Hitachi Content Platform Reviews

I have a lot of experience in Hitachi Content Platform and backup solutions because I am the manager at Telcombas for these technologies. Hitachi Content Platform is used either as an archive repository or for primary storage for web applications. My responsibilities include the configuration and design of the architecture for physical HCP devices and other storage solutions, and I largely work with platforms on Linux and other open software.

For our clients, we are now implementing mainly the newer models from Hitachi Content Platform and the main applications for this technology includes anti-ransomware, DRP protocols, archiving, replication, compression, and more.

As an architect, I like the management features that come with Hitachi Content Platform because it makes things easy. But there is certainly more to like, depending on what you're using it for. It's a really fine platform in terms of archiving, replication, compression, and other backup applications.

Two things that can be improved are pricing and configuration. Mostly the pricing is an issue. And if I were to add anything, I would say more integration with backup solutions such as Veeam Backup.

I think it's scalable. 

The customer service and support is very good.

The setup is easy, in general. We find that the more capacity we add, the more difficult it is, but when it comes to starting up, it's not hard at all.

We have two or three engineers on call for deployment and maintenance scenarios.

The pricing could be better. 

In all my experience and feedback from customers, we are confident that this product is very good.

I would rate Hitachi Content Platform a nine out of ten.  

This solution is deployed at the customer level. They use it for media files and file storage and there are some customers who are evaluating it for the content archive.

The features that I have found most valuable are their retention logs. The other thing I have found most valuable is the way they handle the BHEA. Basically the DNS and everything is managed by itself. It is seamless to the users. I think that some of the verticals are things that come with the total package for the BHEA, multi-side BHEA, and everything. That's what I think is unique.

In terms of what can be improved, normally they provide it as object storage, but they see that as a vendor they don't have the components to glue it. So they allow all the partners to come up with all the ideas. But when positioning, if Hitachi could also come up with their own sort of software to provide solutions, by OEM like Microsoft and all those, they would allow partners to promote their solutions to a partner store. Something like that. That's the way they should take this. Let's say from a partner point of view, we don't see what Hitachi does globally with the partners. That availability is not there. I think it would be good if they had a platform like that. And we can also co-sell to other countries. You can do a lot with the platform.

I have been using Hitachi Content Platform for four to five years.

Normally it is stable. We have not come across any bugs. But there were double feature issues on the previous versions, but I see most of them are fixed as per our requirement. Overall, it's not bad, it's stable. 

But I don't recommend it to be used as a normal file server.

In terms of scalability, I can scale up to what I need. I don't think there's an issue of scalability. 

There are a few clients who are with us. I'm based out of Sri Lanka, so it's not a big country. We have about 26 clients who are using it with the BHEA.

In terms of the customer support, I can say it's a mixed reaction depending on the country. That's what we have found, where the support and the level of expertise depends on the country. But from some places, let's say, from this country, they'll just route the call to somebody else. If the call is picked by a person in country B, then it is extremely good. They are experts. That's how it is.

The initial setup is mixed. If you look at the hardware set up it could be a bit complex. But after that, it's pretty straightforward. So, if you look from the hardware spec to getting everything done, once the hardware is booted up, it will be within a day or two for us to get the initial thing started up. That hardware set up depends on the rest. It takes time. From there on, most of it depends on the customer requirements and the minute configurations.

We did not evaluate any other option for our object storage. Previously we were looking at the BHEA. They had a solution. They were the division that we used a few years back. We have tried with Sun Microsystems and MFS. We tried that out but didn't use it.

I would advise anyone using this solution to get proper glue. You have one product and you will be using it for some purpose, but you need the glue to stitch them together. You need to find the right glue. For that process, when you have to have the right glue and you come up with a complete solution - Hitachi can be a bit painful.

Additionally, they need to come up with a simple migration. Writing a proper data migration from an existing system to migrate, that is something that they lack.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Hitachi Content Platform about a nine.

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. On our end, we are using for R&D purposes.

Our customers primarily use HCP for media files and file storage. Some of them are using it as an image repository.

The most valuable feature is the retention log.

The way that they handle the DR is very good because when there is a failover, it is seamless to the users. DR and multisite replication come together as a package.

The vendor needs to come up with their own integration solutions. As it is now, they provide object storage that is used by a number of other vendors. They allow the partners to come up with the ideas. For example, Microsoft, Cisco, and others can promote their own solutions, but there is nothing directly from Hitachi. Hitachi needs to start working with all of its partners, globally.

What is lacking in this solution is a simple process to migrate from existing systems.

I have been working with the Hitachi Content Platform for between four and five years.

Normally, the HCP is stable. We have not come across any bugs. There were some issues with features in the previous versions but I have seen that most of them are fixed and working as per our requirements.

This solution scales well and I don't think that there is an issue with that.

We have several clients of different sizes who have implemented it. Some of them are using it for DR, whereas others have single instances.

Our experience with technical support is mixed. We have found that it depends on the country because depending on where the support is, the level of expertise varies. In some countries, the call is simply routed to somebody else. In other cases, you can get an expert who is extremely good.

We did not use a another object storage system prior to this one.

The complexity of the initial setup is mixed. When it comes to setting up the hardware it can be a little complex. However, once that is complete, everything is pretty straightforward.

Once the hardware has been set up, it will take a day or two to start everything. For this platform, it is setting up the hardware that takes time.

We did look at other solutions but it was a few years back. We tried one by Sun Microsystems, for example, but it never went into commercial use.

I have seen that some of our customers position this solution as a file server but this is not something that I recommend. It is not intended as a file server.

My advice to anybody who is considering this product is to properly consider the integration between components, or the "glue". This is a good solution but it works as a part of a larger system. If it isn't planned properly then it can be a bit painful.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our primary use case is mainly for backup archival and for sharing Dropbox files. It's a Dropbox kind of thing for sharing and archival. We also use it to create content.

Feature-wise, it has a lot of features. The most valuable features include: 

• Deduplication 
• Encryption 
• Version controlling
• Support
• Tamper-proof data.

They should improve the user interface. It's a little bit complex. It does not have a self-learning method. You need to know how to use it before you touch the system. The user interface is not self-explanatory. 

We have been using Hitachi Content Platform for around five to six years. 

It's very stable. We don't have any issues apart from the application implementation. The stability is one of the main aspects that the customer is also happy about Hitachi.

The support is great. They have good technical staff working on this product.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment can take one to two days. It depends on how you plan out your solution.

The entire deployment can take a week in total. 

The deployment required two engineers. There are several teams dedicated to the client-side. Our clients are enterprise-size. 

The best way to integrate that liaison is to use the REST API. That is the best way. Hitachi provides some connectors if other users can use the REST API and integrate that application, that will be a huge advantage for them.

Also, you should have programming knowledge to help the application teams integrate the applications with the solution, it will be much easier for the implementation.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. The only issue is that the user interface is not so good. Other than that, everything is perfect.