HPE Alletra Storage Reviews

I use the solution for cheap and deep tier-two VMware storage. I use it for smaller SQL databases as well. 

Since we've implemented the solution, we've had zero downtime on the arrays. We get high-quality replication and a quality product overall. 

I like InfoSight and now the new GreenLake management platform to help me manage all my arrays in one location. 

The product provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. While I haven't used the on-prem cloud model myself, I've heard it's good. 

It's good at preventing problems. The support is really good. They actually fix 90% of errors and remotely fix them. They get there first and log in and I am told before I know there's a failed drive.

It has reduced time spent on storage provisioning. I give VMware admins access to provision their own data storage. 

Alletra has improved storage performance for IOPs. I've been using the hybrids and get really good IOPs performance out of the hybrid models. It's even comparable to the Pure X50 systems.

It's helped us reduce the time spent on storage-related support tickets. We rarely have tickets now. We've reduced them by 70% or so.

It could use improvement in correctly identifying and naming the systems. The solution keeps changing the names of everything. It's been hard to track.

I've been using the solution for five years. 

The stability is very good. It's very stable. I'd like to have a more of a hands-off support solution - an HP technician replace option. 

Customer support is very good. 

We were a Nimble customer previously.

The deployment and implementation were very easy. It went really fast.

We have witnessed an ROI. Our ROI is down to two years on the purchase.

The pricing is okay. There's not really a smaller-scale model for mid-tier and upper capacities. That said, the pricing is comparable to everyone else.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It would be a ten out of ten if they could do block and file on the same system.

We have deployed it across our on-premises setup. We have two data centers, with our clusters distributed between them. There is a synchronous replication between all those clusters for complete data protection and business continuity.

The guarantee of data availability is very important for our organization because the revenue and productivity depend on the critical data, which is segregated between different tiers as per the application mapping. This data is extremely valuable for us in running our business operations and generating continuous revenue.

We started seeing the benefits immediately after the deployment of this platform. We could see the benefits in terms of reduction in outages, controlled backup scenarios, encryption, etc.

Alletra helps simplify storage operations, such as provisioning and day-to-day management, and it also lowers the cost of data protection because the service level agreements are very achievable. A complete flash array architecture enables us to leverage all high-performance GPUs and CPUs within the cluster.

Alletra provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. It enables all third-party integrations that we are looking for, thus saving a lot of time, effort, and energy.

Alletra provides complete data protection integrity. About 90% to 98% of our operational time is using intent-based provisioning, and our overall objectives are met with this platform.

Alletra saves a lot of time in managing the complete storage architecture as well as planning the budget. We can easily provision more storage. When needed, we can immediately add more arrays, and we are good.

The overall cost along with the tied bundle services is quite favorable for us. We are saving a lot of money after procuring Alletra. There are about 30% savings as compared to our previous platform. We have also saved on resources. Earlier, we had ten resources for management and operations, whereas now, we have six resources.

The most important feature is scalability, which enables us to rapidly scale without any disruptions. We can easily scale up to more arrays without stopping any services. In-line expansion of arrays is possible without disrupting current data. There is asynchronous replication across these clusters for comprehensive data protection and business continuity.

I do not have any areas of improvement as such. We have achieved all our defined objectives and metrics. Everything is performing well with no major problems or complaints and complete data protection. However, it could benefit from integrating an AI assistant module to streamline data migration between different vendor arrays in a more automated fashion.

I have been using HPE Alletra Storage since 2021.

Since deployment, we have not faced any downtime, data leakage, data loss, synchronization, or module failure challenges. Aside from other minor operational issues that are similar to those of other vendors and technology solutions, there have been no major disruptions affecting performance.

Alletra provides modular, non-disruptive scale-up and scale-out. Alletra is crucial for scenarios where time-sensitive applications are running and relying on data storage volumes. If such features were missing in the platform, it would be challenging to maintain productivity and collaboration within our organization.

We are happy with the quality and speed based on the severity of the issue. Whenever I submitted a case with a defined level of priority, I received excellent responses. About 99.9% of my problems were resolved when I contacted them for technical or non-technical issues. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

We used Hitachi previously. We chose Alletra because of its operational simplicity, scalability, and stability. The cost factor was also important.

Initially, the setup was difficult for us. The approach we followed in our legacy environment made the migration challenging. However, after completing the preliminary steps, everything proceeded smoothly, and everything is now updated without issues.

Its pricing is very competitive.

I would rate Alletra a ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for our data warehouse. We had a latency problem with data warehouse services. We had 3PAR and we migrated everything to [HPE] Alletra [Storage]. The latency that Alletra gives us is much lower than that given by 3PAR and it has managed to support the number of IOPs generated by the service.

The execution response times of data warehouse tasks have improved, and the reports have been produced on time as required by the Bank.

The configuration capacity it has to create a cluster for replication is excellent. 

The latency it gives me is incredible.

Alletra provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. In terms of administration, we can do stuff from anywhere; we do not need to be on the local management network. That is one of the best benefits. So is the whole subject of team status reports through "GreenLake.

The guarantee of data availability to our organization is important. I work in a financial area, so protecting data is the most valuable task the bank has and we feel safe with Alletra.

Alletra helped reduce the time in storage provisioning. We have reduced it by two hours. Before switching solutions, it used to take us two to three hours, and we have reduced it to about 15 minutes with Alletra.

Alletra improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs. It has been reduced, however, I couldn't say by how much right now. I do know that with the storage we had before, we were already saturated with 30,000 IOPs, whereas with Alletra we have put 50,000 IOPs in it and it has worked well.

I haven't found anything that could be improved. It's a good product overall. We didn't buy it for production purposes. We wanted to use it for development. That said, due to the efficiency it has, the company is already thinking about putting it into production.

Maybe they could just reduce the number of racks and the amount of rack space.

I've used the solution for two years. 

To date, we have not generated any cases for Alletra, which means it has given us 100% stability. In these past two years, Alletra has never generated any cases for us in terms of stability issues - which is a very good sign.

We have not had the opportunity to require more resources at the moment.

Support is excellent. It is easy to ask for help, and the response we receive is very specific. We do not give the situation much thought or go back and forth about it.

Positive

We used 3PAR. We changed to a new technology due to obsolescence more than any other reason.

The initial setup was relatively simple. After installation, there were not many configurations. We were quickly up and running. The support was very good. 

We used the help of a third-party vendor and received good attention.

The issue of price and cost is handled by another area; I am from the technical side.

We evaluated Dell and Pure Storage. With Pure Storage the difference was the price. With Dell, the difference was mostly in the number of IOPs supported by Alletra and the type of rack they used.

I give Alletra a ten out of ten. I have no complaints about Alletra at this time as it exceeded our expectations.

We run our VDI systems off of it as well as a lot of VMs, SQL databases, and things like that. We use it for a little bit of file storage as well. 

Moving on to the platform is fairly simple. Upgrades are easy. We just put it in a new shelf, and that didn't cause any downtime. We really appreciate that. We're running 1,000 VDIs on a single Alletra. I don't know if we could have done that on any of our last storage systems.

The deduplication feature is great. It's a pretty standard feature at this point. However, it's really important for the workloads we run to keep the storage cost down. The speed and reliability are excellent. 

It has all of the technologies in place to make sure our data is still there when things go bad. 

Predicting and preventing issues before they happen seems great on Alletra. All of our failures have been very predictive. We haven't had any downtime. We had some controllers throwing early warnings, and Alletra caught that before anything went bad. We know the stuff goes bad; however, the way that Alletra treats it, we've never had any downtime from hardware issues. It always disables itself and pulls a bad drive out of the pool before any data corruption occurs. 

Alletra has improved the storage performance in terms of IOPS. We don't have any issues. Our infrastructure is a little bit different on the back end, so some of our stuff has a little trouble getting to it. That said, we already know that that's a back-end issue for us and we are going to be resolving that by the end of the year. 

It's helped reduce time spent resolving storage-related tickets. We don't have a lot since it's so reliable, and setting it up is fairly easy and hassle-free. If you need something new, you get it, attach it to the storage, it hooks up and sets up the VMware using the connector software really easily. I don't have to think about it anymore after that. 

Moving from Nimble to Alletra was a little difficult. The process involved adding new cards - which was quite a bit more of a headache for us. Having to console in and turn off the controllers to add the new card for the storage shelf itself was a hassle compared to a Nimble, which was almost plug-and-play. They're very similar, the downtime was zero, and the instructions were great. It was just a lot more work than we were used to with Nimble.

I've been using Alletra for three years.

The support is great. It's easy to just call them and have somebody pick up the phone and easily talk to them about issues. Support is amazing - and that's one of the primary reasons that we use it. 

I previously used Nimble. 

The deployment and installation are generally fairly easy. It's technical so it takes a bit of time. The last time we put in a fresh Alletra, after we racked it, it only took a few hours to get it up and running. More often than that we've done shelf deployments. The new Alletras are a bit more difficult, however, it doesn't take long. 

The ROI is in the reliability and ease of use. The uptime is ROI. We're in the public sector, and uptime is of primary importance. We have a hard time getting a Windows update downtime. Having uptime from our storage, when we never have to worry about it at all is ideal.  

It's expensive. That said, we know what we're buying and we're okay with it. We're generally okay with what we're paying.

I'd rate Alletra nine out of ten. We really enjoy the product. We don't have a lot of issues. And the support keeps us there. We wouldn't consider anything else due to the phenomenal Alletra support that migrated along with Nimble. They are proactive and that's why we love it.  

We sell the system to our call center in Brazil.

The workload consolidation is very simple to manage. Previously, the customer had four Nimble storage solutions, and we were able to consolidate them into one Alletra. 

InfoSight reduces downtime.

Customers are happy with the speed and management of the storage. 

The DSCC is good.

It offers good density on the rack. It's a very dense storage. 

The solution offers a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data. The management is easier. The DSCC helps a lot. It simplifies the storage process. The customer has GreenLake and they can easily see the costs of Alletra storage by workload. 

Alletra is good at predicting and preventing problems. InfoSight, via the portal, helps with this. We don't need to access the equipment. InfoSight will automatically generate a ticket, and the engineer will call us if there are issues. The process is automatic, and it prevents downtime.

The data availability guarantee is helpful for us, as resellers. It helps us convince the customers the product is very good and well-built. 

The solution helps prevent time spent on storage provisioning. It's simple to deploy. Compared to 3PAR, we spend 80% less time on storage provisioning. In 3PAR, you need to provision the CPGs, select rate levels, and manage the free space, which is very complex. Alletra simplifies all of that with a single console.

It's improved our storage performance. We have a 3PAR hybrid. Alletra is new equipment with more speed and all-flash. We've improved our IOPS from 10,000 to 8,000.

The solution could improve the upgrades. In Brazil, it's difficult. The price is very high and it is not an easy process. 

I've used the solution for two to three years. 

The stability is excellent. It's 100% stable. 

For some projects, we need to put in two or three systems. They could improve the scalability in terms of space. 

In Brazil, the SLAs are not being met. Tickets are delayed a lot. It's not so good. We call support, mail them, et cetera, and they do not answer. Last week, a ticket that needed to be solved in six hours took one week.

Neutral

Our clients previously used Nimble. We're also familiar with 3PAR.

We use fiber channels. The deployment process is fairly straightforward. 

HPE managed the deployment process. As resellers, we assisted our clients with setup.

I have not witnessed an ROI as our customers would have more visibility on that. However, I have heard the performance is one area customers are impressed with. The speed improves the customer experience and they can build out their strategy faster and change strategies as needed. 

The pricing and licensing are not my area of expertise. I'm an architect. However, the pricing is a bit more complex in Brazil and there are a lot of taxes. It's not cheap. 

We're a reseller of HPE, so we only deal with HPE solutions. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If they had 50% more scalability in a single system, it would be ideal.

As an HPE user, the main use cases for HPE Alletra Storage include reliability and availability. 

The scalability and architecture of HPE Alletra Storage MP are truly outstanding compared to other options in the market. HPE Alletra Storage MP offers 100% availability. A drawback of HPE Alletra Storage MP, and the entire HPE storage portfolio, is that HPE is not offering unified storage in its storage portfolio, which causes problems in local tenders and RFPs where customers demand NFS shares and block shares in the same enclosure. When we encounter this customer requirement and have no option in the HPE storage portfolio, we must inform the customer that we cannot participate in the tender or RFP.

The smart deduplication and compression features in HPE Alletra Storage can save customers' costs and time and address other concerns. 

The features that HPE Alletra Storage MP provides can optimize cost and hardware components in the storage. The deduplication compression feature in HPE Alletra Storage is very useful for cost reduction. It can deduplicate and compress the customer's data depending on their environment workload, allowing them to achieve accessible terabytes with fewer physical drives.

It is very easy to access and manage.

The disaggregated architecture of HPE Alletra Storage MP is a key feature. The pay-as-you-grow model is a very solid and attractive feature. The 100% availability is essential. 

HPE GreenLake cloud integration with the storage is a valuable feature. The high number of IOPS has made a positive impact on my organization. The capability to predict problems and prevent them before they occur is exceptional in HPE Alletra Storage MP. HPE Alletra Storage capacity efficiency and capacity drive efficiency are truly outstanding.

HPE is not offering unified storage in their storage portfolio, which causes problems in local tenders and RFPs where customers demand NFS shares and block shares in the same enclosure. My suggestion is that the HPE Alletra Storage or HPE storage portfolio should offer storage models that can accommodate NFS and file shares, and block shares in the same single enclosure or controller.

I have been working with HPE Alletra Storage for approximately 2 years.

They have support as a storage subscription in HPE Alletra Storage MP which provides daily tasks of consoles, health checks, and other console problem resolution.

Positive

From an investment perspective, if a customer chooses HPE Alletra Storage MP storage, they can use it for the next 5 to 10 years easily. This makes it a solid long-term investment.

The pricing is somewhat high, but when customers choose HPE, they often prioritize the brand value over pricing. The pricing is higher compared to other vendors.

We have conducted numerous evaluations and contacted our local sales manager at HPE regarding pricing. A significant challenge is the availability of HPE Alletra Storage MP in our region. We have received 2 to 3 orders where HPE Alletra Storage MP lead time is approximately 8 to 10 months. Customers cannot wait for such extended periods. If HPE offers a product, they must ensure its availability within normal delivery and production timelines.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

We have a virtualization platform running over there.

It is very easy to manage, so we spend less time going over it. It does not require very specific and advanced storage knowledge to get involved. It is easy to start using it. Creating VMs or new data storage clusters is very simple from the virtualization platform, so we save time. Also, thanks to the protection and snapshot, we can also quickly recover from ransomware attacks or things like that.

HPE Alletra Storage provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. I can monitor and manage whatever I need at home. It helps a lot. I do not need to open a VPN connection or any kind of connection to know what is going on. I can manage my platform remotely.

We have protection and snapshots. InfoSight alerts us on any issues that could be there. We get to know what is going on.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. Instead of a couple of hours, we can do storage provisions in 15 minutes.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs. We have much more than what we need.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. The InfoSight information that we have and the performance-related capabilities that we have seen help us a lot. When we know a problem, we also know where the issue is and what is causing the issue, so an open case takes a couple of hours rather than a couple of days.

It is simple to manage and integrate with our virtualization platform. There is also the storage efficiency. We are saving in terms of storage capacity. It is very easy, and we get the performance for the requirements that we are having. 

We are using it as much as we need. I do not have any requirements. They can maybe have more flexibility for configurations or things like that.

We have been using HPE Alletra Storage for a year and a half.

We never have any issues.

We do not need to scale. We would have had to scale if we could buy a smaller one. It is enough for us.

Everything is great. Sometimes we get an email saying that we are having an issue on a drive or something else even before we realize it. Nowadays, when we are having an issue, most of the time, we also have a solution. It is great. 

We have used 3PAR from HPE or MSA. We needed to perform a refresh. Most of our use cases were VMware-related, we wanted to integrate data management capacities and capabilities. That is why we moved. We received everything that we needed.

We have seen an ROI. We have started to take away the old storage solution. We have simplified management. For anyone new to the company, it is very easy to understand what is going on, how to manage, how to get access and know what it is doing. The onboarding time is saved. We require less training and there are also fewer errors because they understand what they are doing. It is a simple management environment.

Its licensing is good. Pricing-wise, there can be a little bit more flexibility. It would help to have different sizes. However, it fits into the budget that we have, so we are happy.

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a nine out of ten because there is always room to improve, but we are happy with what we are receiving from Alletra and how simple it is to manage. The optimization of the storage means that we do not need to scale and grow. We are not looking for new refreshments or upgrades on the platform. All my colleagues are also confident about what they are doing over there. We like the environment.

We primarily use Alletra for virtualization.

The most valuable aspect of the solution is the 100% uptime guarantee. The guarantee of data availability to our organization was one of the top priorities. Our business is 24/7/365 high transaction rates and it was very important that the storage was always available

Its ease of administration is great. It's really simple to maintain.

The firmware updates on it are non-disruptive, which is amazing. Most people say they are nondisruptive; Alletra actually is not disruptive. 

The IO performance has met our expectations and exceeded them. 

Alletra provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managed data infrastructure. We rarely use it, but it does. We know that can do the infrastructure as code administration through the cloud APIs. We just haven't yet, so we haven't leveraged that much.

Alletra is helpful for predicting problems and preventing them before they occur - although we have had virtually zero problems with it. When we have, it has called support for us. That's been pretty good.

Alletra has helped us to reduce the time spent on storage provisioning by at least 50%. The use of application groups means that we just have to tell it how big we want our next provisioning slice to be, and the rest just happens. 

The solution has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs, probably by at least 300%. It's helped reduce the time spent resolving related support tickets as well. So far, we have opened two support tickets versus the approximately 40 tickets we had to open for the old storage. 

Long-distance, high-latency replication enhancements would be delightful to see in future versions.

I've used the solution for two and a half years now.

The stability is incredible. We haven't had a single storage event since we put it into production.

Scalability is great. The devices they sent us still have tons of room to grow. All we have to do is add a disk, and then the rest of it happens.

Overall, support is very good. We recently moved to GreenLake managed services. I only see tickets now when they've identified a problem and that comes with a list of how they're going to fix it. For the most part, it's hands-off for me right now, which is awesome. The only issue is they haven't quite figured out our internal structure yet, so sometimes they reach out to the wrong person. They just need to put their process documents in order. It's no big deal. 

Positive

We had an HPE solution previously, an older 3PAR storage array. It was old and not as good, which is why I switched.

In terms of deployment, we're an almost strictly private cloud, and it's all happening under the VMware Umbrella right now.

The deployment was actually a bit of a pain. It seems that we were running a slightly older version of VMware, and it didn't like talking to the Alletra models at first. We were having a lot of storage disconnects. Luckily, we hadn't put it into production before it got resolved. However, we couldn't get HPE and VMware on the same page about it. 

Eventually, we just upgraded our version of VMware and all the problems went away. That was probably a month's worth of engaging with both parties and trying to find a solution. We just gave up, upgraded, and the problem went away. 

We did have a reseller that was involved that we deal with fairly closely. They've been very good to us. They know their stuff pretty well, and they're always willing to throw down when we need them.

We don't have a lot of metrics in terms of ROI. The ROI to me is the amount of time I spend managing the device. It's very low compared to the old solution. 

The licensing and setup costs were very simple. We used the GreenLake purchasing model (the OpEx purchasing model). It all came as one bundle.

We evaluated HPE's Primera. We didn't really look outside of HPE. The Primary pro for Alletra was that it was an all-in NVMe storage array, and we were looking for maximum IOPS.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. Of all the storage platforms I've had over the years, this one has caused me the least amount of grief overall. The metrics coming out of it really do help me identify if we are having any IO problems. The only thing is we haven't had any, so I just look at a bunch of green bars that say, "you're good!"