HPE Alletra Storage Reviews

We have two 9K arrays in two different data centers. We primarily use them for VMware and database backends. 

The ease of setup was huge for me, as I'm the only storage admin for our company. The ease of upgrading is great as well. We just recently did an upgrade to it and added a couple of more shelves. 

The simplicity and the ease of having everything in one solution are important for us. With the 9K we run pretty much 90% of our company's data on there. Outside of VDI, VDI, we're using Nimble. We've had the Nimbles for six years now. We're actually looking to replace those here in the next 18 months, and I'm looking at Alletra to do that with. 

With the tie-in through GreenLake, it offers a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managing data infrastructure. It's helped with deployment and provisioning. With ease of setup and provisioning, it's much simpler than even the 3PAR was. It's helped us speed up.

The guarantee of data availability is important. We have 100% uptime. It was a big deal for us - especially since I'm the only administrator. It seems to imply an ease when it comes to fixing issues, although we haven't had any.

We'd reduced the time spent on storage provisioning. It's 60% to 70% faster than what we're used to. Once we got the base set up, it's easier to go through the provisioning and upgrades. The usability from an administrator standpoint is just so much faster. 

Alletra itself seems really solid. We had a good base with 3PAR, which we're replacing Alletra right now. However, the integration with DCCS could still use some work. It's in its infancy and needs more features. 

I've been using the solution for about a year and half.

The stability, so far, has been good. I haven't had any issues or downtime. I've never needed to call support.

It's very user-friendly in terms of scaling. When we added shelves, the install took no time at all. Adding servers or storage to two servers is very easy. It's much easier than the 3PAR was. The interface has just been spectacular. 

Alletra customer support has been really good. They are speedy and really knowledgeable. HPE support overall is fair. I do a lot of calls for compute and storage. In some other areas, it is hit or miss. Alletra support is excellent. 

Neutral

We are replacing 3PAR with Alletra. We knew we wanted to stick with HPE. We also had some older Dells that we replaced with this. 

The deployment is very easy.

We have witnessed an ROI, however I do not have specific KPIs.

I have a great team at HPE that helped me out with sales and engineering. The pricing was very good, especially when we were figuring out bundles. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

My main use cases for HPE Alletra Storage are our data center, internal use, and also for our warehouse automation system in our customer warehouses to automate their operations. This is growing as we're at about 40 warehouses today, and we'll be at 100.

One example of how HPE Alletra Storage features benefited our organization is by addressing technical debt. We've only been a startup for about three years and in the process, we replaced older technology, specifically Cisco HyperFlex, and from a cost basis, Synergy has stepped in and been cost-effective.

The features I find most valuable about HPE Alletra Storage are the throughput and the visibility it provides because we have different workloads, and the flexibility we're looking at, being able to operate on a single platform.

I'm going to skip discussing how HPE Alletra Storage can be improved as I'm not in the technology area right now and haven't paid attention to that.

I've been using HPE Alletra Storage for approximately six months.

I would assess the stability and reliability of HPE Alletra Storage as having had no issues so far. It has been stable and we haven't experienced any problems during the last three months since the actual productive load has been on it.

HPE Alletra Storage scales effectively with the growing needs of my organization, and I don't see limitations or complexity for growth at the moment, as it has been selected among the top players.

Regarding customer service and technical support, we haven't had many direct interactions, but we do have calls with HPE, and they have been fairly responsive. I can't speak specifically to customer service and technical support since I haven't engaged with them directly for HPE Alletra Storage, but HPE in general has been responsive and our engagement has been positive.

Before adopting HPE Alletra Storage, I was using Cisco HyperFlex and Pure Storage for similar needs.

I would describe my experience deploying HPE Alletra Storage as seamless.

We have great engineers who handled the analysis and evaluation, making production deployment a straightforward process.

Regarding ROI with HPE Alletra Storage, there is some level of return if more hosts are being hosted on the same platform since it reduces power consumption and the footprint is lower.

I didn't oversee the pricing, setup costs, and licensing for HPE Alletra Storage, however, the HPE partnership has been phenomenal and we appreciated their support during deployment, including evaluating the hardware.

Before selecting HPE Alletra Storage, we considered cloud solutions to put all VMs into the cloud as other hardware options such as Pure and Cisco HyperFlex. We selected HPE Alletra Storage for its benefits, performance, and the partnership with HPE. 

In my considerations for changing solutions, key factors included performance, cost, and HPE's partnership with us, as the persistence of the HPE customer manager ensured our leadership made informed decisions during the evaluation.

For other organizations considering HPE Alletra Storage, a lot is driven by HPE's reliability and the importance of the partnership and people behind the hardware. On a scale of one to ten, I would give HPE Alletra Storage around a seven.

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. 

Currently, it is employed to serve our primary billing platform, supporting several Oracle databases ranging from 30 to 40 terabytes in size, integrated with HPe Synergy compute. These financial systems leverage its high throughput capabilities and low-latency performance.

The rapid speed has proven highly beneficial. Integrating low latency into our billing systems and mobile app enriches our application ecosystem, enhancing daily user interactions. The combination of low latency and high-speed storage has significantly bolstered our operations, particularly in billing processes.

The management and provisioning of data have been significantly streamlined.

As a GreenLake customer, we are collaborating with HPE to support us up the stack. They are overseeing the implementation of state-of-the-art storage services on our behalf, which promises to deliver substantial improvements to our business upon completion.

The SSCM micro solution for predictive issue detection and prevention holds great promise. We have experienced a trouble-free year, which is reassuring. Should there be any disk failures or other issues, rapid detection and resolution are assured. With GreenLake, telemetry data flows directly to HPE, enabling proactive maintenance without our direct involvement, which is highly beneficial.

The 100% availability guarantee is of paramount importance to us. Following a major outage 12 to 14 months ago, which lasted four days, we engaged Alletra from HP to assist. Having such a guarantee backed by a company like HP adds significant value to our operations.

This solution has not only reduced storage management time but will continue to do so moving forward. It has simplified our zoning practices, extending from computing to third-party products. With GreenLake, HPE handles much of this complexity on our behalf. Aligning new fabric installations with our Synergy infrastructure has greatly streamlined operations post VMware platform integration, resulting in performance gains of 30% to 50% over our previous systems.

The incorporation of InfoSight and telemetry, bolstered by AI, ensures ongoing support and efficiency enhancements for our users. As we prepare to deploy four new Alletra systems within the next six to 12 months, we anticipate further operational improvements.

To date, notable improvements have been somewhat limited in our experience. Currently, we are in the process of commissioning an additional four systems to handle our significant workloads. Given the cutting-edge nature of this technology, extensive setup of new fabric and infrastructure has been necessary. It's important for stakeholders to ensure thorough preparation upfront to facilitate a smooth and expedient implementation process.

I haven't particularly used it to its full extent yet. That will probably come in the next 12 to 18 months.

We have been using HPe Alletra storage for coming up 12 months.

We have not experienced any stability issues. 

The scalability capabilities are exceptional, having encountered no issues thus far. We conducted a thorough assessment of scalability, particularly with the impending addition of four new units. This expansion will facilitate substantial growth over the next two to three years.

The technical support provided is exceptional, characterized by a highly skilled team of engineers, service delivery managers, and other support personnel. Our experience has been seamless, with their integration into our teams proving particularly effective. Collaborating with them has been a positive and enjoyable experience.

Positive

We've had Nimble, Primera, EMC, Pure and NetApp. So many different storage arrays depending on the workload and requirements. 

We are modernizing our datacenter and deploying new fabric to simplify our footprint. 

We have established paired data centers, each equipped with two Alletra units, creating a metro cluster and standard storage infrastructure.

While the project has been extensive, it represents a pivotal step in replacing our existing storage infrastructure. Designing the desired level of resiliency for business continuity has been a priority throughout this process. Although the timeline of approximately one year may have seemed lengthy, we are nearing the final stages of implementation and are poised to commence utilization.

Spark has used HPe professional services to design and implement this solution, along with our own in-house experts. The team at HPe have been fantastic to work with.

While we haven't witnessed ROI quite yet, we will probably see it within the next six to 12 months.

The pricing and licensing are very simple, especially with GreenLake.

We evaluated IBM Storage and EMC storage solutions but ultimately opted to remain with Alletra. The decision was driven by Alletra's superior technology and speed, which we found to offer a highly cost-effective solution.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use it to connect to our Synergy chassis as Storage. On the chassis, there are 12 blades running Hyper V. We put those in failover clusters - two clusters per Synergy chassis. Alletra is the storage where the virtual machines are stored in those failover clusters, Hyper V clusters.

It's simple to use and deploy, unlike its predecessor, which was a 3PAR system. I like 3PAR, but it is overkill and extremely complicated to manage.

The simplicity of use is great. You define the storage size and space that you need, the volumes, and then you give access to the clusters or to the host, the Hyper V blade servers. From there, I can build all the virtual machines that I need on Alletra.

Alletra provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for managed use data infrastructure. Although we use everything on-prem, we do have some cloud-based storage with Microsoft Azure. We are doing a lot of stuff in Azure, although personally, I stay away from that. I'm the hardware guy, and prefer on-prem solutions.

Cloud-based is so much more expensive.  The on-prem stuff is cheaper; Microsoft charges us through the nose for Azure.

We have redundancy built into our products and Alletra through the Hyper V clusters. There is a lot of redundancy built in, so we never have downtime. \

It's easy to configure and provision. 

It's helped us reduce the time spent resolving storage by 50%. The cost vs convenience is very good.

Previously, the 3PAR gave us the ability to build on SSC or spindles. The Alletra doesn't allow for this. You can put spindles and you can put SSDs, but the operating system decides what goes where. If I could build a volume that was SSD only for some of the things like our databases, our Microsoft databases, which require a lot of IO and a lot of speed, that would be ideal. The 3PAR was better at that.

I've been using the solution for as long as it's been available - for about two years now. We used to use Nimble.

We've got several of these products running with no issues. 

Scalability is pretty good. 

We run them with the main head unit, which has 24 or so drives on it, and then we add the subunit, a secondary chassis, which has one more drive. The top one has 24 drives and the bottom one has 25. We get to choose whether they're SSD or spindles, and we use a mixture of both.

We carry five-year extended contracts with HP on all of our equipment. Support is pretty good.I dial their number and go through things with them, and overall, it works out well. 

Positive

The installation is straightforward. I help our reseller manage the deployment. 

Our reseller physically does the installation. I'm always present, giving them the IP addresses and access to our data center. 

I'm a field engineer. I install what is given to me. I know little about the cost. That said, my understanding is that it is considerably cheaper to go with Alletra. The pricing is cheaper, the setup is easier, and the licensing is likely the same

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It does what we need it to do, and it is more than enough. Plus, it's easy to set up and maintain. 

We primarily use the solution as block storage for VMware.

For us, the benefits that translate to the organization include less cost, maintenance, and management.

The simplicity of the platform is its most valuable asset. The management is very simple and it's straightforward to use. 

Alletra's performance has been very good. 

The solution provides a cloud-like operational model on-prem for data management. It has improved our operations. As things progressed, we've been able to bring more of the HPE stack into GreenLake for management and monitoring. That's been very beneficial. It provides a single point of management. 

Alletra helps prevent and predict issues before they arise. We've had a few cases where, based on the data that they're collecting, we've been able to upgrade based on bugs that exist in our installation.

The guarantee of data availability was important to decision-making. We wanted 100% uptime and availability. Uptime is integral to our 24/7 manufacturing operation. It also minimized the need for standby hardware or data copies without having to accommodate a different solution that doesn't have the same uptime. 

We've increased uptime with Alletra to close to 100%. Although we have had issues previously, we have yet to have any problems with this solution. 

It's helped reduce time spent on storage provisioning by probably at least 75%.

We really haven't had to spend time fine-tuning storage in any way. We just provision and forget about it. The plugins for VMware are also great as we are provisioning VMs. We rarely have to go to the area itself to manage provisioning. 

It has improved storage performance in terms of IOPs by 60% to 70% compared to what we were running on previously.

Alletra has reduced the time spent on storage tickets. We haven't had any issues, performance-wise, and rarely have tickets. 

Technical support from HPE can be hit and miss.

I've been using the solution for about a year and a half. 

The solution is stable, performance-wise. 

The scalability is there. With the models we're using, we have not had to scale up. We are on the small side. Most of our Alletras are anywhere from 42 TB up to 240 TB.

Technical support has been very good. It can be hit and miss. I'm not sure if it is hit or miss or if it is just HPE. It depends on who you get.

Positive

We previously used Nimble. We also used to be on 3PAR.

The initial setup was simple and straightforward. We did not have any issues with deployment. 

We had some help with the initial setup via our reseller. 

While I haven't calculated ROI, we have witnessed a positive impact. 

The pricing and licensing are good. Alletra's pricing model and configuration options are very straightforward. 

We did evaluate other storage vendors, including Pure Storage and one of Dell's newest offerings. However, we've always been an HPE storage customer, and it's always worked well for us. We wanted a platform and company that we were familiar with. We chose to stick with HPE. We didn't want different vendors for different applications. 

I'm an HPE customer.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. I've been very happy with the solution.

My main use case for HPE Alletra Storage is for storage.

HPE Alletra Storage is simple. The features of HPE Alletra Storage have benefited my organization as we have many different business processes. 

HPE GreenLake ops enable me to get assistance from my senior support engineers without having to go through support escalations. We don't need to call; it's point and click.

HPE Alletra Storage provides a cloud-like experience on-premises for managing data. HPE Alletra Storage manages data at scale for my organization very efficiently.

We're reduced time spent on capacity planning. 

HPE Alletra Storage pricing can be improved. The pricing, licensing, and software have changed.

I have been using the HPE Alletra Storage for six years.

I would assess the stability and reliability of HPE Alletra Storage as very minimal. I have experienced very minimal downtime or crashes.

I evaluate the storage services and technical support as awesome. I would rate my overall storage services and technical support as very easy to call and to get things fixed.

Prior to adopting HPE, I was using another solution to address the same needs, and it was also an HPE solution.

I would describe my experience deploying HPE Alletra Storage as simple.

I have seen a return on investment with HPE Alletra Storage.

The pricing has recently changed for us.

My advice to another organization that is considering getting HPE Alletra Storage is to be sure of what you're looking for.