Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Reviews

It's for our internal network SAN for about 100 virtual machines. It's about the IOPS. We were looking for a model that would have enough IOPS for these types of virtual machines. IOPS and latency are very important for us because we are running an application, on these virtual machines, that deals with building and milliseconds are very important.

Hitachi's adaptive data reduction technology has helped reduce our storage footprint. This was one of the reasons we bought the solution. It saves us about 80 percent versus another vendor's solution.

One of the features, for us, that is important is the monitoring platform integrated into the solution. It has all the elements that we need to see, at all times, to be sure the platform is working right.

There is room for improvement in terms of the IP solution.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform E990 for three years.

In three years, we have only had four big issues.

Hitachi's effective capacity guarantee has been valuable for us. They provide us a certain capacity with a limit. When we reach this limit, we buy the next step. That means we always have enough capacity.

We use the solution for a specific department with about 200 people in it.

We haven't had to scale it because we bought the biggest option for this solution. We don't plan to increase our usage.

We have had too many issues.

Neutral

We had a Hitachi solution as well, before this one. When doing our assessment of the solution, we had a dedicated Hitachi partner who helped us to check into the IOPS and latency.

I was part of the project from the initial internal requirements. The initial deployment was somewhat complex when it came to the installation because of the network connectivity. It was more difficult, in this specific case, than with other platforms.

We used the embedded management for the installation. It made the latter part of the deployment easy, but the first part was very complicated for us.

The deployment was done directly with Hitachi.

We have seen ROI.

The main difference between Hitachi and other vendors is the cost. At the time that we bought the solution, it was the best option but the price, compared to other vendors, is a little high.

Once the platform is up and running, it's very fast. But for integration, it's not the best option.

Our primary use case is a hybrid private cloud that includes generic server virtualization based on VMware ESXi. The second use case is workstation virtualization — virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The third is database systems with IBM Power and IBM IX logical partitions.

Data optimization, compression, and deduplication are the most important features for us.

I would like to see Hitachi improve their management software. It's been three years since they introduced Ops Center, their management product, and it still hasn't reached at least 50 percent of the capability we require. We are using legacy software because the product Hitachi offers does not stack up in functionality.

Hitachi should increase the number of possible functions Ops Center can perform. For example, it is impossible to manage any kind of storage replication using this product. All competing solutions provide that, but you need to install a separate solution to manage replication in Hitachi arrays. It was not the case with legacy software, but the current solution doesn't have that.

We've been using Hitachi VSP for about four years.

Hitachi VSP is stable in most cases, but we've had a few hiccups with the storage firmware. 

Hitachi VSP scales pretty well, but it generally depends on storage costs. The high-end arrays have huge scalability limits. Generally, we are limited mainly by the array controllers' performance, not the array's capacity limits. 

Our environment is massive. We have approximately 15,000 users for virtual desktop solutions, about 16,000 email users, and approximately 6,000 to 7,000 servers running on VMware platforms. We also have a few hundred logical partitions on IBM Power servers.

We regularly contact Hitachi technical support. The idea of a storage array is that it's broken up into many small pieces of storage. Each piece may fail, and they do from time to time. Therefore, we typically have to open five or six cases every month for mundane tasks like replacing failed disk drives. That's typical for any customer using storage on a large scale.

Those are minor cases, but storage controller failures are more serious, and we see three or four every year. We also have two or three performance-related cases each year. 

We're a relatively large customer, so we do not perform installation ourselves. Service partners typically perform it. We have three people managing the storage, three working with the storage area network, and five handling the backups.

All the software licenses are bundled with the storage hardware. I'm not the purchasing guy, so I do not negotiate prices. When the company makes a purchasing decision, I only provide the technical requirements. The price is a question for the purchasing department.

I rate Hitachi VSP seven out of 10. Generally, I wouldn't recommend Hitachi VSP to a customer without a background in storage systems. Solid technical expertise is needed to use these storage solutions on a medium or a large scale.

The Hitachi VSP has significantly improved data storage scalability by addressing various issues. Through their research and development efforts, they've incorporated customer feedback regarding deployment speed and performance requirements.

The tool's impact on data retrieval times is primarily seen in performance and reliability. It has proven to be more reliable. Speed in restoration varies depending on the nature of the backup or image being restored.

Its most valuable feature is the centralized consolidation portal. In terms of performance and agility, the Hitachi VSP stands out against competitors primarily due to its reliability and storage performance capabilities.

The solution is priced higher than its competitors. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

I rate the product's stability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the tool's scalability at around seven point five on a scale of one to ten. While the storage solution is proprietary, it may not provide the same integration as some cloud-based solutions.

The initial setup of the Hitachi VSP was relatively straightforward for us. Hitachi deployed an engineer who handled the configuration and initial setup process. Subsequently, they provided training and guidance on managing and monitoring the system and providing storage for various needs, such as integrating with other cloud platforms like AWS.

The deployment duration can vary depending on the size and complexity of the setup. In our case, as it was for a tier-two data center, the deployment process took approximately two months. This included around one month for preparation and approval processes, followed by another month for delivery and configuration of the storage components.

I would rate the solution's pricing at around eight or nine on a scale of one to ten. While the solution may be priced higher than some competitors, we prioritize the quality and durability of the storage.

Enterprise customers mostly use the tool. I would recommend Hitachi VSP to others. It excels in terms of quality and performance and adheres to industry standards. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

For the banking sector, here in Pakistan, we deploy it as primary storage.

The first benefit is the system's availability. Only Hitachi offers "eight nines". Also, the compression rate can provide a financial benefit, and a further benefit is the performance. There's no performance degradation after applying the compression.

In terms of Hitachi's all-flash technology, there is a smaller footprint with more performance. The footprint is smaller because there isn't a need for many disks and this means there is a reduction in the need for power and cooling. Also, space being used in the data center on the rack is reduced.

The VSP is a machine that works 24/7 throughout the year. The most valuable feature is that it has "eight nines" availability, 99.999999 percent of the time. That is the main selling point. 

Another selling point is the IOPS of Hitachi systems; they are very high and others cannot match them.

Those are the two bullet points: Availability and performance. Hitachi is a best-of-breed storage system.

In addition, there is an effective capacity guarantee. It's a question of virtualization. There is a basic, physical, usable capacity, and effective capacity. Effective capacity is what you get after compression. Hitachi has very good compression, offering a 7:1 compression ratio in their flash boxes. But the guaranteed compression ratio is 4:1 because compression depends on the application and use case. Effectively, on average, we guarantee a compression ratio of 4:1 and there will be no performance degradation.

Also, once the solution has been completely deployed, management of it is easy.

The most common issues we face are connected to replication and parts replacement, such as when there is a disk drive failure.

Also, there is a drawback related to Hitachi's configuration flexibility. The Hitachi storage platform solution is not flexible. That means that both the Hitachi and the partner presale guys have to do a lot of work to design a solution. Once you design a solution, you can't reverse it. There is no flexibility afterward. If you are implementing a solution for a five-year plan, for example, you discuss what the customer will need in those five years. But after implementation the customer cannot then decide they need this or that changed. Customers have to decide things at the point of sale. Other solutions have better flexibility than Hitachi.

We have been working with Hitachi for more than a decade. We are both partners and integrators of Hitachi products. We are also a certified service provider, meaning we have a local team that supports and maintains the system.

Effectively, we don't have any major service activities that cause unavailability of the data or an issue that cannot be solved. That has never happened. These machines are very reliable. They are estimated to work for at least 10 years.

When it comes to business strategy, the only thing the customer wants is that the system is up and running the whole year. We make sure to talk with a customer about their plan for the life of the storage system we are selling. Do they want a three-year plan or a five-year plan or maybe more than five years? We choose the model based on their answer. To summarize our approach in one line, we try to find the best business value that addresses all of a customer's existing challenges.

It's highly scalable.

Hitachi's technical support requires improvement. They don't have a lot of support engineers who can handle all the service requests from all the customers. Other manufacturers have baked-in support. Hitachi doesn't have a support team like that, but they are improving in that regard. They are adding resources and improving the support cycle, but they don't have a very good call-logging mechanism.

If a certified partner is not involved in the support process, I would rate support at five out of 10. With a partner involved, it's a nine. Hitachi's support involves working closely with certified partners who should have a lot of engineers to support customers.

Neutral

Setting it up is not very easy but it's also not so difficult. The time it takes depends on the size of the solution. While it's not so time-consuming, you have to plan for a process that will take at least 15 days. These products are always deployed in high-end, sensitive customer environments, where we are playing with their data, so it does take at least that long.

A senior storage engineer is enough for the deployment. With the addition of a junior-level engineer, the two of them can handle the maintenance.

With Hitachi's embedded management, the initial setup is easy. Only one management software is required and it's embedded in the box. But for the centralized management, there is another product that is deployed on another server.

The embedded management is very easy compared to previous systems where we needed to install a client on the management station. But most solutions have an embedded management platform.

The overall solution might be expensive, but in the long term, the total cost of ownership is better than the TCO of any competitor.

We discuss ROI as part of the presale process. 

A drawback of Hitachi storage systems is that they are expensive. The upfront cost is very high compared to others. But when you compare the IOPS at the same price, Hitachi gives you better business value; their IOPS are always higher than the competitors', but the price may be higher.

In terms of licensing, of course, we talk with the customer about what they need. If they need this feature right now and that feature later on, we discuss that with Hitachi and the licensing model will be defined accordingly, before the sale of the product. Afterward, when the customer asks us to add a license as we had discussed, we can add the license. 

But if a customer didn't discuss with us any kind of future licensing from a feature perspective, buying that license later on, in general, will be very expensive. Before the sale, there's no problem creating a near-cost-effective solution. But getting a license later on is really costly.

In general, whether you are a partner or a customer, you need to discuss the requirements of the solution, the full scope of the work, including capacity, performance, availability, and scalability, before the sale.

Also, do not undersize your storage. That is something that will kill any solution.

And only apply compression after one or two years, not from the first day of storage. If you are out of capacity and need to buy more storage, the procurement process for extra storage will take a few months, so that is the time to apply compression.

As a partner, we have to connect with a customer after the sale as well. It's not only about the product. It's also about the partner that sold the product working with the customer to make sure they are satisfied, even when there is no problem with the product. If the collaboration and connection are not good, whenever a customer calls, the partner won't respond to their query properly. So it's not just a one-day job. The product could be really good, but if the response time and the way the customer is handled is not good, the customer will not be satisfied. Our customers are satisfied with the Hitachi storage platform.

We don't recommend a single-node implementation. It's very risky. One controller cannot provide a high-availability solution, which is a feature of every storage system these days.

I use Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for different applications in my company to ensure their good performance. I also use the tool for replication.

I cannot give my opinion or suggestions on what needs improvement in the product since I need to better understand it.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform needs to improve its scalability options where there are a few shortcomings.

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for a year. I use the solution's latest version.

The product offers high stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I think that since Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform has been a long-standing solution in the market compared to all the other solutions I have seen over the years. I don't know about the scalability part of the tool, but I know that I am into the product. In some situations, my company may need to go to the next high-end model of the solution, meaning that we may not always be able to continue with the existing models of the solution in our company, and there may arise a need to go to different kinds of models or other models in the market.

I am just an engineer in my company, but I don't use the solution much since I am mostly involved with it as an administrator.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I worked on different solutions but not with the customers I deal with currently. I have worked with different companies, older versions, and models of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and other storage tools. Everything depends upon the customers' needs.

The product's initial setup phase is not very difficult since it doesn't take much time to do. In my company, we work with an IT technician and Hitachi's field engineer during the deployment phase of the product, but I don't know how the setup is done.

The solution is deployed on the cloud. It currently works on an integrated setup or is better described as a hybrid integrated setup. The tool is integrated with multiple cloud technologies, but I am not sure how it was done or works.

The solution can be deployed in a few days or around a week.

I have seen a higher return on investment from the use of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform in my company. I can see the profits made by my company, but I don't know how much it is exactly, so I feel that the product's use definitely fetches returns.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is a very expensive product. The cost of the product depends upon the company's customers' requirements, so if they require higher redundancy, then the product will become more cost-effective for them.

I use Hitachi Command Suite for provisioning. In general, I use products from Hitachi to deal with the different kinds of approaches with my company's customers, which usually includes giving better solutions to customers.

For a single solution, two people or three people, we can maintain it, but it depends. One person cannot look into the maintenance part of the tool for an entire day. The product's maintenance phase depends upon how big the infrastructure is and how many services from the solution are required by a user.

It is an okay solution that is not bad.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

We're only using the F Series in our lab for hosting lab infrastructure for all our colleagues. We needed fast storage.

The solution hasn't really improved our organization as it's only for lab infrastructure. It's not business-critical.

However, it has helped reduce our storage footprint. Previously, we had four storage systems and now we have only one F Series for the whole lab infrastructure.

The deduplication is useful for us because we don't have that much money for our lab infrastructure. Deduplication means we have more storage available. And the IOPS are really fast.

One problem is that there are too many management tools for the F Series and for all the other Hitachi storage systems. There are four or five such solutions. Maybe these could be combined in the future.

I've been using the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series for half a year.

There are about 400 users who access our labs across the whole company.

We haven't had to use their support yet.

We have used NetApp, HyperFlex, and vSAN—a lot of solutions. We switched because our main infrastructure is Hitachi and we wanted to keep it all with one vendor.

The deployment of the solution was straightforward. We used the embedded management for the installation and it simplified things. Using it is like a reset and it was really straightforward.

We haven't had to scale it yet and we don't have plans to increase our usage of it at the moment.

Overall, we are very satisfied with Hitachi's product. Managing it is very easy and the F Series is very stable. In general, the stability of Hitachi products is really good.

I am not an end user. I present the solution to customers. I study a customer's infrastructure and suggest a product based on the customer's needs, such as latency or IOPS performance. I usually work with VSP F700 and F900 models.

Its resilience is the most valuable.

Hitachi should launch some small machines in Brazil. The smallest machine here in Brazil is VSP 350, which can be quite big for some of the customers. In China, Hitachi has small models of this equipment, but those models are not available in our region. 

Its pricing is a big issue for us. We are resellers, and we face some competition from other vendors. Hitachi doesn't always have a good position in terms of the price. Its user interface is also not as good as some of the other competitors, and it can be improved.

I have been working with Hitachi VSP Platform for three or four years.

It is stable. I didn't have any issues with its stability.

It depends on the series of the machine. When we are sizing a machine for our customers, we should consider how big the machine should be for three to five years. Our clients are medium to large organizations.

It used to be very good, but nowadays, it is not so good because Hitachi doesn't provide support for fixes. Another company is now doing fixes for Hitachi.

I don't take care of this area.

It is expensive as compared to other vendors, but its price is good if you are looking for stability, reliability, performance, and security.

Our clients evaluate all competitors, such as EMC, Huawei, and Pure Storage. Price is one of the big issues concerning the competition between these brands. Hitachi is the most expensive, followed by Pure Storage and EMC. Huawei is the cheapest.

Hitachi is one of the traditional brands for storage. People had Hitachi at a certain point in time in the past, but they couldn't continue with Hitachi because of the price. Last December, we sold a solution to a customer who didn't buy Hitachi for maybe seven or eight years. We were able to put a good proposal, and they acquired another Hitachi solution.

I would rate Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series an eight out of ten.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is used for our storage area network.

Hitachi's ability to quickly impact and resolve issues is good. When we had an issue a few months back, we were contacted by Hitachi and they upgraded us free of charge automatically.

Hitachi's roadmap is important because, without it, our organization would not run properly.

We are very satisfied with our decision to purchase Hitachi products. We originally planned to buy Dell products, but they were unable to deliver them due to a chipset shortage. We are fortunate that we chose Hitachi, as their products are incredibly fast and the price was good. We have no regrets about our decision.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform's IOPS and latency are great.

Compared to Dell, the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is much faster. We can start 50 servers at one time on the host without seeing the dial drop.

It is important to our organization that we have flexible media options such as NVMe with the solution.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform's adaptive data reduction technology helps us reduce storage on a ratio of 1:3.

The embedded management for installation simplified the solution's ease of management.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform's embedded management is more powerful and efficient than the previous solution. It has been so easy to use that we haven't had to do anything manually in the past year.

Reliability, compression, and speed are the most valuable features.

Although the speed is good, there is always room for improvement.

I would like the fan noise to be automatically adjusted based on the drive's current workload.

I have been using the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform for 15 months.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is stable.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is scalable.

Hitachi's technical support is perfect.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. I completed the deployment myself, which took one week. 

The implementation was completed in-house.

I give the price of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform a nine out of ten.

I give Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform a ten out of ten.

80 percent of our employees in-house are using the solution with additional people around the world.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform notifies us if any maintenance is required.

I recommend Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform.