HPE Alletra Storage Reviews

We use it in our customer environment that has more than two or three hosts. We don't have to worry about meeting any of the network vendor requirements for storage.

It's made everything faster.  On the array that we use internally, it has eliminated all of our storage bottlenecks, which has really quieted down all of our alarm systems, so it just made our days quieter.

It's easy to deploy and maintain, and it's made everything faster. 

It does offer a cloud-like infrastructure. However, it depends on what you are trying to do. The cloud-like perception is mostly seen during the deployment of HP GreenLake. While it is multi-tenant, that's not how we use it day to day.

While it's good for predicting problems, we don't have many. I don't know how many tens of thousands of sensors are on the Alletra arrays. Whenever there has ever been a problem, there has been a sensor, an email, et cetera. If it's a problem with the hardware or a failure that's even pending, something gets shipped out, and a case is auto-created and auto-closed for us. So it pretty much just does all of it.

The data availability guarantee is crucial. While it doesn't reduce the time spend on storage provisioning, it's fixed and has made the management easier. That's where its time savings comes into play.

It's improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs. I don't know what our figure was before, but it's at least double, and we upgraded from a Dell EMC Unity.

It's reduced the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. It's not that we have so many storage-related support tickets. It's that when we have storage issues, latency issues, or alarms, someone has to look into them. I'm not sure if it's the product itself that's made this better or if it's been the upgrade and support that we get from HPE. 

Our main array that we upgraded from was a Dell EMC Unity. We also had Nimble and MSA storage in the network. The reason we switched is we just needed the performance and the networking.

I'm not sure if I've gone through all the features. There's always room for improvement. 

I'd like an easier way to tune the alerts that email us. If we have a remote site that has issues, we have alerts that queue up and then once that gets resolved everyone gets flooded with alerts. 

I've used the solution for the last three years. 

The stability is very good. I've never had an issue with one dying. 

While it may be possible that the solution is infinitely scalable, I don't have the network need to continuously scale up. I don't know where the ceiling is.

HPE Nimble support is world-class. I'd rate it ten out of ten. Non-Nimble storage support is horrific. I'd rate it two out of ten since it takes so much longer to get to the correct team. Once you get to someone, the support is pretty good. It's just getting there that is hard. 

We previously used a Dell EMC Unity. We also had Nimble and ASA storage in the network.

Deploying the Alletra iSCSI platform was easy peasy. I could do it in my sleep. The Alletra dHCI platform was more of a headache. It requires a lot more planning and is more unforgiving during the initial setup. Once it's up and running, it's excellent.

We used a consultant to assist with the implementation. 

We've witnessed ROI in terms of smoothing out the bottlenecks and discovering the root problems. I don't have specific KPIs or metrics for ROI.

The pricing is very good. That said, every vendor is a spiderweb to navigate. It's a pain, everywhere.

We evaluated five different vendor solutions and this one, based on its performance and cost, was a win-win. We had hands-on experience and were more comfortable with HPE products. That said, the main driving factor was the cost.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's my personal favorite piece of storage. That said, there's always a new product and feature coming up in tech. 

It runs our corporate and restaurant data center.

It reduces the need for a specialized storage engineer. Uptime has been high, so it has reduced outages or downtime.

HPE Alletra Storage provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. It reduces the need for advanced engineers to do configurations and customization.

It routinely opens tickets on its behalf for support and hardware replacements without our intervention and downtime.

The guarantee of data availability is very important to our organization.

HPE Alletra Storage has significantly helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. We have always used it, but I know from dealing with other storage devices that it significantly reduces the complexity and the time to deploy.

The operating system works well for IOPS. It has got more overhead than we use, so performance has been good. 

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. There is auto ticket generation and auto hardware replacement with support.

There is ease of use for junior admins. We have VMware integrations for data stores, cloning operations of existing data stores, and InfoSight analytics.

I do not have any issues with it. It has been good for us. There are no cons that I see, and that is why we use it.

There are no additional features that I would want to see. 

I have been using this solution since HPE bought Nimble. It has been five years.

It is stable.

It scales fine. We have added shelves on an add-need basis in the past without any issues.

HPE provides good customer service for us. We have never had any issues with response time and resolving problems.

Deployment was very simple and straightforward, performed by junior administrators.

In my view, we have got our return with the ease of use and reduction of technical skill sets. 

It is fairly priced. It is in line with industry standard pricing and cost models.

I evaluated IBM, NetApp, and Dell solutions. I chose HPE in the end because Nimble was a very stable platform that I have used for a long time with great success.

I would rate it a ten out of ten for simplicity, uptime, cost, and InfoSight analytics.

We use the solution for our data center compute. We have three HP ProLiant servers that use it for storage and 40 virtual servers. 

We now have much more storage and the uptime is very good.

The performance is very good. We expanded our storage four-fold over the previous product and managed it within a reasonable price range. 

It's increased performance and uptime. 

Uptime, to us, is very important.

It's helped us reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. There's less management that's necessary overall.

We have lessened the number of storage-related tickets. We don't really have any since we implemented Alletra.

They could be a little more intuitive and user-friendly in terms of management, and it could be easier to find technical documentation. 

I'd like the solution to offer more free training.

I've used the solution for two years.

I've had no issues with stability. It's very good. 

I'm not sure if we'll need to scale. I'm not an expert on scaling; however, we do have the ability to upgrade our system should there be a need. 

Support is good. I had to get a password reset and they were very quick about it. It's better than general HP support. I've had a bad support experience, for example, with Aruba. There were language barriers, and I needed to redo tasks. Alletra's support, however, is very good.

Positive

We used to use Pure Storage. I didn't have to spend too much time managing storage availability. However, I did have to manage it more. With Alletra, I barely have to manage it at all. We switched to Alletra based on cost. The cost to replace Pure Storage would have been similarly-priced to the Alletra 6000-series. It made sense to go with a newer, better product if the price was the same. 

It was very easy, especially with the help of a third-party party. They did most of the setup and some on-site training, which was helpful. We had everything set up with minimal to no downtime. 

We had a third party help set it up. The experience was good. The main problem we had was getting a long time to get the product after purchase based on post-COVID supply chain issues. 

We have witnessed an ROI. It's a cost we have to have regardless of our data center. However, we have additional ROI since we could reuse our Pure Storage as a sandbox/DR solution. 

The pricing is decent. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. The only improvements would have been more on training and getting more out of my existing system.

We primarily use the solution for our block storage for VDI and VMware.

Speed-wise, we went all flash, so it's really reduced our user issues with VDI and some other things we're using.

The usability is very good. It's really easy to use, especially with the DHCI. It's very easy to upgrade and maintain.

There's unlimited lifetime on their arrays where you can keep upgrading.

It provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. 

Day to day, we really don't have to touch it as it runs. As far as operations, it's made it a lot easier to manage and set things up and delegate those tasks to junior engineers now instead of having to do it all myself.

It has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning.

The product has helped use time spent resolving storage-related support tickets.

The licensing could always be cheaper. 

I've been using the solution for probably ten years. 

The solution is stable. I'd rate it ten out of ten.

The solution is scalable to a degree.

Technical support and customer support are excellent.

Positive

We did look at Nutanix. We had previous experience with this solution, and we already had existing arrays. I also liked the DHCI stack with the conversion infrastructure.

The support team is excellent. They take ownership of tickets and save us a lot of hassle. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It offers good usability and support. It's been a good product overall. 

It is for dHCI, which is the hyper-converged infrastructure for HPE. It is replacing the tradition where when you have node storage, you have to purchase a model of switches. It combines the compute and storage.

Its benefits vary because I have used many models. I see it now handling VDI. Previously, when I had VDI and I put HPE for it, I would always go for Simplivity, whereas now, with the new model and GreenLake, they have attached Alletra to the cloud. It is serving people working from home a lot. They do not need to log in to do VPN anymore, create volumes, and manage their backups. If they have a full system for virtual storage, and they have Zerto for application replication, they can manage everything on the cloud. Zerto can also be managed on the cloud. If you have a stack, it does not matter how many systems you have. They all are going to show up in one interface. This is a huge benefit. Anything living in the storage can be monitored through the cloud.

HPE Alletra Storage has different models to cover SMBs, midsize companies, and enterprises. Enterprise companies with modern compute, CPU, and memory can have more virtual machines. It is easy for Alletra to grow and expand with the shelves. Customers are happy with it. Only one time I upgraded Alletra from 6010 to 6030 to add more storage and change the controllers. Customers are happy with Alletra. They do not complain. I never see them complain.

It is the simplicity of the deployment. They have unified all the features they have. For example, the creation and management of the storage was previously done through the plugins but with limited features. It was slow and had some challenges, whereas now, they have modern plug-ins that have more features and simulate the interface for the storage. Customers love it. The thing that they love the most about the plug-in is the one-click upgrade. They do not need to go to each device.

There can be more visibility and statistics for the customers to see. The customers would love to see AI. Even if it is not AI, there can be more visibility and real-time statistics that IT people can monitor and show to their bosses and impress them. To monitor things, they have reports, but the report system is old. Reports are by email. If they can show monthly growth and advise on the usage, it will make the lives of customers and IT people easy. They are going to love it. They would like to have one tool that can take them everywhere. There should be a single pane of glass. If they sit in a meeting, they should be able to answer questions related to whether they need more storage. They should not have had to go to different portals to get results, which creates confusion. If they have one place where they can see everything in graphics, it will be great.

We have been using HPE Alletra Storage for three years.

I have been working with HPE for six years. When I do an upgrade, I can see the Nimble that I installed for the customer five years ago as it is. No one touched it.

They continue to do a good job. I did not reach the max for anything. Every time I add a shelf for the customer, it takes 15 minutes. You just add a shelf, put the SaaS, and you are good to go.

Their support works very well. You can just grab the phone and reach out to their support. Their support answers you immediately. This is a big deal for the customers. 

I do deployment as well. Every time I get stuck at something or something goes wrong because something is missing or the customers do not have a proper configuration, I can reach out to their support immediately. I just pick up the phone, and they answer. We talk for ten minutes, and their support engineer understands the case. I open a secure channel for him to access or I give him a CLI with remote access. He applies his magic and reset the things.

I would rate them a ten out of ten because they get my issues solved. If the support engineer can not resolve an issue, he just escalates it. Being a technical person, I understand that the response can take longer. There could be some bugs, and their support team cannot give you the answer immediately.

Positive

I am HPE ASE certified. I do not bring any other customers to the game. I always present HPE. It has been six years since I have been doing this work for my company. We are beating Cisco. We are beating anyone with Dell PowerVault. We beat all of those models.

All the other companies have the same solution, but it comes down to knowing the expectations of the customer and putting things together for them from the switch to the compute to the storage. When you present them together, the result is going to be a yes. The price also plays a role, but HPE is what customers like to go for most of the time. About 70% of customers decide in advance where they will go, but some customers are surprised with the combination that we bring. We put Zerto, and we put the cloud for them. We provide them visibility and make the deployment easy for them. We give them administrator training. All these things that we add on top make customers comfortable to go with HPE even if they do not know HPE.

About 60% to 70% of customers go with the cheapest price, but they also need to see the performance and other things. We have a lot of customers. We took them to HPE Headquarters in Houston. We bring customers to events like HPE Discover. Last year, we brought a customer here and sold four sites to him with dHCI. We finished the Dallas one or the last one three months ago.

Our clients mostly use it on-prem, but they also use it for the DR site and HQ. 

The deployment is simple.

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a nine out of ten. There should be 99% uptime. There are no issues with dHCI when it comes to upgrades, but with Alletra, they need to have the ESXi upgraded to the latest version. They need to use the correct or compatible plug-ins for it. Every time you go up with the storage, you need to look at your environment. Customers are probably not aware of all this because they do not create volumes every year or every day. There are certain things they need to keep in mind to upgrade. I do not blame the device. They need to initiate a call with the support for compatibility to ensure that everything will work.

Right now, we're using DHCI cloud infrastructure. It's primarily going to be the backbone for our ESX environment between stretched between two data centers.

It's been a cost-reduction and space-reduction asset for us. It uses less storage rack space and therefore, less power. It has less physical connectivity. So far, it's working fine.

The replication between the two sites, the presentation to the ESX environment, and the plugin that allows us to go directly into ESX and not have to manage the storage itself directly are all valuable aspects. It's easy for anybody to use. With 3PAR or any of the others, you have to go into the storage directly.

Right now, it's offered both cost reduction and space reduction. It uses less Storage rack space. Therefore, less power. Less physical connectivity. And so far, it's working fine.

The solution does offer a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. However, I don't use it that way.

It's helped with predicting and preventing problems before they occur. So far, that's been working well.

The plug-in with vCenter and integration into vCenter is spotty at best. The last three upgrades that we've had have been absolute nightmares. That said, we found if we did an upgrade outside of the DHCI infrastructure that it is part of and just did the Alletra upgrade itself, it's better.

For me, the solution has not helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. I've had more tickets open for this than any other system I've ever had.

I've been using the solution since November 2023.

The storage itself has been stable. It's just working. 

The scalability looks pretty good. It's all connected through switches and ICSCI. 

The support guys are on-point. They are next-level. You can talk to them like somebody you've known for years. You don't talk to them tech to tech. It's like talking to a normal human being. 

We previously used 3PAR. The purchase of Alletra was made while I was away.

The deployment has been a challenge. I've had more open tickets with this solution than any other that I've done. The software coding between Nimble and HPE has been a challenge. The backend Python script wasn't as fleshed out as it should have been. 

The ROI will end up being pretty good as we did get a good deal and it is replacing two racks of storage for six years. 

The pricing so far has been pretty good. 

I was looking at Pure Storage and the upgraded version of 3PAR, Primera, and one other option.

I'd rate the solution six out of ten. I'm coming from fiber channel. I feel it's a downgrade from ICSCI. Plus, with the backend, they tried to shoehorn Nimble Storage into an HPE product. Transitioning from one company to another is where they are having a problem. However, they are getting better about it. That's where I see the main problem - the transition. 

This is for NVMe faster performance.

It is cost-cutting. It saves costs.

HPE Alletra Storage provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. HPE GreenLake is doing everything.

HPE Alletra Storage helps predict problems and prevent them before they occur. This is all happening through HPE GreenLake. It works well, and I hope it continues to work well in the future.

The guarantee of data availability is most important. The data is most important. We cannot lose any data. I hope that HPE Alletra Storage will help us in this matter.

HPE Alletra Storage has helped reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. It has reduced the time by half.

HPE Alletra Storage has improved our storage performance in terms of IOPs, but it is not much. When it starts working with the NVMe protocol in VMware, it will improve by 10%.

HPE Alletra Storage has not yet helped reduce the time spent resolving storage-related support tickets. So far, I have not faced any support tickets, but I hope it will reduce the time spent.

More deduplication and compression are valuable because capacity matters.

I need the protocol expected. I want them to include NVMe protocol in VMware compatibilities.

I have been using HPE Alletra Storage for almost one year. 

Its stability is fine. It is stable.

It is easy.

The basic support is good, but when it comes to L2 and L3, it takes ages. The basic support is excellent, but the high-tier support takes ages.

Neutral

We have used other HPE solutions before. We have used 3PAR, Primera, StoreOnce, and MSA. HPE Alletra Storage is better because it has NVMe and the latest GUI. It is easier than others.

We have VMware. We are mostly on a private cloud.

It is easy to deploy. You just plug in and connect.

HPE helped us implement it. They were pretty experienced. 

We are still waiting for that.

So far, so good.

I would rate HPE Alletra Storage a ten out of ten. It is new for HPE. They need to work hard on it.

Alletra is the primary storage for our entire company.

It's bulletproof, and it's the right price point.

The reliability and cost are excellent. 

It provides a cloud-like operation model for data management on-premises. That said, we haven't taken advantage of this.

The solution is good for predicting and preventing problems before they start.

The 100% data availability guarantee was important when choosing a solution. We're stewards of our client's data in the financial services industry, and customers would not think of us very highly.

The solution has helped us to reduce the time spent on storage provisioning. We previously used Nimble, and we don't have data on how much difference there is. I don't have data yet.

Alletra has helped us improve our storage performance.

I don't have any specific areas for improvement.

It's already being tied into GreenLake. However, my understanding is that the dashboards are now going to be a charge. That's concerning. 

We purchased our first Alletra this year. 

The stability of Alletra is very good. It's very stable. 

The scalability is very good. It was one of the reasons we chose it, as we are interested in expanding our environment. 

From what I have heard, the technical support is pretty good. They are good at getting back to my storage team. They've had a positive experience. 

Positive

We previously used Nimble Storage. We are replacing our Nimble with Alletra. This is the latest generation so it's a bit of an upgrade.

The deployment process was easy. We didn't have any problems. My storage administrator was able to set it up.

We did not use any outside assistance. We managed the setup ourselves. 

The ROI is that the solution is pretty much bulletproof. 

We haven't had any issues with pricing and licensing. 

We had been a Dell storage shop previously and we did evaluate those options. We chose Alletra based on cost and reliability.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.