?
It is not easy to implement.
The networking configurations with UCS need improvement.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The application performance has improved in our organization. The configurations of the networks are very substantive. If the customer has trouble, we just have to make the configuration one time, then everything is okay.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good because if you want to grow your environment, then you can do it. It has compliance, stacks, and nodes.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate the technical support as a 10 out of 10.
The solution has decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our organization because of the high availability of the solution. Sometimes, customers have talked about how good the support is. When they call to open a case, we can solve it in two days. To solve a problem, it use to longer: two weeks. Now, it can be solved in two to three days.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little complex.
What about the implementation team?
We are the integrator. We have five or six people to implement it. In our company, we are segmented, like networking, server, storage, etc.
What was our ROI?
Before this solution, the customer had around 15 people managing the environment. After purchasing the solution, they had just one. Their OPEX was better after this solution, and the ROI was very fast. ROI happens in about two years.
I think it has reduced data center cost but we don't have this feedback from the customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We would like everything in one piece of hardware. This way we can just sell the product like a silo by putting everything in a stack together.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a nine (out of 10). It is the better way for the customer to has less troubles and problems.
You have one configuration and one compliance with two companies, Cisco and NetApp. I think this is the best way to make solutions.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.
Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Makes our environment more homogeneous, so there are not as many technologies to study and learn
Pros and Cons
- "The solution makes our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks that drive our business forward. The environment is more homogeneous, so there are not as many technologies to study and learn. People can focus on improving their knowledge in existing technologies."
- "Hardware stability needs improvement. We replaced a lot of RAM this past year. We had to replace the complete blade once after extensive troubleshooting. Any given time, we have approximately one blade down within the entire infrastructure, unfortunately."
What is our primary use case?
Two hour production products are fully running in AWS. For the FlexPod, we just run everything on it.
We bought all the parts separately. So, we are running a certified FlexPod design with the AFF A700, UCS chassis, and Cisco Nexus FIs.
We are using both AWS and Azure.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution makes our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks that drive our business forward. The environment is more homogeneous, so there are not as many technologies to study and learn. People can focus on improving their knowledge in existing technologies.
It simplifies our lives.
We use a smaller footprint of equipment right now.
What is most valuable?
- The compact design
- Cost savings
The solution’s validated designs for major enterprise apps in our organization are very important. We use all certified designs to be eligible for the enterprise support and to receive support promptly. That is why we extremely rely on the certified designs and best practices.
What needs improvement?
There were a lot of elemental failures, like RAM or blades.
Hardware stability needs improvement. We replaced a lot of RAM this past year. We had to replace the complete blade once after extensive troubleshooting. Any given time, we have approximately one blade down within the entire infrastructure, unfortunately.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good. It breaks sometimes.
The solution has decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our organization. We have almost eliminated downtime (by 90 percent) since using FlexPod.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is very expensive.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good. We haven't needed to contact Cisco support regarding FlexPod as the entity. For NetApp and UCS, we receive a lot of attention.
The solution’s unified support for the entire stack is very important. With FlexPod, you receive a higher attention level when you ask for support. This is very beneficial in a time-sensitive business.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have FlexPod before. We had a bunch of standalone HPE rack servers.
We switched after analyzing the performance needs and what customers wanted to spend.
We reduced the environmental footprint, like reducing electricity costs and heating. However, we are hosting our data centers from somebody else. We reduced our footprint of equipment by approximately 80 percent. Meaning that about 70 percent of our cabinets right now are empty because we switched to FlexPod.
What about the implementation team?
For the deployment of UCS, we uses an integrator and fellow reseller. Our experience with them was very good. Everything works.
What was our ROI?
The application performance improved by 50 to 70 percent.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Cisco and NetApp were on our shortlist.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it an eight (out of 10).
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Assistant VP at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Seamless integration from both a hardware and software perspective
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing about this solution is the tight integration with VMware, Cisco, and NetApp from both a hardware and software perspective."
- "I would like to see more storage-related features."
What is our primary use case?
Our solution includes 7K switches, an 8060 as our filer, and Cisco 1610 as our interconnect switches.
We are not on the cloud yet, but we are currently exploring all of our options.
We use our FlexPod for all of our work, including our company applications.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has been helpful to our organization in many ways including provisioning storage, provisioning applications, and maintaining applications.
The validated designs for major enterprise applications are very important for us. They help with time availability, architecture, and security. From an application uptime perspective, it's important.
This solution has helped to simplify our infrastructure. All of these individual components integrate well with each other, and from a customer standpoint, I don't really have to worry about compatibility and other things on my end.
The unified support for the entire stack is something that is important to us.
This solution has decreased our unplanned downtime.
What is most valuable?
The best thing about this solution is the tight integration with VMware, Cisco, and NetApp from both a hardware and software perspective. The integration of the products works seamlessly. If you have a mismatch in versions then FlexPod can help you with that, otherwise, you may have problems.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more storage-related features.
This solution has not reduced our capital expenditures.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of this solution is good. We have not had any downtime, nor issues in terms of application performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good because we can add blades to our system.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support for this solution has been good. The support team maintains applications on all of these products. Their training is good and the support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We purchased this solution to increase our capacity.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution is straightforward and easy.
What about the implementation team?
We had consultants from EBT assist us with this solution, and our experience with them was good.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is researching this type of solution is to consider their requirements. If they're looking for an on-premises solution, with everything integrated, then I would recommend FlexPod.
This solution is good, but it is not perfect.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director of Data Center Operations at Barry University
A simple and efficient solution for our DR that has helped reduce our hardware footprint and save costs
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of this solution are efficiency and simplicity."
- "We have had some problems with SnapSuite and the replication functionality."
What is our primary use case?
Everything with NetApp right now is our DR and restore strategy. We have all of our VMs installed in an on-premises FlexPod.
We have another filter down in our DR site and everything is replicated using SnapProtect and SnapSuite.
The validated designs for major enterprise applications are very important to our organization. We have to make sure that everything is fully supported, end to end, and that we're not going to have any problems. When people have trouble they resort to finger-pointing and complain about the network, servers, or storage. With the one validated design, we contact NetApp and get support for everything we need.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has had a serious impact on our organization. How do you measure not having outages? It has allowed us to do business without any interruptions, which means that I can sleep well at night. After the last hurricane, we were completely up once it ended because we just brought up all of the VMs using VMware.
With respect to the history of innovations, the strategy that NetApp has taken with Cloud volumes online, Azure NetApp files, and all of those things, is good. We've already started using cloud volumes online and we're putting in a new solution with NetApp where we're going to be tiering everything off to Azure because we have a huge presence there. For example, we have an SQL server there, and we're going to be replacing the drives that are on SQL with Cloud Volumes Online so that we can leverage efficiencies. Other data, such as shares, are also going to be tiered off to Azure so that we don't have to be using production cycles, production backups and IOPS and everything, locally. We're instead going to send it to cloud storage.
Using FlexPod has absolutely made our staff more efficient.
This solution has increased our application performance, but we have been using this solution since 2003 and no longer keep metrics.
Our data center costs have been reduced because we've been able to shrink our data center. About ten years ago, we were at about one hundred and seventy servers. Now, we're down to eight blades. We've gone from seven racks down to two racks in the data center, and if you think about power, cooling, and everything else, it's a significant saving.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are efficiency and simplicity. You don't have to waste a lot of time managing things.
What needs improvement?
We have had some problems with SnapSuite and the replication functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since 2003.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is extremely stable, rock-solid.
We haven't had any failures, hardware-wise, in several years. The only issues that we have had were with SnapSuite, and it was related to replication. For this issue, we engaged with technical support.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a very scalable solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The unified support for the entire stack is extremely important for us. Anytime we have an issue, even though we haven't had any recently, we need to get it resolved as quickly as possible. Having a single vendor to go to for everything just makes it that much easier.
When we have had to contact technical support, they were very responsive, they follow up, and they take ownership of the issues right away. I would rate them a five out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have always been using NetApp, although about twelve years ago we went through consolidation. We had Dell storage, some Hitachi, some IBM storage, and then we had a NetApp filer. Our multi-vendor hardware came about from purchasing the cheapest thing that we could get when something else was needed.
When we met with our NetApp rep, they came in and suggested that we consolidate. We had been having trouble with backups, using Syncsort, and they suggested that we move to SnapProtect and get everything on NetApp. They helped us to take everything off of all the other storage, consolidate down to NetApp, and then replace our entire backup solution with SnapSuite and SnapProtect. After that, they made sure that everything would replicate back up to the DR site.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution is fairly straightforward. Obviously, you need to know what storage systems are being used, etc, but in general, it is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We use Insight, formerly Datalink, to assist us with the maintenance of this solution. They are excellent. They helped with our implementation and they help us to deploy all of the solutions. If we have any questions about designs, where we are going in terms of the roadmap, etc, then between Insight and NetApp they are invaluable when helping us to make decisions.
What was our ROI?
I would say that we have seen ROI, although I do not have numbers to support it.
What other advice do I have?
I am looking forward to using the cloud enablement that they have been working on.
In the last three years, I lost money that was budgeted for capital expenditures, meaning that I have had to give it back because I literally have nothing to buy. We do have operating expenses and we have the capability, but everything that we are doing is moving into Azure, using managed services and software as a service. This means that we've been reducing our hardware footprint significantly. Especially with the efficiencies that NetApp brings, we don't need as much storage space.
My advice for anybody researching this solution is to evaluate your workloads.
NetApp is definitely the way to go.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Consultant at Venn IT solutions
A stable and efficient solution for our primary network infrastructure
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the stability."
- "I would like to see a more centralized support model."
What is our primary use case?
We have a custom-built FlexPod with a Cisco 6332-16FI and an AH-700.
It is being used as our primary network infrastructure.
The solution’s validated designs are pretty important for major enterprise apps in our organization. We follow them to make sure that we're compliant.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution runs our VMs. Our SQL databases, for example, are in our VMs, so everything is virtualized.
Implementing this solution has made our staff more efficient because once it is built, it's a matter of provisioning additional VMs. It's pretty simplified.
I think that with the new all-flash array, our application performance has been improved.
We did not have very much unplanned downtime before implementing our current solution, so I can't say that our new solution is much different in that regard.
This solution has probably not reduced our data center costs because our previous solution was relatively small. It was just one rack.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the stability.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a more centralized support model.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
To this point, stability has been good. We have had no downtime since I built this solution.
In our previous FlexPod, I think that both of the UCS-FIs went down during the firmware upgrade. That caused an outage. I do not know all of the details because that was before I joined the company.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can expand using additional chassis and additional disk shelves.
How are customer service and technical support?
The solution's unified support for the entire stack is beneficial. Basically, it's kind of all-in-one.
The technical support for this solution is ok, although we dislike using the online robot. It's caused delays in us reaching out to a real support engineer.
How was the initial setup?
I built the current FlexPod and it was pretty straightforward.
We had another FlexPod that was built by somebody else. It's easy to build and we are in the process of migrating all of the workloads over. We're always refreshed.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I also have experience with Vblock.
What other advice do I have?
We do not use the solution’s storage tiering to the public cloud. We are not using the cloud at all for the moment.
My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to engage some type of professional services just to set it up if they are unfamiliar with the technology.
This is a solution that I recommend, and if you're already familiar with other similar technologies then it is pretty simple to put it together.
We do not have the license for NDME yet, and we would like to see how much improvement it is over our current setup.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cloud Service Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Highly scalable solution that has been very stable
Pros and Cons
- "The guides that we use to install FlexPods are always up-to-date. This is really helpful, especially if there is a new product with NetApp moving so far forward and Cisco as well. For them to join together and update a centralized document for the install process, it is really good. It helps us understand if there are features from the first version that we installed while upgrading that we need to implement. Those are in the document. So, we find that document useful and helpful when moving forward."
- "It would be nice to have something like an automated, upgrade solution The tasks needed to upgrade the hardware within FlexPod are still quite behind compared to some of its other aspects. That's more on the Cisco side."
What is our primary use case?
It's a tenant environment. We sell it off to customers who need an environment, depending on the scale of their company, where there might be a couple of servers or 100 to 200 servers.
We are our own cloud provider. We use VMware vCloud Director because we provide that to our customers.
For UCS, we are on version 6.2. For NetApp, we are on 9.5.
How has it helped my organization?
Our private cloud sector of our company has grown exponentially thanks to the ease of deployment of the FlexPod architecture. We are also able to deploy a console to customers who want on-prem environments in a smaller deployment structure with a UCS Mini and direct-attached storage. So, it's helped us exponentially grow the business.
All-flash has helped the company a lot, especially for business critical applications. We found that customers want more performance than ever based on what is out there in the market. We find that innovation and integration with the whole FlexPod design has helped a lot.
What is most valuable?
The guides that we use to install FlexPods are always up-to-date. This is really helpful, especially if there is a new product with NetApp moving so far forward and Cisco as well. For them to join together and update a centralized document for the install process, it is really good. It helps us understand if there are features from the first version that we installed while upgrading that we need to implement. Those are in the document. So, we find that document useful and helpful when moving forward.
The solution’s validated designs for major enterprise apps in our organization is very important. It helps us to understand what we need to do and deliver, doing it at a supported level for our customers.
What needs improvement?
It would be nice to have something like an automated, upgrade solution The tasks needed to upgrade the hardware within FlexPod are still quite behind compared to some of its other aspects. That's more on the Cisco side. For the NetApp side, the upgrade process is quite simple. It's been simplified. So, that's something that could be looked at.
It has gone to HTML5, but it's still quite a bit bland. It still seems a bit like there were some features in the Java version that are quite hard to get into in the HTML5 version of UCS Manager, where you go to a profile and you need to drag it in. You can't move the box across. All the boxes are different sizes. If you have a lot of names, then you can't move it across, which is quite annoying when you're trying to do it.
I would like more with the integration pieces, e.g., more with the REST APIs to be able to access it remotely.
The footprint in the data center is quite large, especially when you scale out. Maybe find some hardware in the future, where if a new blade comes out, then Cisco can say, "Look, we'll buy those blades back off you, and we'll give you this blade for X amount of money." A buyback scheme would be good for hardware, and even NetApp as well. Something like a buyback scheme for blades and stuff moving forward would be good, because I know that they're going to put more power into them. E.g., replacing four blades might equal one blade, which would be awesome, but we are still going to have those four blades around. Maybe having something where it will give you this much money for these blades so we can upgrade. That would be perfect.
With the upgrading, making that a little bit more streamlined and a bit easier to do, so it doesn't require as many man hours to do. I would like prerequisites for an upgrade.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. Since we've had it in, knock on wood, it's been absolutely flawless. We've had some issues, but that's to do with the upgrades and mainly with the fabric interconnects, and they can be a bit finicky. They're not as robust. They're robust in a way if you don't touch them, they look fine. But, in the upgrade process, we've had a lot of issues where there would either be corrupted images or they wouldn't upgrade, which would cause one of the switches to fail. Some of that stuff is very worrying. But from a performance perspective, it's worked as it should.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's highly scalable. It scales really well, but that also comes back to how you want to scale it. In terms of whether you want to add more chassis and if you want to add anything more to that. Then, that comes under the costings of the data center because the chassis are quite big. However, the scalability of it is perfect. We haven't had an issues with it.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is pretty good. I would give it a seven or eight out of 10. A full 10 would be having the automated upgrading, getting them to do the upgrades, as that would take a lot of time off us having to do them. I am sure that there is a team you can get for that support, but it's quite expensive. Maybe that type of support for upgrades can be bundled in when someone buys a FlexPod deployment. Most of our time on the environment is spent on upgrading of the infrastructure.
We have really good support from NetApp. We get really good, really fast support from Cisco, as well. E.g., if there is a failed memory chip in one of the host servers that needs replacements, they are always on time. They send it out when they need to, and if the problem is not resolved, then they move that forward to the next tier.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used NetApp from the start. Before my time, I'm not too sure what they were using. I think before it was just storage on servers, like integrated in. As long as I've been here, I've been using NetApp.
At the time we went with that solution, public clouds didn't exist. However, knowing that it does integrate with public clouds is an absolute bonus. It's awesome because we're moving towards that type of integration. Knowing this makes our lives a lot easier because we don't have to move from where we are to get to where we want to go. We've already got what we want, which is absolutely amazing. So, it's great.
We are very strong NetApp partners.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. Complexity was added more from a customer perspective, where you need that custom setup for what they require. With the bundle, we did get to go to training for FlexPod's deployment and that sort of area. That also helped us a lot to understand the nuts and bolts and detail of what it is as well, which helped a lot with that knowledge.
What about the implementation team?
We work with Cisco and NetApp for the deployment. The guides are absolutely intuitive. You go from start to finish, deploying it all in one. In terms of time, we have used them to reference different aspects of how we should set it up if there are custom requirements, because not all deployments are put it in and deploy it as we go. We have had some custom requirements over time, but the initial one was just straight in and cable. It was quite intuitive for us, which was good. We didn't need for anyone to come out and install it.
What was our ROI?
I haven't seen ROI.
From an application point of view, customers have seen an improvement in response times for mainly database-based applications, and the need to have a lot of reads and writes for all-flash storage. The upgrades with the hosts from UCS to the new blades with PASA processes and more memory have also improved.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
From a flexible deployment and scalability point of view, we got NetApp. From enterprise and beyond, they are doing above and beyond anything that anyone else is doing at the moment.
Cisco are the leaders in LAN technology. With their hardware for unified communication of the UCS bundle, it's so straightforward and easy to set up. It integrates with a lot of other major vendors, which makes our lives a lot easier.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely support integrating FlexPod within a company, depending on their requirements. Even if it wasn't a a full, flexible deployment, just having a smaller deployment of the UCS Mini with a smaller NetApp for a customer, it is so scalable. You can do it for a smaller customer to an enterprise customer. I would fully support them implementing this into a data center based on their requirements.
The solution has made our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks that drive our business forward, but there's still a lot of manual overhead that needs to be done. We're installing new chassis or upgrades. Upgrades is a really big one.
We find that the UCS shells are still quite power intensive. Maybe moving forward to the new releases of the blades that they have in their FlexPod deployment, we might be able to change a couple of blades to one blade because the power is exactly the same. They have the same quality of processing and memory. Right now, we find that it does take up a lot of space and power. Hopefully, in the future, once we do go through the upgrade process, pull out the old blades, and whatever we need to replace, we might do that.
I would rate it a nine out of 10. Nothing is perfect. You always have that one percent where you say, "Aw, I wish it was doing this," but at the end of the day, it can't. You're always going to be a bit picky.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.

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Updated: July 2025
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