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HPE Apollo Systems pros and cons

Vendor: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

4.2 out of 5

24 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

HPE Apollo Systems seamlessly integrates into Omni-Path architecture and is certified for Linux, offering scalable software-defined solutions. It delivers substantial compute power and flexibility for AI and workflows, benefiting from all-flash drives for reliability. However, there's limited storage expansion and network protocol flexibility, missing InfiniBand support. Users note cooling and technical support improvements are needed, as well as compatibility with standardization like RAID drivers on Ubuntu Linux. Operational costs are efficient with robust documentation.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HPE Apollo Systems integrates seamlessly into Omni-Path architecture and is certified for Linux, offering scalable software-defined solutions.

It provides significant compute power and flexibility in configuration, supporting various storage and CPU combinations for numerous use cases like Hadoop and Ceph.

Users appreciate the all-flash drives which enhance performance, reliability with no reported failures, and cost-effectiveness in handling large data.

Technical support and documentation are highly valued, contributing to its ease of implementation and efficient operational costs.

HPE Apollo Systems supports AI initiatives with scalability and environmental efficiency, enhancing workflows with excellent quality and support.

CONS

Cooling improvements are needed due to the substantial compute power within a single rack.

Issues exist with storage expansion availability, particularly with the provision of more 8TB disks.

The network protocol flexibility is limited, lacking support for InfiniBand and faster iSCSI speeds.

Compatibility problems exist with standardization attempts, such as Ubuntu Linux lacking RAID drivers.

HPE Apollo technical support and after-sales support require enhancements to meet user expectations.

HPE Apollo Systems Pros review quotes

Senior Director of Research at PSC

Jun 7, 2017

Absolutely being able to mount into Omni-Path architecture, HFIs on those nodes, because we were the very first site in the world

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Professor at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 13, 2017

It's going to meet our needs moving forward, it is scalable.

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Senior Account Manager

Dec 5, 2017

It enables us to implement software defined solutions very easily, because Apollo servers are certified for use with Linux systems

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HPE Apollo Systems

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Learn what your peers think about HPE Apollo Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

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Network End Data Center Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 5, 2017

We usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks.

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IT Architect

Dec 5, 2017

It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage.

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System Engineer at Mr Green

May 9, 2018

When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance.

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Data Center Manager at Maples And Calder

Dec 5, 2017

It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it.

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Principal Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 24, 2018

We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now.

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Head of TV Engineering and Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Apr 17, 2021

The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system.

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Head of Sales at Omgea Exim Ltd

Nov 12, 2021

The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience.

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HPE Apollo Systems Cons review quotes

Senior Director of Research at PSC

Jun 7, 2017

What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security.

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Professor at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 13, 2017

Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall.

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Senior Account Manager

Dec 5, 2017

We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there.

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HPE Apollo Systems

Free Report: HPE Apollo Systems Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about HPE Apollo Systems. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Network End Data Center Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 5, 2017

We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo.

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IT Architect

Dec 5, 2017

There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one.

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System Engineer at Mr Green

May 9, 2018

We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE.

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Data Center Manager at Maples And Calder

Dec 5, 2017

One drawback which I had: When I needed to expand storage on the Apollo, I had significant problems getting disks for it. It was a very long wait-time. So, if I were to give any advice in regards to improving this product, I would say make more of the 8TB disks available quicker.

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Principal Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 24, 2018

I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding.

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Head of TV Engineering and Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Apr 17, 2021

We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better.

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Head of Sales at Omgea Exim Ltd

Nov 12, 2021

The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience.

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Show 7 more reviews (out of 17)

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Product Categories

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Popular Comparisons

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