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Solution Architect, IT Consultant at Merdasco - Rayan Merdas Data Prosseccing
Real User
Top 10Leaderboard
Virtual Storage Platform is the brand name for a Hitachi Data Systems line of computer data storage systems for data centers
Pros and Cons
  • "This is one of the most stable, high-end solutions in this area."
  • "The interface should be simplified and made easier to use."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and I work with a lot of different SAN products, depending on the needs of the customers. we have implemented this solution, as well as the G series, for some of our clients.

I have a project right now that involves revising and fine-tuning a storage network. This network contains two Hitatch VSP G Series units. There is not a major difference between the F Series and the G Series. Both of them are enterprise-scale and efficient for many data centers. It is used as primary storage in industries such as banking, automotive, health care, and insurance. Large companies, or companies that have an IBM mainframe.

If the solution requires a very high IO/s (Input/Output per second) with sub-millisecond response time then they should select the F Series because it has better performance.

How has it helped my organization?

I was attracted to this solution after finding out several of the special features that are available for storage.

  • Storage Virtualization
  • Global Active Device
  • FMD
  • Metro Clustering
  • 3D Scale ( Scale-up, Scale-out, Scale-deep)

Three years later, I started to design an enterprise solution for one company, using this product has led to more stability and business owner satisfaction due to prevent unwanted downtime or service outage.

What is most valuable?

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G provides the always-availablHitachi Virtual Storage Platform G provides the always-available, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO. This solution helps to provide more stability and high availability in Datacenters.e, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO. This soultion helps to provies more stability and high-avalbility in Datacenters.

What needs improvement?

Compared to others, Hitachi products are more complex and not user-friendly. The interface should be simplified and made easier to use. For instance, the EMC Unity series is easier to manage.

In the next release of this solution, it should support NVMe.

An important improvement for this solution is cloud integration (OpenStack), as well as integration with VVoL technologies, Docker, Kubernetes, and Red Hat OpenShift.

I can say that in new Hitachi Vantara Products we can see a better interface and easier management.


Buyer's Guide
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have started working with HDS solutions for more than ten years ago. In my idea, the most perfect one is VSP G Series because you can find better integration with business requirments and better response to IT challenges.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is one of the most stable, high-end solutions in this area. It has eight controllers and special features for connecting disks on the back end. It has a lot of front ports and all of the components are redundant. It is hard to find a problem with this product. It is designed for those who want less than one minute a year of downtime. It's a 24/7 product.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Based on customers need solutions should be designed. In my experience switching from previous brands to HDS VSP has led to reaching 40% better TCO and 99.9999 availability.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of this solution is a little bit hard. In these kinds of products, the original companies are often interested in setting up the product in the customer's environment.

We are located in Iran, and there is a lot of tension and lack of communication because of our locale. There are restrictions in a lot of our data centers that preclude us from having special software from the original company, and because of that, we face a lot of problems when using these kinds of products.

The initial setup and configuration are usually done by the CE of the vendor, and after the initial configuration is complete, These products are sent to our data centers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is less expensive than the EMC VMAX series.

When you are looking for high-end solutions such as this, price is less important than stability and availability.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have researched many products in the Enterprise area to find the best suits for my customers. These include high-end products by NetApp(FAS8060), EMC VMAX, the HPE XP P9500, and the HPE XP Series.

For instance, for one of my customers comparing the details of these products and my customer requirements has led to scoring each of the features. Ultimately, I chose the Hitachi VSP series. The second choice was the HPE XP P9500.

This type of comparison is not easy because there are a lot of companies and a lot of brands. However, I just wanted to find the best solution for my customer.

What other advice do I have?

Day to day, everything changes in the field of IT. I have done a lot of research on products such as this, and I have learned that we are going to have a lot more data in 2020. This huge amount of data means that you need the right platform for processing data quickly. More than before, we need a platform that can process large amounts of data in less than ten milliseconds. One such platform is the Hitachi VSP, with both good performance and availability.

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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer893490 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at a wholesaler/distributor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Works well in all deployment models, but it is expensive and technical support needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that you can use it with all deployment models."
  • "The user interface should be made simpler because it is difficult to manage."

What is our primary use case?

We are a distributor and we sell storage solutions, including the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. We do not work with this solution in the company.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that you can use it with all deployment models.

What needs improvement?

The user interface should be made simpler because it is difficult to manage.

Technical support needs to be improved.

Lowering the price of this solution would be an improvement.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don't like Hitachi's technical support. They are there but it is not perfect and they are not very much help.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex.

The length of time required for deployment depends on what you want to do, although it does not normally take more than one day.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an expensive solution.

What other advice do I have?

This solution is not customer-oriented, so my advice for anybody who is implementing it is to acquire help for the installation, setup, and configuration. 

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Chief System Engineer at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Review about Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case of this solution is for storage. I have a gateway to H-Net, which is where all my file systems are, and I have all my virtual environments on this solution. 

What is most valuable?

It is a very reliable storage solution.

What needs improvement?

I think the management should be improved, because it is not very user-friendly at all. I also think the support could be better - at least for mid-range users. I think historically Hitachi systems are made for really big organizations like banks or insurance companies. Usually those companies have dedicated personnel dealing with the storage. And because they're very valuable clients, their support contracts are much more tailored to their businesses. Since this program is more aimed towards smaller companies, they don't have support solutions for mid-range companies.

I also think that their management is not very user-friendly. If this wasn't the case, more support wouldn't be necessary. It's a very reliable system, but the whole management user interface is very unfriendly. I know they're aware of that. They have a lot of data of management solutions, but none of them yet have reached sovereignty yet.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F for four years now.

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.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Solution Architect, IT Consultant at Merdasco - Rayan Merdas Data Prosseccing
Real User
Top 10Leaderboard
Storage for large mainframes that has stability and sustainability
Pros and Cons
  • "It is the most stable high-end solution in this area."
  • "The installation procedure it a bit difficult, because it is a high-end solution. With this type of product, the original company is interested in doing the setup for customers in the area, but because of sanctions we were not able to get support in our area. We faced many issued trying to learn to run this product."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is for storage in some industries such as banking, automotive, healthcare, and insurance companies. It is for large companies or companies with a large mainframe such as an IBM mainframe. Our primary use case was for core banking.

How has it helped my organization?

Businesses are looking for simple storage solutions that can exceed expectations and meet the challenge of delivering continuous availability and high performance while maximizing the value of physical and virtual infrastructures. Simultaneously, enterprise and mission-critical business application environments are becoming increasingly unpredictable and organizations need the ability to deliver and orchestrate automated operations.

What is most valuable?

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F provides the always-available, agile and automated foundation needed for a trusted Continuous Cloud Infrastructure. Powered with Hitachi global storage virtualization, its new software capabilities unlock IT agility and enable the lowest storage TCO.

What needs improvement?

We have read in the latest newsletters that in 2020 there is going to be more data, more than four hundred zettabytes. It's a huge amount of data and you will need the right platform to process it. More than people, we will need a platform that can process that amount of data in less than a millisecond. So we are looking for a high-speed storage enterprise, such as VSP.

If you compare to other solutions, Hitachi is more complex, but the platform is improving and it's not as difficult as it used to be.

We are facing new technologies such as Container by Google. It's the new way of Application Virtualization. I think that Hitachi and other companies should follow these technologies for integration with new technologies such as container base and their products. I think that cloud integration is important with vVol technologies from VMware.

There will be many challenges, but we need more integration between F Storage and new technology for Cloud, vVol, and Container.

I would like the interface to be simplified more than it is. The interface can be improved with new technologies such as HTML5, which is being used by some storage vendors.

Hitachi interface management is not as easy as the EMC Unity series. It's better to use HTML5 for the management systems.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using HDS solutions for over ten years and I have been using this solution for over five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. It is the most stable high-end solution in this area.

This product has eight controllers, it has special features for interconnecting on the backend, it has many front ports, and all of the components are redundant.

It is difficult to find issues with this product.

It was designed for those who don't want more than one minute of downtime a year. It's a 24/7 running product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As you know, the HDS company is one of the main key players in the storage world and it always offers the most high-performance products, as these products are designed for large business environments, they have good scale-out and scale-up capabilities. For instance, the HDS claims that the latest one which it's named VSP 5500 have more than 21M IOPS only in 8U and 69PB of storage.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It depends on the circumstances. We choose different storage products based on the business needs and in my opinion, there is no solution that can meet all customer needs.

We use low-cost SAN storage for some needs, such as Archie Data, and in some other cases, like the core business software, high availability levels are very important so higher-level SAN storage is used.

How was the initial setup?

The installation procedure it a bit difficult, because it is a high-end solution. With this type of product, the original company is interested in doing the setup for customers in the area, but because of sanctions we were not able to get support in our area. We faced many issued trying to learn to run this product.

What about the implementation team?

The initial setup was done by the CE of the company, when that was complete the configuration was done in our data center.

What was our ROI?


What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is cheaper than Dell EMC VMAX. When you are looking for a high-end solution, price matters, but availability and stability are more important than the price.

Companies are looking for stability and sustainability, and the price, but as I said, it's not as important as stability and sustainability.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I researched the internet for our customers to find the right solution for them, and I compared products in this category. In this comparison, I included:

  • Dell EMC VMAX
  • HPE 3PAR F-Class Storage

I started to research details, compare, and score each feature, until coming across the Hitachi VSP Series. The number two option was the HPE XP P6500 Series.

It was challenging, and it took five to six months to persuade our manager.  

What other advice do I have?

The main functions in the G series and F series are the same, but if a customer is looking for high interoperability, then they should go for the F Series.

It's an attractive solution with several special features.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Senior Manager Operational Services at Orange
Real User
High performance flash storage with good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The high performance of flash storage is especially valuable to us."
  • "In terms of new features, I would be interested to see deduplication added in their next release."

What is our primary use case?

We use the private cloud version.

What is most valuable?

The high performance of flash storage is especially valuable to us.

What needs improvement?

Pricing could be better because the cost is very high.

In terms of new features, I would be interested to see deduplication added in their next release.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. As of now, we haven't had any events with the loss of storage. It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have one storage device for all of the patients, so it's very critical. There are more than a thousand users.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this product and I would rate it as nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
System Engineer at S&T Crna Gora d.o.o.
Real User
A solid product for high-performance data storage and utilization
Pros and Cons
  • "The product has great data storage performance with a 100% data security and availability guarantee."
  • "The pricing is high, but the product is good. Additional features like data duplication might make it even better."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case in our company is as a reseller of the product. We don't have any Hitachi equipment solutions ourselves for production. We sell storage equipment to clients.

Popular usage for our clients is for email storage in telecall centers and for high-performance data storage and utilization.

What needs improvement?

I don't really know what parts of the product could be improved because it works well for me in testing and installations as a reseller. I would need more experience with it as a storage solution. However, I have not heard customers complaining.

One thing that can be improved is the price because it is a bit expensive. It would be easier to market and for clients to buy if the licensing were not so costly. It is not really a feature of the product but it is something that can be better.

The only feature I can think of is that it would be nice if it had data a duplication feature as an option. We have to use other products for this.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is really very good. The clients never complain of downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. We did have an incident with a client who needed more storage space on a G400 but they had run out of opportunities on their unit. The client felt that the limitation on the number of disk enclosures was not enough and should have more capacity. As far as scalability it may be better if it were either possible to expand the capacity or provide additional capacity initially with the device.

We have only three customers but some have several of the storage systems and use them for different purposes. There would usually be no problem in providing them with scaling except for cost.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good and responds with expertise quickly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We worked with HP products before switching to Hitachi. The Hitachi product had everything we needed for our customer demands and we think it is a better solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of the product is very straightforward. It is very easy. I stay busy while I am installing the VSP (Virtual Storage Platform) and Storage Advisor for infrastructure management. Both of these parts of the installation make for busy work but it is not hard.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to other people considering this solution is that it is a very good product. It has very good stability, it is easy to use, it has a 100% data security and availability guarantee. It is a very, very good solution manufactured by a good company.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate these products as a ten because they do what we need them to without fail. For us they are perfect.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Adeniyi Oluwole - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Product Manager at Mitsumi Nigeria Limited
Reseller
Detects bugs and it is very accurate and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "This is one of the most reliable and dependable products on the market."
  • "In the next version I would like to see additional features like artificial intelligence and an increase in the amount of data it can store."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of this solution is for bug detection.

What is most valuable?

What I like about this solution is that you can ask to print the document function with the keyboard functions. You can always go back and hit the enter button, without getting any downtime. That is one of the great uses for the solution.

What needs improvement?

I think what needs to be improved is to simplify the complexities that are under storage so that it will be easier to work with Hitachi products. I would also like to see better pricing and more discounts. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with this solution for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is one of the most reliable and dependable products on the market. It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. I think that one of the strategies around the scalability is to allow different classified storage options. You will need to have infinite supply for an enterprise. For you to scale, it might be easier for you to do an upgrade, but then you'd have to change your computer, or you would have to change each of the classes. But it is pretty scalable in each of the classes of storage. One of our biggest customers, an enterprise customer, has a modem and he buys his storage. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is acceptable and it can fix your issues. You usually get a fast reply to your calls. The product is very good. 

How was the initial setup?

If you do it correctly, the initial setup is straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

The F series is a very accurate solution and it does what I want it to do. In the next version, I would like to see additional features like artificial intelligence and an increase in the amount of data it can store. The storage solution should be able to discover the internet force that is coming up so that you can discover them beforehand. The solution should be able to grab information from what the customer has been doing with the environment and then give the customer new solutions.

On a scale of one to ten, my rating is eight.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
PeerSpot user
Storage Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Customers get one hundred percent availability and its firmware is very compatible
Pros and Cons
  • "I am happy about the storage system and availability."
  • "In the next version I would like to see more intelligence."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of this solution is to monitor the use of products from other vendors. Its firmware is very compatible.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspects of this solution are the storage system and availability.

What needs improvement?

In the next version, I would like to see more intelligence. I would like to see backup repository, and the Hitachi storage system as the main storage system without any further applications, without any further layers. I need the data protection layer to protect the data at the right time and at the right place.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and highly available. With Hitachi brands, customers get one hundred percent availability on the product. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support and the billing team are all winners. Dell is one brand that provides better technical support for its customers. There are many Dell customers in the U.S. and these customers have really crucial issues that need support. Whenever you call in with an issue, you can rest assured that it will be fixed.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight. 

My advice to others who are trying to buy all-flash storage would be to go and take a look at the core storage products. I don't mean the hardware part, I mean the software part, in other words, the data protection layer. The storage layer is a broad layer. You have the main storage, you have the data protection of storage and you have the storage networking. All these layers matter and you will need something in the background on the data protection layer to be able to get the data at the other end. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.